Harvard

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Without Wax

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I was just curious... did any of you had Harvard interview? how was it? was it different from other medical schools? lobsters and caviar for lunch? pressure interviews, arrogant doctors and students? or is it just a myth?

I did not apply to Harvard, but you hear so much about this school, how great it is, how smart students are, and you also hear these crazy, exaggerated horror interview stories.

Just wondering
 
i live in the UK and i had my harvard alumni interview two weeks ago. erm..it was nothing like those 'horror stories'!

it was a cold interview (!!! - the interviewer only knew my name, number and where i went to school) and lasted for 1hour 40minutes in her house. it was mainly a personality/extra-curricular interview although she did want to know what things i was national-standard for, etc. no lobster or cavier 😛 only water was offered. the lady was v.v.v.v.v.v.nice and in fact it was great fun!

although i am an international app so it may all be different for the people who live in the US.
 
Girl* said:
i live in the UK and i had my harvard alumni interview two weeks ago. erm..it was nothing like those 'horror stories'!

it was a cold interview (!!! - the interviewer only knew my name, number and where i went to school) and lasted for 1hour 40minutes in her house. it was mainly a personality/extra-curricular interview although she did want to know what things i was national-standard for, etc. no lobster or cavier 😛 only water was offered. the lady was v.v.v.v.v.v.nice and in fact it was great fun!

although i am an international app so it may all be different for the people who live in the US.
thanks for the reply.

If you are an international app, and got an interview at Harvard, you must be highly qualified.
 
Girl* said:
i live in the UK and i had my harvard alumni interview two weeks ago. erm..it was nothing like those 'horror stories'!

Harvard alumni interview? what is that?
 
Without Wax said:
I was just curious... did any of you had Harvard interview? how was it? was it different from other medical schools? lobsters and caviar for lunch? pressure interviews, arrogant doctors and students? or is it just a myth?

I did not apply to Harvard, but you hear so much about this school, how great it is, how smart students are, and you also hear these crazy, exaggerated horror interview stories.

Just wondering
Lobster and caviar... I wish! No, Harvard was nothing out of the ordinary in their interviewing style. Sure, there's the aura of the school that's hard to escape, but this is more in one's mind than anything. Both of my interviews were very conversational and engaging. No healthcare questions, no ethics, nada. My faculty interviewer actually let me tag along with her to Mass General--she was amazing. The food was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. The other students I met were overly nice and accomadating. Overall, a pleasant, but not atypical, experience.
 
Without Wax...

I take it you're a big fan of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress? 🙂
 
UMGoBlue22 said:
Without Wax...

I take it you're a big fan of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress? 🙂

I read all his 4 books in three days, no sleep and little eating, and I have to say Da Vinci code is absolutely brilliant, blew my mind away, but other books are horrible. Predictale and repetitive. Digital fortress, I had to force myself to finish.

Hopefully, his new book coming out this summer is better.

sin cera
 
Without Wax said:
I read all his 4 books in three days, no sleep and little eating, and I have to say Da Vinci code is absolutely brilliant, blew my mind away, but other books are horrible. Predictale and repetitive. Digital fortress, I had to force myself to finish.

Hopefully, his new book coming out this summer is better.

sin cera

I thought Angels and Demons was pretty good as well. It wasn't quite as good as Da Vinci Code, but it was much better than the other two. I guess I probably like Da Vinci Code best because I read it two days before arriving in Paris. (I was living abroad when I bought it and didn't know it was such a craze. I nearly passed it over because I thought it sounded so ridiculously inane, but I really needed another book due to all the train riding I would be doing. I eventually decided to buy it because I would be in Paris within a week, and I figured the book would foment my already unbounded excitement.) I stayed a block from the Louvre and saw both Mona Lisa and Madonna on the Rocks just days after reading it. It was awesome 😀! Although I didn't read Angels and Demons before going to Rome, it was pretty cool to review my pictures to reference various Roman and Vatican churches and landmarks while reading the book. And Rome was obviously amazing anyway.
 
Without Wax said:
I read all his 4 books in three days, no sleep and little eating, and I have to say Da Vinci code is absolutely brilliant, blew my mind away, but other books are horrible. Predictale and repetitive. Digital fortress, I had to force myself to finish.

Hopefully, his new book coming out this summer is better.

sin cera

Hmm--I've also read all four of his books, but I thought all of them, even Da Vinci Code, follow the same predictable formula. All of them have an assassin, an unlikely culprit, and most importantly, protagonists who are not only crazy intelligent, but are also described to be athletic and attractive.....and amazingly, they happen to pursue their mystery-solving with equally intelligent and attractive co-protagonists of the opposite sex, with whom they ALWAYS proceed to hook up at the end. (I want to know what planet Dan Brown lives on, cause I want to move there. :laugh: ) Maybe the only exception was Digital Fortress, but it still fits loosely.
 
GuyLaroche said:
Harvard alumni interview? what is that?

Meanwhile, my question remians unanswered...
 
RunMimi said:
To the OP: It was weird because I didn't get nervous on any of my interviews except Harvard and Duke. Harvard's NP interviews were nothing to sweat. One interviewer really pressed me to answer questions without taking a middle of the road position (research v. clinical career--no combining), but he wasn't overly aggressive. He offered his insight since he faced a similar dilemma. Anyways, HST was another story all together. At lunch (like 30 minutes before the interviews!) the HST students were like, "yeah I would definitely know all about labs across the nation that are studying similar things and try to reference them. They really like that." I'm sure they would, but its 30 minutes beforehand! Its not like I could rush to PubMed to update myself--so I got more nervous. They were pretty detailed in their interviews and I was nervous to begin with.

As far as the perks of Harvard, they paid for cab vouchers which covered my cab to the hotel that night. That was nice and different than other schools, but they didn't have much structure to their day. They just told us to go wonder or follow their self-guided tour (in the brouchere they gave). I would have rathered larger interview groups with tours leaving every hour or something (like Baylor). I went in like every building, but it wasn't that meaningful for me, since I didn't know what I was looking at (here's a really nice hospital, here's another, here's another, etc.).

Anyways, its a great school, but not without both pros and cons, just like every other. I probably would have done better to recognize that ahead of time.

Thank you for the reply. Harvard is truly an amazing university. Best in medicine, best in law, best in business, best undergraduate...
 
bidster said:
Hmm--I've also read all four of his books, but I thought all of them, even Da Vinci Code, follow the same predictable formula.


The reason I loved Da Vinci code so much is not the story itself but the message in the book, how the holy grail is, you know not we thought it was, the role of Mary Magdalene, the role of women and Christianity.... it made a lot of sense

This was the first time I ever heard of these theories and ideas, and they just blew my mind away.
 
Without Wax said:
Thank you for the reply. Harvard is truly an amazing university. Best in medicine, best in law, best in business, best undergraduate...

I think Yale claims the top law school (ask anyone applying to law school and they'll tell you) and Stanford might have something to say about the B-school.

Harvard definitely has trouble competing with the big boys in engineering. But otherwise, they're pretty top notch...
 
GuyLaroche said:
Meanwhile, my question remians unanswered...

Alumni interviews are interviews conducted by alumni of the specific school (in this case Harvard Med) at a location where the alumni and student live rather than at the school itself. This allows the applicant to interview without having to pay extreme travel expenses (such as in the case of someone from the UK).
 
RunMimi said:
One interviewer really pressed me to answer questions without taking a middle of the road position (research v. clinical career--no combining), but he wasn't overly aggressive.

Wonder if we had the same interviewer, as I had the exact same thing happen (in an otherwise amazing and wildly philosophical and interesting interview).
 
mdsadler said:
Alumni interviews are interviews conducted by alumni of the specific school (in this case Harvard Med) at a location where the alumni and student live rather than at the school itself. This allows the applicant to interview without having to pay extreme travel expenses (such as in the case of someone from the UK).

Thanks so much.
 
Since Harvard is the top research medical school, I imagine their understanding of medical ethics and the role of the compassionate physician in advancing the frontiers of medicine is impeccable. Harvard is the chief choice of a great many students prospecting to delve into a field that prescribes generosity and compassion with medicine. More over, Harvard as we know it exists only because of the benevolence of a multitude of people. Given these facts, you would expect Harvard to extend generously to its selected applicants. Yet, Harvard is notoriously close-fisted in its financial aid policies. Everyone knows this, and they are gaining a rather unpleasant reputation. I wonder if this is the year that they will become not only a great institution but a kind institution as well.


This ad was paid for by forward-looking and earnestly hopeful Harvard applicants.
 
mine was... different.

Typically I talk a lot about my research but at my HST one we talked about emotion and creativity. It was fun though.
 
bunmp and good luck to all february interviewees.... :luck:
 
RunMimi said:
Mine was a dermatologist at MGH. Was it the same guy?

Rats, no 🙂 Could be that this is a standard question... but after trying to give a balanced answer ("both are so important, blah blah") this fellow said something like, "Yes, but if you had to CHOOSE..."
 
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