If schools are looking for best fit...

[unleash500]

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I frequently hear on the forums that schools are looking for students who would fit in with their student body. I also hear that on these forums that during your interview you should just be yourself.

The latter seems incompatible with the former if the goal is to get into medical school(and if you truly do not fit in with the student body).


( I am not saying this is the right thing to do)
But shouldn't the goal be to discover what students in that medical school are like? And try to emulate that during an interview? Or to try and sell yourself in a way that makes you fit in better?

I am not necessarily saying you have to become a totally different person , but perhaps sell certain qualities of yourself that are more fitting towards the student body for a particular school.

 

[LifeTake2]

I frequently hear on the forums that schools are looking for students who would fit in with their student body. I also hear that on these forums that during your interview you should just be yourself.

The latter seems incompatible with the former if the goal is to get into medical school(and if you truly do not fit in with the student body).


( I am not saying this is the right thing to do)
But shouldn't the goal be to discover what students in that medical school are like? And try to emulate that during an interview? Or to try and sell yourself in a way that makes you fit in better?

I am not necessarily saying you have to become a totally different person , but perhaps sell certain qualities of yourself that are more fitting towards the student body for a particular school.

Simply put: you will fail at any attempt to do this, unless you have experience in theatre.

Be yourself. If you don't fit the school, why would you want to go there??

 

[unleash500]

Simply put: you will fail at any attempt to do this, unless you have experience in theatre.

Be yourself. If you don't fit the school, why would you want to go there??

Cause you want a medical education regardless?

 

[mejorization]

Cause you want a medical education regardless?

And also you leave after four years? How many people who go Caribbean actually want to be there?

 

[NatrixCaelicola]

Cause you want a medical education regardless?

And also you leave after four years?

These made me smile and I completely agree... while the ideal is to "fit in" with the school and get an education, I think most people care a LOT more about simply getting the education.

 

[LizzyM]

A bad fit an be painful. If you are not the kind of person who wants to be an active contributor to discussion and to listen to others struggle with material that you already understand, or that you would understand if you weren't wasting your time listening to them, then you are going to hate an all PBL curriculum. The reverse is true of people who want to see the relevance of what they are learning and apply the concepts to cases; those folks will struggle with a curriculum that puts and emphasis on hours and hours of lectures per week. If you are tempted to slack off in pass/fail classes and be happy doing enough to pass but not more than that, then a pass/fail grading system might not be in your best interest.

Furthermore, a bad fit can hamper you from learning as much as you possibly could. That could limit your choices for residency and beyond.

Don't discount "fit".

 

[EBTrailRunner]

And also you leave after four years? How many people who go Caribbean actually want to be there?

On paper, 4 years, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't seem like much time. But once you're in med school, and at one that isn't a good fit for you, completely miserable, those 4 years are going to seem much, much longer. Obviously there are people who suck it up and do it - most, if not all, Caribbean med students - but I'm not one of them.

 

[Law2Doc]

I frequently hear on the forums that schools are looking for students who would fit in with their student body. I also hear that on these forums that during your interview you should just be yourself.

The latter seems incompatible with the former if the goal is to get into medical school(and if you truly do not fit in with the student body).


( I am not saying this is the right thing to do)
But shouldn't the goal be to discover what students in that medical school are like? And try to emulate that during an interview? Or to try and sell yourself in a way that makes you fit in better?

I am not necessarily saying you have to become a totally different person , but perhaps sell certain qualities of yourself that are more fitting towards the student body for a particular school.

Well, putting aside that you aren't going to enjoy or thrive at a med school which isn't a good fit for you, I think you have to realize that the adcoms view of what would be a "good fit" may not be exactly what they have historically been getting. This is due to the fact that an adcoms first choice of a class doesn't always come, and who they actually get to matriculate may not be exactly their ideal. Meaning the med student body may be a work in progress, a step in the direction the adcoms are shooting for, but certainly not quite what you should emulate to get in. Plus, med school is a lot like high school in that it's cliquey, and some groups are likely more desirable to emulate than others. There isn't going to be a generic homogeneous med student to emulate, and for all you know you are going to pick the one guy to emulate that the school is having second thought about. You are thus probably better off being a polished version of yourself and see if that works.

 

[Doctor246853]

I frequently hear on the forums that schools are looking for students who would fit in with their student body. I also hear that on these forums that during your interview you should just be yourself.

The latter seems incompatible with the former if the goal is to get into medical school(and if you truly do not fit in with the student body).


( I am not saying this is the right thing to do)
But shouldn't the goal be to discover what students in that medical school are like? And try to emulate that during an interview? Or to try and sell yourself in a way that makes you fit in better?

I am not necessarily saying you have to become a totally different person , but perhaps sell certain qualities of yourself that are more fitting towards the student body for a particular school.

I might get flamed for this but you got to jump through hoops so play the game. 😎 Take this advice how you want to.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I agree with Lizzy that you should figure out what sort of curriculum each school has, but that's about as far as you should consider "fit." Unless there's something very obviously wrong with the school you're looking at or you're exceptionally well connected (i.e., you know some M3s or M4s), you're not going to get a thorough enough picture of the school as a whole to determine if it's a fit for you or not.

 

[CodeBlu]

 

[IMSingular]

Well. If student's are selected just on the basis of MCAT scores, that is pick say top 20,000 students from MCAT exam; make MCAT tougher say four 3 hour exams. Possibilty of error in other criterions used to select is probably higher. BUT ADCOM WILL ALWAY CLAIM THAT THEY GET THE BEST FIT. It's their job security.

 

[PMPMD]

Be yourself... in moderation. If "yourself" is sitting on the couch in sweats playing COD, maybe kick it up a notch.

My med school was all auditorium classes, and our labs were usually 20-30 people, so I'm not sure how much the individuality really mattered in retrospect. If the interviews were there to weed out sociopaths... I'm not sure they succeeded (granted I didn't work with the people who didn't get in).

Agree with the poster above, the interview process is just another hoop to jump through.

 

[raltima07]

Be yourself....or be me. Either works :-0

 

[blizzah]

Because pre-interview how are you supposed to know what they are looking for?

 

[NickNaylor]

A bad fit an be painful. If you are not the kind of person who wants to be an active contributor to discussion and to listen to others struggle with material that you already understand, or that you would understand if you weren't wasting your time listening to them, then you are going to hate an all PBL curriculum. The reverse is true of people who want to see the relevance of what they are learning and apply the concepts to cases; those folks will struggle with a curriculum that puts and emphasis on hours and hours of lectures per week. If you are tempted to slack off in pass/fail classes and be happy doing enough to pass but not more than that, then a pass/fail grading system might not be in your best interest.

Furthermore, a bad fit can hamper you from learning as much as you possibly could. That could limit your choices for residency and beyond.

Don't discount "fit".

I entirely agree with this. Getting rejected from schools is ultimately a good thing: it means that an admissions committee decided that you either a) weren't qualified to attend their institution or b) you wouldn't thrive at their institution. Obviously it's difficult to stomach rejections, but I do ultimately think they're beneficial.

I have a strong feeling that people that put up an entirely artificial facade just to gain acceptances are the same people that hate medical school and are miserable.

 

[Law2Doc]

Well. If student's are selected just on the basis of MCAT scores, that is pick say top 20,000 students from MCAT exam; make MCAT tougher say four 3 hour exams. Possibilty of error in other criterions used to select is probably higher. BUT ADCOM WILL ALWAY CLAIM THAT THEY GET THE BEST FIT. It's their job security.

At many programs the numeric things like MCAT take a back seat once they grant you an interview. it's quite common for the guy with the 3.5/33 and cool ECs to come off extremely well in an interview and come away with a quick acceptance while the 4.0/40 ends up wait listed until the spring. Happens often. The days when it's all a Numbers game pretty much ended years ago. Now numbers are but one hurdle toward acceptance. Fit matters. You will be evaluated in person not just on paper.