Instrument as an EC = performance at interviews?

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DendWrite

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I play guitar for fun (been playing for about 6 years)...mostly just jam with friends, nothing too serious. However, I've read the occasional horror story about an applicant walking into the room and being faced with a stand-up bass / guitar / being walked down to the lobby to play something on the piano.

Does this actually happen? I would hate for the interviewer to hand me a guitar and have the only riff I remember be the intro to Purple Haze or some other song that might come across as slightly "non-professional / nonconservative" 😀.
 
I play guitar for fun (been playing for about 6 years)...mostly just jam with friends, nothing too serious. However, I've read the occasional horror story about an applicant walking into the room and being faced with a stand-up bass / guitar / being walked down to the lobby to play something on the piano.

Does this actually happen? I would hate for the interviewer to hand me a guitar and have the only riff I remember be the intro to Purple Haze or some other song that might come across as slightly "non-professional / nonconservative" 😀.

I wouldn't count on it. They've got many other things to look at in an application. Putting an extra 10 minutes on the interview for 1 EC is highly unlikely. They want to get to know you as a person, confirm you are who your essays say you are. They've got other interviews, and then they likely don't want to be there all day.
 
So I only represent one school and I can say that this never happens here. In the almost 4 years I've been hanging around SDN I have never seen a first person account of such a thing happening. Don't worry about it.

If anyone were to ask, they couldn't fault you for playing something "unprofessional". What the heck ? Judging you admissable for med school based on your ability to play the guitar seems unprofessioal on the part of the interviewer.
 
So I only represent one school and I can say that this never happens here. In the almost 4 years I've been hanging around SDN I have never seen a first person account of such a thing happening. Don't worry about it.

If anyone were to ask, they couldn't fault you for playing something "unprofessional". What the heck ? Judging you admissable for med school based on your ability to play the guitar seems unprofessioal on the part of the interviewer.

Lizzy, there are anecdotal stories of people being asked to play piano, etc., that float around SDN from time to time. Do you think these are primarily myth or do you think it does happen on a rare occasion at some schools?
 
Lizzy, there are anecdotal stories of people being asked to play piano, etc., that float around SDN from time to time. Do you think these are primarily myth or do you think it does happen on a rare occasion at some schools?

The worst thing I hear was....they listed they were fluent in French.....the first minute or two of the interview was in French.
 
I was never asked to play the piano, although I would be glad to oblige.

They will hopefully be Asian interviewers because all my songs are Asian pop songs. hahahaha
 
I would bre freaked out if they told me to perform during the interview or something.😱
 
If they ask you to play, then play. I do not see why your choice in songs is relevant at all. The interesting point about playing an instrument, at least from an adcom's POV is that you are able to take time out of your daily life and dedicate it to a passion you personally have.

To go more in depth, while talking to an adcom member from my school several months into my first year, he brought up the topic of playing an instrument and how relevant it is to being a well-rounded physician. It is a mechanical process of selecting the chords, it is an intellectual process, of understanding the music and the progression of the song, etc, and it is an emotional process, whereby you are trying to create music. He likened it to the anatomy labs, whereby you must dissect, understand anatomy, and understand that you are cutting into a former human being. Again, the three categories of mechanical, intellectual, and emotional stimuli working in unison.

Of course, playing an instrument was not the only thing which qualified as meeting this requirement in his mind, but it is a common example.

Now then, on to personal experience with interviews:
I listed I played the violin. I was asked in every interview about how long I had been playing, why I started, what I enjoyed to play, etc. My response would always be "I sort of lied... I don't play the violin, I would rather call it a fiddle" and expanded on how I enjoy bluegrass, cheesy celtic nonsense, and pretty much despised classical music. That was always very well received, and one school shared with me that they apparently had a faculty-only Charlie Daniel's cover band.

So, if you play the guitar, you play the guitar. Your music selection should not matter. You're not interviewing for Julliard.
 
I wish I was asked to play the piano. A lot funner than answering boring questions.
 
The worst thing I hear was....they listed they were fluent in French.....the first minute or two of the interview was in French.

I can see this being far more scarier than having to be asked to play an instrument. If you couldn't understand the interviewer or respond proficiently enough, then that basically sets the tone for the rest of the interview.
 
^I think pianists are safe. I really doubt any medical school prof would have a Steinway in his or her office.
 
I don't believe in playing other people's reeds and I'd rather have my own setup for my sax and not be worrying about playing with some weird mouthpiece so if I hear of a school doing this I figure I'll just bring my gear (minus the sax itself) and a book of studies or something. I mean i'm pretty sure its not a big deal though, I mean maybe if they happened to play the instrument themselves they might be interested but then they'd probably also understand why it might be a stressful and difficult situation.
 
I wish I was asked to play the piano. A lot funner than answering boring questions.

It would be awesome if your interviewer joined you on the piano and you two played a duet. Automatic acceptance KA-CHING!
 
It would be awesome if your interviewer joined you on the piano and you two played a duet. Automatic acceptance KA-CHING!

And perform for the admissions committee.
 
Yea, an admissions officer at my university's med school told us a story about how at the old med school he adcom'd for, he was interviewing someone who listed "playing gospel piano for primarily African American churches." Well... it turned out that the interviewer did the EXACT same thing throughout his years in college, in order to pay for his education.

So the interviewer excitedly dragged the interviewee down the hall to a piano and waited to be "blown away" with glorious music. 🙂

After about a minute of anticipation, sweat started to drip down the interviewee's face... and in a barely audible whisper he said, "Dean _____, I can't play piano."

😱

Needless to say, he wasn't accepted... 👎

ANYWAYS, I think they'd only think about having you play if some weird circumstances like that came up, or if you're a music major. But bringing an instrument with you to play would seem really tacky.

Frankly, like a lot of the other posters, I would LOVE to play piano for an interviewer, and if I ever become an interviewer, I wouldn't hesitate to ask an interviewee to play piano for me if they were comfortable doing so, and it wasn't against the school's interviewing rules.
 
I'd imagine that the purpose of asking the interviewer to play the instrument is to verify that he/she is not lying on their application. So it doesn't matter if all you play is heavy metal: you're not trying to please the interviewer's ear but to show that you can indeed play.

These stories are VERY rare. Prepare for the interview in more productive ways than a jamming session :laugh:.
 
i think adcoms would only badger you about musical ECs if they were a big part of your application/personal statement. music was a huge part of my application so a lot of the questions during my interview revolved around how i would continue doing music and how it would help me in medicine (best stress relief tool ever!).

i followed up that interview with a thank you email that had a link to a recent composition of mine and got accepted a month later 😀
 
i followed up that interview with a thank you email that had a link to a recent composition of mine and got accepted a month later 😀

That's a great idea!! I am so going to do that!
 
i followed up that interview with a thank you email that had a link to a recent composition of mine and got accepted a month later 😀

Nice! 🙂

Edit: Also, welcome to SDN!
 
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