Interview with a med student you know?

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[Ismet]

I know lots of people who are in med school. I guess chances are low that an acquaintance will interview me (hopefully because they recuse themselves).

But what if they are on the committee and have access to my personal statement, other essays, and some very personal info?! Awkward. Has this ever happened to anyone?

It's on the med student's honor to exclude themselves from evaluating or interviewing you. I'm sure has happened, but that's extremely unprofessional and it would be bad news if the administration ever found out that the med student personally knew someone they interviewed/reviewed/recommended etc.

 

[BABSstudent]

It's on the med student's honor to exclude themselves from evaluating or interviewing you. I'm sure has happened, but that's extremely unprofessional and it would be bad news if the administration ever found out that the med student personally knew someone they interviewed/reviewed/recommended etc.

Yep. It doesn't take much to say that you know the person and switch with someone else. This could be with reviewing applications (although they could just ignore the names on the app), interviews or whatever.

At my school, people are also supposed to exclude themselves from voting on applicants they know.

 

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[LizzyM]

Each school is different but in my experience, the interviewers are never "younger" than M3 and my school uses M4s as interviewers.

Assume that people who may know you or may know your relatives will interview you or read your applications, not because they didn't recuse themselves when they should have but that they didn't realize that they "knew" you or knew a relative of yours until it was too late. (I saw an application from someone who is the maternal grandchild of an acquaintance of mine -- different last name so I didn't make the connection until I noticed the college -- an unusual one-- and the hometown and remembered that "Gran" had told me that her grandchild was applying.)

Our admissions committee members and interviewers make a promise to keep information in the application confidential and not discuss it or share it outside of the committee but if you are going to write about something embarrassing, other people will read it.

 

[Ismet]

Just kinda terrified that med students have access to my very personal essays.

Also, what's it like getting interviewed by a med student who's younger than you? I think I dislike the idea of getting interviewed by a 20 year old MS1. I get that they're way ahead of me in terms of medical career, but can't imagine the maturity level and how they'd know who would be successful in med school or not.

Idk about the med students you've interacted with, but there's a certain level of maturity and professionalism that pretty much everyone in med school has, regardless of whether they're 22 or 32. No one is going to take your application and post it on the Internet for the world to see. There's nothing to be terrified about.

I am as traditional as they come, entering med school at 22, and I interviewed 4 or 5 applicants who are older than me. I wasn't uncomfortable with it and they didn't seem to be either. You underestimate the maturity level, which is a little degrading (also very few med students are as young as 20). They're also not the only ones deciding if you are right for med school. That's what the whole admissions committee thing is for. And honestly, once you start med school, you realize that everyone is on the same page and age really doesn't matter. I have classmates who are 35 and have advanced degrees and career experience, and yes, they absolutely have more maturity and more experience than I do, but at the end of the day, we are all 2nd year med students and it kind of levels the playing field. So in that sense, does it really matter how old your interviewer is?

 

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[Ismet]

Thank you for the information, LizzyM. I guess I should be prepared for such a scenario. But, as I have heard elsewhere, I am glad most student interviews are conducted by MS4s.

Ismet -- not sure if you really meant to say "degrading" referring to my point about maturity levels. Like I said, a 20 year old MS1 is certainly ahead of me in terms of medical career and I agree with you on "leveling the playing field." But I certainly cannot agree with you on it not mattering how old the interviewer is. If the interviewer is 26-28 (versus most older doctor/PhD interviewers), that might not matter so much. Having been an incredibly mature 20 year old and a 23 year old (like you), I still cannot fathom just how much I have grown since. So in terms of assessing a person, their maturity level, and the ability to succeed in medical school, yeah, it makes a HUGE difference when a 20 year old is doing it.

I did mean degrading, but that's besides the point. The point is that for the most part, student interviewers do not determine whether you will succeed in medical school. We really have no basis on which to judge that, especially because, at least at my school, student interviews are completely closed file. ONE of the criteria that we give feedback on is if the applicant would be a good fit at the school, which I think a student can easily assess regardless of age. It doesn't take some incredible level of maturity to do that. And honestly, the vast majority of people being interviewed would mesh well with the other students at the school, this is just a way to separate out the very rare antisocial creepy people or people that say/do unprofessional things in their interview. The rest of the interview is just a casual conversation about EC's, research, clinical exp, etc, which unless you have done something new since submitting your primary, there's nothing new to report to the adcom. It's also a chance for you to ask the interviewer questions about life at that school. Nowhere are we asked "can this applicant handle the rigors of med school?" and I don't think that is an appropriate question for a student interviewer to answer, regardless of if they're 20 or 26.

Btw, I'm sure you know this, as you said you were a mature 20 y/o, but age does not correlate to maturity. I know some incredibly immature people in their late 20's. And I was interviewed by a 27-year-old 4th year who asked a bunch of meaningless questions like "batman or superman?" and "if you could be any celebrity who would you be?" While it was a fun interview and we had a good conversation (and I got accepted) is that something you would call "mature"?

Just enjoy your student interviews and don't worry about their age. I think my school is one of the few that has first years interview, although they don't start until November and the second years do the interviews until then. So this may end up not even being a problem for you.