Interviewers

[CheckMate]

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[Neuronix]

Usually they give you a schedule in advance (sometimes like a week, sometimes like a day)... If they don't sometimes you can ask too.

 

[clockitnow]

When I interviewed at U Pitt, they sent me an interview schedule a week in advance. This schedule had names. However, the day of the interview, I got an updated schedule that had more names. I was really nervous that I hadn't had the chance to prepare for some of the interviews (one of the added interviews was the head of a field that i had done my main reseach experience with). However, it was really laidback and didn't really matter. I went way overboard reading papers, etc.

 

[tedrik]

Thanks for that adivce clockitnow. I'm leaving for Pitt this Sunday...any other advice?

 

[uproarhz]

Thanks for that adivce clockitnow. I'm leaving for Pitt this Sunday...any other advice?

Hey Tedrik,
Good luck at your interview

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I've noticed that some of you have gotten interviews at U of Michigan. I know that here, you will get a detailed itinerary in the mail consisting of names and locations of the faculty with whom you'll be meeting. I don't remember too many places doing that; however, I went through all of this 6 years ago.

It seems that there are quite a few people interviewing at Michigan in the following month--some of whom are SDN posters. The program is gonna set you up with hosts and you'll get to go out with some of us fellows after the first night of interviews. I hope you will all have a fun visit to Ann Arbor!

BTW, if you feel like it, I could tell you which faculty members are really cool and which faculty to watch out for if you're curious 🙂 Just PM me if that's the case.

Best of luck on your interviews. From reading the interview thread it seems that a lot of you are doing quite well this early in the application season 🙂

 

[Neuronix]

For those of you who haven't interviewed and haven't found this out yet, do not try to read the papers of the faculty you're interviewing with. The most you'll ever need to read is a one or two line summary of the research of the faculty member.

There's two kinds of interviews:
Committee members - The hard ones, the ones where they're actually trying to determine your suitability.
Faculty members - The easy ones, where it's more that they're trying to sell the program to you by connecting you with faculty members whose research is close to your own and/or the faculty members with the cool personalities.

UMich... Wasn't that where I had something like 12 interviews? I hope they're still not torturing the applicants like that! (see http://www.studentdoctor.net/interview/show_entry.asp?ID=1081... This wasn't my feedback, though I commend the reviewer for their use of the word redonkulous.)

 

[b&ierstiefel]

UMich... Wasn't that where I had something like 12 interviews? I hope they're still not torturing the applicants like that!

LOL neuronix...you're right on the mark. Michigan does set you up with a lot of interviews. I believe I had 14 actually when I interviewed. Several of them were in the membrane transport field (as that was my field of undergrad research) and more of them were in the signal transduction field. I requested it though since I wasn't sure as to if I wanted to stay in the former field or move on to something different.

The 3 interviews with the admissions committee (which they call the Operating Committee here) were pretty chill. They all went the same way...you have a very strong application, I'm gonna recommend you for acceptance. Then their first question would be one of the following: (a) Are you a college football fan? (b) Why Ann Arbor? (c) What questions do you have for me? And literally, the discussion that followed would take up the rest of the conversation. The other 11 interviews were kinda like me interviewing them because I would consider choosing some of these folks as research rotation mentors and one of them potentially as my thesis mentor. So I had lots of questions for them. And no, I didn't read any of their papers eithers so I totally agree with Neuronix on that one. Plus, that's too much work and trust me, when you're on your 5th, 10th, or even 15th interview (if you decide to do that much), you're gonna realize this is a waste of time.

In any case, I thought doing 14 interviews was quite excessive. The last few interviews were brutal as I was trying to fight to stay awake. Whenever I would walk candidates from office to office (U of M med school is a bunch of buildings connected to each other and to the unfamiliar one, it can be a confusing maze), I would joke about that often. One candidate a few years ago commented that he was tired and he had 3 interviews left. We laughed and made a quick pit stop to get some coffee.

OK...I'll stop rambling and end by saying that interviews at Michigan are still two days but I think the # interviews have gone down. But not by too much. The few itineraries I glanced at last year had like only 8-9 interviews (not including the 2 straight MD interviews of course). So I guess that's not THAT much of an improvement 🙂 Also, you may find this funny. Back when I interviewed, one involved having lunch with the MSTP director and a random MSTP student. I could barely bite into my sandwich either...and it was a damn good sandwich! After me and my classmates matriculated, we ALL recommended that this "lunch interview" be removed from the agenda due to the above issue. And lo and behold, the lunch interviews were no more.