Last Minute Albany Questions

[Supafly MD]

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I know that the Albany application is no too bad...

However, I am struggling to answer the question "If invited for an interview, what one life experience would you most like to discuss?"

I am trying to find an appropriate experience to mention.

How about: trip to Africa(mainly to visit relatives), work as a camp counselor, clinical work at renowned hospital, church involvement, tutoring experiences...

What sounds good?

Also, does tutoring and clinical work in hospital count as paid community service(may sound like a stupid question).

Need feedback, people!

 

[UCLA2000]

Talk about something that makes you stand out from the crowd, and helps to define you as a person. A trip to Africa would be great if it included some kind of medical work. If it was purely recreational, then it just wouldn't have the same effect. Volunteering in a renowned hospital may sound interesting....but personal experience has taught me that you get more hands on experience in free clinics than in large hospitals (because large hospitals are afraid of lawsuits).

Things you may want to discuss: motivation for a career in medicine, family, hardships that you've overcome, volunteer work, and how you can add to the diversity of the school.

Paid community service would include hospital work, and tutoring.....if and only if you were paid for doing so...otherwise it's unpaid community service.

 

[SMW]

I really think they ask that question just to give you a leg up in the interview by giving the interviewer an easy question to bring up that you're going to love talking about. So think of it in terms of your total app. I wouldn't go with something that's been stressed a great deal in your application, but something else that will make you sound very human and memorable to the interviewer. I went with my studies abroad, which had been mentioned in my application, but not stressed at all, just because it was very important to me despite having nothing to do with medicine. That said, I wasn't asked about it at all, but that could have been because I'm from Alaska, and both of my interviewers were very interested in that (one had worked for the Indian Health Service here).

 

[THE instiGATOR]

I talked about what I gained living in Europe for a good chunk of my life. It also was never mentioned during the interview. If I were you, I would expand upon something briefly mentioned in the rest of your application material OR introduce something new. Don't beat a dead horse. I also think that wording is important. Be brief, yet thorough.