So what does everyone think about the school coming to you to interview? I have always felt one must go to the school itself in order to get a feeling for it and see how things are. However, I am now realizing it would be nice to not have to fly out there. Do schools look down on you if you request a regional interview? Does it lower your chances? Woohoo! Post 300
I was wondeirng the same thing. Michigan says they will consider regional interviews but I'm not sure if they look down on that or not. By the way, I'm curious about your interview at Michigan. Did your status check on their website say "we have offered you an interview" after they called you? Or does it say the same thing it did before about your file being complete and in review? I am just wondering if that message is supposed to change or not.
Regional interviews, if given, are usually conducted by a practicing local area physician alumnus. While you might save a bundle of money and travel time to do a local if offered, I think it is bad tradeoff. You should use the interview at the medical school as an opportunity to find out as much about the school by speaking with medical students before, on, and after the day of the interview. Before will prepare you for the interview, keep you from arriving late and flustered for the interview itself, it will show how seriously and rationally you deal with this step and, as a bonus, you will be and appear very knowledgeable about the medical school; post interview is to take a good, hard look, to speak with more medical students and tote up the positives and negatives if you are offered a place and have to choose later from among other choices. If you do this, make sure the interviewer knows; you will be impressive because so many interviewees don't and are obviously in a hurry to get it over with. You have invested so much already--time, money, anxiety--in this enterprise. To save time and money at this critical juncture is a mistake.
i did a regional interview for george washington last year. i did it completely based on my own financial interest. the regional interview was a couple of weeks earlier than the earliest available interview at the school. so basically i was saving several hundred dollars, and the interview was 2 blocks from where i work. i'll say now that i regret my decision. by not visiting the school, you just don't have the opportunity to make a fully informed decision. in the end, i wasn't accepted. if i get an interview this year i will definitely make the trip to d.c. as a side-note, the interview was conducted by the dean of the medical school, not a local practicing physician.
Except those mentioned, plus Vandy, and Duke, what other schools have the option of regional interviews? Not that I think it's a great idea; I'm just wondering.
