- Joined
- Oct 9, 2009
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Hello all,
Any advice or insight on my situation would be appreciated.
My background: mid 20's non-trad applicant who has worked in the financial and policy side of the health care industry for a couple years. I have solid scores and ECs (including a public health pub from when I was in college. My scores are on par for a top 25 school so I'm assuming my luck in getting a healthy amount of interviews comes from my "good enough" numbers, diverse work background, and the substantial public research I did as an undergrad.
My concern: Being on the far end of the non-trad spectrum, I feel like it is prudent to articulate a compelling reason why I want to be a physician and not a public health or health policy professional. However, I have not been asked the "why medicine?" question on almost half of my interviews!
On many of my interviews, a very similar sequence occurs. The interviewer starts by asking me about my current job, then leads into my related research experience/pub from undergrad, and if there's time left, asks about clinical activities and perhaps hobbies. While the interviewers tend to be genuinely interested in my research and work experience, which is a good sign, I fear I might come off as one dimensional or uninterested in clinical care/patients if the conversation is dominated by research and health policy.
I'm generally a pretty laidback dude and let the interviewer kind of lead the direction of the conversation and just roll with whatever he/she wants to talk about. It might begin with direct questioning but after a few minutes usually turns into an easygoing, non-awkard conversation. It usually gets so relaxed that the conversation very well goes on 5 minute tangents about outside topics like the local city's or college's football team this year.
I guess I'm interested in seeing if you guys had similar experiences. That is, a specific activity or two on your app that interviewers love going in-depth about, often at the expense of covering their bases. Also, should I be more proactive about pushing my agenda/other strengths/other ECs and steer the conversation in a certain direction, or should I just let the conversation focus on what the interviewer is interested in, and frankly the only thing that sets me apart from the hundreds of other premed kids they are interviewing (even if its non-clinical and doesn't shed much light on my motivations to be a physician). Also, is it good, bad, or neither for conversations to go off-track on things like sports or travel or things to do in the school's location? I know it's only 5 minutes of the conversation, but that's alot when the average interview is 30 minutes and I already feel like I'm not able to talk enough about my experiences.
Sorry for the long-winded email. I swear I'm not usually neurotic about this stuff but its something that's been bugging me for the past week - enough to finally get out of my SDN lurker shadow 🙂
Any advice or insight on my situation would be appreciated.
My background: mid 20's non-trad applicant who has worked in the financial and policy side of the health care industry for a couple years. I have solid scores and ECs (including a public health pub from when I was in college. My scores are on par for a top 25 school so I'm assuming my luck in getting a healthy amount of interviews comes from my "good enough" numbers, diverse work background, and the substantial public research I did as an undergrad.
My concern: Being on the far end of the non-trad spectrum, I feel like it is prudent to articulate a compelling reason why I want to be a physician and not a public health or health policy professional. However, I have not been asked the "why medicine?" question on almost half of my interviews!
On many of my interviews, a very similar sequence occurs. The interviewer starts by asking me about my current job, then leads into my related research experience/pub from undergrad, and if there's time left, asks about clinical activities and perhaps hobbies. While the interviewers tend to be genuinely interested in my research and work experience, which is a good sign, I fear I might come off as one dimensional or uninterested in clinical care/patients if the conversation is dominated by research and health policy.
I'm generally a pretty laidback dude and let the interviewer kind of lead the direction of the conversation and just roll with whatever he/she wants to talk about. It might begin with direct questioning but after a few minutes usually turns into an easygoing, non-awkard conversation. It usually gets so relaxed that the conversation very well goes on 5 minute tangents about outside topics like the local city's or college's football team this year.
I guess I'm interested in seeing if you guys had similar experiences. That is, a specific activity or two on your app that interviewers love going in-depth about, often at the expense of covering their bases. Also, should I be more proactive about pushing my agenda/other strengths/other ECs and steer the conversation in a certain direction, or should I just let the conversation focus on what the interviewer is interested in, and frankly the only thing that sets me apart from the hundreds of other premed kids they are interviewing (even if its non-clinical and doesn't shed much light on my motivations to be a physician). Also, is it good, bad, or neither for conversations to go off-track on things like sports or travel or things to do in the school's location? I know it's only 5 minutes of the conversation, but that's alot when the average interview is 30 minutes and I already feel like I'm not able to talk enough about my experiences.
Sorry for the long-winded email. I swear I'm not usually neurotic about this stuff but its something that's been bugging me for the past week - enough to finally get out of my SDN lurker shadow 🙂
