Hey furrycat! By your name, I see you are a person of impeccable taste!
First of all, I hope you realize that for MCP Hahnemann, it is late in the interviewing game (I am saying this first, but it is not in the least to try to discourage you). When I interviewed, I interviewed right at the end of November. Then I waited, WAITED, and W-A-I-T-E-D and finally a response came at the end of February (even though they say you hear from them in 4 to 6 weeks). On
www.interviewfeedback.com, I have seen people who have waited much longer than me to get a response, so I am going to infer that (at least in this interview season) they are taking long to send everything out and it is not just me. Nevertheless, I can tell you that when that letter came, my whole family was hoppin' and we went out for a Japanese hibachi dinner... Sorry for the digression, but it shows how happy I was to receive it. It was my first acceptance (and consequently my first interview).
However, I gotta say that I never really expected to get in. To start with, how about some background: You have 2 interviews there: 1 faculty and 1 student, and BELIEVE ME they are equally important to do well in. My faculty interview was with a cardiologist at the MCP hospital. Somebody else on the interviewfeedback site said they had a tough time with him. Well, when I had him, I thought I might have as easy a time as robbing a bank and escaping to Rio as getting into medical school after that one! At first the interview went smoothly and the questions were all easy and based upon my application, which I had basically to elaborate on. Then, out of the blue, he kind of sat back, paused, and asked something to the effect of, "So with your very technical engineering background, why would you ever want to go into something so basic as family practice?" Well, he got me on that one. You see, what happened next was that from this point onward I seriously cannot remember what I said, but I know that my face felt flushed and I unleashed a torrent of speech, straight from the heart, and told him how I felt on the subject. It all just came out, and I must have talked for some time because I think 10 minutes passed on this digression because the next thing I knew, the interview was basically over and I asked some lame-ass questions questions of the "necessary but expected type" (I had already gotten most of my real questions answered by talking to friendly students). Then he walked me out to the elevators and sent me on my way, with a joke about me not having an overcoat on such a chilly day. I swear I thought I blew it all, and I was so pissed off at myself for letting myself get caught so off guard by his question. Well it was more the manner of his presentation than the question itself, but he got me on that one. Yet, for all the worry, I was accepted later, so I must have said some pretty intelligent stuff...
But anyway, back to the interview day. So I was so upset with myself from that interview that I went and got on the wrong shuttle back to the Queen Lane Campus (MCP Hahnemann has very timely shuttles to take you to their various hospitals and off the Queen-Lane-campus-locations). I was to meet my student interviewer at 1:00 but by the time I got back there, it was more like 1:20
so by this time, I had reserved myself that I might as well just make the best of the rest of the day because I wasn't getting in anyway and it would give me practice for my other interviews. So I arrived for my student interview and it was to be held in the cafeteria over (late) lunch. I tell you, I was hungry enough for it!
Well, my student interview lasted from 1:20 to well after 3:00 and I think it was pushing 3:30 when we finally shook hands at the end. Basically, my interviewer, a 4th year student, was really cool and somehow we hit it off. NOT LIKE THAT, PERVERT! The student interview bases itself on the fact that you wouldn't have had an interview if they thought your academics weren't up to par. Therefore, it is an interview to gauge your personality to both see that you are the type of person who might become a good doctor as well as seeing if you are the type of person that they wouldn't mind having to take classes with. So we chatted on divers topics from Star Wars to research, and I asked him so many questions that I almost was embarrassed at having discovered that I still had many more to ask. Well, this guy did most of the talking in this interview as it turned out, and somewhere between 2:30 and 3:00 he says, "Oh and by the way, I am a member of the admissions committee." I was floored! I mean, this stuff wasn't supposed to happen on your first interview! Sheesh.
So basically, during that cold day in November, I had gone from the pit of despair to the Elysian fields. By the way, all of my other interviews were basically textbook examples of interviews and the way I am supposed to act at an interview. They say you have to screw up before you get good, but, man, what a damn good screwup I had that day! Now I'm in like Flint! There is only one other school that I have interviewed at that I liked better (mainly because it's campus is in a rural setting and much closer to home). But I can tell you that I will not be disappointed if I go to MCP Hahnemann. Forget their financial issues of the past, the school wants their students to succeed (and in my opinion, in this way do they hope to build back their good name from the Bankruptcy of 1998).
JonnyCat
