Mentioning relationships

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C

crgirl

I've been thinking about interesting facts about my self for the "tell me about yourself" question in an interview. I havent done anything TOO crazy in my life, but I was wondering if it was unprofessional to mention that I met my current partner while doing medical volunteering in another country? We've been doing long distance for nearly a year and it's kind of awesome and crazy. Any thoughts?

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its not unprofessional but it doesnt really answer the question of "tell me about yourself". If you talk about how you have a passion of serving in impoverished countries as a factoid about yourself then you could slip in how that passion has lead you to find your current significant other. But honestly It doesnt add much about you and shouldnt be more than a brief snippet of the sentence.
 
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Common youngling mistake. Your relationship isn't you, I don't want to know about who you're dating or how you met. If you're making small talk for whatever reason it's fine, but on a primary or an interview question, it just isn't relevant. Would agree with Chelsea about maybe dropping it as a random fact related to your volunteering and how many wonderful things your volunteering has brought into your life, but don't spend more than a few words on your relationship/SO as it really doesn't mean much from an interviewer's perspective.
 
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You can't think of anything to say about yourself?
 
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I've been thinking about interesting facts about my self for the "tell me about yourself" question in an interview. I havent done anything TOO crazy in my life, but I was wondering if it was unprofessional to mention that I met my current partner while doing medical volunteering in another country? We've been doing long distance for nearly a year and it's kind of awesome and crazy. Any thoughts?
That tells me nothing about yourself as it relates to being a physician. Think of things that help me picture you as a compassionate, thoughtful, practicing physician.
 
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When you're asked to "tell me about yourself," you should generally tell them about who you are... If you feel like your relationship defines who you are, then go for it. But it's probably not going to go over well.
 
Not going to help you.

The overseas medical volunteering will be held against you, unless you were in the Peace Corp or military service. We view the all too typical overseas medical missions as "medical tourism"

I've been thinking about interesting facts about my self for the "tell me about yourself" question in an interview. I havent done anything TOO crazy in my life, but I was wondering if it was unprofessional to mention that I met my current partner while doing medical volunteering in another country? We've been doing long distance for nearly a year and it's kind of awesome and crazy. Any thoughts?
 
There are two "tell me about yourself" moments in an interview. One is when the applicants might be asked to introduce themselves to the group interviewing that day and say something about themselves that might be unexpected (e.g. my twin and I have different birthdays -- we were born before and after midnight)

The other is to explain yourself to someone who did not have access to your application or who was too busy to read it. In that case, you want to give the important facts while highlighting what you'd like to be asked about. Typically, I'd like to know "where are you from (home town and university), college major, your most important research or employment or volunteer experience to date, and something unusual or fun about yourself. Finally, if you must, something about why you want to be a doctor.

We aren't supposed to ask about marital status or sexual preferences to avoid later being accused of bias in that regard but if you bring it up, it can be fair game. That said, I don't care to hear about it as I do want to tread lightly to avoid any appearance of bias.

And foreign trips, as mentioned by Goro, are not highly regarded by some adcoms.
 
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There's nothing really unique about your relationship, at least nothing that the interviewer would care to remember about you. I know that sounds rude, but there are at least 10 people in my class who are in long distance relationships, 3 of which are international and at least 6 more who were and have since broken up since starting school. It might be a cute story but unless it can be slipped into the interview naturally, it's best left for a Nicholas Sparks movie.
 
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