- Joined
- Jan 7, 2011
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Hello all. My scouting report from Penn:
First off, the place was beautiful. The facilities were seriously great. I particularly loved the anatomy lab, which is in the older portion of the school. Really cool vibe, and there was a bit of cityscape visible out of the large windows. Definitely a cool space.
They split the interviewees into to groups: after an hour or so of introductory chit-chat, one group went on a 1.5 hour tour then came back for the interviews in the last 1.5 hour of the day. The second group did things in reverse. My interview was about 30 minutes, which left about one hour to sit around and chat with the students who were leading the tours and such.
They were upfront about the fact that the student hosts reported back to the admissions committee about you, so that meant that it was seriously about a 4 hour interview session which, I have to admit, wore me completely out. I was pretty dead by the end of the day.
The official interview was with two people, one who had reviewed your file, one who hadn't. The questions from the "cold" interviewer were of the "tell me about yourself" type. I was asked the "where do you see yourself in 5 years" question and the "what is the most positive and most negative experience you have had in your clinical experiences" question. All in all, pretty conversational. The questions from the "warm" interviewer were pretty targeted. I was asked why I should be given a spot over someone who had been working toward vet school their whole lives (I'm a second career applicant), and then I was asked to discuss a few things from my application in detail. All in all not bad, but I certainly wouldn't describe the warm interviewer's questions as conversational. That portion of the interview was more interrogation style.
I came away really loving Penn. The students were great and really excited about the school, and the school itself is obviously impressive. Philadelphia was sort of "meh" for me, but I don't have much experience with the city. Like most places, I'm sure it's great once you get to know it.
Those were my impressions. If anyone has any burning questions, please feel free to ask.
Good luck to everyone waiting at all stages of the process!
First off, the place was beautiful. The facilities were seriously great. I particularly loved the anatomy lab, which is in the older portion of the school. Really cool vibe, and there was a bit of cityscape visible out of the large windows. Definitely a cool space.
They split the interviewees into to groups: after an hour or so of introductory chit-chat, one group went on a 1.5 hour tour then came back for the interviews in the last 1.5 hour of the day. The second group did things in reverse. My interview was about 30 minutes, which left about one hour to sit around and chat with the students who were leading the tours and such.
They were upfront about the fact that the student hosts reported back to the admissions committee about you, so that meant that it was seriously about a 4 hour interview session which, I have to admit, wore me completely out. I was pretty dead by the end of the day.
The official interview was with two people, one who had reviewed your file, one who hadn't. The questions from the "cold" interviewer were of the "tell me about yourself" type. I was asked the "where do you see yourself in 5 years" question and the "what is the most positive and most negative experience you have had in your clinical experiences" question. All in all, pretty conversational. The questions from the "warm" interviewer were pretty targeted. I was asked why I should be given a spot over someone who had been working toward vet school their whole lives (I'm a second career applicant), and then I was asked to discuss a few things from my application in detail. All in all not bad, but I certainly wouldn't describe the warm interviewer's questions as conversational. That portion of the interview was more interrogation style.
I came away really loving Penn. The students were great and really excited about the school, and the school itself is obviously impressive. Philadelphia was sort of "meh" for me, but I don't have much experience with the city. Like most places, I'm sure it's great once you get to know it.
Those were my impressions. If anyone has any burning questions, please feel free to ask.
Good luck to everyone waiting at all stages of the process!