Personal Statements in the Interview?

[littlewings]

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Sorry if this is a redundant question, I didn't find the answer when I searched it.

I am just wondering, in the interview, has anyone ever been asked about their personal statement? As in, you wrote about something, and it was brought up for discussion in the interview?

 

[twelvetigers]

I'm sure it happens all the time, unless it's a 'cold' interview (meaning they can't see your PS to bring anything up). Even in an interview of that sort, you would probably want to draw from material in your PS... that's supposed to be a narrative of your best qualities and experiences.

So, uh... don't mention anything you'd rather not talk about? 🙂

 

[stick91]

I don't think that I got asked anything specific from my personal statement, but I certainly brought up stuff that was in it. At my Tufts interview they said they were intrigued by my answer to one of their essay questions and asked me to talk more about it, but it was something totally unrelated to vet med. If you write about it and it's an open interview be prepared to discuss it!

 

[HopefulAg]

Yah I got asked about stuff in mine. I had written about being interested in Immunology and one of the interviewers asked if I had considered doing a DVM/PhD program. I also wrote about doing mixed animals and they wanted to know why mixed over small/large predominantly. Also they commented on some things I put in about my views of the profession and they asked me to elaborate on some points (like wanting to study abroad in vet school: where I wanted to go, why I wanted to go, have I ever been abroad before, do I speak a foreign language, etc).

Edit: Oh and they also asked why I wanted an MBA.

This was at A&M by the way.

 

[athane960]

Ditto here too when I interviewed at A&M. They asked me several questions regarding my personal statement. I had based my PS around my interest in public health and even cited a recent article from JAVMA that stated there is a vital need for more veterinarians in public health. Consequently, the author of the article ended up being one of my interviewers

 

[StillDreaming]

no. But Tufts has a seperate application and seperate essays and such and i was questioned about a medical issue i mentioned in one of my essays. My other interview was closed file, so they never got to see my personal statement.

I think with open file like Tufts, they might question you about things that pop out and they just want more explanation on why you thought that, or how you can handle vet school (in my case with such and such disease)...

 

[feadog]

At Tennessee, all three interviewers had copies of my personal statement (along with the rest of my file)... highlighted, annotated, etc. One interviewer asked me to elaborate on one line I had written.

At KSU, I was also asked about one of the experiences I had discussed in my personal statement and saw that the interviewer was referring to my essay rather than my list of experiences.

 

[GACowgirl]

I did not get asked anything about my ps. They really asked me a lot of questions about my horse and cow experience...which was great because I had so much to talk about. I think that if they find something interesting about you, then that is what they will want you to talk about! However, make sure you know EVERYTHING about your ps....don't lie when writing it because you may have to back it up! Good luck!

 

[Rusty27]

.

 

[Doggone DVM]

Yep- I was asked about my ps in all of my interviews! I was just glad they read the darn thing! 🙄 It did give me something to talk about in the interviews though, and made it more comfortable (I'm a totally nervous interviewer).

 

[littlewings]

Haha, I wasn't planning on writing something I didn't want to talk about in it! Or making something up. I was wondering more what kind of role it played in the interview, and because I have this fear that I will write it, and then not read it and forget what I wrote about, and have it brought up. Which I'm sure won't happen.

Sweet, thanks guys 🙂

 

[VAgirl]

Haha, I wasn't planning on writing something I didn't want to talk about in it! Or making something up. I was wondering more what kind of role it played in the interview, and because I have this fear that I will write it, and then not read it and forget what I wrote about, and have it brought up. Which I'm sure won't happen.

Sweet, thanks guys 🙂

I highly recommend re-reading your whole application before going to your interview. That's what they'll be basing their questions to you off of, so it's really good idea to be super familiar with it. 🙂