Question during interview about religious beliefs - Got ugly.

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reaton

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I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
 
Since the majority of interviews are not from a form, most of them break the rules. I am sure they can't ask about religion, marital status, babies, etc, but they do anyways.

He was probably seeing you respond to a personal attack. Did you explain how you "understood" what you are saying, but disagree because of X, or did you sink to his level?
 
reaton said:
I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
Click to expand...

I would write a letter to the dean about your experience
 
I honestly would have reported him after the interview, stated that I did not feel that I had a fair interview, and requested a new one. That is really unfair for you to have to deal with.
 
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this violates the rules set forth by the equal opportunity employment commission, which is largely responsible for the enforcement of the civil rights act. There have been cases where universities have been held responsible for not following the civil rights act and subsequent common law in their admissions process. If you are still interested in attending this school you may, or may not, want to wait until after you receive a decision and then file a complaint with the commission. Maybe also talk to the dean at the school. I'm not sure what the best strategy is if you are still interested in the school. If this is an interview you spent money getting to and are not accepted, I would also be demanding reimbursement for your travel and time. You probably have grounds for a much bigger claim, so they would be foolish not to settle for this.

reaton said:
I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
Click to expand...
 
Jpc984 said:
Since the majority of interviews are not from a form, most of them break the rules. I am sure they can't ask about religion, marital status, babies, etc, but they do anyways.

He was probably seeing you respond to a personal attack. Did you explain how you "understood" what you are saying, but disagree because of X, or did you sink to his level?
Click to expand...

Bumping, since I was slow to post.
 
If you're going to complain, do it now. And go through the proper channels (i.e. Don't just call up bitching. Write a formal letter and send it certified.)
 
ckenny said:
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this violates the rules set forth by the equal opportunity employment commission, which is largely responsible for the enforcement of the civil rights act. There have been cases where universities have been held responsible for not following the civil rights act and subsequent common law in their admissions process. If you are still interested in attending this school you may, or may not, want to wait until after you receive a decision and then file a complaint with the commission. Maybe also talk to the dean at the school. I'm not sure what the best strategy is if you are still interested in the school. If this is an interview you spent money getting to and are not accepted, I would also be demanding reimbursement for your travel and time. You probably have grounds for a much bigger claim, so they would be foolish not to settle for this.
Click to expand...

I don't understand how these suits are won.... It seems like it is one of those things that is hard to prove and could be a my word vs. your word thing. I guess I am not cut out for law school.
 
Yeah, my bad, I think TT is right, you can't really wait until you have a result before you complain if you want to be credible

TexasTriathlete said:
If you're going to complain, do it now. And go through the proper channels (i.e. Don't just call up bitching. Write a formal letter and send it certified.)
Click to expand...
 
Well, civil law is based on "preponderance of the evidence", and if this person had shown any sort of a pattern of this behavior (quite likely) for instance, the preponderance would be against them. Also, if they are smart they might not want to commit a criminal offence (perjury) to solve a civil case.

Jpc984 said:
I don't understand how these suits are won.... It seems like it is one of those things that is hard to prove and could be a my word vs. your word thing. I guess I am not cut out for law school.
Click to expand...
 
ckenny said:
Well, civil law is based on "preponderance of the evidence", and if this person had shown any sort of a pattern of this behavior (quite likely) for instance, the preponderance would be against them. Also, if they are smart they might not want to commit a criminal offence (perjury) to solve a civil case.
Click to expand...

Ah, like the OJ business...

Criminal=Innocent, Civil=Guilty
 
Right, and civil = guilty = still walking around
whereas criminal = guilty = jail
I know which one I would pick 🙂


Jpc984 said:
Ah, like the OJ business...

Criminal=Innocent, Civil=Guilty
Click to expand...
 
Reaton, like TT said, you need to write a formal letter to the Dean of the school of medicine explaining to him what happened and that you feel you had an extremely unfair interview and came away with a bad view of the school because of it. But if you are really interested in the school let him know why and why you still want to have a chance to get in. It cant hurt. Especially if you were treated as you were because of religion. Thats bull****...
 
reaton said:
I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
Click to expand...

Do you think you could be more specific in telling us what happened? How did the conversation get to religion and how was the interviewer cursing? In what context? This seems extremely unprofessional.

I've been seeing this come up a lot, maybe not to such an extreme extent, but I've seen interviewers ask really personal questions that are completely irrelevant to medical school.

The only thing I see is that they are trying to test your resilience to personal attacks, but I can figure out many more polite and clever ways to do this without resorting to crudeness.
 
You should definitely let your problem be known, but make sure you do so in a professional, respectable manner. This happened to a girl over in the pre-allo forums and she posted the letter she was sending to the dean about the interviewers religious/racial remarks. The letter was very well written, and was fine. However ... a few weeks later a thread pops up where this girl went to the school newspaper at Brown (for some reason) and was telling them all about it and her picture was there and someone posted the story on some bigger news site, and it just made her look like she was either a. out to prove a point b. trying to make herself a victim, or c. playing off of established racial/religious hot buttons. Either way, she took a situation where the other person was at fault, and warped it to where she (in my opinion) looked like she was trying to do something else (even stating in the article that she 'didn't want to make a big deal out of the situation/bring a lot of attention to the subject' ... give me a freaking break). Good luck, and we are all sorry you had to have an experience of this nature!! I think for the most part adcoms are extremely qualified, and who knows all the factors that led up to the remarks, could have been a ton of different things.
 
I can see where they may want to identify church of the first born members, but other than that is there any religion that is against modern medicine?

Can't see where religion has a place in medical school interview, but he probably had a question he was trying to find an answer to. Best of luck with your problem, an attourney would have a field day with this so that may be your best bet if you think you've been a victim
 
saylorsdad said:
I can see where they may want to identify church of the first born members, but other than that is there any religion that is against modern medicine?

Can't see where religion has a place in medical school interview, but he probably had a question he was trying to find an answer to. Best of luck with your problem, an attourney would have a field day with this so that may be your best bet if you think you've been a victim
Click to expand...

Without a doubt. However, like I said earlier, I wouldn't take this route if I were in the OPs shoes. If he/she really wants to be a doctor, I think it would reflect greatly on their character to just address the issue personally, without turning it into a huge explosion that involves the media, and religious rights groups, and lawyers ... etc etc. That's just me though.
 
I interviewed a couple of weeks ago and the first interviewer was a child psychiatrist. Most of the time in the interview he spent telling me about himself and how he used to be a chef. He asked me about my religious believes and proceded to tell me that most people with religious beliefs enter this program for the wrong reasons. I became irritated with him and told him that the reason I am entering this program is to study medicine and didn't see what the question had to do with my qualifications. He also questioned me about my MCAT score. He stated that I would have to do a lot of test and if I did not do well on the test I would not pass medical school. I told him that people with lower scores than mine had been admited into this program and they had done well. I also told him that my gpa was higher than their average and that I am well aware of the test I will be required to take.

It's illegal for prospective employeers to ask the religion question. It ought to be for medical schools too.

This guy acted like a child who was in need of a psychiatrist.
 
reaton said:
I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
Click to expand...

I am sorry that happened to you, but if you complain who are they going to believe? a person in the faculty or someone completely new to them?

The fact of the matter is, there are many people like that and you will likely see those people when you become a doctor at one point or another.
The patients are suffering, whether physically or mentally(psych patients). Not everyone will welcome you with a positive attitude , maybe your interviewer was testing your ability to act in such situations.
 
Saregamapadanis said:
I am sorry that happened to you, but if you complain who are they going to believe? a person in the faculty or someone completely new to them?

The fact of the matter is, there are many people like that and you will likely see those people when you become a doctor at one point or another.
The patients are suffering, whether physically or mentally(psych patients). Not everyone will welcome you with a positive attitude , maybe your interviewer was testing your ability to act in such situations.
Click to expand...

I agree. However wouldnt most agree that dropping the F bomb in an interview as excessive? Because when it comes down to it, you are interviewing the school as well.
 
DiverDoc said:
I agree. However wouldnt most agree that dropping the F bomb in an interview as excessive? Because when it comes down to it, you are interviewing the school as well.
Click to expand...
Maybe the use of F word is a bit too much, reaton should have calmed the interviewer down in the interview, maybe talk to him about stress relief excercises or something :laugh: .

The doctors though have to really leave their emotions behind, because really you are just there to do your job , not have confrontations with people about religion or politics or anything for that matter.
 
reaton said:
I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
Click to expand...

It was unprofessional to use profanity and to make negative comments about your religion. That being said we need the context of the insult. Some schools ask questions that will make feel uncomfortable to see how you would handle the situation. Schools will ask about your belief's if it can impact your patient care. I know many Jews as well as Christans are asked about abortion and what you would do if a patient needed one eventhough it is against your religion. Questions of that nature are fair game. But if the interviewer said I hate a certain religion because they don't allow abortions that should be brought up to the Dean of Admissions in a professional and respectful manner.
 
I would have just looked at him and calmly explained that "you can cuss all you want... you're still going to hell."
 
There is no doubt in my mind that this issue needs to be formally addressed with the President of the medical school or the University. I'm sure that the Dean would be disgusted with the interviewers actions, not only because they were unnecessary and unwarranted, but also because he is a representative of the University. It is upsetting to me because as a candidate for the medical school, I would be especially excited to receive an interview. We all know how hard it is these days to matriculate at a medical school, so to receive an interview is an accomplishment in itself. Then to have this happen is unjust and needs the attention of the Dean and the University. I believe someone had stated this earlier, but I do believe you should receive a second interview to prove yourself as a candidate for the medical school. Although I am not particularly religious, I do respect your passion for your beliefs and your decision to stick up for yourself. If you didn't want to pursue this option, you could always egg the guys car or house. That always seemed to work well for me.
 
Was this just a one-on-one interview? There is a probably a good chance that if it was a group interview that one of the other interviewers would have said something since this seems to be way out of line. If it was a one-on-one, there is always the chance that they may not believe you, but, I'm guessing they would believe you because why would make something like this up. You never know, they may have other complaints about the interviewer and maybe you will be the one to finally get this person off of the interviewer list so that this school isn't poorly represented in the future. I would call and ask for the director of admission. If they are any good at their job, they want to know what's going on and what's being said in interviews, especially if its something so outrageous like this!!!
 
Write the letter like many have said. .I cannot believe this happened especially after the fiasco of the Muslim (I believe) student at Albert Einstein. That got a lot of attention. I'm sure it made it around the admissions circuit. Plain dumb on the interviewer's behalf.
 
reaton said:
I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is illegal. You should report it to your school immediately.
 
what religeon was being "bashed?" I dont know why the topic even would have come up at an interview?
 
I hope I am not confronted with such a question. I am not sure if I would feel them out and tell them what they want to hear, or tell them the truth.
 
reaton said:
I had an interview where the interviewer questioned my beliefs and made negative comments. I stood up for myself and and told him I did not see what this had to do with my interview and my qualifications to suceed in medical school. He cursed several times during the interview (F this S).

I know this is illegal in a job interview. Does this apply to a medcial school interview?

The guy was a child psychiatrist. He acted like a child in need of a psychiatrist.
Click to expand...

I participate in interviews and, no, we are not allowed to ask questions about religion, sexual preference or age. This is totally inappropriate of him to make those comments. Please, if not for you than for the others who have to deal with him, write and call the school; this issue NEEDS to be addressed. I am amazed you stayed in the interview as I know I personally would have gotten up and left. PLEASE report this.
 
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