Question for those who interviewed at Rochester

[yyd]

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[SanDiegoSOD]

You're only allowed 25 words per description, so you have to cut the descriptions down to the bare minimum.

 

[Elastase]

Yeah, in closed file interviews you will definitely need to be able to tell all about yourself in a condensed manner.

As for the descriptions, I had to re-write them completely to make them fit within the limit. Good luck on your interview (it will be snowy when you get there)!

 

[aspiringdoctor]

I just got an interview invite from U. of Rochester and since it will be "closed-file" they ask to list the most important extracurricular experiences on-line. Would it be ok to just copy/paste those from my AMCAS application? I went into quite a bit of detail describing my reseach and volunteer experiences (used up all the space available 🙂), but I wonder if this time I'll need to find new words to describe what I did.
Also, how important are the essays?
So far, I have had only "open-file" interviews, so are "closed-file" ones different as far as I should approach them? I am a non-trad and a good portion of my AMCAS essay was devoted to reasons why I am pursuing medicine now, as opposed to several years ago. If my interviewer will not have seen my essay, I guess I'll need to do A LOT of explaining....

Congratulation and good luck with the interview. When did your application complete? Are you August or April Mcater? I completed at that school for two months and haven't heard anything. i'm August MCATer by the way. once again, congratulation

 

[Uegis]

You should just go ahead and list stuff from your AMCAS and be prepared to talk about them, one by one. I wrote one activity on there last year when I interviewed, but I barely had anything to say about it and I looked stupid. Luckily, my interviewer was this really nice radiologist who didn't care too much for it.

 

[bkflaneur]

I think the 'essay' and activity questions are talking points for the interviewer to use to ask questions and start a conversation. I'm not sure if the Rochester interviewers ever see your file, so I think it's completely fine to borrow from your AMCAS. I don't think they're going to judge you by what you write now, so don't stress about it. But be sure that you include some of your more valuable experiences that you can expand upon in an interview.

I had three interviews at Rochester - one student, one faculty, and one member of the administration. The student was really the only one who asked directly about what I had written on their website. The others were more informal conversations where they asked me to talk about what I did in college and post-college. They were all really friendly.

Good luck.

 

[yyd]

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