Questions to Admissions Committee?

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shoeclothes

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What questions should I ask the admissions committee members? :rolleyes:

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ask about curriculum, certain programs, what life is like in the area, what kinds of changes they are making in the school, if they made a claim like "we strive to create a non-competitive environment" in their website, ask them to elaborate on that.

ask them what is unique about the school, what they can tell you about the school that's not mentioned in the literature. if you had to choose between several schools, what would they want to emphasize to you as a good reason for choosing their school over another?

etc.
 
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Here is a question I asked during one of my interviews

"Are there any negative aspects about your school? And if so how is the school handling them?"

Shoeclothes, this is a good post topic. A lot of people go in unprepared for the interviewer to ask them if they have any questions about the school. Many say no, but in my opinion you should always come up with at least one question to ask them. It shows you are prepared and are thinking about their school.
 
i think street philosopher hit the nail on the head. Much like most schools say some crap like "this interview is as much about you learning about us as us learning about you", you basically want to shoot back some of the basic questions they have about you.

where is the interview at? good luck :)
 
Originally posted by Amy B
Here is a question I asked during one of my interviews

"Are there any negative aspects about your school? And if so how is the school handling them?"

Shoeclothes, this is a good post topic. A lot of people go in unprepared for the interviewer to ask them if they have any questions about the school. Many say no, but in my opinion you should always come up with at least one question to ask them. It shows you are prepared and are thinking about their school.

Wow, cool. Turn the tables on them for asking you what your weaknesses are. :D
 
You should probably turn that sort of question into high point....

"Well my greatest weekness is that I am sometimes too stubborn to give up on some things....." or "Sometimes I am too driven to accomplish my goals...."

Make the negative qs a chance to say something positive about your self.......right?
 
Originally posted by chypes
You should probably turn that sort of question into high point....

"Well my greatest weekness is that I am sometimes too stubborn to give up on some things....." or "Sometimes I am too driven to accomplish my goals...."

Make the negative qs a chance to say something positive about your self.......right?

Possibly. I don't know what med school adcoms think, but one of my friends who is interviewing for I-banking/consulting jobs said that they don't really like that. He was saying that for his sorts of interviews, you shouldn't try to bump yourself up or down, but try to keep it neutral when answering that question as much as possible. Again, no idea if that applies for med schools; they may want you to make it into a positive.
 
Hey!
In my last two interviews, a whole day was scheduled for us. Over the course of the day, different speakers told us everything about the day and asked for questions at length. Then, we went on tours, where students asked us if we had questions. By the time i got to each interview and was asked if i had any questions, i had none left. everything that could have possibly been answered was. i didn't want to ask something over in case i seemed disinterested in hearing the info yet again. what should i ask in this type of situation?
 
then you say the students and others covered all the questions you had coming in, so unless you have any particular insights, i'm satisfied or something like that.
 
Originally posted by abw
Hey!
In my last two interviews, a whole day was scheduled for us. Over the course of the day, different speakers told us everything about the day and asked for questions at length. Then, we went on tours, where students asked us if we had questions. By the time i got to each interview and was asked if i had any questions, i had none left. everything that could have possibly been answered was. i didn't want to ask something over in case i seemed disinterested in hearing the info yet again. what should i ask in this type of situation?

I would say just about what you said in this post. I would tell them that they should be commended for their fantastic tour guides. Mention that their guides were able to answer every question you had. I would thank them for providing the applicants with such an efficent informative day.
 
Standard question that works everytime "why did you choose (name of med school)?" They usually go on and on if you ask this.
 
Originally posted by chypes
You should probably turn that sort of question into high point....

"Well my greatest weekness is that I am sometimes too stubborn to give up on some things....." or "Sometimes I am too driven to accomplish my goals...."

Make the negative qs a chance to say something positive about your self.......right?

This is a little off topic, but I too have heard that most interviewers don't like that kind of responce. I think a better thing to do is say what you are doing to correct your weakness, espically if the weakness is something really bad.

Thanks for all the useful questions. For the counterpart to the what are your strengths question you could ask the interviewer what he or she considers to be the school's greatest attribute.
 
Originally posted by abw
Hey!
In my last two interviews, a whole day was scheduled for us. Over the course of the day, different speakers told us everything about the day and asked for questions at length. Then, we went on tours, where students asked us if we had questions. By the time i got to each interview and was asked if i had any questions, i had none left. everything that could have possibly been answered was. i didn't want to ask something over in case i seemed disinterested in hearing the info yet again. what should i ask in this type of situation?

This happened to me last year a lot. I would often just tell them that I had already learned the answers to my specific questions from the tour, etc. and just ask them more open ended questions. My favorite was to ask them how they liked it here, and what they thought was the best/worst aspect about the school. If I was feeling brave, I would ask them what they thought were my weeknesses. This was scary to do, but it gave me a chance to address them on the spot if there were any.
 
I know almost all schools want you to ask questions. But just a warning, Wash U does not. When speaking to our pre-med group, the Wash U guy made it very clear that he would rather you ask nothing because you've actually read all their information than ask a question just to be asking a question.
 
Originally posted by abw
Hey!
In my last two interviews, a whole day was scheduled for us. Over the course of the day, different speakers told us everything about the day and asked for questions at length. Then, we went on tours, where students asked us if we had questions. By the time i got to each interview and was asked if i had any questions, i had none left. everything that could have possibly been answered was. i didn't want to ask something over in case i seemed disinterested in hearing the info yet again. what should i ask in this type of situation?

at my ucsf interview, i actually told my second interviewer straight up that i couldn't think of something to ask him. he started out the interview by asking me how my day was going, and i said that i had heard that interviewees should come in with a question or two, but that since i had talked to so many students, teachers, and sat in on classes, that i couldn't think of any more. he laughed and we moved on from there. i probably wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but it worked for me.

truth is, everyone you meet the entire day is going to ask you if you have questions...so unless you want to start repeating, or just ask generic ones like, "how do you like it here" it's hard to truly have real questions by the end of the day.
 
BUMP!!

This is a nice topic.
 
I would be a little wary about asking the interviewer about the weaknesses of the school. I asked this at one of my interviews last year and the interviewer, a pathologist by the way, was very quick to answer, as if he knew exactly what was wrong with the school. He went on for about 10 minutes on all the problems about the school. It really felt like the interview ended on a sour note because of it. The interview was great before that, and that happened to be the last question I asked. :(

I was waitlisted there, as the class was already full. The interview was May 30!! Why did they even bother inviting me?? Needless to say, I doubt I will be asking this question at the interviews I have coming up. :)
 
I also want to add a question that I have always gotten a good response to, though it is a spin off of one that has been brought up earlier.

Ask: How would you describe the relationship between students and teachers at this school? How would you describe that relationship during the clinical years of study?

I know there are many of you out there with more...so help your brothas and sistas out............
 
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