research grilling?

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johndoe3344

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So I'm just applying for regular MD, and I was wondering from past experience how many of you got grilled on your research?

I know it varies from school to school, I'm just asking for your own personal experience. Would it help to have my PI or grad student give me a mock interview and grill me on aspects of my own research?
 
In my experience, they didn't really grill you that bad in the MD-only interviews. They want to know what your project was, why you were doing it, what kinds of assays you ran, what results you got... they're not going to want to know the minutiae of everything you ever did. That said, you do have to understand your project and what the overall goal was; you'd be surprised at the number of people who say "I went in and did PCR a lot" without knowing WHY they did it.
 
Yeah, this is one area where I'm not so confident in. I hope we aren't interrogated on our research.:xf:
 
my strength! id rather be grilled on this then on clinical case studies or whatever that i'm suppose to know (from what i saw from the interview in harold and kumar)
 
brooklynblunder said:
my strength! id rather be grilled on this then on clinical case studies or whatever that i'm suppose to know (from what i saw from the interview in harold and kumar)
Click to expand...

a reliable source of info :laugh:
 
Speaking of Harold and Kumar, why not enjoy the clip.:laugh:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoK7MqQVU14[/YOUTUBE]
 
So we can assume that in a typical interview where he/she asks about your research, the interviewer will be an individual with a strong science background but not necessarily in your field? Is that accurate?
 
depends. i do research on complementary systems/gpcr's and i could make it applicable to any other science or clinical field and i will do so (i've had a lot of research interviews though for job hunt/nih)
 
i think you will have to analyze the situation and lead your interviewer on
 
johndoe3344 said:
So we can assume that in a typical interview where he/she asks about your research, the interviewer will be an individual with a strong science background but not necessarily in your field? Is that accurate?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Lots of faculty interviewers don't do research at all.
 
Make sure you understand your research. Its very obvious when you have no clue.

At least know the big picture ideas. Responses like "Oh I just ran PCR" don't go over well.
 
Know why you were doing whatever you were doing in the overall context of the research project and how that helped. Thats all you gotta know.
 
I think how likely you are to be grilled usually correlates with how much of a role you report having in your research when you fill out applications. If you list a job where you cleaned supplies or worked as a very basic assistant, you are less likely to be grilled than someone who lists an independent thesis project.

Either way, make sure that you know what questions your project was answering, know how the experimental techniques work (including their strengths and shortcomings), and are able to speculate on what your results actually mean and where you would go next if you had more time to work on your project.
 
johndoe3344 said:
So I'm just applying for regular MD, and I was wondering from past experience how many of you got grilled on your research?

I know it varies from school to school, I'm just asking for your own personal experience. Would it help to have my PI or grad student give me a mock interview and grill me on aspects of my own research?
Click to expand...
Too bad, I was hoping you wanted to research new and better ways of grilling. We have a gorgeous weekend in Cleveland, perfect for grilling. 😀

But I'll still answer your question even though it was less exciting than I had hoped for. At my school, research is a pre-req, so everyone has done a significant amount of it. Most people get interviewed by a PhD who works in a similar area, and they will go into specifics. I don't think it's grilling per se, but they want to find out if you know about the conceptual part of the project. Mainly they want to know about your hypothesis, research aims, project significance. They might also ask you things like what your role was on the project and what you think would be the future direction of the project. They're not as interested in the details of the methods you used. Think about it this way: they're people who love research in that field so much that they got a PhD in it and are professional researchers themselves. It's not surprising that they'd want to discuss research with students who had done similar research, right?
 
Well in general, you are going to be interviewed by clinicians. They probably don't know anything about your research area at all - how can they grill you?

Frankly, unless you are interviewing for MD-PhD or are very stupid, you don't have to worry about getting grilled.
 
I was grilled on my research. It was clear to me that the professor who interviewed me was hand chosen due to his familiarity with the bench research I had done. All but ten minutes of the interview involved him dissecting every aspect of the three projects I'd been involved in, and generally giving a negative opinion of the choices I'd made, asking why I hadn't done it such-and-such a way instead. I finally figured out it was a classic "stress interview" and then was able to relax more, as I knew he was just giving me a hard time. At the end, he told me I could work in his lab anytime. I felt like I'd gotten a prize. I am not in an MD/PhD program. I think that asking your PI, post-doc, or PhD candidate to mock interview you is a great idea. Be prepared for questions about your projects, just as you will be for medical ethics and sociopolitical topics in medicine.
 
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