Schools that you HATED after interviewing

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Little Etoile

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Okay, so maybe not *hate*, but basically schools that you were totally turned off by after you interviewed. Give the reason(s), too, of course. Bonus points for schools whose interview swung your opinion of them in the other direction.

Criteria to consider:
-Happiness of students
-Faculty
-Location
-Sense of community
-Support of students, both academically and mentally/emotionally
-Curriculum
-Campus
-ECs
-Clinical sites


I'm thinking this might be helpful for people narrowing down their list of schools for the upcoming cycle.

I would say in general, try to keep to aspects that would apply to the broader population rather than something personally unappealing to you. (e.g. "Their clinical skills center was outdated," rather than "I really want to go into derm and they had a low number of derm matches.")

And not that it needs to be said, but at least *try* to eliminate rejection/waitlist bias. 😉
 
Harvard, JHU, Stanford, and Wash Univ...everyone there was far too inferior intellectually.
 
Hate is a strong word. But if I had to pick one school, it would be Drexel University. Everything about the school is great (2 different curriculums to choose from, videotaped lectures, a friendly and down-to-earth student body, and my interviewer was super nice)....except for the facilities and the campus. The Medical School is a 20 minute shuttle ride to its main teaching hospital (I have been spoiled going to college on a campus that also includes the medical center), and the medical school is housed in one big building away from the exciting parts of Philadelphia. From the looks of it they didn't have many options for research on campus due to a lack of research space. Lastly, they had this really bad color scheme throughout their building interior, everything is this blueish green.

I'm not even one who is usually swayed by fancy facilities positively or negatively. So I think what it really came down to for me was the lack of research, and then that just affected my opinion. But at the end of they day, I would attend because I know several people who attend the medical school and have had a very positive experience.
 
blackbird11384 said:
Hate is a strong word. But if I had to pick one school, it would be Drexel University. Everything about the school is great (2 different curriculums to choose from, videotaped lectures, a friendly and down-to-earth student body, and my interviewer was super nice)....except for the facilities and the campus. The Medical School is a 20 minute shuttle ride to its main teaching hospital (I have been spoiled going to college on a campus that also includes the medical center), and the medical school is housed in one big building away from the exciting parts of Philadelphia. From the looks of it they didn't have many options for research on campus due to a lack of research space. Lastly, they had this really bad color scheme throughout their building interior, everything is this blueish green.

I'm not even one who is usually swayed by fancy facilities positively or negatively. So I think what it really came down to for me was the lack of research, and then that just affected my opinion. But at the end of they day, I would attend because I know several people who attend the medical school and have had a very positive experience.
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I've had color schemes make a difference in my life, too, as silly as it sounds!
 
NYMC! I wanted to kill myself after a day there, much less 4 years.
 
Little Etoile said:
Okay, so maybe not *hate*, but basically schools that you were totally turned off by after you interviewed. Give the reason(s), too, of course. Bonus points for schools whose interview swung your opinion of them in the other direction.

Criteria to consider:
-Happiness of students
-Faculty
-Location
-Sense of community
-Support of students, both academically and mentally/emotionally
-Curriculum
-Campus
-ECs
-Clinical sites


I'm thinking this might be helpful for people narrowing down their list of schools for the upcoming cycle.

I would say in general, try to keep to aspects that would apply to the broader population rather than something personally unappealing to you. (e.g. "Their clinical skills center was outdated," rather than "I really want to go into derm and they had a low number of derm matches.")

And not that it needs to be said, but at least *try* to eliminate rejection/waitlist bias. 😉
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einstein, dartmouth 👎 mainly due to location. Einstein - the Bronx, the worst ghetto in America, Dartmouth- the middle of FREAKIN' nowhere
 
I kinda liked NYMC. I found its tight knit collegial atmosphere to be endearing. Sure there is nothing to do around the school, but NYC isn't too far. The anatomy lab was very nice too.
 
blackbird11384 said:
I kinda liked NYMC. I found its tight knit collegial atmosphere to be endearing. Sure there is nothing to do around the school, but NYC isn't too far. The anatomy lab was very nice too.
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I thought it was alright for the same reasons, definately not worth all the bad rap it gets on SDN. For me though, the price just wasn't worth it.
 
Rooter76 said:
I thought it was alright for the same reasons, definately not worth all the bad rap it gets on SDN. For me though, the price just wasn't worth it.
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I don't think it's the worst place on the planet, but it does disappoint.
 
blackbird11384 said:
Hate is a strong word. But if I had to pick one school, it would be Drexel University. Everything about the school is great (2 different curriculums to choose from, videotaped lectures, a friendly and down-to-earth student body, and my interviewer was super nice)....except for the facilities and the campus. The Medical School is a 20 minute shuttle ride to its main teaching hospital (I have been spoiled going to college on a campus that also includes the medical center), and the medical school is housed in one big building away from the exciting parts of Philadelphia. From the looks of it they didn't have many options for research on campus due to a lack of research space. Lastly, they had this really bad color scheme throughout their building interior, everything is this blueish green.

I'm not even one who is usually swayed by fancy facilities positively or negatively. So I think what it really came down to for me was the lack of research, and then that just affected my opinion. But at the end of they day, I would attend because I know several people who attend the medical school and have had a very positive experience.
Click to expand...


University of California, Irvine is like this too...and that's in Southern California traffic! Both its teaching hospitals, the UCI Medical Center and Long Beach VA, are about 20 and 30 mins away from the med school campus respectively. Never quite understood why a school would build their teaching hospital(s) so far away
 
blackbird11384 said:
Hate is a strong word. But if I had to pick one school, it would be Drexel University. Everything about the school is great (2 different curriculums to choose from, videotaped lectures, a friendly and down-to-earth student body, and my interviewer was super nice)....except for the facilities and the campus. The Medical School is a 20 minute shuttle ride to its main teaching hospital (I have been spoiled going to college on a campus that also includes the medical center), and the medical school is housed in one big building away from the exciting parts of Philadelphia. From the looks of it they didn't have many options for research on campus due to a lack of research space. Lastly, they had this really bad color scheme throughout their building interior, everything is this blueish green.

I'm not even one who is usually swayed by fancy facilities positively or negatively. So I think what it really came down to for me was the lack of research, and then that just affected my opinion. But at the end of they day, I would attend because I know several people who attend the medical school and have had a very positive experience.
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Are you sure you checked this out completely? Drexel has a lot of research going on and available to the med students
 
Pedsbro said:
University of California, Irvine is like this too...and that's in Southern California traffic! Both its teaching hospitals, the UCI Medical Center and Long Beach VA, are about 20 and 30 mins away from the med school campus respectively. Never quite understood why a school would build their teaching hospital(s) so far away
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the kind of pathology you would see in orange you'd never encounter in irvine. it's not that bit of a deal, you can get a place near the hospital during your clinical years
 
Doublecortin said:
Einstein - the Bronx, the worst ghetto in America
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I actually found the area around Einstein to be quite residential. Sure the Bronx is ghetto, but I didn't get that sense from the school's immediate surroundings. Maybe I didn't venture out far enough.
 
Doublecortin said:
the kind of pathology you would see in orange you'd never encounter in irvine. it's not that bit of a deal, you can get a place near the hospital during your clinical years
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Oh i know..I went to undergrad at UCI, lived in orange county my entire life up until last year, and volunteered at UCI Med Center for a year. 😀 My only point was that it is far away from the med school, while the majority of other med schools have their hospital much closer.
 
So much hating on the Bronx. It's not all bad, there are some amazing neighborhoods (Eastchester, Riverdale, City Island).
Morris Park (where AECOM is) is a pretty decent neighborhood with fantastic Italian food.
 
Tulane. The student housing shares a complex with either a homeless shelter or a food kitchen, and there was a tent community right across the street. They were very aggressive too.

The facilities were understandably dilapidated.
 
Definitely NYMC.

The school was pretty, but the student who spoke to us at the orientation gave me the WORST impression. All he talked about was how easy it was to slack off, procrastinate and get by doing as little work as possible. He had a list of topics to address, and he skipped over a few saying "nobody cares about that" or "I don't even know what that is" and instead talked about how people only went to class when they weren't hungover.

On top of that, both of my tour guides looked like they wanted to kill themselves.
 
dienekes88 said:
😱 Really?! I had the exact opposite experience...
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Just goes to show you how varied individual opinions may be. I mean, you can browse interview feedback and scour a school's website until your retinas burn, but you still won't REALLY know what the school is like until you visit.


For the record, I'm one of Columbia's many stalker fan-girls- I expected to enjoy my interview at Columbia, but I was absolutely blown away by how happy I felt there. They offered frickin CRABCAKES for lunch (with brie, portabella mushrooms, and avocado- three of my favorite toppings! So tasty!). They had the BEST pen of all of the places that I interviewed at (lanyard + two color writing = awesome!). Yes, yes, the important parts of the school were great (effective curriculum, excellent medical student facilities- class with a view of the Hudson 😍, good location,... I could go on). The biggest downside that I found was that they didn't have an interview folder with an outline of the curriculum, student groups, etc. They gave out a monstrous blue book (the size of a trade paperback) with answers to pretty much any question someone could ask, but didn't summarize what makes them unique. Aaaanyway, that's enough of the Columbia-love. I'll reiterate my first point: you've got to visit a school for yourself to find out whether it's a good fit for you.
 
Man, what's with all the NYMC haters! Of the schools I interviewed at it was definitely my favorite (yes, they're all low tier schools). I thought it was a great school when I visited.
 
Pedsbro said:
University of California, Irvine is like this too...and that's in Southern California traffic! Both its teaching hospitals, the UCI Medical Center and Long Beach VA, are about 20 and 30 mins away from the med school campus respectively. Never quite understood why a school would build their teaching hospital(s) so far away
Click to expand...

They bought the medical center in Orange for cheap in a time when they couldn't get funding to build a new hospital on campus.
 
Hate is probably a little strong, but I disliked Southern Illinois quite a bit after interviewing there. The interviewers and admissions staff was super nice. But.. They are all PBL, and everyone I talked to hated PBL. Also, the student that interviewed me was repeating his second year for the second time.. :scared: I got the impression everyone thought PBL was a good old-fashioned clusterf@#$ and would give their left arm for a little bit of didactic lecture.
 
bcat85 said:
Hate is probably a little strong, but I disliked Southern Illinois quite a bit after interviewing there. The interviewers and admissions staff was super nice. But.. They are all PBL, and everyone I talked to hated PBL. Also, the student that interviewed me was repeating his second year for the second time.. :scared: I got the impression everyone thought PBL was a good old-fashioned clusterf@#$ and would give their left arm for a little bit of didactic lecture.
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Just the fact that they could only muster up a student who failed his 2nd year of med school and had to repeat to interview you turns me off from SIU:laugh:
 
wow i don't understand what's going on with all this ny hate... i interviewed at nymc in september, and it was absolutely gorgeous. it's right next to a lot of amazing outdoors stuff and the train to manhattan is fast and easy to ride. the students were really great, too. (but maybe it was because the school year had recently started)

aecom was also really really nice... the neighborhood seemed sketchy at night the first time i visited, but when i went back to visit during the day, it was actually very peaceful, quiet, and didn't feel dangerous at all (now the montefiore hospital area is probably a different story). the aecom students, especially my hosts, were really cool too... it was the interviewees i didn't like.
 
bandaids said:
Definitely NYMC.

The school was pretty, but the student who spoke to us at the orientation gave me the WORST impression. All he talked about was how easy it was to slack off, procrastinate and get by doing as little work as possible. He had a list of topics to address, and he skipped over a few saying "nobody cares about that" or "I don't even know what that is" and instead talked about how people only went to class when they weren't hungover.

On top of that, both of my tour guides looked like they wanted to kill themselves.
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sounds like everyones dream school.
 
einstein for me too, because a bird pooped in my hair. seriously. also, i didn't like nyc the first time around. getting from jfk to the bronx meant miles and miles of looking at city. i've lived in rural areas all my life, so it made me feel claustrophobic. but i've reconsidered and now i'm SUPER EXCITED to be going there next fall.
 
everyone loves this school, but i actually hated jefferson. the school might be great, but the impression i got at my interview was not.

the students leading the presentation about the school were incredibly immature and kept telling private jokes and laughing.

no one that i met that day was all that positive about the school either. my student interviewer said i might be better served elsewhere and that he didn't like his classmates at all. my faculty interviewer couldn't give me a convincing argument to "why i should go there." seriously, if you've been on faculty for at least a decade, i'm sure you could find SOMETHING about the school that is positive and mention it to me.
 
i really disliked Case Western and Rochester. Both the locations and people wierded me out.
 
SUNY Downstate because of the whole overarching negative feeling thing someone else said. Also it's in a terrible location. I don't want to be in the hell-hole 20 minutes away from the nice places.
 
Jolie South said:
i'm sure it's great, but i didn't feel great about it from what went on at my interview.

sorry. 😳
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No, I'm just sorry that you had a less-than-stellar experience there. 😳

Oh well, you got in somewhere where you and your husband can be happy, right? And that's all that matters. 🙂
 
blackbird11384 said:
Hate is a strong word. But if I had to pick one school, it would be Drexel University. Everything about the school is great (2 different curriculums to choose from, videotaped lectures, a friendly and down-to-earth student body, and my interviewer was super nice)....except for the facilities and the campus. The Medical School is a 20 minute shuttle ride to its main teaching hospital (I have been spoiled going to college on a campus that also includes the medical center), and the medical school is housed in one big building away from the exciting parts of Philadelphia. From the looks of it they didn't have many options for research on campus due to a lack of research space. Lastly, they had this really bad color scheme throughout their building interior, everything is this blueish green.

I'm not even one who is usually swayed by fancy facilities positively or negatively. So I think what it really came down to for me was the lack of research, and then that just affected my opinion. But at the end of they day, I would attend because I know several people who attend the medical school and have had a very positive experience.
Click to expand...
Dude...forget the facilities and hospital location...jesus...

Drexel has changed ownership like at least twice in the last decade. They lack stability. One of their hospitals was closing down when I interviewed there. They have to compete with 3 other higher ranked schools in philly. They have 225 people in their first year class.

Speaking of their facilities...I actually thought they were kind of nice. But then again, I go to one of those schools that doesn't boast or care about their facilities that much for pre-clinical years...🙂
 
UTMB. I interviewed MD/PhD, and I didn't like the way some of the students interacted and belittled other MD students. The director or the program was insulting. The overall feel that I got was that the students weren't proud of their school.
 
I wouldn't use hate, but I got a bad vibe from UTSW. Half the students I talked to were enthusiastic, and the other half were less than inspiring and seemed worn down. Problem was, most of the half that were enthusiastic really didn't seem like the kind of people I'd want to spend 4 years with haha. The hospital tour guide was a bit of a tool too. And when we toured the new rec facility one of the guys working out there was like, "Yeah, its not as hardcore here as they say." To which my other tour guide rolled her eyes and said "I'm not so sure about that."

One of my interviewers, when I asked her what I'd be most disappointed with about the school, said there was a lot of arrogance in some of the residency programs, which often led to medical students being treated somewhat harshly.

And finally, the 45 minutes of mostly ******ed senior videos we had to watch. I mean seriously, I give me 5 minutes and I could be more creative.
 
DoctorDreamer said:
UTMB. I interviewed MD/PhD, and I didn't like the way some of the students interacted and belittled other MD students. The director or the program was insulting. The overall feel that I got was that the students weren't proud of their school.
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🙁
Hmmmm...are you talking specifically about MD/PhD students? In my own experience here the students tend to be very proud, simply because we're such a small, tightnit community.

Sorry the director was a jerk...If you give me the wink smilie, I'll head on over to the prison hospital and hire a very large tattooed dude named Bubba, and give him a little cash if he'll take care of a little "problem.":laugh:
 
There was only one school I actually liked less after the interview and that was University of Maryland simply because they were so disorganized.

1) I was sent to 4 incorrect rooms during my interview process. Some incorrect rooms included a computer lab, a closet, and a cold room. I had to ask random people how to find my interviewers and was late several times because of this.

2) Interviewers weren't always informed of when we were having interviews - one of my interviewers wasn't there and another was convinced we had alot more time than we actually did.

3) Someone from the office took my coat for me and stored it in the office (which was nice) but neglected to tell me that the office closed before my interviews were over. My coat was locked in there overnight and I was left coatless in January.

The school was excellent and everyone was very nice, but I couldn't help but be a bit stressed and turned off by the visit.
 
GEORGETOWN........

All the med students seemed so stressed out there. And the way they acted like you could absolutely have no life/time for outside activities in med school. AND the crappy facilities. It made me feel like I was in high school again.
 
Womialas said:
Tulane. The student housing shares a complex with either a homeless shelter or a food kitchen, and there was a tent community right across the street. They were very aggressive too.

The facilities were understandably dilapidated.
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I second that. Tulane barely has a campus and my interviewers made it a point to discuss how there are 6 murders per night in the city. They also talked down about the school the entire time. One suggested that I would not get mugged as long as I'm not selling drugs in center city, but that if I did want to I should do it in the northern quarter. WTF?
 
Dang... so much displeasure with Tulane.

After my interview at Tulane I actually fell more in love with the school. The facilities aren't the best, but I really enjoyed the vibe that I got from there. The students are really chill, the school is very active in the community, and New Orleans offers a once in a lifetime education.
 
myKuduSlewaZulu said:
🙁
Hmmmm...are you talking specifically about MD/PhD students? In my own experience here the students tend to be very proud, simply because we're such a small, tightnit community.

Sorry the director was a jerk...If you give me the wink smilie, I'll head on over to the prison hospital and hire a very large tattooed dude named Bubba, and give him a little cash if he'll take care of a little "problem.":laugh:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I spent most of my time with MD/PhD kids. It also doesn't help that I don't like the weather, I had an unpleasant run in with a negative guy on my interview day, and I really didn't like that I could smell formaldehyde from OUTside the building housing the cadaver lab.

I'm sure the school is great, circumstances just didn't combine to make it a school for me. 🙂
 
Napoleown said:
I second that. Tulane barely has a campus and my interviewers made it a point to discuss how there are 6 murders per night in the city. They also talked down about the school the entire time. One suggested that I would not get mugged as long as I'm not selling drugs in center city, but that if I did want to I should do it in the northern quarter. WTF?
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Are you serious?? There's a good way to sell the school... I think I might be crossing Tulane off my list
 
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