speaking of surprises at interviews

[Trek]

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Has anyone come across an interviewer that was negative towards the school/med in general? I've had 3 interviews so far- one guy was a researcher (non-MD) who proceeded to trash doctors (medical ones) and also told me "i don't think this school does a good job at producing doctors". My jaw hit the floor but i shut the hell up. Had another guy that kept going on about how he would do it differently, and look more into 'other stuff that's out there' and told me to keep an open mind...hmmm.. any others? --Trek

 

[NE_Cornhusker1]

Turn the tables on interviewer at the end of the interview (when you can ask questions) and ask "Earlier you stated that you thought this school didn't turn out good doctors, why is that?" or "Is there a certain aspect of practicing medicine that makes you had wished you had looked at a different career?" This shows you listened to what they said and that you are interested in them not just as AdCom members but as researchers and people. Just a thought.

 

[spacecadet]

I had one interviewer trash surgeons during our interview. He said any monkey could be trained to do surgery, but that the real hard part is doing the diagnosis. This went on for several minutes and I was pretty uncomfortable. BTW, I never said I wanted to be a surgeon.

I had another interviewer (PhD researcher) who almost sounded like he was trying to talk me out of medical school. Very strange.

I found ways to politely disagree with both of them, making analogies with what they said to situations at my current job.

 

[audeo]

I am an MD/PhD applicant and I am afraid some of the interviewers, if they happen to be PhDs, might show some negative and ill feelings toward my career goal. Most of them I am afraid believe MD is totally unnecessary to become a medical scientist. Did this happen to anyone out there?

 

[Mage]

It sounds like they're fishing for arguments or something...is this the strategy of interviewers?

 

[csgirl]

It is rummored that interviewers will purposely say inappropriate things just to see how you'll react. Example: asking a female student "but don't you want to be a wife and mother...?" just to see how she would handle such a question.

 

[THE instiGATOR]

This woman I knew was asked, "Why should I accept you, a woman, over a man?".

 

[SMW]

Originally posted by SwampMan:
•This woman I knew was asked, "Why should I accept you, a woman, over a man?".•

Wow, what an unbelievably male chauvinist, not to mention illegal, question!! 😡 I hope she reported that question to the dean of admissions. How did she answer? I would have said that many women are now requesting female doctors, to the point that there is somewhat of a competition for them in OB/GYN practices.

 

[THE instiGATOR]

Originally posted by SMW:
•Wow, what an unbelievably male chauvinist, not to mention illegal, question!! 😡 I hope she reported that question to the dean of admissions. How did she answer? I would have said that many women are now requesting female doctors, to the point that there is somewhat of a competition for them in OB/GYN practices.•

Well, I don't think she would have had a leg to stand on if she did sue or report him. The school is one of few having more female than male students. She ended up on 8 waitlists, one of which was at this school. I don't know if she was eventually accepted at this school, but I am certain she is in med school now. I guess her interviewer was trying to stress her out. He had a 15 minute phone conversation in the middle of her interview. In addition to this, he used about 10 minutes of her time chatting with the guy who interviewed before her. Sounds like a stress interview to me, eh?

 

[Hopkins2010]

Didnt get any comments as stark as you did, but one of my MD/PhD interviewers at Yale seemed to suggest that WUSTL had a great program and seemed very positive about it when he asked where else I was applying.

He didnt say anything bad about Yale however, and I wasnt sure if he was coming from the perspective of "well, you're not good enough for Yale, so WUSTL is a good backup" or if he really did think WUSTL had a better program.