Tell us how your interview was!!

[BeefyRedEye]

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Hey people that interviewed - tell us how it was! format, questions, what the residents and attendings were like, atmosphere, other general impression etc. I think this will be of great benefit to everyone who will be visiting these programs at later dates!

 

[idoc]

I interviewed at the medical college of georgia on 10/20.
The format was as follows.
6:40AM meet at the eye clinic and go to grand rounds
7:00 -8:00 Grand Rounds
8:00 - 8:45 The Chairman and program director addressed all the applicants explaining their vision for the program, where it has been and what they feel the strong points of the program are.
9:00 - 12:00 Interviews...I had 5 interviews that each lasted about 20 minutes. Everyone was very nice, and no one threw me any curveballs.
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch with residents
1:00 - 2:00 tour of facilities.

Hope that helps.

 

[mjl34]

I was at U Wisconsin and MCW this week

At madison, they had us out to dinner the night before with just the residents

On interview day
7am - retina "workout" session
7:30 - grand rounds
8:30 - meet with the residents and get the skinny on the program
10am - meet with Interim Chair to discuss the program's strengths
10:30am - tour of the facilities
12:30 pm - lunch
1:30 pm interviews (four 20 minute spots with the chair, the vice chair, the PD and a faculty member.) Interviews were very benign - everybody was nice and friendly.

all were very nice and they had their residents spend a lot of time giving their opinion of the program.
_______________________________________

At MCW we had the Saturday AM schedule (afternoon interviews may be different).

7:30am meet with resident(s) and take tour of eye center
8:30am have breakfast in the conference room with attendings and residents (not real condusive to asking questions)
9am- 12pm - interviews (6 20 minute interviews with the chair (a co-PD), the other co-PD, and four faculty members.) Everyone (except one faculty member) was very nice and friendly, no curveballs.

hope it helps🙂

 

[fovea]

Interview at Baylor

7:30-8:00 Presentation from program director

8:00-12:00 Interviews - Five 10-15 minute interviews with Chair, program director, and three faculty members. All very friendly, no difficult questions

12:00-1:00 Lunch with Residents

1:00-3:00 Tour of the different hospitals

Hope this helps!

 

[BeefyRedEye]

Since I started the thread, here is how my interview went: There were only 11 candidates for the day, they only interview 32 total on 3 days

9:15-Noon - Tour of campus with residents - UW Medical Center, UW Roosevelt, Harborview. Did not get to see Childrens or the VA

Noon-1:00pm - Lunch with residents - over 90% turnout

1:00-5:00pmish - 8 (!!) half hour interviews with members of the faculty. All very friendly, no pimping, no curve balls

Overall impression: Very solid clinical program with great volume and a good balance between the VA, a county hospital, a tertiary referral site, and a childrens hospital. No programs around to steal cases. Seattle is a nice city!

Lets keep this thread going

 

[Light]

Wash U had a pretty chill interview day that went something like this:

Dinner and social the night before the interview (very laid back and fun).

8-8:30am: Breakfast and talk by chairman.
8:30-9am: Talk by program director.
9-12pm: About 4-5 or so 25min. interviews (including one 15 min. interview by chairman where he just asks you if you have any questions).
12-1pm: Lunch.
1-3pm: Tour.

They also have an afternoon interview group for which the the tour is in the morning and interviews go until about 4pm.

VERY chill...no curve balls...people here are super nice and the facilities are fantastic. Overall, I was very impressed by the program and its organization.

 

[Redhawk]

Ohio State

I had the AM session.

Met at 7:30 to check in, get picture taken, grab a snack.

Interviews were scheduled in 20 minute sessions for a total of 5. They lasted from 8am to 11:30, with 5 twenty minute breaks mixed in.

The interviews themselves were very low pressure. The basic stuff like why you chose ophtho, what was an interesting patient you saw, did you do any research, what kind of person are you, what other specialties did you consider, etc. Everyone is super nice. The first meeting was with the chairman, Dr. Weber, whom the residents absolutely love. All he wanted to know was what questions I had for him.

At 11:30 was lunch, which was shared by both the AM and PM candidates. Finally, there was a tour that was completed by 2pm. The PM session candidates did the tour prior to lunch.

I really liked the program. The faculty there are really committed to teaching. They combine to spend their own money each year to purchase up to $20,000 of textbooks for the 20 residents in the program. Each resident also receives a pda and an indirect scope with lenses. The indirect comes with a contract stating that 5 years after you finish the program you will buy an indirect for an entering resident.

Residents do rotations at the OSU clinics, Children's hospital, and the VA hospital in Dayton, which is about an hour away. This last point may look like a negative, but the residents pointed out that during a VA rotation they are not required to attend the hour long morning lecture so they don't have to wake any earlier. They are also on schedule, within the next several months, to receive VA surgical cases from the Columbus VA clinic (which are normally sent out of the city) which will provide even more surgical experience.

The first year residents are all EXTREMELY nice and I would love to have them as head residents. All in all, the program is very resident friendly which is due to both the faculty there and the type of residents they choose.

 

[eeh eye oh]

I went to my first interview at Cook County the other day. As posted already on the thread about the program, everyone was very nice. There was a good turnout of residents, which I took to indicate enthusiasm about the program. The faculty who were there were spectacularly kind and informative. There is a good sense of camaraderie there between residents and faculty. The facility is gorgeous, and a first-year took us on a tour of the hospital.

Two interviews...one with a chief resident (which she billed as "not really an interview"; mostly, she wants to hear your questions). The second is with the program director, who sits directly across from you at a small table. He has a good poker face, but was nevertheless kind. Three or four questions, pretty low key. Before you know it, the whole thing's over.

When you're there, they will give you tons of information about the program. Overall, Cook County seems to be on the rise, building its academics and shedding its former reputation as a small program that was academically weak. It is clear that the residents leave this program very confident and well-trained.

 

[BeefyRedEye]

15 in my interview group x 5 dates = ~75 interviewees for 8 spots

Night before: casual dinner with residents and PD

7:45-8:00 Breakfast

8:00-9:00 Introduction of the program by PD

9:00-12:00 Tour of the campus and facilities.


Absolutely AMAZING facilities. Parkland, the county hospital, has just been renovated and there were 30 very well equipped, modern lanes for ophtho. All patient info is digitized, you can even draw diagrams on the LCD screens and call up all studies (HVF, FA) right on the desktop.

There was also a ambulatory care center (Astor), private hospital (Zale Lisphy) and an adjacent Childrens (again, very nice) that we saw. In all the tour was 3 hours, and we didnt even see the VA or the OTHER county hospital they rotate at. Easily 1600+ beds at the main campus alone. Huge volumes, large program, tons of diversity

12:00-1:00 Lunch with the residents and faculty at the faculty dining hall, again - very nice place, good food. Resident turnout was kind of poor though.

1:00-4:00 5 half hour interviews with various faculty members. Some odder questions, "what is your ideal day" and "what moment in your life defines who you are". Generally benign, no NYU panels or anything.

Overall impression: Very impressed. You simply cannot beat the facilities and the amount of volume/pathology/clinical training/surgical volume here. The only question is: would you live in Dallas?

 

[BeefyRedEye]

Anyone else care to chime in on this thread? I think it will be useful not only for us but for all future classes applying in optho. If you know how many applicants the program interviews, I think that would be helpful too.