U Minnesota c/o 2017

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
LoveMyHotDog said:
I got an interview invite! Was not expecting one since my in-state and what I thought would be my 'safety school' (VMRCVM) straight-up rejected me. Thank you Minnesota!!

Any insight as to how many people who get interview invites actually get accepted?? I tried looking online briefly for some stats, but couldn't find anything.
Click to expand...

Heh. I can't remember the actual numbers now, but I might admit to having done the math when I was interviewing. When you're in one of the full-group meetings on your interview day(s), count the candidates in the room, multiply by 3 (3 days of interviews), divide by 50 (or so... whatever number they're giving to OOS seats this year), and there you have the ratio of interview candidates to OOS seats.

But keep in mind that doesn't account for waitlisting and all that...
Members don't see this ad.
 
LetItSnow said:
I think they may or may not have looked at your file, so it's not definitively open OR closed. You should plan to approach the interview as if they do not have background information. I don't have inside information on this question, but I know at the beginning of my interview, I specifically asked "So that I know how much background information to provide, can I ask if you've reviewed my file or not?" The answer was "assume we don't know anything," which is pretty ambiguous. Somewhere along the way I vaguely recall asking someone who does interviews (a professor, I think), and I thought he said that sometimes they review them and sometimes not. Probably just depends on free time. :p

Interviews are designed to go up to an hour. Some may go over, but they shouldn't go much over because of scheduling. Mine was significantly less than an hour.
Click to expand...

So I was looking through the UMN CVM website today and I stumbled upon this:

"What can I expect during my interview?

Your interview will last approximately 60 minutes and consist of approximately 10 interview questions. You will be meeting with two individuals selected from a team of veterinary faculty, professional staff, alumni, and external veterinarians that have been trained in conducting a behavioral interview. The interview will take place around a table in an office or a conference room. The flow will be conversational in nature and members of the interview team may ask follow-up questions. This is a "blind" interview, meaning our interview team will not have had access to your file in advance. Team members will also be taking notes during the course of the interview."

If that paragraph is up to date, then I guess it's safe to assume that we're getting closed interviews.
 
deb1123 said:
So I was looking through the UMN CVM website today and I stumbled upon this:

"What can I expect during my interview?

Your interview will last approximately 60 minutes and consist of approximately 10 interview questions. You will be meeting with two individuals selected from a team of veterinary faculty, professional staff, alumni, and external veterinarians that have been trained in conducting a behavioral interview. The interview will take place around a table in an office or a conference room. The flow will be conversational in nature and members of the interview team may ask follow-up questions. This is a "blind" interview, meaning our interview team will not have had access to your file in advance. Team members will also be taking notes during the course of the interview."

If that paragraph is up to date, then I guess it's safe to assume that we're getting closed interviews.
Click to expand...

I know they say that, but I think it's not necessarily true, based on conversations with various faculty. I think they say it as sorta a 'default' simple answer on the website.

You should approach it as if it's blind, though.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
owlwtiredeyes said:
I know that at Minnesota you can apply for residency after one year after meeting certain requirements (Minnesota driver's license, working so many hours, etc). Does anyone (especially a current student) know how difficult it is to actually be approved and get residency for the second through fourth years? I really like the program/school, but the OOS tuition is outrageous.
Click to expand...

I went to Minnesota as an OOS undergrad. Right before I graduated, I called the residency office and asked how I could establish residency. I had already paid taxes for the previous year, gotten a Minnesota driver's license, and had many part-time jobs (for around 3 years at that point). However, I was still turned down. The residency director told me that I'd need to prove that I was only working, and not attending any post-secondary schools/taking classes, for a full year in order to establish residency.

Odd thing is, when I received my interview invite on Friday, I was considered an IS resident :p. I've only been purely working and out of school for about 6 months now. It's pretty bizarre :scared:

Edit: Maybe I'm still considered OOS for everything else but the interview dates... who knows.
 
deb1123 said:
I went to Minnesota as an OOS undergrad. Right before I graduated, I called the residency office and asked how I could establish residency. I had already paid taxes for the previous year, gotten a Minnesota driver's license, and had many part-time jobs (for around 3 years at that point). However, I was still turned down. The residency director told me that I'd need to prove that I was only working, and not attending any post-secondary schools/taking classes, for a full year in order to establish residency.

Odd thing is, when I received my interview invite on Friday, I was considered an IS resident :p. I've only been purely working and out of school for about 6 months now. It's pretty bizarre :scared:

Edit: Maybe I'm still considered OOS for everything else but the interview dates... who knows.
Click to expand...

Oh man! I was hoping to establish residency after my first year...assuming, of course, that I actually get in. What about marital status...to a Minn resident...?
 
Hahaha...that sounded like I was planning on finding a husband for the sole purpose of residency!! NOT AT ALL!! I'm in a relationship and that's just something we were talking about...if he moved there and got his residency lol
 
And when are we going to get our scheduled interview dates?! I'm dying to buy my plane tickets!
 
LoveMyHotDog said:
And when are we going to get our scheduled interview dates?! I'm dying to buy my plane tickets!
Click to expand...

I know! And I need to know my date so I can pick a day for my Ohio State interview (I didn't get the invite for that until after I had submitted my choices for Minnesota, and unfortunately my second choice coincides with the day I want to pick for Ohio that is filling up quickly...) :scared:
 
I looked at last year's thread and it looks like everyone received their schedules a week after their interview invites. So hopefully we'll hear something by this Friday...?

Anyone traveling from the DC area??
 
LoveMyHotDog said:
I looked at last year's thread and it looks like everyone received their schedules a week after their interview invites. So hopefully we'll hear something by this Friday...?

Anyone traveling from the DC area??
Click to expand...

Me...I live in NW, work in Fairfax (SouthPaws)!
 
LoveMyHotDog said:
Hey Annopia! I live in Rockville and work at your sister hospital, VRA! Hopefully we get to meet! :D
Click to expand...

sweet! yes, we should definitely meet up! i work directly under 1 vet, and she worked at VRA for several years (but not in the past 8 years or so). that's so weird that you work at VRA and we'll both be interviewing at minnesota!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Anyone know what hotel is best to book at for the interview? I don't have my interview date yet, but if anyone wants to book at the same hotel to have a travel buddy or two let me know! I'm from New Jersey and know nothing about the area, but I thought it would be fun to check it all out while I'm there!
 
my interview time assignment just came in via email.

Friday Feb 1 at 1:00 PM, Saturday has all the info sessions, tours etc (there is also a tour of the equine center on Friday afternoon too)

Yours should all be on the way.

Good Luck to everyone interviewing! :)
 
sidvicious said:
Anyone know what hotel is best to book at for the interview? I don't have my interview date yet, but if anyone wants to book at the same hotel to have a travel buddy or two let me know! I'm from New Jersey and know nothing about the area, but I thought it would be fun to check it all out while I'm there!
Click to expand...

I also got my interview info via email today (Thursday Jan 24 at 1:15!). I'm in state but they also included information in the email about parking and a link with accommodation info. It's in PDF format so I've attached it here.

View attachment Accommodations2012.pdf

Excited/nervous!
 
yay finally we can book our flights!!!

interview 2/8 for me :D
 
Thanks, Kcoughli! I got all the information today too. I'll be interviewing on 2/2!
 
I'll be there the 2/2 weekend!! Anyone else bringing a guest? I'm bringing my dad!
 
Hi lovemyhotdog! I won't be bringing a guest for the weekend but thats so sweet your dad wants to come!

If anyone wants to somewhat coordinate travel plans for the 2/1 to 2/3, let me know! I'll be looking over flights (from Ithaca, NY) and hotels this weekend, it'd be fun (and less likely that I become utterly lost) to have some other people to travel about with! 21 yo female going for small/exotics, for reference :)
 
LoveMyHotDog said:
I'll be there the 2/2 weekend!! Anyone else bringing a guest? I'm bringing my dad!
Click to expand...

I'll be bringing either my mom or my boyfriend, depending on who will be available to drive the 8 hour drive with me that weekend.
 
owlwtiredeyes said:
I know that at Minnesota you can apply for residency after one year after meeting certain requirements (Minnesota driver's license, working so many hours, etc). Does anyone (especially a current student) know how difficult it is to actually be approved and get residency for the second through fourth years? I really like the program/school, but the OOS tuition is outrageous.
Click to expand...

I was originally out of state and achieved residency status after my 2nd year (I think). I also know of a few other out of state students in my class who did the same. Yes, it may take work and be a pain in the butt, but it's definitely doable and worth it. I worked part time at a nearby vet hospital, changed my license, taxes, etc. and made sure to meet with the woman in charge several times to guide me through the process. Also, I still think this is the best school ever :)
 
goodluck to those interviewing tomorrow/this weekend!!!

let us know how it goes :D
 
It went! I was pretty nervous the entire time but both my interviewers were very nice and friendly and really did their best to make me feel comfortable. I think I established a good rapport with them, but I guess we'll have to wait and see!
 
Interview prep time... Any advice from people who already intrviewed would be helpful!
 
squishycat said:
Interview prep time... Any advice from people who already intrviewed would be helpful!
Click to expand...

1) They provide a water bottle for you in the interview!

2) Definitely try to have a few experiences from your life (both positive, negative, and other random ones) to draw from in order to answer the behavioral questions. They can get very specific and slightly odd so having some memories ready to hand would be quite helpful.

3) Don't panic! The people there are really very nice and friendly ("Minnesota nice" hard at work) and really are not there to terrify you.

I can't really think of much else, and I don't REALLY know how my interview went, but it was a less terrifying experience than I had built it up to be

Good luck!
 
oh thats great they give you water! I was going to pack a bunch in my luggage when I have to fly in for my interview lol.

did they ask you anything about current event topics? or is it only behavioral?
 
I can only speak for my interview, but basically about the first half was them getting to know me and asking me questions about myself, my background, my strengths and skills etc. The second half of the interview was the dreaded behavioral questions. There wasn't really any "pop quiz" questions about the industry or current events or anything like that - it was all just based on my personal experiences, my life, etc. It was closed file though so they had no idea about any of my background coming into it. I somewhat feel like the first few questions they asked I just told them what was on my VMCAS.
 
oh thats not too "bad", I was expecting it to be like 10 minutes of introductions & 1 hour of pure behavioral questions ha. makes me feel a little better

thank you for the heads up!
 
ColonelWatson said:
oh thats not too "bad", I was expecting it to be like 10 minutes of introductions & 1 hour of pure behavioral questions ha. makes me feel a little better

thank you for the heads up!
Click to expand...

Mine was more like you were expecting. I think you shouldn't expect each interview to be an exact replica of the next, ya know? Mine was only about 40 minutes but was almost entirely behavioral. A friend of mine went more than an hour and she was all "Oh, they just wanted to chat forever about my military service blah blah".

So, stay flexible so that if it's not exactly what you're anticipating you can roll with it! It'll be fine - they really try to make you comfortable and make it a conversational experience rather than some grueling thing. :)
 
My interview was about 55 minutes, and was probably about ten minutes introduction and the rest behavioral, plus I asked two questions at the end. But it all went by pretty fast. They have a set number of questions they're supposed to ask you, and they'll supposedly move you along if you talk too much about one question so that they can get to all the questions (although this didn't happen to me). So I imagine everyone actually gets the same number of behavioral questions, it's just a matter of whether you spend a little more time discussing intro information and have to sacrifice time on the individual behavioral questions or vice versa. It probably depends on how many experiences you have to describe at the beginning.

I had two guys interviewing me who were a bit on the serious/straight faced side, so while the overall style of having follow up questions that were very tailored to my initial responses made it feel conversational in nature, I don't think my interview felt quite as much like an easy going, comfortable conversation as some people's did. But it wasn't particularly stressful and I don't think it went particularly poorly. Hard to say if it was good or not though, as they didn't react much or give much away...

Sadly enough, while I can remember most of what I talked about in my answers and in my post interview anxiety am starting to second guess sharing some of the info that I did, I can't actually remember what most of the questions they asked me were! It's all a bit blank... The only one I really remember was the only one I couldn't think of a quick answer for. But I'm pretty confident I sounded like I was fairly knowledgeable when it came to some of the cases I discussed and I was able to discuss most of the experiences life/events I wanted to highlight as part of my answers. But content of my answers aside, I think I did pretty well in terms of appearing/sounding confident, making eye contact, and not stalling/stumbling over answers too much or seeming panicked for the question I had trouble coming up with an answer for. I think that's all just as important as the actual answers you give, even in a behavioral interview.

Good luck to everyone else interviewing in the next two weeks! It's gonna be a long three weeks until they tell us the news... thank god I have three more interviews in that time to distract me...
 
Dumb, dumb question... But what does "behavioral questions" mean/refer to?
dovelover said:
My interview was about 55 minutes, and was probably about ten minutes introduction and the rest behavioral, plus I asked two questions at the end. But it all went by pretty fast. They have a set number of questions they're supposed to ask you, and they'll supposedly move you along if you talk too much about one question so that they can get to all the questions (although this didn't happen to me). So I imagine everyone actually gets the same number of behavioral questions, it's just a matter of whether you spend a little more time discussing intro information and have to sacrifice time on the individual behavioral questions or vice versa. It probably depends on how many experiences you have to describe at the beginning.

I had two guys interviewing me who were a bit on the serious/straight faced side, so while the overall style of having follow up questions that were very tailored to my initial responses made it feel conversational in nature, I don't think my interview felt quite as much like an easy going, comfortable conversation as some people's did. But it wasn't particularly stressful and I don't think it went particularly poorly. Hard to say if it was good or not though, as they didn't react much or give much away...

Sadly enough, while I can remember most of what I talked about in my answers and in my post interview anxiety am starting to second guess sharing some of the info that I did, I can't actually remember what most of the questions they asked me were! It's all a bit blank... The only one I really remember was the only one I couldn't think of a quick answer for. But I'm pretty confident I sounded like I was fairly knowledgeable when it came to some of the cases I discussed and I was able to discuss most of the experiences life/events I wanted to highlight as part of my answers. But content of my answers aside, I think I did pretty well in terms of appearing/sounding confident, making eye contact, and not stalling/stumbling over answers too much or seeming panicked for the question I had trouble coming up with an answer for. I think that's all just as important as the actual answers you give, even in a behavioral interview.

Good luck to everyone else interviewing in the next two weeks! It's gonna be a long three weeks until they tell us the news... thank god I have three more interviews in that time to distract me...
Click to expand...
 
sblove17 said:
Dumb, dumb question... But what does "behavioral questions" mean/refer to?
Click to expand...

Tell me about a time when....
you broke a commitment
you came up with a creative solution to a problem
you dealt with a frustrating person
you encountered a problem in the middle of a project
etc...

Those weren't necessarily questions they asked me, but those are some common examples I've found in my research. Try googling behavioral interview questions for vet/med school (gonna be somewhat different than business ones might be). Check the interview feedback section on SDN http://studentdoctor.net/schools/?view=veterinary for some schools that do behavioral interviews (Minnesota's sample questions have been blocked).
 
sblove17 said:
Dumb, dumb question... But what does "behavioral questions" mean/refer to?
Click to expand...

In interviewing lingo, what it means is questions that are designed to assess whether you have certain behavioral characteristics. Broadly, the way it works is that when you are hiring for a position (which is basically what's going on here for vet school), you determine what characteristics you feel are most likely to be indicators of success. Then you ask questions designed to assess how well your applicant possesses those qualities. It is backwards looking, usually, by asking for concrete examples ("Tell me about a time when...") as opposed to forward looking ("Tell me how you would handle...."). That's done intentionally so that you don't just hire someone who "knows" the right answer, but rather someone who actually has demonstrated the behavior. For instance, anyone can tell you that conflict resolution is an important skill ... but if someone can demonstrate successful conflict resolution then you increase your odds they actually possess that kind of skill.

Two links that might be useful:

An out-of-nowhere small newspaper article, but it has a great list of questions that are similar to what you may hear at UMN.

And, a page from CMU that helps you understand the purpose a bit more, along with some idea of how certain characteristics might be assessed.
 
jeterbug0208 said:
Is anyone else writing interview Thank You's?
Click to expand...

I think it's always a smart move to do that. Costs you almost nothing, and might help you out way further down the road than you can see. And it's professional and courteous.

That said, it isn't going to help you with admissions. Your interviewers have submitted your interview score long before a thank you would ever get to them.
 
Thanks everyone for your help! :) and for not making me feel like a complete idiot :p
 
I had my interview last week. I think I spent so much time stressing over what I was wearing, getting there on time, finding my interview location, etc. that I didn't have any energy left in me to stress out about the interview itself. I saw one of my friends who is a vet student at the coffee shop that's directly across from the admissions offices and seeing that familiar face made me feel so much more confident going into the interview.

My interview was with two people (a man and a woman): one was a professor and one of a higher up in the college of vet med. They explained that all they knew about me was my name, where I was from, and where I went to undergrad. They were both friendly, but not overly familiar. I had a couple "get to know you" type of questions, and the rest (8-9?) were behavioral interview questions. I found that the hour went by pretty quickly. At the end they asked if I had any questions, but because time was limited I only asked one.

I thought it was nice that they provided a bottle of water and a box of tissues, but I also wondered if they were expecting tears? I was totally embarrassed by how loudly my stomach was growling during the interview, but what can you do!
 
I am interviewing on 2/8! Very nervous and oh-so-excited!! Thanks for all the interview experiences guys :)
 
gumtree said:
I thought it was nice that they provided a bottle of water and a box of tissues, but I also wondered if they were expecting tears? I was totally embarrassed by how loudly my stomach was growling during the interview, but what can you do!
Click to expand...

For tears, sure, but the first thing they're thinking is: "If someone comes in with a cold and forgets tissue, they're going to be really embarrassed to have a running nose in the middle of the interview and nothing to blow it / wipe it with." It's MN in the winter ... everyone has the sniffles. :)
 
gumtree said:
I thought it was nice that they provided a bottle of water and a box of tissues, but I also wondered if they were expecting tears?
Click to expand...

LetItSnow said:
For tears, sure, but the first thing they're thinking is: "If someone comes in with a cold and forgets tissue, they're going to be really embarrassed to have a running nose in the middle of the interview and nothing to blow it / wipe it with." It's MN in the winter ... everyone has the sniffles. :)
Click to expand...

At one point during my interview one of my interviewers stopped to use a tissue - which brought my attention to the box and I realized I didn't have to keep trying to sniffle quietly but just grabbed a tissue and solved the problem! No tears, but definitely cold weather sniffles.
 
kcoughli said:
So how did interviews go this week/weekend?
Click to expand...

That PDF you posted was a life saver! Although theu didn't ask me those exact questions, that list got me thinking about what certain life events that were applicable to most of the questions theu asked. There really was only one question that tripped me up a little...I was not expecting it!

It went well really well and my dad loved the school. I think it's his first choice for me haha! But we still have OSU to visit next week and I haven't heard a peep from a couple others. Great city too! Went to this awesome pizza place called Punch Pizza...I recommend it for anyone who visits next weekend. They were also talking about a burger called a "juicy lucy" which I didn't get to try. I'm a bit of a foodie, so I judge cities mainly on food selection hahah
 
LoveMyHotDog said:
That PDF you posted was a life saver! Although theu didn't ask me those exact questions, that list got me thinking about what certain life events that were applicable to most of the questions theu asked. There really was only one question that tripped me up a little...I was not expecting it!

It went well really well and my dad loved the school. I think it's his first choice for me haha! But we still have OSU to visit next week and I haven't heard a peep from a couple others. Great city too! Went to this awesome pizza place called Punch Pizza...I recommend it for anyone who visits next weekend. They were also talking about a burger called a "juicy lucy" which I didn't get to try. I'm a bit of a foodie, so I judge cities mainly on food selection hahah
Click to expand...

Glad it helped! Punch is a good place for more Italian style pizza- its really a whole new category of pizza compared to what we usually call pizza (Pizza Hut etc). They have good salads too.

The juicy Lucy is a local phenomenon- many different burger joints make it and a few each claim to have the original. If you ever venture back this way (say in August while moving in) I'd recommend either the Blue Door Pub or Matts Bar for a good JL.

Glad you liked it, even with all the snow we got this weekend :)

Sent from my DROID RAZR using SDN Mobile
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

PlumPoppy
University of Minnesota c/o 2028
2 3 4 5 6
Replies
267
Views
26K
Elylbrooke
Elylbrooke
PlumPoppy
University of Minnesota c/o 2027
7 8 9 10 11
Replies
529
Views
42K
karmaur
karmaur
H
RVC c/o 2028/29
Replies
2
Views
447
havingfun1
H
mochibaobei
UniMelb c/o 2028
Replies
3
Views
540
mochibaobei
mochibaobei
C
U of A C/O 2027 Hopefuls
Replies
3
Views
2K
Blkthornberry26
Blkthornberry26
Top