hi lhamtse,
i had my uconn interview on monday. the drive is about 2 hrs from boston. the interview started at 9am. the assistant dean came out and gave you some articles and brochure about the school, then you'd follow him into a conference room. that day, they interviewed 5 candidates.
while in the conference room, the assistant dean talked to you about the school, the curriculum and what makes UConn diff from other schools. he then told you your chances of acceptance, which is about 50:50 when you're interviewed. the meeting lasted about 2.5 hours that day, maybe bc it was a holiday, i dont know. personally, i thought it was a bit long and rather boring. after that, he took our pictures.
around 12, the D4 came to bring you to lunch, you have a coupon of 6 dollars. the food in the caferteria is cheap. anyway, after lunch, you have about 40 min to tour the school and its facilities. then at 1pm, they began interviewing. again, when i was there, it was a holiday, so i dont know if they ran it differently than the regular days. there was no schedule, you just sat there and waited until they called your name for interview. they said it'd last about 20 - 30 min. for mine, i was 2nd to last and it lasted about 45 min.
the format is 2 interviewers to 1 interviewee, and one of the interviewers came out and got me. we went into a room with a big conference table. i was really nervous when i saw how they spread out my AADSAS confirmation sheet-look-alike. they circled my drops/repeats etc, highlighted my personal statements with different colors, my letters of recommendations...basically, everything that i and the AADSAS sent them laid out infront of me. my tips are ... stay really calm...you'll need to know your statement really well all the research experiences that you mentioned, what you did and the results. they asked me how i prep for my DAT exam, why i chose my major, what i wanted to be doing in 10/15 yrs....
remember to ask questions...things like, the ratio of instructor: students; transcribing services, prep courses for the national boards, campus safety etc...it's important to ask questions even if you had heard the answers fr the dental student who gave you a tour bc it shows that you're interested in their school.
remember to re-read your statement, all the extracurricular activities that you did, all the research experiences, work experiences and stay CALM...dont freak out like i did when i saw all of my application stuff laid there on the table... anyway, i hope you do well at the interview, remember you have a 50:50 chance to get in there...stay calm and know your stuff. one question: have you been interviewed at tufts? if yes, how did it go? lemme know if this helps.
-sally
