- Joined
- Oct 25, 2001
- Messages
- 92
- Reaction score
- 0
Same as the first two. Enjoy!
I really enjoyed my day at UCSF. Being an SF native I didn't really need to be sold on the school or the city but the admissions staff did a great job of both. The day started at eight in the morning and being SF, the fog was thick. I checked in at the admissions office to find that because of the way UCSF schedules throughout the week I randomly happened to be the only interviewee there that day. This was both good and bad. Good, because I was able to have everyone to myself but bad in that one of the coolest parts of interviewing is meeting the other applicants.
The day was different in several ways from my previous experiences. First the director, who was very kind and personable, simply checked me in, laid out my itinerary for the day, and then set me loose. No curriculum overview or selling of the school.
The first three hours or so I was free to do whatever I wanted without anyone leading me around. I had the option to go to classes, drop in to the student lounge, or tour around the school and hospital. Having been at UCSF in previous summers I ended up just dropping in and talking to the various people I had volunteered for. The atmosphere in the halls was very loose and friendly. Lots of students wished me luck (the dark suit phenomenon) and many stopped to chat for a few minutes.
At eleven I had lunch (free!). Supposedly it's normal for a student to be around to have lunch with applicants but because of scheduling I ended up eating alone. Next was the obligatory financial aide talk. The guy in charge was very friendly and made a point of the fact that UCSF really tries to make student finances as hassle free as possible. He gave me some good outside references to check out and an open invitation to confer with him on financing whether I ended up there or not. Again, very knowledgeable and open.
I then had a tour with a third year student. She was very friendly and completely candid. She emphasized the non-competitive nature of her classmates, their success in passing the boards, and the school's efforts to help students along. She had friends who had almost failed out and the school was doing everything thing it could to help them get back on track. She said that although the first two years of classes contained a huge amount of information the faculty was good about putting out syllabuses that served as comprehensive guides to what was most important for both tests and clinical practice. I ran into a former classmate in the student lounge while on the tour. He was doing great, loving UCSF, and from what I gathered pretty involved in helping to reshape the curriculum which is going through a big change right now. He said that professors were really excited to have student input and genuinely took suggestions to heart.
My first interview was scheduled with a fourth year student over at SFGH so my tour guide ended my tour at the shuttle stop and wished me luck. The shuttle was totally quick and easy. My interviewer was awesome. We met in the cafeteria and off the bat he was completely laid back. He was dressed in street clothes and knelt rather than sat at the table we were at. He started the interview off by telling me everything that he said he had wanted to know when he was interviewing. All about how applicants are selected for interview, what the interview means, and what his role was as a student interviewer (actually equal to that of a faculty member!). UCSF has a policy that interviewers do not read applicants files before interviewing them. So the first part of the interview was spent outlining my resume. He asked me why medicine. The tone was very conversational. We had a great back and forth and I completely enjoyed meeting him. No pressure. No tricky questions. It lasted just over an hour.
My second interview was back at UCSF with a urologist. He was also friendly and easy to talk to. Again, the first part of the interview was spent outlining my resume while the second half was filled with more traditional questions. He asked me why medicine. Give me one word each to describe you as a student, as a resident, as a doctor, and as a teacher. What irks you about medicine? What is the ideal health care system? What would you do if there was no such thing as medicine? What do you see yourself doing in ten years and why? What do you do in your spare time? Who's your favorite author? What book? Although he asked a lot more one way type questions he was very non-confrontational about it. I didn't feel put on the spot. The only time I felt uncomfortable was when I started talking about health care, which was my own fault because I could certainly have a better grasp of it. The interview lasted just about an hour and that was the end of my day. It was five when I checked out with the admissions office so it's a long day but a fun one with nothing to worry about.
I really enjoyed my day at UCSF. Being an SF native I didn't really need to be sold on the school or the city but the admissions staff did a great job of both. The day started at eight in the morning and being SF, the fog was thick. I checked in at the admissions office to find that because of the way UCSF schedules throughout the week I randomly happened to be the only interviewee there that day. This was both good and bad. Good, because I was able to have everyone to myself but bad in that one of the coolest parts of interviewing is meeting the other applicants.
The day was different in several ways from my previous experiences. First the director, who was very kind and personable, simply checked me in, laid out my itinerary for the day, and then set me loose. No curriculum overview or selling of the school.
The first three hours or so I was free to do whatever I wanted without anyone leading me around. I had the option to go to classes, drop in to the student lounge, or tour around the school and hospital. Having been at UCSF in previous summers I ended up just dropping in and talking to the various people I had volunteered for. The atmosphere in the halls was very loose and friendly. Lots of students wished me luck (the dark suit phenomenon) and many stopped to chat for a few minutes.
At eleven I had lunch (free!). Supposedly it's normal for a student to be around to have lunch with applicants but because of scheduling I ended up eating alone. Next was the obligatory financial aide talk. The guy in charge was very friendly and made a point of the fact that UCSF really tries to make student finances as hassle free as possible. He gave me some good outside references to check out and an open invitation to confer with him on financing whether I ended up there or not. Again, very knowledgeable and open.
I then had a tour with a third year student. She was very friendly and completely candid. She emphasized the non-competitive nature of her classmates, their success in passing the boards, and the school's efforts to help students along. She had friends who had almost failed out and the school was doing everything thing it could to help them get back on track. She said that although the first two years of classes contained a huge amount of information the faculty was good about putting out syllabuses that served as comprehensive guides to what was most important for both tests and clinical practice. I ran into a former classmate in the student lounge while on the tour. He was doing great, loving UCSF, and from what I gathered pretty involved in helping to reshape the curriculum which is going through a big change right now. He said that professors were really excited to have student input and genuinely took suggestions to heart.
My first interview was scheduled with a fourth year student over at SFGH so my tour guide ended my tour at the shuttle stop and wished me luck. The shuttle was totally quick and easy. My interviewer was awesome. We met in the cafeteria and off the bat he was completely laid back. He was dressed in street clothes and knelt rather than sat at the table we were at. He started the interview off by telling me everything that he said he had wanted to know when he was interviewing. All about how applicants are selected for interview, what the interview means, and what his role was as a student interviewer (actually equal to that of a faculty member!). UCSF has a policy that interviewers do not read applicants files before interviewing them. So the first part of the interview was spent outlining my resume. He asked me why medicine. The tone was very conversational. We had a great back and forth and I completely enjoyed meeting him. No pressure. No tricky questions. It lasted just over an hour.
My second interview was back at UCSF with a urologist. He was also friendly and easy to talk to. Again, the first part of the interview was spent outlining my resume while the second half was filled with more traditional questions. He asked me why medicine. Give me one word each to describe you as a student, as a resident, as a doctor, and as a teacher. What irks you about medicine? What is the ideal health care system? What would you do if there was no such thing as medicine? What do you see yourself doing in ten years and why? What do you do in your spare time? Who's your favorite author? What book? Although he asked a lot more one way type questions he was very non-confrontational about it. I didn't feel put on the spot. The only time I felt uncomfortable was when I started talking about health care, which was my own fault because I could certainly have a better grasp of it. The interview lasted just about an hour and that was the end of my day. It was five when I checked out with the admissions office so it's a long day but a fun one with nothing to worry about.
