since oneday_9 helped me out so much with my interview, i'll shar my experiences also.
basically, i thought my interview pretty much sucked. they give about 45 minutes per interview and mine lasted only 25. i basically thought they knew i wasn't qualified and decided to cut it short. but i guess i was wrong because i was accepted.
anyhow, here are some tips:
1) think before you speak. do not just give an answer immediately after the question is asked. think about the whole question and what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. i learned my lesson when they asked me the most off the wall question: "describe a time when you used a creative solution after you made a decision as a leader and other people disagreed." ok. so i immediately went into this class i coordinated at college and was talking about how a lot of people disagreed with a lot of my decisions. but i totally forgot the first part of the question and had to ask what the question was again. that was really embarassing. if you don't understand the question, ask them to repeat it before answering it. pause a little, think about the question, and then answer.
2) practice with friends. don't memorize what you're going to say word for word, but memorize important points you want to convey with the important questions. why pharmacy, why ucsf, etc etc. practice with friends and be sure to choose someone who will be critical.
3) know your application. it doesn't look good when they ask you something about your application and you don't know what they're talking about.
4) know about the program, know about current events, and know about your goals. you have to convey why ucsf is the school for you and its better to know what ucsf has that other schools don't. the current events questions never came across in my interview but if you get asked or work current events into an answer, it shows that you're actually interested in pharmacy. and know what you want to do with pharmacy. if you're not sure, then be honest. but it'll help if you had goals.
5) make sure each answer is personal to you. there are some questions that you have to give a generic answer but its not so generic if you put in a personal experience or something you're really passionate about.
6) be prepared to be tested about your passion for pharmacy. i was bombarded left and right about why i didn't choose other professions besides pharmacy. i was a double major in econ and bio and focused a lot of my extracurriculars on public health. i was asked three times: why not medicine, why not economics, and why not public health. and if they ask you questions like this, also put in how you other interests can help you in the field of pharamcy.
7) come prepared with questions to ask the interviewers. it shows that you have interest in the school and want to learn more.
8) DO NOT wear crazy socks to your interview. my stupid self thought there would be a desk between me and the interviewers and decided to wear these wild socks. my shirt and tie combo were both patterened so basically, it was pattern oerload. it was really embarassing sitting in front of a dean with those socks. i actually caught the student interviewer looking at my socks at the beginning of the interview.
good luck everyone. don't stress. hope to see you guys in the fall.
tom
