Below is an excerpt from my blog when I wrote about my interview at UMD. Hope it helps!!!
My interview at Maryland went really well. My schedule for the day was:
8:30 a.m.- 9: a.m.: Arrive on Campus
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.: Interview with Dr. Christenson, Ph.D (Pathology)
10:00 a.m. -11: 00 a.m.- Interview with Dr. Jacobs, M.D. (Urology)
11:00 a.m. – 11: 30 a.m.: Financial Aid Session
11:30 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.: Orientation with Dr. Foxwell
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.: Lunch with medical students
1:00 p.m.- 2:00 p.m.: Campus Tour with Medical students
So I woke up at around 5 a.m. and left the house around 7 so I could get to Baltimore by 8 a.m. I walked in and the other interviewees were already there. I was the only minority there, and at the time, the only male also. Maryland did their interviews a little differently, and basically we were shown on a map how to get to our interviewers place, and we had to walk there ourselves. There weren't any escorts like at Vanderbilt. When I got to my first interviewers building it was interesting because it was a research lab, so basically everyone looked up and was wondering why some tall guy in a suit was there. Anyway, they directed me to Dr. Christenson's office, but he wasn't there, so I waited outside until he came. He was really a very very very nice guy. He didn't really seem to care about my academic accomplishments at all; he just wanted to hold a conversation with me. He had certainly read my personal statement and was really interested in my work in the projects and overseas. We talked about that for most of the interview. Some questions I can remember are:
1) Have you been to any other interviews?
2) Why don't you look at the business side of medicine so instead of being that one doctor that does overseas missions, you can fundraise and employ thousands of doctors to do the work?
3) Why Maryland?
4) What do you think is keeping these kids from leaving the projects?
5) Why did you go to Oakwood College?
6) Did you play any sports in high school
There were other questions, but that was the bulk of it. We really just had a normal conversation, and I was completely put at ease.
Next I went to my interview with Dr. Jacobs, and he as an absolutely hilarious guy. Our interview basically consisted of us talking about surgery (my shadowing experiences), other medical schools and his opinions about them, Jews, Muslims, coffee, medical school debt, etc. He was adamant about me going to the medical school that cost the least, which ever one that was. We talked about the hard time primary care docs are having making money, and a lot of other stuff. Overall, he just wanted to hold a conversation with me, and I was completely put at ease.
Our group session with Dr. Foxwell was pretty cool. He is a down to earth kind of guy—very professional—but definitely down to earth. While we were going around the table introducing ourselves a girl said her name, and Dr. Foxwell asked her if she was Greek. When she confirmed that, he mentioned that his 1st wife was Greek and that her family didn't like him for the first 2 years so they spoke around him in Greek. All you could do is laugh at that. Things he mentioned that I like is that Maryland students are only in lecture for 2 hours a day, and all the lectures are video taped, and the video and the PowerPoint lectures are available online. He also mentioned that Maryland really doesn't care too much about GPA and MCAT because that doesn't make a good doctor. He said that they do have a cut off point for it, but after that it depends on extracurricular activities that you have done.
After him, we had a lunch chat with medical students there, and they basically exclaimed how they loved the school. I talked to a 4th year Maryland resident and she said that she will graduate with about $150,000 worth of debt. That is a little higher than I really wanted to have. The tour of the medical school was really great and I saw all of their new facilities (they've renovated a lot), and their hospital which is really beautiful. I would definitely attend the school, so now I'm just waiting to see where the Lord sends my fiancée and I.
I have my interview at Howard tomorrow, so I'll just add my experiences with them on this post after its done. I'll do the same with Morehouse on Friday…so this post will be pretty big. Below is a video of one of their lectures in their brand new lecture hall. And don't forget to check out the pictures to the right.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4yTpeCltEo[/YOUTUBE]
Oh yeah, I didn't find out who my interviewers were until I got there. They give you a schedule for the day, and on that schedule are your interviewer's names.
For some reason, I don't find it (the yelling) so bad while sitting in his lectures...
