weird med school interview?

[serendipity007]

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One of my friends interviewed at a med school (he didn't tell me which one) last cycle and just told me about his experience. Apparently an Assistant Dean was interviewing him. The Dean told him that the interviews at their school are closed file, so he doesn't know anything about his application. He then proceeded to ask questions. Wrong! He just said: "I don't know anything about you. Tell me whatever you want to..."

Then, the Dean just stared at my friend. My friend was obviously shocked. There was no question, nothing to spur him to answer. He started talking about his life (the normal tell me a bit about yourself) and then waited for some kind of encouragement. The Dean maintained his demeanor. My friend apparently answered the why medicine? and the why that med school question. Finally, he got tired and very discouraged. He asked the Dean if he had anything to ask. The Dean shook his head. The interview lasted 35 minutes. My friend was later rejected.

Thoughts? I find this very interesting. Have you guys had a similar experience? If yes, do share! If no, tell me what would you do in his situation? I am very curious because I haven't applied or interviewed yet (I am a sophomore). But, I would like to know what an applicant can do in this situation??

Thanks! 🙂

 

[serendipity007]

I trust my friend would never lie. For some reason he wouldn't give me the name of the school. But, that's what happened. Really weird

 

[serendipity007]

Haha I can see why this story seems less believable. My friend did eventually get into a school that he wanted to go. However, the school where this interview happened was also one of his top choices. I know he had a strong application and I have known him for a long while. If there is one good thing about him, he never lies. I didn't believe him at first either. But, he was very serious and very confused about how he was treated during the interview. Thanks for your input, Bert!

 

[Fivo]

This happened...

Stopped reading when you said your "friend" didn't tell you the name of a school he interviewed at.

Either you don't have any real friends or your story is made up. I'm willing to believe it's the case of both 😎

 

[mmmcdowe]

One of my friends interviewed at a med school (he didn't tell me which one) last cycle and just told me about his experience. Apparently an Assistant Dean was interviewing him. The Dean told him that the interviews at their school are closed file, so he doesn't know anything about his application. He then proceeded to ask questions. Wrong! He just said: "I don't know anything about you. Tell me whatever you want to..."

Then, the Dean just stared at my friend. My friend was obviously shocked. There was no question, nothing to spur him to answer. He started talking about his life (the normal tell me a bit about yourself) and then waited for some kind of encouragement. The Dean maintained his demeanor. My friend apparently answered the why medicine? and the why that med school question. Finally, he got tired and very discouraged. He asked the Dean if he had anything to ask. The Dean shook his head. The interview lasted 35 minutes. My friend was later rejected.

Thoughts? I find this very interesting. Have you guys had a similar experience? If yes, do share! If no, tell me what would you do in his situation? I am very curious because I haven't applied or interviewed yet (I am a sophomore). But, I would like to know what an applicant can do in this situation??

Thanks! 🙂

Well, it didn't happen to me this dramatically, but I did have interviews along these lines. The closes would probably be "why don't you give me a list of things you want to talk about today", but there was still some back and forth.

 

[serendipity007]

Fair enough. I don't have any reason to waste everyone's time though. But *shrugs*

 

[angldrps]

Haha I can see why this story seems less believable. My friend did eventually get into a school that he wanted to go. However, the school where this interview happened was also one of his top choices. I know he had a strong application and I have known him for a long while. If there is one good thing about him, he never lies. I didn't believe him at first either. But, he was very serious and very confused about how he was treated during the interview. Thanks for your input, Bert!

or he has excelled at the art of lying and you continue to fall in his lying traps.

 

[serendipity007]

Hahahha that's hilarious. It happens to me very often in many situations. My buddies love to get me into these situations in public. But, as I said he was serious and I have reason to believe he wouldn't make it up. He cautioned me to beware of this kind of an interview also. I mean, it is better to know this before one goes to an actual interview and be like ?????? What!

 

[mmmcdowe]

Fair enough. I don't have any reason to waste everyone's time though. But *shrugs*

It definitely can catch you by surprise the first time you are asked to pick the subject of choice. I was better prepared after the first one.

 

[tima]

Sometimes the first question is 'tell me about yourself.' It's an easy question to ease the nervousness of the applicant.

 

[serendipity007]

It definitely can catch you by surprise the first time you are asked to pick the subject of choice. I was better prepared after the first one.

Gotcha, that makes sense. In a way, it is liberating to have your own subject of choice and one can have a pretty good conversation on it. However, I would still like to think that verbal or facial clues (nodding of head or leading questions from the interviewer) would help a ton. Heck, I would be very confused the first time if it happened to me.

This story is sounding less and less believable, but I'll bite. The assistant dean found your friend's file to be suspect in some way and, given the length and rigor of the admissions process, decided to blow off some steam by confusing an applicant he or she suspected to be dishonest. I'll bet your friend never stood a chance in such a way that didn't even trigger the weakest of the assistant dean's sympathies. In this hypothetical scenario, the dishonesty was discovered after an interview invitation was given, so no undue economic hardship was imposed on your friend as a result of the malfeasance of the school's admissions committee. But, of course, that's just a guess. 😉

Any contenders care to step up with an alternate theory?

But, don't you think that's a bit unfair? I mean if he found something suspicious in my friend's application, he should have confronted him. If not, then I don't know, I wouldn't want to be treated that way. I guess from the admissions' point of view it might be justifiable.

 

[serendipity007]

Sometimes the first question is 'tell me about yourself.' It's an easy question to ease the nervousness of the applicant.

That might be it. Maybe my friend over thought that question and just went on and on when he really shouldn't have...

 

[serendipity007]

Well it was more of a fun theory than anything else, but if I was presented with a dishonest applicant that had already arrived for interview I wouldn't have any mercy.

After all, they're using deception to steal spots from decent, honest folk.

Yeah, I see your point.

 

[Magicjewel]

One of my friends interviewed at a med school (he didn't tell me which one) last cycle and just told me about his experience. Apparently an Assistant Dean was interviewing him. The Dean told him that the interviews at their school are closed file, so he doesn't know anything about his application. He then proceeded to ask questions. Wrong! He just said: "I don't know anything about you. Tell me whatever you want to..."

Then, the Dean just stared at my friend. My friend was obviously shocked. There was no question, nothing to spur him to answer. He started talking about his life (the normal tell me a bit about yourself) and then waited for some kind of encouragement. The Dean maintained his demeanor. My friend apparently answered the why medicine? and the why that med school question. Finally, he got tired and very discouraged. He asked the Dean if he had anything to ask. The Dean shook his head. The interview lasted 35 minutes. My friend was later rejected.

Thoughts? I find this very interesting. Have you guys had a similar experience? If yes, do share! If no, tell me what would you do in his situation? I am very curious because I haven't applied or interviewed yet (I am a sophomore). But, I would like to know what an applicant can do in this situation??

Thanks! 🙂

One of my interviewers did something very similar to me, but she was running late, I was her first interview of the day, and she literally didn't know anything about me. So I just started talking. Luckily I tend to talk too much, so I came up with some stuff to say on the fly.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I had a couple interviews where the interviewer just asked me to tell them about myself.

 

[hiyaman]

I had interviews that started out like that. But usually when I started to talk about myself I would get interrupted and asked about certain things that I mentioned.

 

[thlaxer]

This story isn't that unbelievable. I'm glad most interviewers don't do this though, don't think I would fare too well 😛. One potentially awkward interview experience I had was when the interviewer started off by saying "so what questions do you have for me?" This occurred right after their school presentation and Q&A session, so all of my questions were already answered. I didn't want to appear like I wasn't listening by asking the same questions that were already addressed earlier, so I said that the presentation answered my questions and briefly talked about the things that interested me the most. She kept pressing for more questions though for about 10-15 min. Interview went downhill quickly 😛.

 

[Packman2003]

I had an interview where I was told "I am your advocate. Tell me what I should say about you to the committee." He was also an *******, later asking me to tell him a story about a stranger I had helped - when I told him a true story that happened as an EMT (in great detail), he said "that is a great story, but I think you just made it all up."

After that, I kinda felt like there needs to be a screening process...

 

[penguinism]

I had a few interviews that were very open-ended like this. They started out with the whole "tell me about yourself" question, and then proceeded to ask if I had any questions (nothing specific to ask me). I would bet that your friend perhaps exaggerated a bit, but it probably was a very awkward interview. If this happens to you, go speak to the admissions office and request another interview immediately after your day ends.

 

[JABWS]

I was informed via email by a certain medical school that I had been invited to interview for admission into their entering class of 2016. All pretty normal, until I noticed the interview was scheduled for the following day. When I arrived, my interviewer had yet to receive any of my information, despite the fact that the school traditionally conducted open file interviews. He seemed caught off guard by my appearance in his office, but then ran with it after requesting that I move closer to him so he could write down my name from the tag I was wearing. It was then no surprise that he hadn't prepared any interview questions, and it quickly became evident that I would have to wing my way through the interview. Fortunately, the admins handed out an informational packet earlier in the day, which included the name of my interviewer and a brief description of his research and interests. We ended up talking about his work with rodent stem cells and his frustration with what he perceived to be an excessive amount of money being poured into cancer research. Finally, he stated that he only had one question he wanted to ask me, "Who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this past year?" And that was the interview. I was accepted about a month later. It just goes to show you, no matter how much you prepare, you never know what you're going to run into out on the interview trail.

 

[BHaus9]

Well it was more of a fun theory than anything else, but if I was presented with a dishonest applicant that had already arrived for interview I wouldn't have any mercy.

After all, they're using deception to steal spots from decent, honest folk.

But if the "deception" were egregious enough to warrant a post-interview rejection without even offering the applicant an opportunity to explain any discrepancies, it would be dumb to invite that person to interview in the first place.

At any rate, having gone through the admissions process myself, this scenario isn't all that outlandish. One interviewer immediately requested that I leave the room, take 5 minutes to think, and then re-enter and lecture him on a subject of my choosing. The only follow-up questions were ridiculous corkscrew ones that had nothing to do with medicine, like "if I made you spend a million dollars on something that's both selfish and ridiculous, what would it be?"