What do you wish your tour guide did?

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Hi all,

What do wish your interview tour leader did, or maybe didn't do?

I'm looking to brush up on my tour-leading technique.

Thanks!

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[GrumpyGus]

Hi all,

What do wish your interview tour leader did, or maybe didn't do?

I'm looking to brush up on my tour-leading technique.

Thanks!

To be frank focus less on the academics and specifics of the school that are very similar between all medical schools and focus on the intangibles of said school. I want to know about night life, dating, what the the students do for retreats, why this school is special, etc. listing off things available on the website or things the dean just told us isn't very helpful.

On that vein, some interviewees asked by far the most boring and mundane questions. So please, other interviewees, be interesting lol. I was always the kid that asked about night life and dating etc and I swear some other applicants would blush and be horrified.

 

[GrumpyGus]

I made sure to always ask, "what does the student body do for fun."

I was amazed at how difficult this question was to answer. The award for the worst response would definitely go to my two tour guides at Georgetown. They live in DC and the best the female guide could come up with was, "some people in the class are really big into food and like to go out to different restaurants sometimes on the weekends" while the guy said "The Gym."

To be fair one of my best friends goes to Georgetown and I don't think their honest answer of "getting ****ed up" would be that appropriate (and entirely accurate lol).

 

[Lucca]

I made sure to always ask, "what does the student body do for fun."

I was amazed at how difficult this question was to answer. The award for the worst response would definitely go to my two tour guides at Georgetown. They live in DC and the best the female guide could come up with was, "some people in the class are really big into food and like to go out to different restaurants sometimes on the weekends" while the guy said "The Gym."

Are there people who are "really big into food" ? My body is "really big into food", if I dont feed it, it tries to kill me.

 

[cactusman]

I made sure to always ask, "what does the student body do for fun."

I was amazed at how difficult this question was to answer. The award for the worst response would definitely go to my two tour guides at Georgetown. They live in DC and the best the female guide could come up with was, "some people in the class are really big into food and like to go out to different restaurants sometimes on the weekends" while the guy said "The Gym."

They're trying to get more students who will match into ortho.

 

[efle]

I liked when they could tell us about rent costs and where most people lived/where the good places to live were.

 

[libertyyne]

I want to know how AOA works at your school. I was mortified when m3s couldn't explain that. How much busy work there is at your school. How many hours a week of mandatory stuff/ attendance. Rents of local housing. How cohesive the student body is. Honest answers about what you hate about the school. What the lottery system for rotations is like. How difficult it is to find research. What percentage of the class gets scholarships.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I made sure to always ask, "what does the student body do for fun."

I was amazed at how difficult this question was to answer. The award for the worst response would definitely go to my two tour guides at Georgetown. They live in DC and the best the female guide could come up with was, "some people in the class are really big into food and like to go out to different restaurants sometimes on the weekends" while the guy said "The Gym."

I still remember the leader at LECOM B saying "if you do chose to 'go out drinking' you better be sure the administration doesn't find out". I can't even imagine ....

Any pro tips for getting shy interviewees to come out of their shells? I swear sometimes these tours feel like I'm giving myself a really awkward pep talk.

 

[JoaoMoutinho]

How much busy work there is at your school. How many hours a week of mandatory stuff/ attendance. Rents of local housing. How cohesive the student body is. Honest answers about what you hate about the school.

This. The schools that I kept the best opinions of when I went away were the ones where the students were open and frank about the negative aspects of the area. When they can tell me that the school isn't perfect, but they are still happy enough to recommend it to somebody else, that means a lot more to me than a sales pitch. If I can't trust somebody to tell me about a negative aspect of the school, how can I believe them when they tell me about the positives?

 

[libertyyne]

This. The schools that I kept the best opinions of when I went away were the ones where the students were open and frank about the negative aspects of the area. When they can tell me that the school isn't perfect, but they are still happy enough to recommend it to somebody else, that means a lot more to me than a sales pitch. If I can't trust somebody to tell me about a negative aspect of the school, how can I believe them when they tell me about the positives?

I asked this at a school and the student answered" shame on me(the student) if I don't like something about the school I selected". I was stupefied by how absurd that comment was.

 

[Mclovin0351]

Best tour guide by far out of a ton of interviews was the disgruntled M3 who told me everything wrong with the school yet was still happy being there.

The worst was having M1's give tours in September. Useless.

And @libertyyne I've asked the same question of every interviewer, tour guide, and info session: what is your least favorite thing about this school. Got some really good answers.

 

[libertyyne]

Best tour guide by far out of a ton of interviews was the disgruntled M3 who told me everything wrong with the school yet was still happy being there.

The worst was having M1's give tours in September. Useless.

And @libertyyne I've asked the same question of every interviewer, tour guide, and info session: what is your least favorite thing about this school. Got some really good answers.

That has been my go to question. Sometimes it is difficult for the students to answer, I can see the gears turning in their heads on how to say this without coming off too negative. I have gotten some great answers as well, oddly enough at better schools I get better answers to the what you dislike about the school.

 

[Mclovin0351]

That has been my go to question. Sometimes it is difficult for the students to answer, I can see the gears turning in their heads on how to say this without coming off too negative. I have gotten some great answers as well, oddly enough at better schools I get better answers to the what you dislike about the school.

My experience has been exactly the same interestingly enough. The best answer I've ever gotten came from a dean at a very well known school.

 

[Astra]

For the love of god, please dont repeat what is covered in the presentations given by the adcoms. Nothing makes a tour worse than hearing the same exact stuff all over again.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

Best tour guide by far out of a ton of interviews was the disgruntled M3 who told me everything wrong with the school yet was still happy being there.

The worst was having M1's give tours in September. Useless.

And @libertyyne I've asked the same question of every interviewer, tour guide, and info session: what is your least favorite thing about this school. Got some really good answers.

That has been my go to question. Sometimes it is difficult for the students to answer, I can see the gears turning in their heads on how to say this without coming off too negative. I have gotten some great answers as well, oddly enough at better schools I get better answers to the what you dislike about the school.

Wow that is bold but also an extremely interesting question? For students who are not nontraditional is this still an appropriate question to ask that does not make you come off as being presumptuous?

 

[Gibbward]

Wow that is bold but also an extremely interesting question? For students who are not nontraditional is this still an appropriate question to ask that does not make you come off as being presumptuous?

You could be a bit more indirect and say, "if there's one thing you could change/improve in this school (aside from cost), what would it be?". But really asking what isnt great about the school is a fair question. I've heard nontrads and traditional interviewees ask it. It's also interesting to hear how the answer changes if you're talking to a trad or nontrad med student.

 

[ready2go2]

You could be a bit more indirect and say, "if there's one thing you could change/improve in this school (aside from cost), what would it be?". But really asking what isnt great about the school is a fair question. I've heard nontrads and traditional interviewees ask it. It's also interesting to hear how the answer changes if you're talking to a trad or nontrad med student.

A little off topic, but I asked this to every single one of my interviewers and the answer is always interesting.

 

[leagueofDravenMD]

Wish they weren't first years. As soon as i learn that I zone out


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[dr.Breezy]

On one of my interviews, my tour group was being led by a fourth year med student as our tour guide. For a while the tour was just how you would expect, walking around checking out the school and affiliated hospital, standard stuff. But then, while walking down a corridor in hospital, a man in a wheel chair out in the hallway started yelling Help me! At my tour guide. I was not sure if he was in actual distress or was just yelling at the student to get attention. Regardless, at first my tour guide walks towards him as he is yelling for her, but I could tell she is caught extremely off guard, and that she is flustered on what to do. Ultimately she hastily says sorry can't help, dismisses him rather quick and proceeds to continue walking and goes back to giving the tour like nothing happened to the surprise of me and my fellow interviewees. You could even still hear him in the background saying "why can't you help me?? Come back!" And her just talking away, clearly ignoring the comments.

All in all, it was pretty awkward and a bit uncomfortable to watch the way she reacted. I wish my tour guide would have at least spent more time assessing the situation, or seeing if she could get someone that may actually be of help, rather than resembling a deer caught in headlights, and trying to escape the situation. It was her time to flex what all her education and experience has taught her, while showing us the qualities of a physician in the making. Later on, some of us interviewees discussed how weird it was how the whole situation went down.

After that little snafu, I basically zoned out of the tour. I can't lie, I lost some respect for her, the med school, and just med school education in general. She was a fourth year med student and her actions or lack of actions seemed to reflect poorly on the culmination of her med school education. Like what are they really teach us? But yeah this is my little rant lol


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[Citizen #3]

Have each other's phone numbers. My tour guides didn't, and when our group accidentally got separated, it took an extremely long time for the two halves of the groups to meet up again.

 

[SValley]

On one of my interviews, my tour group was being led by a fourth year med student as our tour guide. For a while the tour was just how you would expect, walking around checking out the school and affiliated hospital, standard stuff. But then, while walking down a corridor in hospital, a man in a wheel chair out in the hallway started yelling Help me! At my tour guide. I was not sure if he was in actual distress or was just yelling at the student to get attention. Regardless, at first my tour guide walks towards him as he is yelling for her, but I could tell she is caught extremely off guard, and that she is flustered on what to do. Ultimately she hastily says sorry can't help, dismisses him rather quick and proceeds to continue walking and goes back to giving the tour like nothing happened to the surprise of me and my fellow interviewees. You could even still hear him in the background saying "why can't you help me?? Come back!" And her just talking away, clearly ignoring the comments.

All in all, it was pretty awkward and a bit uncomfortable to watch the way she reacted. I wish my tour guide would have at least spent more time assessing the situation, or seeing if she could get someone that may actually be of help, rather than resembling a deer caught in headlights, and trying to escape the situation. It was her time to flex what all her education and experience has taught her, while showing us the qualities of a physician in the making. Later on, some of us interviewees discussed how weird it was how the whole situation went down.

After that little snafu, I basically zoned out of the tour. I can't lie, I lost some respect for her, the med school, and just med school education in general. She was a fourth year med student and her actions or lack of actions seemed to reflect poorly on the culmination of her med school education. Like what are they really teach us? But yeah this is my little rant lol


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Oof. This is pretty bad.

To OP, this may be out of the tour guide's control. But for the love of all that is pure & holy..is there any way big tour groups can be broken up? When we're rollin 18 deep in a sea of black suits like a bunch of goons it's so hard to stay focused. No one can hear except the first 5 people playing elbow wars to breath all up inna tour guide's face.

There was one school that kept each tour group to 3-4 students & the difference it made was astronomical.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I want to know how AOA works at your school. I was mortified when m3s couldn't explain that. How much busy work there is at your school. How many hours a week of mandatory stuff/ attendance. Rents of local housing. How cohesive the student body is. Honest answers about what you hate about the school. What the lottery system for rotations is like. How difficult it is to find research. What percentage of the class gets scholarships.

The vast majority of students do not have aspirations to make AOA, so why would they need to know this information?

 

[Lawpy]

On one of my interviews, my tour group was being led by a fourth year med student as our tour guide. For a while the tour was just how you would expect, walking around checking out the school and affiliated hospital, standard stuff. But then, while walking down a corridor in hospital, a man in a wheel chair out in the hallway started yelling Help me! At my tour guide. I was not sure if he was in actual distress or was just yelling at the student to get attention. Regardless, at first my tour guide walks towards him as he is yelling for her, but I could tell she is caught extremely off guard, and that she is flustered on what to do. Ultimately she hastily says sorry can't help, dismisses him rather quick and proceeds to continue walking and goes back to giving the tour like nothing happened to the surprise of me and my fellow interviewees. You could even still hear him in the background saying "why can't you help me?? Come back!" And her just talking away, clearly ignoring the comments.

All in all, it was pretty awkward and a bit uncomfortable to watch the way she reacted. I wish my tour guide would have at least spent more time assessing the situation, or seeing if she could get someone that may actually be of help, rather than resembling a deer caught in headlights, and trying to escape the situation. It was her time to flex what all her education and experience has taught her, while showing us the qualities of a physician in the making. Later on, some of us interviewees discussed how weird it was how the whole situation went down.

After that little snafu, I basically zoned out of the tour. I can't lie, I lost some respect for her, the med school, and just med school education in general. She was a fourth year med student and her actions or lack of actions seemed to reflect poorly on the culmination of her med school education. Like what are they really teach us? But yeah this is my little rant lol


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i wonder if it would be a red flag if an interviewee basically abandoned the tour halfway to help assist that patient. @LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn @gonnif what are your thoughts?

 

[libertyyne]

The vast majority of students do not have aspirations to make AOA, so why would they need to know this information?

The vast majority of students are not tour guides either. It is a question that may come up, why not know about it.

 

[Goro]

Without having been there, I can't comment.

i wonder if it would be a red flag if an interviewee basically abandoned the tour halfway to help assist that patient. @LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn @gonnif what are your thoughts?

 

[Lawpy]

Without having been there, I can't comment.

right but suppose there's a hypothetical situation similar to that presented. if an MS4 tour guide is showing the interviewees around the hospital and a patient calls the MS4 for help, the MS4 gets flustered and ignores the patient. but if the interviewee decides to leave the tour altogether to help the patient, would the interviewee get dinged by the adcoms and be rejected for disrespecting the MS4?

i don't know how attending tours would affect the school's evaluation of applicants, and i'm not sure whether leaving the tours to attend cases like these would be a red flag that ultimately leads to a rejection.

this could be for any med school.

 

[Whyamionhere]

The worst was when an undergrad gave the tour. Yep. There was a med student tagging along in the back....but still.......I tuned out the second I heard that.

 

[gyngyn]

i wonder if it would be a red flag if an interviewee basically abandoned the tour halfway to help assist that patient. @LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn @gonnif what are your thoughts?

No. But it's hard to interpret what was going on here.
Patients who don't actually need help sometimes yell, but an assessment is required by a responsible person. That would have best been accomplished by someone with a hospital badge. If the tour guide had made such an assessment, she should have explained it to the group. If an applicant had any doubts, he should notify a responsible person.

 

[libertyyne]

No. But it's hard to interpret what was going on here.
Patients who don't actually need help sometimes yell, but an assessment is required by a responsible person. That would have best been accomplished by someone with a hospital badge. If the tour guide had made such an assessment, she should have explained it to the group.

Shouldnt the tour guide at least have put on the call light or called for a staff member to check the situation out. If the patient fell afterwards or pulled out a line or something it seems like the student failed to get someone involved.

 

[gyngyn]

Shouldnt the tour guide at least have put on the call light or called for a staff member to check the situation out. If the patient fell afterwards or pulled out a line or something it seems like the student failed to get someone involved.

It depends on the situation.
It's hard to tell from the information given.

 

[dr.Breezy]

No. But it's hard to interpret what was going on here.
Patients who don't actually need help sometimes yell, but an assessment is required by a responsible person. That would have best been accomplished by someone with a hospital badge. If the tour guide had made such an assessment, she should have explained it to the group. If an applicant had any doubts, he should notify a responsible person.

Whether the patient needed help or not was not clear but I do think that further evaluation of the situation was needed. It did create an inner conflict with me because I was thinking to do something but
a) I have no idea what the protocol is in this situation, for it was my first time in the hospital or even in that city for that matter.
B) I have no qualifications to even access this kind of situation
C) the decision she took despite it feeling like it flustered her and perhaps feeling like she dismissed it to quickly, she decided to take and move forward with. Leaving the group to do something I was not even sure to do, could have gotten me in trouble and undermined her decision

I'm not sure to be honest, I'm sure the patient was alright in the end but the whole situation felt wrong.


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[Pepe18]

.

 

[libertyyne]

I definitely agree that tour guides should know all this stuff, but for things like AOA, many schools give a general idea of how you get it but keep the specifics secret. Many M4s in AOA don't know exactly why they were chosen
Like my school says you need to be in the top 15% for preclinicals, your step score goes into consideration, and then you need to be in the top 15% for clinicals. Who actually gets selected from the top 15% to AOA is a mystery and has to do with clubs, volunteering, professionalism, and other random things.

What would be sufficient information. From the interview trail it seems like some schools are very straight forward and transparent about the process other are opaque.

 

[libertyyne]

Whether the patient needed help or not was not clear but I do think that further evaluation of the situation was needed. It did create an inner conflict with me because I was thinking to do something but
a) I have no idea what the protocol is in this situation, for it was my first time in the hospital or even in that city for that matter.
B) I have no qualifications to even access this kind of situation
C) the decision she took despite it feeling like it flustered her and perhaps feeling like she dismissed it to quickly, she decided to take and move forward with. Leaving the group to do something I was not even sure to do, could have gotten me in trouble and undermined her decision

I'm not sure to be honest, I'm sure the patient was alright in the end but the whole situation felt wrong.


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It could have been the patient was altered and was exposing himself and screaming help me. In that case her response would not have been the incorrect one. I personally would have alerted a staff member that Mr .C is asking for "help" again and is exposing himself.

 

[gyngyn]

I'm not sure to be honest, I'm sure the patient was alright in the end but the whole situation felt wrong.

This is understandable. You wanted him to get help.

 

[SouthernGent]

Talking about actual cost of living, and where to live is really nice. I always asked my tour guides or student interviewers what was one thing about this school they wish more people knew about.