I'm beginning to get the feeling that the boundaries between illegal/ legal are obscure. I'm sure that if you're extremely uncomfortable with a question, you can contact the school afterward to explain your discomfort. And if a question is COMPLETELY off the wall and offensive, without question, then I think that a complaint is definitely in order!
I'm finding though that the "where else have you applied?", "from whom else have you heard?" questions are considered all right. I'm learning the hard way that I have no guarantee of what they'll throw at me! I was quite angry this weekend to have been asked a question that I felt was both insensitive and inappropriate. My father suffers from kidney disease and survived a heart attack and triple bypass surgery when I was a senior in high school. His experiences were really what first inspired me to pursue medicine, and I wrote about this in my essay. Most interviewers have brought him up with genuine sympathy and concern: "How is he doing? Is he able to work?"
This weekend, a very abrupt and arrogant interviewer looked me in the eye, and with a completely stone-faced expression, he asked, "So did your dad die yet?"
I was furious; those words hurt! This is my father we're talking about! The truth of the matter, though, was that this guy was a self-righteous jerk with no tact. It was his personality. I'm just glad that although inside I was angry, I didn't let him see this; somehow my indignation allowed me to maintain my composure and answer politely!
All of my interviewing experiences until this one had been on the whole quite positive, and I think that perhaps I was becoming too comfortable with the routine. The occurrence this past weekend really opened my eyes to the fact that the rules are not necessarily clear cut.
