who's interviewed at Duke?

[Diogenes]

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I've got an interview there next week and I was wondering if anyone that has been there has any comments on it, like things to be sure to see, questions you wished you had asked, what you liked best/worst, and whether or not you think you'll go there....

 

[Original]

I interviewed there. It is awesome. By far the most beautiful campus on the planet. Go check out the Duke Gardens while you're there. Meeen they've got an indestructible basketball team! School spirit is to the roof over there. Ask them (students) how willing the faculty is to teach and help students out outside of class. Also ask whether some of the faculty are arrogant. Finally ask how they cope with their condensed 11 month curriculum; and how often they get to go out in a month.

 

[brandonite]

I'm there on March 1st. 😀 Anybody else going that day?

So, what about the alpha and beta interviewer stuff? The beta interview sounds somewhat like a stress interview. What kind of 'ethical questions' did they ask you? How much of your application do they have access to?

I'm not worried about how great Duke is... 😀 I know it's my top choice. I just want to do everything I can to get in!

 

[bonbon81]

the alpha beta interview system was pretty interesting - i got asked some role-playing questions, about some current events like enron, etc... overall i just loved duke! definitely stay with a student if you can.

 

[sorrento]

Congrats on your interview. I too totally loved Duke. I was there during the December heat wave and practically got a sunburn. 😎

anyway, my biggest concern was the condensed curriculum. nobody seemed that stressed about it, but I'm still a little wary. so make sure you are satisfied it is for you. the students are great, though duke seemed to have a much higher ratio of 22-year-olds vs. everyone else than other schools I interviewed at. no biggie, just something to notice if you are concerned about that sort of thing.

the alpha/beta thing is nothing to worry about. my beta interview was less ethical stuff than tough personal questions about myself: how would my friends describe me? (hard to answer, I think!)strengths/weaknesses? I know these are standards that you probably prepare for anyway, and it will only be ~20 minutes, just be sure you are really, really comfortable saying why you want to be a doctor!!

good luck. also see the chapel if you can (it's right by the med school.) really beautiful.

 

[RNAgirl]

Hey guys! Congratulations on your Duke interviews!!! I spent four years there as an undergraduate, and as Original said, it is a great place! The gardens are a 2-minute walk from the Med Center, and a quick walk through them was always a great stress-reliever. The weather is very nice there, too. The tour they give you is not very extensive, so be sure to wander around on your own if you have some extra time.

As for the interviews, everyone at Duke is a huge basketballl fan, so if you know anything about Duke basketball, be sure to mention it to your interviewers. The alpha-beta structure was not very evident in my two interviews. I wasn't asked any ethical questions, and my faculty interviewer didn't really ask me any questions at all. My student interviewer asked a lot of questions about books I have read, non-science topics I am interested in, etc. Since Duke's curriculum is so unique, it would be a good idea to ask questions about the first year. Also, ask about all of the third year options - research, MBA, studying abroad - specifically, the ones in which you think you would be interested. Ask your student interviewer how they spent/plan to spend third year.

I would go back to Duke in a heartbeat, that is, if they had given me an MSTP interview 🙁 . Best of luck, and don't hesitate to ask me if you have any other questions about the interview, or Duke in general!

 

[dukee]

yeah, duke was a very low stress interview. The first year is very intimidating at first, but they all get through it. The alph interview is about acadmeic stuff. What sort of high school student were you? Why do you want to be a doctor? Tell me about yourself? What did you like about Duke as an undergrad? Why did you retake mcat? What is a radical? What is apoptosis? Stuff like that. Tell me about your research? He asked me about my volunteer stuff and what I learned from him. He was very complete. We went over everything...even my parents...the beta interview was more like what was your favorite class...how would your friends decribe you. why do you want to go to duke? ....I guess Duke interviews so many people, I guess I really do not know if I have a shot. They interview 1000 students for about 240 acceptances. Good luck.

 

[moo]

Hey brandonite, Duke's my top choice too! They didn't accept any Canadians last year, but wishful thinking leads me to hope they accept at least two this year! <img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" />

 

[ValleyGal]

I looooooove Duke -- I go there for undergrad and interviewed at the med school today. For all you northerners/west coasters, duke has a different mindset than those northern schools, which I think is a bonus. I am praying that I get in because it would be so fabulous. Don't believe the rumors that you hear negative about the med school because they are all wrong!

 

[spicoli]

duke is a rad school. don't get me wrong.

the interview made monkeys fly out of my butt.

--spicoli

 

[brandonite]

ValleyGirl - what negative rumours? I've only ever heard great things about Duke! The students are supposed to be great, the campus is amazing, and I love the 1 year plan!

moo - I noticed there weren't any Canucks last year, but there were the three years before that. So, I'm holding my breath. I suppose my big problem will be that I went to a no-name school, and most people look like they went to a top US school. Oh well. Hopefully my MCATs or my GPA will convince them I'm not an idiot... 😀

As to the interview... I've read through all of the posts on Duke on interview feedback, and gone through them all out here. I'll also have an interview under my belt by the time I go down there, so I'm hoping that'll help. I think I've got a bit of a feel for the two interviews. I've never heard of a stress interview at Duke, so I'm not too worried about that. I just think I need to make an impression! I'm a pretty ordinary applicant, just with good MCATs, so I want to make my interviewers remember me... Not sure how to do that, but I'll figure something out! 😀

 

[ValleyGal]

people tend to peg the dukies as antisocial and a little snotty, but that is definitely not the case. I've met a bunch of the med students before the interview day, and they are all soooo cool. Extremely smart, but a good head on their shoulders. That is the rumor which I was referring to -- the med students at lunch were even joking about how everyone thought that.

 

[Original]

No problem with the students. They are the coolest (low stress, friendly, laid-back) group I saw on the circuit. Duke was my first interview and I was commenting to one of the MD/PhD students about how I was surprised that they were such a "cool" group. I was expecting an army of geeks (nothin' against geeks, I am one myself); he jokingly replied that it's only so at Duke. Well from interviewing at other places I found his "joke" to be true to a large extent. That's one of the many reasons why Duke is at the absolute top of my short list.

My concern was faculty. EVERYONE I met there was absolutely awesome. However, one of the students hinted me that some of the faculty are plainly arrogant. But hey if you think about it, there almost cannot exist a top-ten school where egos don't clash and where some faculty don't roam the hallways thinking they are God Himself; and deeply contemplating whether to spare or destroy mankind.

 

[moo]

Well Original, you having been through grad school in math should know... All my profs in physics and math, although extremely nice, are also extremely arrogant. BUT I suppose they deserve to be... I will have no problem with that at Duke.

 

[brandonite]

Haha. Couldn't agree more, moo. 😀

As long as the students aren't arrogant, I don't have a problem. I don't care if profs look down on me, but I wouldn't want to go through med school with my peers being arrogant...

 

[Original]

True <img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" /> What amazes me is how they think they know everything. A friend of mine needed help with gaussian curvature for a computational vision project he was working on; the Differential Geometry guy (big dawg from Princeton; Nash's close buddy) ended up arguing heatedly with him about the BIOLOGICAL aspects of his model and sent him out without any help 🙄 . Shew! But it can be fun at times 🙂

 

[moo]

What would a diff geometry guy know about the biological aspects of the guy's project? Unless he is purporting to know it ALL.

brandonite, I know this one senior undergrad, who thinks he's a grad student (cuz he's taking all these grad courses) who has nothing better to do than rat on algebra. The guy peeves me off cuz he thinks algebra's for idiots... this is the type of thing that is making me leave academics altogether. Everytime I talk to an analysis guy, they know next to nothing about algebra, but everytime I talk to an algebraist, seems like they know so much about everything. (BTW, he got a B- in intro algebra)

 

[locitamd]

Hey all,

Sorry I don't beling in this thread at all, cause I didn't apply to Duke, but I wanted to 1. say congrats to brandonite on the interview - here's to you moving south of the border!! 😀 and 2. to offer my $.02 about arrogant professors. In my experience, the arrogant ones generally are so because they lack all forms of social skills. They ride their credentials and reputations becuase it keeps them from having to relate to people. Again, just an opinion.

Good luck to everyone who's hoping for Duke...

 

[brandonite]

locita! I was just thinking we haven't seen you around here these days! How are your interviews going?? Now that I've got Duke scheduled, I'm anxiously waiting on Stanford... 😀

and moo - I know the kind of student... I have dealt with a pile of arrogant profs. I'm fine with that. It gets annoying when they don't answer your questions, but I've had a few brilliant profs who deserve to be a bit arrogant! But I cannot stand students who think they're waay better than anybody else. Part of it might be because I can be a bit competitive. 😀 But I think it's mostly because of the attitude they have when it comes to other students...

I think Math and Physics have more than their share of arrogant people. Probably because, like locita said, they don't really have that much in terms of social skills... I can think of a few profs who are more comfortable with an equation than with another person... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

 

[Thewonderer]

There are arrogant and socially inept med students at Duke. There are people who can study for hours and some who are not very interesting people, period. But other top 10 schools also have many of them. These students don't constitute the majority but they are sizable and you will feel pressure from them during your hectic first year. From my friends studying there, they are still doing that one per week exam in second block that lasted 10 weeks. Student stress level probably depends on which block you visit them at.

My interview at Duke a couple years... There is this 1st year med student from MIT who was lamenting how his friends at Yale were having fun while he was stressing out and spending countless hours in classroom at Duke med and yet in the end, they would all get the same type of competitive residency anyway. He was somewhat bitter. That gotta have been the second block for them...

 

[omores]

Are there arrogant, socially inept, compulsively-studying, not-very-interesting-period people at Duke? Oh, probably, but the place isn't crawling with them. I may be socially inept, for example, but I'm not particularly arrogant. I may even approach interesting when I remember that there is more to life than studying :wink:

As to whether we have course blocks with ten weekly exams in a row: nope, not quite, but it sure feels that way sometimes. This block (microbiology, immunology, pathology) has exams on most, but not all, of its Mondays. This coming Monday is free, however, so I am therefore attempting to get through the entire weekend without opening a book -- it's against my compulsive tendencies, but I think it's good for me. And SDN is a wonderful form of distraction.

It's true that we have no "pureblood" Canadians this year, but we do have two dual citizens (of which I am one.) Perhaps the admissions committee believes that this counts as one complete Canadian. Good luck to all current Canadian applicants -- would love to have more north-of-the-border company in Durham.

Do feel free to ask me any questions about Duke or otherwise.

🙂 :wink: :wink: 🙂

 

[Thewonderer]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by omores:
•Are there arrogant, socially inept, compulsively-studying, not-very-interesting-period people at Duke? Oh, probably, but the place isn't crawling with them. I may be socially inept, for example, but I'm not particularly arrogant. I may even approach interesting when I remember that there is more to life than studying :wink:

As to whether we have course blocks with ten weekly exams in a row: nope, not quite, but it sure feels that way sometimes. This block (microbiology, immunology, pathology) has exams on most, but not all, of its Mondays. This coming Monday is free, however, so I am therefore attempting to get through the entire weekend without opening a book -- it's against my compulsive tendencies, but I think it's good for me. And SDN is a wonderful form of distraction.

It's true that we have no "pureblood" Canadians this year, but we do have two dual citizens (of which I am one.) Perhaps the admissions committee believes that this counts as one complete Canadian. Good luck to all current Canadian applicants -- would love to have more north-of-the-border company in Durham.

Do feel free to ask me any questions about Duke or otherwise.

🙂 :wink: :wink: 🙂 •••••I wasn't particularly against your and others' opinions here. But it is pretty important to bring balanced perspectives here because as it is this thread is quickly turning into a shrine that worships Duke the medical school. 🙂

I don't think that student body is that different at Duke than at other top schools. Also, "crawling" is a relative term. My friends think that there are too many of those socially inept, study machines while you don't think there is that many. Well, seeing them in class is alright but living with one of them as roomate will kill!

Oh with dual citizenship, everything changes. Two dual citizens does not equal to one Canadian 🙂 I hate the hassle I have to go through at times. The tax and visa are big problems. I have missed a flight and stopped at the border numerous times because of some incompetent US custom officers. And working + receiving stipends for research are so much hassles. I have looked at so many fellowship or research assistance applications that say for American citizens or permanent residents ONLY. That solves me some pain down the road since I just threw those applications out of window right away.... Yeah, save me the trouble of applying, eh?

 

[brandonite]

No, thanks for the perspective... I have heard much better things from a variety of people regarding the students at Duke than I have at other top 10 schools.

Mind you, given my track record so far, odds are I don't have too much to worry about. And I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to go $250,000 CDN into debt for a degree I could do for a quarter of that price in Winnipeg (the city my home school is located in). As much as I might hate the city of Winnipeg... 🙁

Just curious - and I know I'm taking this thread off topic - but I don't think I've ever asked you, thewonderer, why you went to the US? You seem to be strongly discouraging me from doing the same thing...

 

[omores]

The Wonderer: I agree with you that the composition of Duke's student body is probably very similar to that of its other Top 10 cronies'. People love to make subtle distinctions between schools, but I'm not sure they're valid -- I remember the "WashU students are weird" rumour that was floating around last year. Besides, the "feel" of a school can really change from year to year: one class may be dominated by intense, honours-hungry gunners; another class may be more laid back. In many ways it's the luck of the draw.

I do empathize with your Canadian-in-US hassles. My husband is in the same boat (the poor lad is here at my behest), and he has a horrible time crossing the border -- immigration officers are capable of frightening levels of power tripping. And citizenship/permanent resident requirements can be just a slower form of that same tyranny.

🙄 <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> 🙄 <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> 🙄

 

[Thewonderer]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by brandonite:
•No, thanks for the perspective... I have heard much better things from a variety of people regarding the students at Duke than I have at other top 10 schools.

Mind you, given my track record so far, odds are I don't have too much to worry about. And I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to go $250,000 CDN into debt for a degree I could do for a quarter of that price in Winnipeg (the city my home school is located in). As much as I might hate the city of Winnipeg... 🙁

Just curious - and I know I'm taking this thread off topic - but I don't think I've ever asked you, thewonderer, why you went to the US? You seem to be strongly discouraging me from doing the same thing...•••••To Omores, i agree with you that people make too much deal out of subtle distinctions between schools which nowadays are non-existence. And knowing some people who have gotten into Yale, Duke, Penn, Vandy, etc. in the last couple years, I don't like the way admissions seems to be more and more number-based.

To Brandonite, I am NOT discouraging you from coming to the US. I am only pointing the obvious. I am only trying to demystify Duke or Yale or whatever top American med schools you have in mind. They are good schools with excellent reputation but they are not filled with god-like students with god-sent curriculum.

As for why I came to the US? Because I probably want to practice in the US for a couple decades before considering going back to Canada.