why are medical school interview days so damn long?

[boltedbicorne]

i've been looking at most of the interview days at the schools i got invites to and a lot of them are 9-10 hrs. not only that, but they put interviews at the end of the day when most people probably wont even be able to see straight from fatigue at that point. Why do medical schools do it this way? it doesnt seem hard to just give people a 15 minute opening, two 30 minute interviews, do a 30 minute faculty tour, maybe another 30 mins through a hospital, giving a random 30 minute lecture financial aid, curriculum, and closing address - 5 minutes. send everything else by mail or give us paperwork on it.

that's like around 3 hrs. why on earth are they 9 hrs?

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[Cyberdyne 101]

It's a 10 hour day I'll be excited about

 

[NoDakDok]

UNDSMHS's interview day is 1 hour.

Check in.

Picture.

Interview (45 minute panel).

[100% optional student-led tour]

Done.

 

[boltedbicorne]

UNDSMHS's interview day is 1 hour.

Check in.

Picture.

Interview (45 minute panel).

[100% optional student-led tour]

Done.

wow, i love your school.

 

[NoDakDok]

wow, i love your school.

So do I.

 

[Sportsdude89]

Dude get excited. This is a way for you to learn as much as you can about the school and help you determine where you'll jump start your medical career.

 

[DoctorWhoo]

Complaining about having multiple interviews by September is by far the easiest way to make friends in this community.

 

[Afford]

A part of the day is to sell the school to you. Since you already paid lots of money to fly out, you might as well spend time to see if the school is a good fit for you.

 

[Goro]

Faculty job interviews often last two days, and we have to give talks!

i've been looking at most of the interview days at the schools i got invites to and a lot of them are 9-10 hrs. not only that, but they put interviews at the end of the day when most people probably wont even be able to see straight from fatigue at that point. Why do medical schools do it this way? it doesnt seem hard to just give people a 15 minute opening, two 30 minute interviews, do a 30 minute faculty tour, maybe another 30 mins through a hospital, giving a random 30 minute lecture financial aid, curriculum, and closing address - 5 minutes. send everything else by mail or give us paperwork on it.

that's like around 3 hrs. why on earth are they 9 hrs?

 

[Ismet]

i've been looking at most of the interview days at the schools i got invites to and a lot of them are 9-10 hrs. not only that, but they put interviews at the end of the day when most people probably wont even be able to see straight from fatigue at that point. Why do medical schools do it this way? it doesnt seem hard to just give people a 15 minute opening, two 30 minute interviews, do a 30 minute faculty tour, maybe another 30 mins through a hospital, giving a random 30 minute lecture financial aid, curriculum, and closing address - 5 minutes. send everything else by mail or give us paperwork on it.

that's like around 3 hrs. why on earth are they 9 hrs?

Lol wait until you interview for residency.

Not every school has a long interview day. But you also have to figure in time for lunch (usually an hour), time between sessions (in case interviews/sessions/tour runs over allotted time), and, ya know, a little time to get a feel for the school and the location.

You're paying money for transportation and accommodation, plus missing school and/or work for this interview. Would you seriously fly out to California from the East coast just for a 3 hour interview day? Sorry that giving you a little exposure to the school is an inconvenience, but usually that's the only time you get to see the school outside of the website.

 

[Dral]

Serious?

Have fun during your surgery clerkship.

 

[Ismet]

Serious?

Have fun during your surgery clerkship.

Unless you get really lucky with your service. My roommate on surgery leaves for work after me and gets home before me...and I'm on peds...

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Unless you get really lucky with your service. My roommate on surgery leaves for work after me and gets home before me...and I'm on peds...

How is this possible?

 

[Ismet]

How is this possible?

There are a couple surgical services here that have really good hours. For peds, night signout is at 6am so I get there a bit before to prepare, then depending on how the day goes, you can be there until 4-5pm on regular days and as late as 9-10pm when you're on call. Yesterday I was there 6am-9pm and we were running around so much all day that I didn't sit down to write my notes until 8. Depends on the service you're on though.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

There are a couple surgical services here that have really good hours. For peds, night signout is at 6am so I get there a bit before to prepare, then depending on how the day goes, you can be there until 4-5pm on regular days and as late as 9-10pm when you're on call. Yesterday I was there 6am-9pm and we were running around so much all day that I didn't sit down to write my notes until 8. Depends on the service you're on though.

I guess I envisioned a surgical rotation to more like a 5am-10pm. But this was based on nothing; it's merely a guess.

 

[Ismet]

I guess I envisioned a surgical rotation to more like a 5am-10pm. But this was based on nothing; it's merely a guess.

Yeah some of the services are certainly intense. Vascular is notorious for super long hours. I'm not sure what my roommate is on now, but I've heard there are a couple fairly chill services.

There's also "duty hours" although adherence to those is definitely not always observed. I think we are only allowed to work 16 hours in a 24 hour period with at least 8 hours off between shifts, and maximum 6 days out of 7. Something like that. Whatever duty hours goes for residents goes for us. But like I said, not always followed, especially if you're going early to prepare or staying late to finish up.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Yeah some of the services are certainly intense. Vascular is notorious for super long hours. I'm not sure what my roommate is on now, but I've heard there are a couple fairly chill services.

That's precisely the specialty that came to mind when I envisioned those hours.

 

[boltedbicorne]

Complaining about having multiple interviews by September is by far the easiest way to make friends in this community.

dude, if you got over 100 hrs of interviews you'd be complaining too.

 

[DoctorWhoo]

dude, if you got over 100 hrs of interviews you'd be complaining too.

Smells faintly of troll (and by faintly I mean strongly)... Anyone whose writing is as abysmal as their attitude wouldn't have, according to your math, ~11 interviews by this point. They would also probably be wise enough to know that, unless they were a complete robot, skipping half of those interviews would still likely result in an acceptance or 2 (given the fact that their application afforded them 11 interviews by September).

But what do I know

PS: In case it wasn't obvious to future MS1's, I'll spell an important lesson out for you to counteract this troll and make the thread remotely useful to someone down the road: If you have a ridiculous MCAT, are at your future school on a very nice merit scholarship, or something along those lines... DO NOT BE A BRAGGER. Pre-meds and medical students alike are generally quite competitive due to the Darwinian nature of admissions. If you ever want to have friends in your class, heed this warning and remain humble and grateful for the incredible (and incredibly stressful) opportunity that you have been afforded.

 

[boltedbicorne]

Smells faintly of troll (and by faintly I mean strongly)... Anyone whose writing is as abysmal as their attitude wouldn't have, according to your math, ~11 interviews by this point. They would also probably be wise enough to know that, unless they were a complete robot, skipping half of those interviews would still likely result in an acceptance or 2 (given the fact that their application afforded them 11 interviews by September).

But what do I know

PS: In case it wasn't obvious to future MS1's, I'll spell an important lesson out for you to counteract this troll and make the thread remotely useful to someone down the road: If you have a ridiculous MCAT, are at your future school on a very nice merit scholarship, or something along those lines... DO NOT BE A BRAGGER. Pre-meds and medical students alike are generally quite competitive due to the Darwinian nature of admissions. If you ever want to have friends in your class, heed this warning and remain humble and grateful for the incredible (and incredibly stressful) opportunity that you have been afforded.

you don't know, since i'm not trolling and why would I bother busting out writing prose on an internet forum? oh plz im just a dude who took sdn's apply broadly advice and I got 11 interviews. don't say trollin until you end up the situation and have to bog through 10 hrs a day on jetlag. that is serious torture.

 

[Ismet]

you don't know, since i'm not trolling and why would I bother busting out writing prose on an internet forum? oh plz im just a dude who took sdn's apply broadly advice and I got 11 interviews. don't say trollin until you end up the situation and have to bog through 10 hrs a day on jetlag. that is serious torture.

I got 10 interviews, went to 8 of them (one of which was a 2-day interview), and was extremely thankful for each one. My grades suffered that semester due to how much school I was missing, but that's a sacrifice you make for your future. If you don't want to spend the time to go to each interview, then either turn some down or stop whining.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

OP, don't even complain. A lot of people don't even have any interviews at this point. Also, I agree with everything that said to take the long interview day as a chance to learn more about the school and get a good feel for it. Yes, I was tired by the end of my recent interview day, but it was worth it because I got to see just how impressive the school was up close and personal.

 

[mvenus929]

There's also "duty hours" although adherence to those is definitely not always observed. I think we are only allowed to work 16 hours in a 24 hour period with at least 8 hours off between shifts, and maximum 6 days out of 7. Something like that. Whatever duty hours goes for residents goes for us. But like I said, not always followed, especially if you're going early to prepare or staying late to finish up.

Medical students aren't bound by duty hours--it's school policy on which ones to follow. My school's policy for work hours was to follow the hours of senior residents. So, we were allowed to do 24+4 hour shifts, 1 day off per week, 80 hours max. Nothing really happened if you went over them, though.

But anyway, residency interviews can be very long as well. Most of mine started at 7-8am, and went til 1-2pm, but there were a couple that went til 3-4 in the afternoon, plus a meet-and-greet with the residents the night before. Some of the surgery interviews seemed insanely long based on what my classmates were telling me.

It's a chance to get to know the area and the school a little better. If you get multiple acceptances, you'll have to decide somehow, and having a nice feel for the area helps in that regard.

 

[Ismet]

Medical students aren't bound by duty hours--it's school policy on which ones to follow.

It must vary by school, but my school calls it "duty hours" and it follows the residents' policy. We're not bound by the ACGME of course.

 

[basketcase0a0]

Went on 11 interviews. Probably spent about 100 hours on the interview day. Enjoyed every second, because this was my opportunity to get to know the school, and the school to get to know me. It was also an opportunity to get to know the other people who were interviewing there which was good for a lot of different reasons, including assessing fit. If you feel like that's too much time and it's such a burden then feel free to turn down some of those interviews. You know, to unburden yourself.

And to answer your question: those days are as long as they are for a good reason. Schools spend a ton of money and time interviewing applicants. Do you think they're going to waste your and their time on anything that isn't a very worthwhile endeavor?

The arrogance in this post is setting off my troll alarm.

And one last point: you think getting so many interviews is "serious torture"? Tell that to people who sit on wait lists for multiple cycles and never get in. Or people who don't even get an interview. I'm sure they're be very sympathetic to your issues.

 

[Chir0nex]

i've been looking at most of the interview days at the schools i got invites to and a lot of them are 9-10 hrs. not only that, but they put interviews at the end of the day when most people probably wont even be able to see straight from fatigue at that point. Why do medical schools do it this way? it doesnt seem hard to just give people a 15 minute opening, two 30 minute interviews, do a 30 minute faculty tour, maybe another 30 mins through a hospital, giving a random 30 minute lecture financial aid, curriculum, and closing address - 5 minutes. send everything else by mail or give us paperwork on it.

that's like around 3 hrs. why on earth are they 9 hrs?

The financial aid, curriculum and research lectures are 30 minutes each usually, plus sometimes a diversity or get to know the city one as well, so lets say 2 hours. You forgot lunch, that's another hour. Between interviews the adcoms usually need 10-15 minutes to right down notes etc... so another 30 minutes. At my school they 30 minutes to talk with dual-degree people as well.

Plus, most adcoms have to take time out of there day to go do the interview. If they are clinicians, it is usually easier to do this later in the day, since many specialites will be doing rounds and dealing with any overnight events in the morning.

Basically just sit back and enjoy the day. I assure you you will spend many more stuck in (what you may consider) useless lectures during time in medical school. At least during interviews they give you coffee and feed you.

 

[helpabrotherout]

I got 10 interviews, went to 8 of them (one of which was a 2-day interview), and was extremely thankful for each one. My grades suffered that semester due to how much school I was missing, but that's a sacrifice you make for your future. If you don't want to spend the time to go to each interview, then either turn some down or stop whining.

I know this is a bit off topic, but does it really matter that much if your grades go down a bit in senior year? I mean, by the time you're interviewed the med schools will have already be looking at your gpa from previous semesters. This is just for general knowledge; I'm not the type to ever just stop trying at school because "it doesn't matter."

 

[Ismet]

I know this is a bit off topic, but does it really matter that much if your grades go down a bit in senior year? I mean, by the time you're interviewed the med schools will have already be looking at your gpa from previous semesters. This is just for general knowledge; I'm not the type to ever just stop trying at school because "it doesn't matter."

No, it doesn't matter unless you fail a class or become a straight C student or something. I was just interested in graduating with departmental honors so I still working to keep my grades in neuro up. I ended up with a B in neuroanatomy (and still graduated with honors) so it obviously wasn't a big problem, but that was all due to one exam I semi-bombed after missing about 2 weeks of MWF classes for interviews in November.

 

[helpabrotherout]

No, it doesn't matter unless you fail a class or become a straight C student or something. I was just interested in graduating with departmental honors so I still working to keep my grades in neuro up. I ended up with a B in neuroanatomy (and still graduated with honors) so it obviously wasn't a big problem, but that was all due to one exam I semi-bombed after missing about 2 weeks of MWF classes for interviews in November.

Ah, ok. I guess I'll have to worry about that too when I get there, since I also want to graduate with honors. Thanks for responding so quickly!

 

[Theafoni]

No, it doesn't matter unless you fail a class or become a straight C student or something. I was just interested in graduating with departmental honors so I still working to keep my grades in neuro up. I ended up with a B in neuroanatomy (and still graduated with honors) so it obviously wasn't a big problem, but that was all due to one exam I semi-bombed after missing about 2 weeks of MWF classes for interviews in November.

Can't the professor excuse you?

 

[gyngyn]

I know this is a bit off topic, but does it really matter that much if your grades go down a bit in senior year? I mean, by the time you're interviewed the med schools will have already be looking at your gpa from previous semesters. This is just for general knowledge; I'm not the type to ever just stop trying at school because "it doesn't matter."

A big drop will matter if you have to re-apply.

 

[Ismet]

Can't the professor excuse you?

Attendance wasn't taken. I didn't miss the exam, I just missed about 6 of the lectures that were on the exam and was traveling from an interview the day before. And there was a strict policy about not rescheduling exams except for extreme emergencies.