Why Stress Interviews?

[SamaraMorgan]

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[iwilldlvr]

I think they are indicative of the types of schools and applicants. MD applicants tend to be more competitive, even in their demeanor. DO applicants are more friendly and caring about others. I'm not saying MD apps aren't, they just aren't as obvious about it. Plus, in MD schools, the competition and defensiveness are daily exchanges. I see some DO schools that don't even allow the students to know their class rank to minimize that competitiveness. The DO schools' student bodies tend to be more cohesive in general over the MD schools. Maybe the MD schools are prepping you for the type of people you deal with in research since they tend to push more for research. Then again, maybe you just got lucky with your DO interviews and had bad luck with the MD interviews. You hear horror stories about DO interviews, too.

I don't think that type of interview tactic actually gives any information about the applicant other than to see how well you react to nasty people. Maybe there are some adcoms or student interviewers on here that can really explain it.

Either way, I wouldn't let the interviewers' actions and style be the basis of judgement for the school.

 

[jp104]

First I don't want this to turn into an MD/DO thing. Please, please don't.

I recently interviewed at DMU and CCOM. I also interviewed at Drexel and Wisconsin Madison. The DO interviews were very casual. The reps promoted their school and I was asked common questions about my application and why DO. The MD interviews were much different. The reps were cold, short, and condescending. They basically kept saying their school was the best. The interview questions were also condescending.

What gives? I felt they could have gotten the information they wanted and gathered my ability to communicate without being complete d*cks. Do stress interviews actually give the schools useful information?

Definately not a DO or MD thing. It's a school thing, and to a certain extent an individual interviewer thing. I have alot of close friends (applying to both DO and MD) who've interviewed at NYU, Columbia, Cornell, UCSF, Baylor, and a myriad number of MD schools that have told me that their interviews were casual and laidback.

 

[tigre21]

At one of my DO interviews one of the people there came out saying how stressful his interview was and how they asked him so many ethics questions, while others just got reg questions like why our school etc. I think like others have said it's not an MD DO diff but a school difference and the interviewer you get. Plus everyone interprets what is stressful differently. the school I had a great regular interview at I was waitlisted, while my much more "stressfl" interview I was accepted...so u never know.

 

[Protease]

See this is one thing I hate about the medical school process, everything seems great then you get some weirdo as interviewer and your odds of acceptence plunder.

I recommend you guys do a mock interview where the interviewers goal is to make your life as miserable as possible. I did this with my freind, his character was Dr. House, made one interesting convo.