How did the interview impress you?

No change

What was the stress level of the interview?

4 out of 10

How long was the interview?

60+ minutes

Where did the interview take place?

At the school

How many people interviewed you?

6

What was the style of the interview?

One-on-one

What type of interview was it?

Open file

What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 1)?

"What do you do for fun?" Report Response | I was asked this question too

What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 2)?

"What would you do if medicine wasn't an option? No, I didn't mean what else medically-related would you do, I want to know what else you're into." Report Response | I was asked this question too

What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 3)?

"Nothing abnormal." Report Response | I was asked this question too

What was the most interesting question?

"What do you think makes a good doctor? What kind of doctor do you want to be?" Report Response | I was asked this question too

What was the most difficult question?

"One MD/PhD interviewer went all into the positive and negative controls for my experiments. He went into a level of detail on some things that I'd never thought of before (eek!)." Report Response | I was asked this question too

How did you prepare for the interview?

"I had a pretty crazy week prior, so I really didn't." Report Response

What impressed you positively?

"Family friendly, low cost of living, parking is a non-issue, nice stipend, great students (esp. my student host), everything is all shiny and new, fun and relaxed atmosphere" Report Response

What impressed you negatively?

"The relaxed atmosphere sort of works both ways. Their average graduation time for MD/PhD students is 8.5 years! That's a full year more on average than most other schools. They claim that they want to bring that time to graduation down, but yet when I voiced my concern about that level of time I was faced with very negative criticism of my feelings on that subject; "Maybe Rochester isn't for you", etc... Don't get me wrong, a 4 year PhD phase is normal, but for half of the students to take 5, I think there's an issue there that nobody was willing to address. Every other student interviewing that day felt the same way, but I was the only one who said anything. Perhaps I shot myself in the foot there, but if I did than perhaps the school really isn't for me. There's also TA requirements that they seem to be inflexable about. I think a MD/PhD student has enough on the table without trying to teach as well. That wouldn't prevent me from going there though." Report Response

What did you wish you had known ahead of time?

"The time to graduation. It's interesting though that they never talk about it unless asked and if you ask them they get very defensive about it." Report Response

What are your general comments?

"This was a two day interview, with MD/PhD and MD interviews mixed up on both days. There was ALOT of interviews. If memory serves me correctly, there was 4 MD/PhD interviews, 1 MD/PhD student interviewer, and 2 MD interviews (although 1 MD interviewer was a PhD and just talked to me about my research and why MD/PhD, so it was more like a MD/PhD interview), all 1 hour each. Everything was really good until I asked too many questions. For MD-only people though I'm sure the school is really great. I'm still considering the school just because it would be such a great place to live with my g/f (read: future wife) and has good research going on." Report Response

Who was the tour given by?

Student

On what date did the interview take place?

10/25/2002