Pittsburgh, PA
Allopathic Medical Schools | Public Non-Profit
Overall, applicants ranked the school in the top 16% of interviews, indicating it is highly regarded. They found the interview very impressive with a low stress level and felt they did well.
⭐ Overall Impressions ▼
How do you rank the facilities?
Most respondents rank the facilities as above average.
How do you rank this school among ALL other schools?
Most respondents rank this school above all other schools.
How do you rank this school among other schools to which you've applied?
Most respondents rank this school above other schools they applied to.
0 = Below, 10 = Above
What is your ranking of this school's location?
Most respondents rate the school location as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
How is the friendliness of the admissions office?
Most respondents said the admissions office was friendly.
What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?
Most respondents rate the area’s cultural life as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?
Most respondents said the admissions office was responsive.
💬 Interview Questions ▼
What is one of the specific questions they asked you?
The most commonly asked interview questions at medical schools include inquiries about the applicant's motivation for pursuing medicine, specific interests in the field, reasons for choosing the University of Pittsburgh, experiences working in teams, and personal qualities that make them a suitable candidate for medical school. Additionally, many responses mentioned the standard questions about research experiences, career goals, extracurricular activities, and how the applicant's background aligns with their interest in medicine. Some respondents noted being asked about their uniqueness, future aspirations in medicine, and specific details about their research roles.
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Share an experience where you worked with others on a project. What role did you play? What did you learn from this?
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Where do you see medicine in the future?
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Why Pitt?
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Why Medicine? Why University of Pittsburgh? Why Pittsburgh (As a city)?
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Tell me how you made the decision to pursue medicine. Tell me how you tested or explored this decision
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Why pitt, why medicine, all the usual crap. There were no surprise questions at all.
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Why PittMed? Why medicine? What makes you unique?
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Tell me about yourself, why medicine, why nursing/PA/researcher...
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Why medicine
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How does your major connect to medicine?
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Tell me about your research
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Why do you want to go into medicine?
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Tell me about yourself
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Tell me about yourself.
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All the typical interview questions. Why Pitt? Why medicine? Why not PA/NP? Tell me about your research. Student interview is closed, faculty is open except for MCAT/GPA.
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Tell me about an experience working in a team.
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Why medicine?
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What sets you apart?
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Why University of Pittsburgh?
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What else have you done in college that is not on your application?
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What are leadership positions you have had?
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How are you creative?
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Why Pitt? Why doctor and not other medical field (nurse, PA, etc)?
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Why I though my educational path was best for medicine
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Where do you see yourself in 20 years? (for MSTP interview)
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"What do you do for fun?"
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In closed-file interview (with student) I was asked about clinical experiences, what I do in my free time, etc.
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Tell me about yourself. Why medicine? Why Pitt?
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Tell me an example of a time you demonstrated creativity
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Student interviewer (MS2) had a list of questions: Why medicine? Why Pitt? What kind of clinical experience do you have? What *other* clinical experiences do you have? Hobbies? What kind of superpower would you like to have? Do you have any questions?
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Why do you want to work with [insert specific demographic from my application]?
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What book have you read recently?
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When did you know you wanted to go into medicine?
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Why Pitt...why medicine...some questions about my activities...tell me about yourself.
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They mainly tried to gauge what I was like as a person, and why the school was a good fit for me.
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Why MD vs nurse practioner or another career
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The basics, tell me about yourself, tell me why you want to be a physician, tell me why pitt
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What led you pursue medicine?
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How did you find out about Pitt Med? (I'm from CA)
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Why medicine, why pitt
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Tell me about the process that led you into deciding to go into medicine.
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Tell me about yourself/your interest in medicine.
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Tell me about your research and your role in it.
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Why medicine? Why Pitt?
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Student interviewer: Why do you want to be a doctor?
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Both student and faculty: why medicine?
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Why UPitt?
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What would make you come to Pitt?
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Why Pitt
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What are you looking for in a medical school?
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What kind of research do you do?
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how are you creative
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Why Pitt? (both my student and faculty interviewers asked me this)
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Besides why medicine and why Pitt, what kind of doctor do you want to be?
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What made you want to go into medicine?
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So what are you doing here at Pitt? (in other words, Why Pitt?)
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Was there a specific moment in your life that compelled you to pursue medical school?
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From student interviewer: Why Pitt?
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Tell me about yourself, Why Med
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tell me about yourself. tell me about your research, your undergrad, (everything basic). what do you do for fun
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Questions about my undergrad institution. How did I choose my major, and what type of classes does it entail?
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General get to know you questions: tell me about yourself, your background. What have you been doing since graduating?
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What's the biggest healthcare problem and how would you change it?
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Student Interviewer: What motivates you? How do you deal with competition? What do you believe will be your biggest sacrifice coming into medical school?
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What brings you to Pittsburgh?
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Where did you go to school and why medicine?
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Why Pitt (Most common question)
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Tell me about yourself. Something that's not in your application.
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Have you ever considered research?
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What do you like about Pittsburgh?
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What have you done since you graduated college?
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Are you interested in research?
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Why Pitt? I'm from LA.
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Why med school?
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What did you do during undergrad?
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Why Pitt? What have you learned about Pitt since you have been here?
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What are some non-medically relatedly activities you're involved in?
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Why did you choose to go into medicine?
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Student: What superpower would you want? Why medicine? Why Pitt? What do you do for fun? Tell me about your extra curricular activities.
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By student: in an informal, conversational way: why medicine, why pitt...I asked her a lot of questions about her work in community outreach.
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what do you do for fun
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Why do you want to be a doctor?
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Is diversity important to you?
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How did you get here?
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Are you married?
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Besides your clinical experience (3 years) what other medical experience have you had? I thought this was an odd question. It seems to me that 3 yrs of nearly full-time clinical experience is fairly significant for a medical school applicant.
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Student interviewer: How do you work in small groups? (Pitt has PBL every other week so be prepared for that). Superpower question. Why medicine? No really, why medicine? What do you think about Pittsburgh? Do you have any questions for me?
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Tell me about your research.
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Why Pittsburgh?
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WHat do you do now?
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How do you feel about working in small groups?
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Tell me about your research experience. He was more interested in my role in the project, but be prepared to talk about your research in detail.
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What kind of training do you have to have to be a massage therapist. (my profession)
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What is your favotire book? - I really didn't have a favorite so I just talked about the most recent one I read.
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How would your friends describe you? (asked by student interviewer)
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Why med?
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My first interview was a student interview and she asked your basic questions (why medicine, etc.) My second was a faculty interviewer (who was awesome by the way) and that was a convo. The third is w/ a person from the admissions staff. this one's like 20 minutes and it seemed extremely laid back. No difficult questions. Just what my future plans are, etc...
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How did tennis helkp with your development as a person? (Played tennis for many years)
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Why do you want to practice transplant medicine?
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Why MD/PhD?
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Student: What do you like to do for fun, What do you feel about clinical research, Do you think doctors should do research. Remember, Pitt is a research school. Even if you haven't done any before, you may be asked about it. They don't expect you to sit in a lab all day, you can go out and do research in the community also.
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what do you see yourself doing in 10-15 years? (ie. how to mesh research and medicine)
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Tell me about your life. Start at the beginning.
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Why Pitt Med, why Pittsburgh, etc?
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Are you a vegetarian?
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Why do you want to be a doctor? What experiences shaped your reasons? What have you done to test your decision?
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Tell me about your study abroad.
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Why medicine? But really, why medicine? Right, but, why not research/teaching/dentistry/etc.?
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The standards: why medicine, why Pitt, etc. Student questions seemed geared toward assessing your realization of the realities of medicine/medical school and your dedication to patient-directed medicine, while the faculty questions were more personal.
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Faculty interviewer: issues in medicine, why medicine, research experience, tell me about your family, patient/clinical experience.
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When and how did you decide you wanted to go into medicine?
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Was the difference between specificity and sensitivity?
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When and why did you decide to become a doctor?
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Why are you interested in a career in medicine? Why Pitt? What do you think about the US Health Care System compared with that of other countries? Tell me your thoughts on the role of physicians in preventive health and research.
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Why do you want to be a doctor
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What do you want to do?
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What can I tell you about Pitt to make you want to go here?
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What have you liked about Pittsburgh? What don't you like?
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What role do you typically take in group situations?
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Why medicine? What was the origin of your interest?
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Why Medicine? (or variations like why do you want to go into medicine, or become a doctor, etc) You'll want to stress 2 things: people and science, and that you find you want both, and can't give up either in your search for a profession.
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Are you holding acceptances at any other schools? (Both the faculty member and the dean asked me this).
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Where do you see yourself in the future (specialty, research or clinical)?
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Student: very laid back. What do you like to do for fun? What kind of clubs were you involved in at school?
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Small group experiences, what role did I take?
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What do you think makes a good doctor?
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describe your research.
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How do you see yourself working in small groups, as in problem-based learning?
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all basic questions about my future goals and my interests in medicine. my student interviewer though asked me more general questions about my life and what i had done. the student interviewer only gets your name, your undergrad school, and your hometown, so they basically know nothing. the faculty interviewer gets only your personal statement, so that is a little more intimate, but mine still wanted me to give her a general idea of who i was. the last interviewer, which is the dean of admissions, only talks to you for like 10ish mins and he just wants to grill you to make sure that you have a reason to apply to pitt specifically, and then he'll probably ask you where else youve applied/interviewed/been accepted. be prepared for him cuz hes really direct and quick.
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What books have you been reading lately?
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How is your day going? What have you done so far? What do you think? (All 4 interviewers asked me this, which I think really says something.)
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Why mediicne? Faculty asks something specific about your PS.
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How did you come to your decision to pursue medicine?
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How did you become interested in medicine?
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mostly conversational questions concerning path to medicine and interests/background. nothing out of the ordinary.
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Why do you wish to pursue medicine? (all three interviewers asked me this)
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Tell me about your family (I know, this isn't a question)
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Explain your research to me.
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Standard student questions: Why medicine? Why Pittsburgh? What are you looking for in a medical school? What are your interests outside school?
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What are your career goals? What will having an MD AND a PhD allow you to do that having one of these degrees won't? (I'm paraphrasing)
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Very generic questions, but more chit chat than anything
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What do you think would be a better way to measure who will make a good resident?
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when did you decide to become a doctor ?
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Tell me about yourself? From student What brought you to Pitt? From faculty
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Where do you see yourself in ten years?
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Dating question
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Explain your research.
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everything pertained to my amcas application.
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what do you know about Pittsburgh?
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Why medicine? Why Pittsburgh?
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How do you deal with frustrating people/situations? What are you looking for in a school?
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If doing an MD/PhD was not possible which one would I choose and why?
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same
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Tell me about your volunteer work.
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Tell me about why you have chosen to become a physician
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Mostly personal info- Questions regarding opinion on curriculum
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Have you worked in small groups? (Related to their PBL [problem based learning] which they ask about.)
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what specialty are you interested in?
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What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
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What do you do for fun?
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See above.
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What are the weaknesses of your application
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Describe this experience.
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What makes Pitt the right place for you? Or you right for us?
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whats one of your strengths/weaknesses
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The student interviewers are obligated to ask these two (why medicine? tell me about your extracurricular, lab, other exp.) It's on their sheet that they fill out later.
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Tell me about yourself?
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Are you doing any reading for pleasure and if so, what are you reading?
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What do you like to do for fun
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What do you like to do for fun?
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Why Medicine, and what have you done to test this decision?
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typical questions- Why MD/PhD, why do you want to be a doctor etc...
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see above
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(it's been a while, I can't remember much besides "What brings you to medicine" and "Why Pittsburgh?")
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The basics...why do you want to go into medicine?
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Brief summary of your life:
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Why the Russian major?
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Tell me more about....(insert application activity here).
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What are some of your strengths?
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When did you decide medicine was for you?
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What do you do outside of school?
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Why Pitt (asked this 3 times)?
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When you work in a group with other students, what role do you play?
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Is UPitt your first choice? You can be honest. It wasn't mine.
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Tell me about yourself....basically a time to boast...however individuals like myself, who can't boast..and aren't willing to...don't do very well on such questions!
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What are your strengths and weaknesses?
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how are you a well-rounded person?
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What's the last movie you saw?
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What are your strengths?
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What's your biggest weakness?
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Why do you want to be a doctore?
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Why motivated you ?
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Nothing special, really. B/c it was closed file, questions weren't too hard. What extracurricular have you done?
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Why both degrees?
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Why medicine? Tell me about you background and your motivations. How do you handle stress?
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What sort of extracurricular activities are you involved in? (required)
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Strength and weaknesses.
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strengths (one of the questions on the "suggested?" list)
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Why do you want to be a doctor?
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What do you want me to tell the admissions committee about you?
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MD faculty interviewer - "Congratulations, you're accepted to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine." *shake hands* "What, are you surprised?" -- Me: Uhhhh, yeah I guess I am.
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Tell me more about your childhood?
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what are your strengths.
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Why do you want to be a physician?
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Why do you think problem based learning is for you?
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Why did you apply here?
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Why do you want to get both MD and PhD degrees?
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the interviews were just conversations: the dean asked specific questions though. Why do you want to be a doctor?
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What would you do to provide health care insurance to those without if you were appointed Secretary of Health?
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What is your best character trait?
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Discuss your research project, how independent are you on it...etc.
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Listed above
What was the most interesting question?
Students said most interesting question asked at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine discussed a wide range of topics, including future healthcare trends, personal definitions of success, challenges facing medicine, dealing with patient skepticism, and favorite TV shows. While many responses were standard, some students mentioned being asked about their creativity, interests outside of medicine, and specific experiences related to their applications. The interview format may have been MMI based on the variety of questions, with some respondents possibly under a nondisclosure agreement.
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Give an example of a time you noticed a lack of compassion during your clinical interactions and detail how that impacted you.
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None - generally basic questions
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Very basic questions
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What healthcare issues are going to be big in the next 5-10 years?
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Have you come across, either in your studies or independent research or reading time, any advancements in science or healthcare in recent years that's had an impact on public/population health?
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What are some of the challenges that I think are facing medicine
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How would you confront a patient that was skeptical or doubtful of science/the healthcare system (i.e. COVID-19 and mask policies)?
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What is your definition of success
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Asked me about my thesis research
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What do you think is the most challenging issue facing healthcare? (she followed this question up with "did you watch the democratic debate last night?)
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How have your experiences prepared you for medicine?
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Would you want to go into ___ field?
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What are some qualities a physician should have?
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Make me excited about your research.
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None, they were really standard.
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What is the worst book you have read?
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How will your experience with the arts inform your patient care philosophy?
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Why didn't you go into one of your parents' careers (follow-up to question on my parents' backgrounds).
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What would you do if you couldn't go to med school?
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Question 3.
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I was talking about what I do in my free time and I mentioned I watch Netflix occasionally (of course, alongside building orphanages and helping old ladies cross the road), and my faculty interviewer asked me what my favorite TV shows were and why.
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What medical specialty are you interested in?
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How would your friends describe you?
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Tell me an example of a time you demonstrated creativity
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Some questions related to my background and interests.
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Tell me about your experience playing x sport
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Did you have any trouble finding my office?
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What field of medicine are you interested in and how positive are you that that is what you want to do?
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n/a
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none
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None, it was very straight forward
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Nothing really. Be prepared for the usual stuff, about why medicine etc.
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How are you creative?
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They were all pretty standard conversation starters.
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So you worked _____. Why the heck did you do that?
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NA
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Are you a steeler fan
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Who are your role models and why.
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How do you think creatively?
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If you could go anywhere and do anything for one weekend vacation, where would you go and what would you do?
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Why medicine?
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They were pretty standard.
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If you could win any award in the world, what would it be?? (student interviewer)
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Explain your interest in the actual science of medicine.
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Nothing crazy...
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Student: give me an example of how you are creative Faculty: what would you do if you didn't get accepted?
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How would you rate your mechanical skills (playing with tools, etc)? The interviewer asked me this question because a part of my app said I am considering orthopedics as a specialty of choice.
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Do you think you would have a problem with the Scholarly Project? -mostly related to the fact that I don't have much research background
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So you think you have enough clinical experience?-
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What did you dress up as for Halloween? (there was a bit of a lead up to this question, it wasn't completely out of the blue)
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How do you work in groups and how will that serve you as a physician?
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What do you think you'll struggle with most as a physician?
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What qualities in the physicians you shadowed impressed you the most?
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What personality traits are important for a doctor to have?
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If you could have dinner with any two or three people, who would they be and why?
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What do you think about the informational systems in hospitals? (this was part of an overall conversation about the UPMC hospital's switch to electronic files)
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After answering a question about what I would do if I didn't get in to medical school I was asked: What is the biggest health care issue negatively affecting the quality of life of people today in the US.
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What do you do that's not related to medicine?
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Nothing really: Why did you decide to take a year off?
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what do you think of the pharm companies influencing doctors
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Tell me something not on your application material that's important.
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Do you understand the culture of Pittsburgh?
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Was kind of hoping for more challenging and fun questions, but it didn't happen. How would you define Academic Medicine?
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Are you creative?
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If you were any kind of ice cream flavor, what would you be? / What is the coolest thing you have ever done?
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If you had to pick an ice cream flavor to describe your personality, what would it be?
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What is your favorite cartoon?
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Frankie asked me the random questions like What do you like to do? What's your favorite book?
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All pretty stock questions, nothing special.
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Who was your best friend and how would you describe her?
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cant think of one
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How would you like me to present you to the admissions committee?
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I was mostly just asked to explain activities on my AMCAS for my faculty interview. The student interview was a simple conversation for 45 minutes.
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If you were so happy serving in the military, why are you wanting to get out to go to med school?
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Tell me more about your siblings.
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What do you like to do for fun?
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What do you do for fun? Why did you work so many jobs?
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What animal would you be and why?
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Can't think of any right now...
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Have you heard of the plagiarism case with the Harvard student that was given $500,000 to publish a book? (I told him yes, but didn't see how it connected to medicine... he said that a previous interviewee last week talked about it when they got into a discussion about academic honesty..)
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None really, what I do for fun?
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What books do you read?
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What is the biggest challenge you will face as a physician?
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If you could have any super power which one would you have?
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Nothing in particular
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What's your favorite cartoon
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detailed questions about my essay (my main interviewer had really read my application!)
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It was really low stress...my interviewer was a really nice guy who suggested that we take a walk outside since it was such a nice day. My student interviewer was much younger than me, and she was a first year, on top of that it was her first interview so she was more nervous than I was.
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My feelings on teaching
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Nothing too out of the ordinary: Why Pitt? Why medicine? Describe your volunteer work? Tell me about your research? How did you get here (I'm about 10 years older than most applicants)?
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What do you think about human consciousness?
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Of the cities around the world in which you've worked, which was your favorite and why?
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If I could have any superpower, what would it be? (Asked by student interviewer) Also asked a lot of questions about my interests in women's health, research, and how those tied into my faculty interviewer's current work which was awesome!
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Was there any one moment that really set your heart on medicine?
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All standard questions.
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nothing too interesting. just the common questions.
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Why did you get into your present line of work? There were a lot of interesting and though provoking questions. Very much a conversation between two adults.
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How does your family feel about you going to med school. (I have a husband and a child)
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Nothing out of the ordinary
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What did you think of Freakonomics?
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Do you workout?
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Nothing out of the ordinary...
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What was the other state that the Senate race was waiting on other than Virginia. I did not know the answer, but it was Montana.
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What good experiences and bad experiences have you had with doctors treating your sister (my sister has a severe chronic disease) and how will this affect the way you practice medicine?
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What do I think about HPV vaccine development?
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Do you always wear black to an interview? (actually, I was wearing black and blue, so it was kind of funny)
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Why do you want to be a physician instead of a...?
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i wrote about my father's influence in my PS, and my faculty interviewer spent some time asking about my relationship with the rest of my family and my travel experiences with them.
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I got asked about what I see myself doing in 10-15 years a lot. But, the most interesting question was the student interviewer who asked me what thing from my application I would like him to emphasize to the admissions committee. I thought that was really cool of him.
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Describe how you work in small groups.
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One of my Interviewers went off on a tangent for a few minnutes about how much they liked the new show
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what sorts of health policy do you see yourself shaping in the future?
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nothing really
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What role do you take on in a group situation and why?
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How do you deal with confrontation?
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Tell me something about yourself that you shouldn't (asked by the student interviewer and technically not part of the evaluation).
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How do you work in groups?
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Actually, most of my questions were typical.
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what do you think will be the most difficult aspect of practicing medicine
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this was my second interview and honestly if I taped my first interview and played it back, it would be fine, just sound interested about your own life and activities and you'll do fine. Plus remember the two inescapable questions: why medicine and why this school
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Was the difference between specificity and sensitivity?
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In your experience, have you met any physicians who were disgruntled or unhappy with their choice of profession?
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nothing special
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Tell me your thoughts on the role of physicians in preventive health and research.
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What do you want to have accomplished by the time you die?
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What kind of sandwich do you like? Kind of random.
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I had so many interesting questions. They were: 1. What superpower do you want to have? 2. Would you swim in pool or ocean? 3. Name three people you'd like to have dinner with?
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Who has been your greatest mentor?
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How did your grandma die? (I spoke about her in my personal statement)
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What don't you like about Pittsburgh?
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What do you think will be the most difficult aspect of medicine faced by future doctors?
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My faculty interviewer asked me about my brother, who has Down syndrome. I thought it was interesting that she would want to talk about that.
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None, no surprise questions, very straight forward and to-the-point.
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Just your typical interview questions - Why medicine? Start from the beginning of when you knew you wanted to go into medicine.
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"What's your favorite cartoon - why?" I thought it was pretty random. I answered honestly and said the one where Elmer Fudd goes after a Helga-dressed Bugs Bunny singing - "Kill da wabbit ... Kill da waaaabit."
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Nothing really out of the ordinary.
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What do you want to be when you grow up?
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What's your favorite movie, book, cartoon?
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What is your most creative accomplishment?
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Nothing too interesting...basic questions and specific ones
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I wasn't asked anything remotely interesting. Just the same old questions
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pretty standard questions--why medicine? when did you know you want to go into medicine? etc.
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Why medicine?? not really that interesting...
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(in reference to my interest in global health) how much of your career do you plan to spend working abroad, and what are you reasons?
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What are the biggest problems with healthcare today? How would you change it?
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A couple really fun ones: *If you could have any superpower, which would you choose and why? *What's your favorite cartoon?
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Nothing really. Every question were the typical ones like Why medicine, Why Pitt, What do you like about the city, what extra cirricular.
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How many schools did you apply to? Where have you interviewed already?
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Nothing really.
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what book are you reading?
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What setting do you see yourself practicing in? What is your favorite cartoon?
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What kind of physician do you want to be?
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Do you think you'll be able to "have a life" during medical school?
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What clinical experiences have you had?
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What is the most creative thing you do?
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What is your favorite cartoon
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What did Wittgenstein (philosopher) have to say about pain?
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Very few solid questions, more chit chat with admission dean
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What do you think would be a better way to measure who will make a good resident?
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What are the major issues facing medical care today and what solution would you advocate?
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what is the most important thing we should know about you?
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In reference to my school's female:male ratio (I'm a girl): What does that do for your dating life?
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Can you adjust to the cold in Pittsburgh since you are from California?
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All questions pertained to my AMCAS application. No ethical scenarios, or questions concerning current issues in health care (e.g. HMOs, PPOs, etc.)
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what is the most creative thing you do? apparently the faculty interviewers are told to asess creativity.
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How will you balance family and medicine?
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Very standard questions
-
nothing usualy, we just talked about my life, why medicine, what I liked to do in my free time, and why pittsburgh
-
What was the last CD you bought?
-
If I was to be the gov. of ? (pick one) state and giving my state of the state address, what would be my issues and what would I do about them?
-
If I were elected a US senator, what would be my issues?
-
What improvements do you think doctors could make to help patients have more comfortable experiences?
-
In addition to asking "why medicine," my interviewer inquired as to what steps I've taken to discover whether or not medicine really is for me.
-
In a scale of 1-10, how confident I am about being accepted into Medical School...funny thing was that I am already accepted at two medical schools
-
Nothing stands out- it was all very conversational and seemed aimed at getting to know you as a person.
-
Do you know that you cannot save life you can only prevent death
-
If I were to meet you as a random stranger, what would we talk about?
-
Do you think the fact that you lost 80 lbs in the past will serve to help you relate with patients as a doctor?
-
none very interesting
-
What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
-
Nothing special.
-
Very relaxed interview...no tricky questions.
-
Student: "What's the craziest thing you've ever done?" Faculty: "How do you think knowledge from your [geriatrics] research could be applied to children?"
-
What are some of old movies that you love that you can suggest to me?---I am a huge old movie buff
-
What do you think about our curriculum? What attracts you to Pitt?
-
How did your background with 2 cultures affect your educational experience?
-
Nothing in particular caught my attention, both my student interview and faculty interview were very relaxed and chill and we talked about a lot of stuff, but all about ME.
-
nothing really, they have some standard questions that they have to get the answers to
-
no real questions, just asked me to talk about myself
-
We really had a nice discussion. There were no rote questions but a real flowing conversation.
-
nothing interesting
-
None - pretty standard fare
-
What is your biggest fault?
-
What was your most memorable EMT experience and why?
-
Are you a good cook?
-
Do you realize that as a doctor you are not saving a life, you are simply delaying death?
-
None really too interesting
-
Do you consider yourself to be a well rounded person?
-
some weird scenarios, pretty fun though.
-
What other schools have you interviewed at and what did you like about them?
-
No interesting questions. Just the questions you'd expect; what do you read, what are your hobbies, what area of medicine are you interested in, etc.
-
How did the role in your family prepare you for a career in medicine? (Nothing too interesting or crazy...)
-
Just the basic stuff...
-
What do you hope to get out of Pittsburgh?
-
What is a big pain in the butt?
-
If you could write President Bush's State of the Union Address, what three things would you specifically mention?
-
What are the biggest problems in health care and how would you personally help fix them?
-
How would you feel working for someone less qualified than yourself?
-
None too interesting. Questions were fairly standard.
-
did you know that pitt is top 10 in research dollars? (asked this about 5 times)
-
If you had 30 seconds to explain to the admission committee why they should select you, what would you say?
-
nothing too exciting here - all fairly standard Qs (all my interviewers were quite mellow)
-
When you go home to visit your parents, what does your mother make for you to eat?
-
How does what you learned from studying public health in Mexico apply to our healthcare system in the United States?
-
Recommend a film that my husband and I should see and tell me why it's good. (I was a film major).
-
Nothing very interesting was asked.
-
Do you play any instruments?
-
What made you know for sure that medicine was the right career for you?
-
I wasn't asked any direct questions. Very conversational.
-
So I saw a speech the Rendell (PA's governor) gave about health care, malpractice lawsuits, and insurance rates. In light of all these issues, why would anyone want to get into medicine? (Asked by the student interviewer)
-
nothing all conversational
-
What do you want to do in the future with your MD degree?
-
Do you still have epilepsy?
-
It wasn't an interview as much as it was a discussion. The faculty interviewers questions will be different for everyone because they have your AMCAS personal statement in front of them and will ask questions regarding it.
-
What do you want to accomplish in the next four years besides getting trough medical school?
-
Say you're in PBL and a couple members are not putting in the work. How would you go about rectifying this problem?
-
how would you deal with a peer who was not pulling his weight in PBL group
-
What are some avenues of translational research that will bring currently broad genomics prowess to bear on specific clinical needs, and generally how do the various -genomics fields change medical research paradigms?
-
nothing particular, pretty conversational
-
Tell me something that your friends may not know about you or may find surprising.
-
Do you know who Job is? - I think she just wanted to know how well read I am.
-
Nothing
-
nothing crazy. everything based on the conversation at hand
-
What is the biggest problem with healthcare today, just off the top of my head.
-
my greatest strength and greatest weakness in one word...which I found very interesting since its so hard to narrow this down
-
How would you motivate a member of your PBL(problem based learning) group who is not pulling his or her weight and hindering other members of the group?
-
What kind of people do you not get along with?
-
What is your favorite book?
-
nothing too interesting.
-
How important is located relatively close to your family during school in deciding which med school to attend?
-
Describe your family for me.
-
What was the last book you read?
-
What type of books do you like to read?
-
Will you go back home when you are done with your training?
-
Describe what you're reading right now (I mentioned that I like to read).
-
standard why md/phd - why both degrees - what specialty would you go into, why pittsburgh - what do you like about the program
-
If you can pick three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?
-
What exactly is Postmodernism?
-
The questions were pretty typically. Why do you want to study medince. The most interesting I guess is what do you look for in a medical school...and do we fit that profile.
-
Do you believe the US government should torture suspected terrorists if they have information that might be needed to prevent an imminent attack?
-
What will you enjoy most about medical school? What do you think the most difficult thing will be about medical school?
-
Who do you think was behind the anthrax attacks last year?
-
Tell me about the most interesting family vacation you had...and all my vacations blurred into one, so I couldn't really remember the most fun one.
-
Nothing very interesting. They have a sheet in front of them. The student had only your name and undergrad institution. The faculty interviewer had personal statement and practice vision essays as well
What was the most difficult question?
Students said most difficult question asked at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine discussed a wide range of topics including recent advancements in population health, personal conflicts, impactful research developments, motivations for medicine, failure experiences, and unique qualities. Notably, some respondents mentioned the interview format being MMI with a nondisclosure agreement, while others highlighted standard questions about activities, characteristics, and motivations for pursuing medicine.
-
Can you think of a recent advancement that impacted population health?
-
Tell me about yourself - it’s too broad
-
Tell me a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker/peer?
-
What research development do you know of in the past 5-10 years has made a strong impact to the community/people?
-
Can you describe a time when you failed? How did you handle it or what did you gain from it or how did you grow from it?
-
none. very standard questions
-
none, all very standard!
-
none
-
Has anything especially encouraged or discouraged your motivation for medicine?
-
there were no difficult questions. pretty standard interview
-
the first interview is closed file, so they ask a lot of questions about your activities and characteristics that are sometimes hard to answer
-
What concerns do you have about entering medicine?
-
Why medicine?
-
What sets you apart?
-
There weren't any curveball questions!
-
None, just a conversation.
-
A question about my UG school I didn't know the answer for
-
How will you apply your community organizing background as a physician?
-
Tell me something creative you've done
-
What would you do if you couldn't go to med school
-
For MSTP interview: Have you ever considered doing an MD? Why MD/PhD instead of MD?
-
Question 1.
-
So you want to work with the underserved. How do you justify going $200K in debt, then working for people who won't pay you?
-
What is your greatest weakness? (Ouch, hate that question).
-
Tell me an example of a time you demonstrated creativity
-
NONE!
-
Why did you leave your prior field?
-
Do you have any questions for me?
-
n/a
-
How did that make you feel? (asked a few times throughout... it felt like I was talking to a shrink)
-
None, it was very straight forward
-
None in particular. Very stress-free interviews.
-
nothing was really difficult. there were few actual questions (my interviewer had prepared a sheet of about 5 actual questions, but the rest of the interview was conversational)
-
None really.
-
Why did you decide to switch careers? (was expected of course)
-
NA
-
No difficult questions. I was worried about getting questions about my GPA, but since both interviews are closed file they don't ask.
-
No difficult questions at all. The questions that people post on here is EXACTLY what you'll hear on interview day
-
What is professionalism?
-
The faculty interview was challenging, because I almost felt like the woman wanted me to lead the interview. It felt more like a conversation, and she didn't always lead with a question, so sometimes, instead of waiting for a question, I would just respond to something she had said. I was not expecting this level of informality, so it was a bit of a challenge to roll with.
-
Give me three words that describe you.
-
All straightforward. No curveballs here.
-
"Why Pitt?" was phrased in an unexpected way, looking for specific detail.
-
All the follow up questions on research took some serious thought
-
How do you feel about learning material with a team?
-
Everything was extremely straight forward. The usual stuff.
-
None were very difficult
-
What would make you come to Pitt?
-
So you think you have enough clinical experience?-
-
My student interviewer asked what I'd been doing lately. I think he was running out of things to ask and responses, and the time was fairly short. So be warned, your student interviewer might not be the most adept.
-
what is the core behind all of your motivations for being a doctor
-
Nothing was very difficult, as most questions were posted on studentdoctor.net in other interview feedback pages.
-
What do you think you'll struggle with most as a physician?
-
Nothing difficult. Very conversational.
-
what makes you unique from other applicants? (This one is always hard to answer)
-
Not difficult, but strange: Are you creative?
-
Was there anything in the clinical setting which surprised you?
-
Nothing really.
-
Can you think of a specific example of a doctor talking above the comprehension level of a patient?
-
The faculty interviewer grilled me on my personal statement.
-
Are you interested in academic medicine?
-
Are you creative?... I didn't really know how to approach it.
-
How would you consider yourself a creative person?
-
What have you gotten out of your college experience besides an education?
-
What are *you* looking for in a medical school? (Note: this is different than "why do you want to go to Pitt", although effectively the answers may be similar). Also, "why not RN, PA?"
-
Didn't really have one... my student interviewer was an MSTP or PSTP so he asked me how I felt about pursing professional research, but wasn't difficult just didn't want to offend him.
-
Again, all the questions you prepared for, ''Why Pitt?'', ''Why Medicine?'', ''What do you do for fun?''
-
How to balance between research and patient interaction?
-
No difficult questions
-
How would you like me to present you to the admissions committee?
-
Why should Pitt choose me.
-
Are you really sure you want to do this, given your age and current career?
-
How well are you, a non-science major, prepared for medical school compared to a science major?
-
Did I have any additional clinical experience other than working as an EMT? (I was hoping working as an EMT would be enough.)
-
What other schools applied to, and i stand with them.
-
What motivates you?
-
What would you do if you were in a small group with a very abrasive person? Why would you do this?
-
In what way are you creative?
-
None really, all pretty standard.
-
None.
-
Nothing
-
Having volunteered in a hospice, how do you deal with bonding with patients and then seeing those same patiends pass away?
-
Nothing was too difficult.
-
Was there any one experience that pushed you to medicine?
-
None really
-
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
-
''do you have any questions for me'' (was a little underprepared, and was asked this four times by one guy)
-
Nothing really out of the ordinary
-
How I felt about the Honors/Pass/Fail system in regards to studying very hard and missing the honors mark by a point
-
Are you interested in teaching?
-
None. The questions were all easy.
-
You've had a lot more experience than the average applicant; don't you think that will make it hard to relate to them?
-
What are some of your strengths? What are some of your weaknesses?
-
No questions were particularly difficult. I think the question I was most unsure about how to answer was what other schools I had interviews at/applied to. I had one other interview scheduled at this point, but I wanted to make sure each interviewer who asked (all three) knew Pitt was high on my list! I also got lots of questions about my research experience, questions about any volunteer experiences, outside interests, and desire for the type of location I wanted to attend medical school at. They definitely try to sell Pittsburgh as a great city, so be prepared to either A. know what parts of Pittsburgh you do like or B. be able to show that even though you don't like Pittsburgh as a city, that wouldn't keep you away from the med school!
-
I don't remember any intentionally dificult questions. It was very conversational; I didn't feel like they were interested in watching me perform under pressure--just wanted to get to know me.
-
Tell me about your research.
-
again, nothing too difficult
-
Why do you want to come to Pittsburgh when you are coming from a much better location?
-
Are you sure you want to go to med school? (because I am a non-traditional student, and have had a break in my education, plus a few gray hairs)
-
What are you plans if you don't get into medical school this time around?
-
What will you miss about being a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) whenever you become a doctor?
-
How have you tested your commitment to medicine?
-
Why do you go to the school you do?
-
My interview was more just a conversation... we talked about whatever came up
-
Nothing was really difficult. It was conversational.
-
so why are you here? what other schools that you have applied have problem based learning?
-
If you had to choose between medicine and research, which would it be and why?
-
Why are you here? (it kind of caught me off guard, especially since it was my first question)
-
What is your favorite book? (difficult to narrow it down)
-
nothing was difficult. pitt is very conversational, and i was hardly asked any questions aside from the first, just to get the conversation started.
-
one prof pointed out my lack in clinical experience and i had to recover from that one with other community service things that i had done
-
What is the most creative thing you have done recently?
-
Have you met any disgruntled physicians during your shadowing experiences? How did you respond to them? What effect did they have on you?
-
are you a democrat?
-
Nothing difficult
-
Have you done anything recent to test your commitment to medicine?
-
They were all easy
-
Discuss an experience where you disagreed with an authority.
-
Same as above.
-
Same
-
The interview was very laid-back. No curveballs.
-
Who is your role model?
-
Was the difference between specificity and sensitivity?
-
Have you considered the length and difficulty of residency? What are your thoughts on that?
-
With all of your clinical experiences, what do you know about and are you prepared for medical school, residency, fellowship?
-
What do you think about the US Health Care System compared with that of other countries?
-
How do you think you'll fit in here?
-
i suppose those interesting questions could have been hard but my faculty interviewer made me feel very at ease and comfortable so nothing was really hard.
-
Why not M.D./Ph.D?
-
Do you think you really made a difference in the life of the inner-city child you were tutoring during your Alternative Spring Break? (Was a reasonable question during the interview, but as a stand-alone, this question is difficult.)
-
Same as above
-
To be honest - I was not asked any of those questions that interviewing students dread answering - NO moral/ethical questions, NO defend your position on abortion, etc.
-
Nothing really difficult
-
no difficult questions.
-
Comment on the difference between the health care systems in the U.S. and Canada.
-
How do you feel about academic medicine? (Research, basically) Even if you haven't done any research you will have to do some clinical research while at Pitt. Just keep that in mind.
-
none really, they can't grill you on your application because it's closed-file.
-
How do you like the city? (a question only the most skillful of liers could answer positively)
-
same as before.
-
nothing really
-
same.
-
I guess the most difficult in content, but not asked in a scary way: If your best friend was one station ahead of you on a lab practical exam, and you saw him repeatedly looking ahead like he was cheating off the person in front of him, what would you do?"
-
What do you do with your friends?
-
Pretty standard questions, nothing difficult.
-
no really difficult questions, just usual application, how you got to medicine stuff...
-
What experiences have you had working in small-group settings? What do you think are the pros and cons of working in a small group of peers? Why do you think working with small groups will help you learn?
-
no real difficult questions. The interview was very straightforward to get to know who you are. Probably the hardest was "how would your friends describe you."
-
None. They were very straight forward and were mainly from my app & AMCAS
-
questions about my research
-
Name something wrong with our health care system and suggest a solution.
-
What kind of role do you play on a team and what kind of people do you prefer on a team?
-
What type of problem I'd like to study in the Women's Health AOC
-
?
-
What do you like to do for fun the most? (It was hard to tell if she wanted no ECs or one from ECs)
-
A question about my family (which I wrote about in my app) that came as a surprise.
-
2 strengths and 2 weaknesses
-
No question was especially difficult, but the interviews clearly wanted to know who I was and what had driven my desire to become a physician.
-
What is wrong with medicine and what would you do to fix it? (student question)
-
Nothing too difficult!
-
same, since it was the only one I hadnt heard
-
See above.
-
Very standard questions
-
none really, everyone was extremely relaxed and happy there
-
What do you think of the fact that doctors who are on payroll with the cholesterol drug companies are also the ones that recommeded that the acceptable cholesterol levels be lowered from 200 to 190?
-
From a student interviewer for the MD/PhD part: "The student interviewers have a lot of say in the admissions committee. Do you want me to go to the committee and fight for you?" I thought this was a tough one because even though I was really interested in the school I obviously didn't want to give a guarantee that I would go there since there is still a lot of time before the interview season ends. But as you can see the most difficult question wasn't really difficult.
-
Probably the same one; I'd heard everything else before.
-
Can you tell me about a time when you confronted a real dilemma in your volunteer work?
-
Describe your study habits to me. I could either lie and pretend as if I'm super-student, or I could use this opportunity to tell the truth. I chose the latter, and I am glad to be asked this question instead of the typical "what are your weaknesses" question.
-
Tell me everything you want me to know about yourself (this was asked during the student interview, because they have no knowledge or background about you, aside from your name and state of residency)
-
detailed questions about my research
-
None were difficult.
-
none very difficult
-
No tough questions.
-
So, how do you plan on managing a career with other life responsibilities? (not meant in a bad way, it just came up)
-
Student: "What was the last favorite book you read?" - I don't know! Too busy filling out med school apps! No, I actually didn't answer it like that. Faculty: "Tell me about little aspect X of your research." (I did the project 3 yrs ago).
-
Most questions were fairly straight forward.
-
What schools have you been accepted to?
-
what would you do if you couldnt do medicine (pretty standard, you see)
-
so, do you think pitt is the place for you?
-
see above
-
Don't recall
-
Why Pittsburgh?
-
How do you feel about male gynecologists not being hired in private practices since women now prefer to go to a woman doctor for their gynecological care?
-
None, very conversational
-
How have you tested your desire to enter medicine?
-
Is there anything not on your application that you want me to tell the admissions committee? What happened freshman year?
-
nothing too difficult, very conversational
-
What makes you absolutely, positively sure that you want to be a doctor?
-
If you get accepted into a UC school and Pitt, would you come to Pitt? (i'm from california)
-
My faculty interviewer asked me about health care insurance.
-
All pretty standard questions.
-
Again, the normal med school interview questions.
-
Where do you see medicine in ten years?
-
A current event that I hadn't heard of . . (Low pressure, though)
-
Of those three things lets take one - Education - what 4 policies would you implement to improve it's current situation?
-
Probably the above
-
Nothing too difficult. This site helped me prepare well.
-
What do you look for in a medical school? (By no means hard, normally, but I tripped in this part of the conversation)
-
why would you pick pitt over some other top school? this was difficult because 1. pitt is not a top school and 2. i wouldn't pick pitt over a real top school
-
What would you do if you weren't pursuinf medicine?
-
Nothing really difficult...probably the standard "What will be your greatest challenge as a doctor" question
-
Why Pitt? (i know, it's not too difficult, but i was asked it 3 times and didn't have a great answer)
-
Nothing really difficult. Which of your extracurricular activities are most important to you and why?
-
Do you think that the character Denzel Washington played in "John Q" was right in what he did? Why or why not?
-
Tell me about an ethical dilemma you faced while working abroad.
-
Nothing.
-
What other schools did you apply to? Why would you come out to Pitt?
-
Strengths and weaknesses?
-
so tell me about yourself
-
Tell me something about yourself that I could not find out from your application. (Basically had to continuing elaborating on this question for about 1.5 hours)
-
none - they just really want to get to know you and be friendly
-
Did you always want to be a health professional? How frustrating was it to get the grades you did early in college?
-
Why do you want to be a doctor? Of course, you probably are ready for that one.
-
Nothing, really.
-
None really. I was asked a question or two about my research that I could not answer, but outside of research-specific questions, I just got the normal "Why both degrees..." etc.
-
What are your strengths/weaknesses(required)
-
Name a weakness.
-
If you could have any two books you wanted for eternity, what would they be?
-
What's the most significant activity in college?
-
...well what do you think is preventing major change in the health care area today? (I was talking about problems with managed care and the lack of health insurance and how I'd like to change it if I was given the chance)
-
What makes you different from everybody else?
-
What do you want me to tell the admissions committee about you?
-
Just the typical stuff, why MD/PhD, why Pittsburgh, what other schools did you apply to...
-
Describe your family for me....just because this is such a vague question
-
Tell me about yourself (just too vague to answer really well)
-
What is the biggest problem with American Healthcare today?
-
what topic do you like besides science, for some reason my mind went blank on that.
-
None of the questions were extremely difficult.
-
What is your biggest weakness?
-
Name one of your strengths (this was a required question - my interviewer told me that).
-
What other schools are you applying to?
-
What would you do to reduce rising health-care costs?
-
nothing relaly - all were 100% conversational and relaxed, you could have total control of the direction of the conversation if you wanted.
-
Mostly easy questions
-
When talking about a film "Why do you think the director employed that specific effect?"
-
Nothing really too difficult
-
How would you solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
-
What is your greatest strength? Your greatest weakness?
-
What would you do with your life if you couldn't work in a healthcare profession? (It's hard to pick some other job after detailing your love of the medical field.)
-
How will I prevent myself from becoming a "jaded" doctor...and when I explained, he said, "I'll come back in ten years and see how jaded you are!"
-
Wanted me to explain what was wrong with the health care system today. As soon as I started going into detail he cut me off to tell me his answer (this goes for the entire interview with faculty member)
-
None. What do you do for fun? Why medicine? Why Pitt? Rest were conversational like "how many are in your family", etc.
✅ Interview Preparation and Impressions ▼
How long was the interview?
Most respondents had an interview of more than 50 minutes.
How did the interview impress you?
Most respondents felt positively about their interview.
How many people interviewed you?
Most respondents were interviewed by 2 people.
What was the stress level of the interview?
Most respondents rated their interview as low stress.
How you think you did?
Most respondents thought they performed well at the interview.
What was the style of the interview?
Most respondents had a one-on-one interview.
What type of interview was it?
Most respondents had a closed file interview.
Was this interview in-person or virtual?
Most respondents had a virtual interview.
Data includes both pre- and post-COVID interviews.
Where did the interview take place?
Most respondents were interviewed at the school.
How did you prepare for the interview?
Most applicants prepared for the interview by reviewing interview feedback on SDN, conducting mock interviews, reading the school's website, and reflecting on their application experiences. They also emphasized the importance of practicing common questions, researching the school, and being prepared to ask thoughtful questions during the interview.
-
Reviewing SDN interview feedback
-
SDN; huge doc of interview questions on Reddit; mock interviews
-
Mock interviews, brainstorming and reflecting on past experiences working in healthcare
-
SDN, mock interviews, advise sessions, practice answers.
-
a LOT of mock interviews, a LOT of brainstorming and writing down as many possible questions I could think of or came across in my research or encountered in my asynchronous interviews, brainstorming an appropriate example, making a bulleted list on what happened and what insights I wanted to highlight, and rehearsing answering and hitting those points
-
SDN interview feedback threads, researching Pitt, mock interviews, etc.
-
this page! mock interviews, recording myself answering questions
-
Reread app, look up info about the school
-
SDN
-
Mock interviews
-
mock interviews, read about the school
-
Prepped answers for questions I saw on SDN.
-
Looked at SDN, practiced w/ friends
-
Read over SDN.
-
Reading the school's website, reviewing my application.
-
Website
-
SDN, read "The Healthcare Handbook," read over my AMCAS and secondaries, practiced interviewing with friends
-
SDN SDN SDN!!
-
The school's website and my primary and secondary application. Came up with a solid reason for applying there.
-
read AMCAS app, read SND reviews for Pitt, read Pitt website
-
Rehearsed the basics: why medicine, tell me about yourself, why Pitt. Had an interview the week before.
-
MSAR, researched school facts online, read interview books, drafted sample answers to questions so would't be caught off guard
-
I didn't, just stayed calm and carried on
-
SDN, read through the entire website, looked up my faculty interviewer 30 minutes prior to the interview
-
I had a mock interview at my undergraduate institution that went very badly.
-
Read the MSAR, SDN interview feedback, and website for Pitt. They have a really informative fact book online that was helpful.
-
SDN, reviewed AMCAS primary and Pitt secondary
-
Reviewed school specific thread.
-
Read interview feedback, researched school extensively, practiced common questions
-
Interview feedback :) - especially for student interviews, you're likely to get the same questions as those mentioned here; reading Pitt web site and reading about Pitt on SDN. I had specific interests related to the school, so I think that helped. I also paid attention and asked questions during the student tour of the school and the curriculum talk - and based on those, I had more questions for my interviewers. Be prepared to ask good questions!
-
Reviewed my amcas and secondary, prepped answers to standard interview Qs, SDN
-
SDN, Pitt website.
-
Practiced with pre-med adviser, read about the school online, met with a MS2 the day before, paid attention during the tour.
-
Reviewed my PS, secondary, and reflected on my activities. Also practiced with friends.
-
sleep
-
Read the website
-
Read up on all the programs, options, areas of concentration, PSTP, research opportunities, etc.
-
Pitt's website, read over AMCAS and research paper
-
SDN Interview Feedback
-
SDN, reviewed AMCAS and secondary, read Reid's "The Healing of America", reviewed ethics website (definitely didn't need to though, there were no policy or ethics related questions, all personal)
-
The best preparation was getting to know the people there.
-
Relaxed and learned as much as possible about the school, keeping track of anything I wanted to know in more detail to ask my interviewers. I walked around the school the day before to get the general vibe of the students and area.
-
Read over my application.
-
SDN, reread secondary essays
-
SDN, I bought 2 books on medical school interviews. One by Jessica Freedman and one by Jeremiah Fleenor. Both were great prep in different ways.
-
SDN, school website
-
SDN interview feedback, researched school website, the day of the interview was most informative
-
SDN :)
-
Read about health care reform, read secondary & primary app, familiarized myself with the school's mission & program
-
Reviewed school's website, admissions materials, stayed with a current student and asked about the school.
-
SDN, read website, read application
-
Re-read my application
-
Interview feedback.
-
Website, AMCAS, friends who interviewed at Pitt before
-
Read AMCAS, student docs, secondary, read up and spoke to students about school.
-
SDN, UPitt website... awesome student host!
-
Read over a friend's interview materials from last year
-
Stayed with Student Hosts and asked them tons of questions about curriculum, good things about school; Asked lots of questions on student-led tour; Asked even more questions at lunch hour with current students
-
SDN, website, reviewed application
-
Review their website, sdn,mock interview
-
Reread secondary/primary, Pitt website...
-
SDN, reviewed primary and secondary, mock interview with career center
-
Read the websites, SDN, the usual.
-
sdn, reviewed essays and amcas.
-
Looked at other interview feedback questions, reread personal statement and secondary essays, looked at Pitt's website and brochures.
-
SDN, school website, essays
-
Re-read essays, researched Pitt's website, read the emails from Pitt's admissions office.
-
SDN, Introspection
-
MSAR, SDN, Read the school's website, Talked to other students, and reviewed application materials.
-
This was my first interview, so I did WAY too much to prepare: researched the ENTIRE Pitt website, read Understanding Health Policy, looked over my app and secondary for Pitt
-
SDN, read app and school website
-
Re-read AMCAS and secondary application, a mock interview and SDN.
-
Mock interview, researched web site, SDN
-
Looked over my personal statement since that was the only part of my application they had access to, skimmed sdn interview feedback, read a few news stories, and refreshed my memory on topics I'm interested in.
-
Read SDN and relaxed.
-
sdn, school website, talked to student host
-
sdn. review app
-
Read my applications, read this site, read pitt's factbook
-
Talked with host students the night before
-
Reviewed school's website and fact book, my primary and secondary
-
SDN, read AMCAS and secondary, talked over some basic questions - why Pitt, why medicine, why should we accept you - with mentor.
-
SDN, primary app (which was beneficial because I was asked about my community service activities and EC's because they really don't know who you are)
-
Pitt website/ SDN/ mock interview/ ethics classes/ refreshed recent political and current events topics
-
I didn't really.
-
SDN, school website, read over AMCAS
-
SDN, Pitt website and viewbook, read over secondary and primary
-
SDN, read about pitt, healthcare (unnecessary), ethics (unnecessary), AMCAS
-
Read MSAR, personal statements from primary and secondary, interview feedback (MUST READ!), and their factbook.
-
Read up on the program and all of the little mini-programs, read over application.
-
Questions pulled in from all over the place
-
sleep, SDN
-
SDN, website, mock interviews, friends asked me questions, reviewed secondary app
-
SDN, read Person to Person 2x and quick facts (from the website...there is lots of good stuff in this), also read several health care books and went over common questions.
-
SDN interview feedback, read Bioethics, UPitts curriculum and website
-
school website, read my primary and secondary apps, school bulletin
-
Read secondaries, school website, went over my file.
-
Read the MSAR and mailing. Asked questions of my student host.
-
Read website, AMCAS, reviewed applications, etc.
-
read over my AMCAS app, SDN, typical interview questions
-
SDN, read about Pittsburgh, re-read my application
-
Read Person-to-Person and SDN feedback.
-
Reading their viewbook, MSAR and biomedical ethics texts and articles.
-
looked over school website, read person to person brochure, MSAR, reread AMCAS and essay responses to secondary
-
SDN, read over my application, read over website. I did a few general mock interviews.
-
I made a list of past questions using SDN interview feedback, read the admissions booklet you get by mail, MSAR, website, asked student host ---- overall preparation didnt matter, very stress-free interview
-
I read school's viewbook, thoroughly read website, Dean's yearly state of university address was very helpful to see where the university is and where it is going.
-
Read my application, talked to a friend who studies at Pitt Med, mock interview
-
Read SDN, read AMCAS app, looked up a lot of information about Pittsburgh so i could justify why I would like to live there.
-
SDN Interview feedback, brochure.
-
SDN, mock interview, person to person brochure, reading on ethics/medical field, and re-reading application
-
SDN, prepare rough outline of answers to core questions, researched Pitt
-
Read over my personal statement, my secondary application, and the UPitt website.
-
Drinks with a friend the night before.
-
Read material about the school.
-
SDN, Reviewed primary and secondary applications, Person to person brochure, school's website
-
SDN, Person to Person Brochure, Pitt website, spoke with current students
-
read through AMCAS, read about school, SDN
-
Just checked out the website, re-read my application
-
Read over my AMCAS application, feedback on SDN, mock interview
-
Re-read personal statement, SDN feedback was very helpful, Pitt website, managed to meet up with some Pitt faculty
-
I read up on my application and SDN.
-
Read over my recent work, exercised to reduce stress, and watched Season 4 of Scrubs.
-
studentdoctor.net, review interview tips, review ethical issues.
-
Since this was my first interview, I prepared by going to my school's Career Services website which had a two page summary of what to expect at medical school interviews. I also read through the questions and feedback on this interview feedback system and made a list of questions to read over on the plane. Most importantly though, I read up on what I liked about Pitt (including their area of concentration program, block scheduling, particular research centers I would like to work with, etcetera) so that I could answer the ''Why Pitt'' question knowingly with things that are truly special about Pitt instead of other schools.
-
Practiced sample essay questions, read over application (although all they have access to is your personal statement, and thats only for the faculty interview), talked to some students ahead of time
-
Read over secondary.
-
SDN, P2P, website, secondaries
-
SDN, AMCAS, secondary
-
SDN, website, friends
-
Visited SDN and read other peoples´ remarks.
-
Person to Person, Student doctor, and Primary and Secondary applications
-
sdn, mock interviews, read books on socialized medicine - pros and cons
-
Reading Pitt's face-to-face brochure, studentdoctornet. USA-today headlines and current events (although weren't important), personal statement and secondary essays
-
SDN, School Website, UPMC Website, AMCAS application
-
SDN, mock interview, P2P brochure, school website, talked with student host
-
SDN, website, my own application, & p2p brochure
-
SDN, reading over my app, current events, reading their brochure/pamphlet
-
Amcas, SDN, NYtimes.com, Upitt person-to-person brochure
-
amcas, upitt person to person, secondary
-
SDN, review my amcas essays, mock interview, google the school, read the person to person publication
-
SDN, Pitt's person to person brochure, school's website, USA today
-
Studentdoctor.net, read over person to person, reviewed my application.
-
read pitt viewbook, reread amcas, reread pitt application, talked to my friend who had already interviewed there
-
read pitt admissions materials, do mock interview, read over my essays, read about the research of the profs i was meeting (for md/phd part)
-
SDN, website, talking to my student host
-
People-to-People Prospectus, Pitt Med website (including links on Admissions, Special Programs, and Research Opportunities), e-mailed many many current students via the Excel Host-Student chart on the secure prospective student website, and of course good ol' SDN's listed questions - copied and answered all the ones from this year and last!
-
reviewed AAMC app, school website, wrote some key points out in bullet point to remind myself to address them in the interview. got a good night's sleep and took a yoga class the day before the interview.
-
read their booklet, website
-
Read SDN feedback, thought about answers for common questions, read about healthcare policy/ethics, talked with Pitt students, thought of possible questions to ask the interviewer
-
SND, my application, website, their brochure
-
SDN.
-
I reviewed Pitt's materials (Person to Person booklet), and my primary and secondary application essays.
-
Website, MSAR, school publication, studentdoc reviews
-
Review over my AMCAS app, Pitt's
-
information Pitt sent, their website, my primary/secondary, SDN
-
website, brochure
-
read about school, reviewed file, practiced standard questions
-
SDN, read school's website
-
Person to Person brochure, website, AMCAS, Interview feedback
-
Looked over my application, thought about what I would want to talk about, how I would answer the inevitable
-
Brochure, website, SDN feedback, went to Pitt for undergrad so didn't need to prepare about the city
-
I read through my AMCAS and supplementary applications, the school website, Pitt's
-
medstudent host, sdn, website
-
SDN, website, brochures, interview feedback
-
read SDN, school's website, my AMCAS and 2ndary apps
-
sdn, person to person brochure, read my primary and secondary applications
-
Person to person brochure, discussions with current MS1's.
-
MSAR, Website, Brochures, Friends
-
I asked my friend that goes to undergrad Pitt to tell me about the school.
-
SDN interview feedback, Person to Person brochure, Pitt website
-
SDN, School website, School Handouts, AMCAS, Seconday essays
-
SDN, read my application, secondary, read the big book
-
1. Admissions P2P Prospectus 2. Scoured all over the Pitt website:(www.medschool.pitt.edu) 3. Followed other links from above website to learn about Pitt and the city in general before visiting. 4. SDN's Interview Feedback :) 5. MSAR's descriptions 6. Map of Pittsburgh 7. Host List - found in the invitation only Admissions site when you click on the Interview tab. This is the same site as the secondary status site. Here, they will allow you to register for an interview, and they have under this INterview Tab, an Excel file with a ton of students willing to host you; it also tells you their main interests, their interests outside of school, where they live with respect to school, pets/no pets, smoking/no smoking, married/single, room-mates or living alone, etc ...
-
Reviewed secondary application, read about the school on the web
-
Read Pitt brochure, SDN, talked with student host
-
SDN, my own application (essays for the secondary app), pitt website, materials given the day of the interview
-
SDN, Pitt website, USA Today, mock interviews
-
sdn, reviewed app, Pitt website
-
Pitt website, SDN, interview feedback
-
Drank, did work, read UPitt's "person-to-person" magazine
-
sdn, website
-
read app/ website etc.
-
Read the web site, read their brochure, reviewed my AMCAS and secondary.
-
sdn, website, their flyers
-
sdn, 22 years of life experience, went to classes with my host the day before, worried
-
Read Pitt website and brochures, SDN, stayed with student host
-
SDN, Pitt's website, Pitt's big brochure, Read over my file. Read over this sheet I prepared with things i wanted to talk about. I saw another person with similar notes. This was my second interview so i was less nervous. My mental state was a bit altered as well since i had only One hour of sleep on the plane. I was loaded on caffeine so i was a bit more chattery than my usual.
-
SDN, MSAR, Packets Pitt sent me
-
Read over my application, read studentdoctor.net feedback, looked at the website, read the literature they had sent me.
-
sdn, upitt website, propaganda mailed from school
-
Talked to fourth-year student, re-read AMCAS and secondary essays,
-
studied their website, SDN, Interview feedback, my AAMCAS, my secondary. Worried, fretted and stressed.
-
Read SDN, reviewed personal statement, practice interview, read up on some current issues
-
School website, SDN, reviewed all my apps (to prepare for any interview ?'s) and reviewed AMCAS
-
um. . . i didn't really
-
read amcas, looked at Pitt's website
-
Reviewed SDN feedback, school website, and AMCAS application
-
SDN, Pitt website, alumni friends, practice questions
-
Read SDN, reviewed my primary and secondary application essays, and read up on faculty who are doing research that interests me.
-
Read this site, look at the school website, go through the forums
-
Talked to people who interviewed there, read SDN interview feedback
-
SDN website, UPitt web site
-
This site, forums, Pitt website, Read over AMCAS...
-
I reviewed all the material I could find on the school and thought about questions I might ask the interviewers. I also looked over lists of standard interview questions and thought briefly about how I might answer them.
-
read sdn, website, brochure
-
SDN, Pitt website, mock interview
-
Read SDN, Pitt website, their viewbook, reviewed my AMCAS and secondaries, other interviews.
-
Read over my secondary, SDN
-
SDN, talked to the current students, Pitt website, tour booklet
-
I read through my AMCAS application, Pitt secondary, and SDN feedback. As usual, I read a lot about the school on-line.
-
Read interview feedback, school's website
-
read sdn, look over the pitt catalog
-
Read over the opportunities/curriculum at Pitt, reviewed practice questions, prayed.
-
Talked to my student host, read SDN, read the school Brochure and payed attention to everything everyone said about the school, searched the interests of the faculty I was interviewing with, didn't do a mock interview even though this was my first interview, but did think about my answers to generic questions.
-
School Brochure, SDN, read secondary and AMCAS
-
read SDN, thought about answers, spent the morning (during the tour) developing opinions and questions
-
I read SDN interview feedback, and I read and re-read the literature and website for UPitt.
-
Read AMCAS, UPitt brochure, talked to student host, read SDN
-
SDN, School Prospectus and website
-
read sdn, internet, essay
-
Read the UPitt website, studentdoctor.net
-
SDN, Read the Pitt Brochure
-
SDN, brochure, web
-
Read over the brochure, this website, just thought things through.
-
Read through Pitt's website and brochure, did some thinking about what I wanted to convey, etc.
-
SDN, reread AMCAS, looked at school website
-
Let's see... 1) Reviewed my application, especially the personal statement since that's all the faculty member gets. 2) Looked over my research 3) Read SDN interview posts (but only the most recent 10. 4) Got a good night's sleep.
-
I looked at SDN, this website, and looked at their catalog they sent me, and prepared with my flashcards of common questions
-
Read through SDN and read through the schools written materials.
-
pitt literature, the usual
-
Nothing really, went over my application and thought over some possible questions.
-
web site, the brochure they sent, sdn feedback
-
website, literature
-
I ate a Primani Brothers sandwich
-
read SDN and pitt's website
-
MSAR, Pitt brochure, and Pitt website
-
Talked to friends at Pitt, looked at Pitt's brochre, and read comments on this site
-
SDN, read UPitt brochure, etc
-
SDN, Pitt brochure and kept up with current events.
-
School catalog, website, reviewed my AMCAS and secondary. Talked to current medical studetns.
-
Pitt website etc, read over my application
-
reading this website reading the Pitt website reviewing my applications
-
Read this site, talked to my student host.
-
Read app materials, SDN, read website, relaxed.
-
website, here
-
Website, Brochure, feedback, amcas app
-
read SDN interview feedback. I had previous interviews, so I felt prepared
-
figured out where and when to show up.
-
I didn't really do any. I read interview feedback and the school's website.
-
Relaxed, talked to people, read information.
-
Read up Pitt's catalog, my secondary, corresponded with Pitt Student Executive Council president.
-
Read UPMC's brochure, reviewed my application.
-
read SDN, AMCAS
-
Checked a map and showed up!
-
Read this site, read over my application materials, relaxed.
-
review application, read this
-
Read website, brochure, and SDN interview feedback. Practiced questions with my wife. Found other interview tips at various websites.
-
Interview feedback, SDN, their person-to-person booklet
-
read the brochure, and these feedbacks
-
SDN, read the school pamphlet (really helps)
-
SDN, read Pitt's literature and my application, knew my strengths and weaknesses well
-
School's website and promotional literature (which they sent me), MSAR
-
Read interview prep books. Kept up with current events. Went over sample questions. Studied Pitt website and brochure. Mock interview.
-
I prepared a lot less for this interview than for others. I just reread the catalogs and look at my own applications the night before. Pulled out my "standard list of questions" for all schools and added some additional "Pitt only questions" for interviewers.
-
Read over my personal statement, watched Snoop Dogg videos on mTV (really).
-
Read sdn website, person to person pamplet, and my application.
-
Went to bed on time
-
This site and reviewed applications
-
This website
-
SDN, Pitt's website, reread my application
-
Interview feedback, look over school brochure
-
read their literature, sdn, my application
-
read the website and literature/viewbook.
-
Watched the Super Bowl
-
Read over app & school's website.
-
Read this site, mostly.
-
I looked up information about the school .
-
Read this interview feedback, read viewbook.
-
Read AMCAS, secondary essays, and my own research. I also read my interviewers' stuff, at least the abstracts, but this was not very useful.
-
looked over app, secondary
-
Interview Feedback (SDN), Read Pitt's brochures, Pitt's Website, reread my secondary app essay
-
Had a mock interview with professors, looked at studentdoctor.net, read the Pitt brochure, and read "Sweaty Palms, the Neglected Art of Being Interviewed". I hightly recommend this book!
-
talk to people who are in the school, check out their web-site, and read over some questions.
-
this website, pitt brochure
-
Looked at this website, looked over the Pitt brochure, talked about answers to possible questions with friends.
-
Re-read my essays and kept up-to-date on the news.
-
Read over my interviewers' research
-
I read the bulletin, my AMCAS and secondary apps, and some literature on health care
-
went through this website and read the school's brochure.
-
Read Pitt brochure, reviewed my own application, reviewed common questions
-
Read interview feedback, looked over their website, read over my application.
-
I read interview feedback, reviewed Pitt material and watched Will and Grace the night before.
-
I read this website, the school's website, and read my AMCAS application thoroughly.
-
read about the school, reviewed my information
-
AMCAS, U Pitt Brochure (A WONDERFUL resource), Secondaries
-
Read their brochures and checked out their website.
-
Read MSAR, U.Pitt website, SDN, newspapers, etc.
-
i overkilled for the interview - read lots of literatiure for the mstp interviews - i didn't prep at all for the med ones - they tell you about the curriculum before you interview so you have some good questions
-
Study research stuff, look at this site, talk with other people. I went a little overboard with my research...Pitt's interview doesn't go all out with the stress level. Faculty is very nice.
-
Read brochure, talked to first and second year medstudents.
-
Read magazines like Time and Newsweek, and looked over some of my research papers and my applications
-
Read feedback on this site, read a book on health care issues, reviewed my application.
-
Hyperventilate.
-
Reading the Pitt brochure, SDN Web site
-
read my AMCAS application and secondary essays, read feedback on studentdoctor.net
-
Read interview feedback.com
-
Read UPitt brochure, interviewfeedback.com (sorry guys)
What impressed you positively?
Applicants were overwhelmingly impressed by the relaxed and conversational interview style, along with the genuine interest shown in their success by both interviewers and staff. They appreciated the friendliness and welcoming atmosphere of everyone they encountered, the state-of-the-art facilities, the extensive clinical opportunities, the emphasis on collaboration among students, the focus on research, the flexibility of the curriculum, and the enthusiasm of the students for the school and the city of Pittsburgh.
-
I loved how relaxed and conversational the interviews were. Both interviewers showed a genuine interest in seeing me succeed.
-
How personable everyone was; genuinely felt like talking to people I knew
-
How chill the interview was
-
The faculty and student interviewers were super nice. Student interview was much more chillax than faculty interview.
-
I felt the interviewers made a solid effort to help put me at ease and make me more comfortable during the interview.
-
the intro session
-
How conversational the interview was. I got almost no standard interview-style questions.
-
super chill; student interviewer was super chill
-
everyone was so nice! Very relaxed considering the caliber of the school!
-
The attitude of everyone from Pitt Med
-
Lots of varied clinical exposure
-
the facilities and people are wonderful
-
There were only a few formal questions asked during the interview. Most of it was very conversational, and I felt like I could control the conversation just as much as the interviewer.
-
the interview day was really well organized, the medical center is really impressive
-
Everyone at the school truly loved it there. Students, faculty, everyone- you really could tell. I also like the way their curriculum is set up, and how students are involved in adjusting it over time.
-
Tons of resources
-
Seems like a cool city to be in.
-
The facilities and the resources available to students.
-
It was great! Definitely my top choice after the interview!
-
Everyone was *extremely* kind and welcoming
-
The curriculum was really cool! Definitely a lot of ways to customize your education with electives, etc. Plus the Scholarly Research project doesn't just have to be wet lab stuff.
-
Urban atmosphere and how happy the students were to be there.
-
So many research opportunities, very easy-going students
-
How in depth my interviewer had read my application, and how conversational the interview was.
-
How much people loved Pitt (school and city), amount of mentorship and help from faulty/upper classmen, emphasis on collaboration/non-competition among students (everything pass/fail)
-
The hospital is gorgeous, the curriculum is great.
-
Everything!!! The faculty are SO NICE and all the students seem to be genuinely happy.
-
Everything.
-
Everyone at the school, the students, admission office staff, and interviewers, were very friendly. The overall interview day was very stress free.
-
The curriculum is cool - you can really tailor it to your interests with mini-electives, areas of concentration, etc. The UPMC hospitals seemed fantastic. All the faculty I met were really outstanding and seemed to love teaching and working with med students.
-
The students and facilities
-
Wonderful faculty interviewer. Strong support for research ventures. Very livable, friendly city.
-
Facilities, WISER simulation, strength of both research and clinical training, research availability, student community//support
-
How truly, sincerely nice and open everyone was; the city of Pittsburgh seems like a really nice place to live; the student lead tour was great (probably the most informative and interesting med school tour I've been on); WISER simulation center; clinical and research opportunities (lots of clinical electives in the 4th year and research is supported very well); CSTP program; the fact that Pitt cares about students having a life.
-
Friendliness of everyone I met, simulation center
-
The people, the opportunities, the facility, the culture, the curriculum, the city... It is all great.
-
The UPMC system is amazing! There are so many clinical opportunities immediately on campus, but they also have international hospitals and hospitals throughout the nation for students to take advantage of.
-
The grandness of UPMC
-
Just about everything
-
Ranking
-
The Oakland area, the massive medical complex, and the quality of the students.
-
Great research opportunities, great clinical experience at UPMC
-
The facilities were really impressive. Tour guide was friendly. Both student interviewer and faculty interviewer were chill.
-
Extremely friendly staff and students. Program is centered around patient care, students will be able to take patient histories and interact with real patients midway through the first year. Orientation week consists of going out into the community and seeing the state of health care in different parts of the area. Patient centric curriculum = Big plus for me.
-
The quality of the people and the fact that the school takes the quality of interpersonal relationships very seriously.
-
Pittsburgh is much nicer than I expected. And, the hospital system is impressive to say the least.
-
Everything: campus, public bus (being from nyc this is important and it seemed like it would suffice), affiliated hospitals and clinics, the HAPPY students etc.
-
UPMC facilities are beautiful. New sim center. Lots of construction in the UPMC system (=money!). Student housing on Darragh Street is nice and very convenient.
-
Everything
-
how welcoming every last person was from the students to the doctors to the admissions staff
-
The WISER center was very cool. They are getting new 3G human models. Fancy.
-
The facilities were amazing & the students were very engaging, diverse, smart, & happy,
-
friendliness that felt more genuine than other schools I'd been to; students seemed really happy and not competitive (with each other or even with themselves); AOCs; mini-electives; opportunity to take 6 credits of courses at undergrad (eg language); incredible research opportunities; about half students non-traditional (so am I); diverse academic strengths - both in my interests and in fields I may become interested in in the future; the easiness of living in Pittsburgh!
-
WISER center, friendliness of everyone involved in the process, the blatant emphasis on research
-
Continental breakfast. Pretty good bagel.
-
Everything- the facilities (especially the WISER lab), the student involvement, the city itself
-
The WISER (sim-lab) was pretty awesome.
-
Nice facilities, good research opportunities, friendly students. Location is good, and having the undergrad nearby is nice. Tons of nice hospitals, and decent living options nearby.
-
The simulation center (we saw a simulation in progress), student enthusiasm and willingness to answer questions. Sporting facilities. The organ-system-based curriculum. Student tours were in groups of four, and guides would point out interview locations for later in the afternoon.
-
The hospital facilities, the schools curric
-
The students are so down to earth and the facilities are amazing (read: humongous).
-
Students, vast resources of the school, ridiculously awesome faculty and facilities.
-
The place is amazing. Everything is centered around teaching, and they are all about innovation. The WISER center is incredible. The clinical education at Pitt is unmatchable, with such an extensive network of hospitals and patient populations to work with.
-
Simulation center is the 5th biggest in the country, and the students utilize it extensively (200 hrs required); Happiness of students (They have a life!); Diversity of students (about 50% are non-trad; about 25% go abroad summer after M1 with funding from school); Willingness of the school to raise good physicians (it's obvious from all the money the school spends on students and teaching facilities and responsiveness to feedback); UPMC is the biggest hospital system in the country, and UPitt students are the sole med students to roam this system! Awesome!
-
The vast amount of opportunities available. Advisory dean relationship, Small group learning opportunities
-
The curriculum integration
-
WISER (simulation center), responsiveness of administration to student feedback, rich hospital network, many many opportunities in research and overseas work, scholarly project to focus and apply knowledge in one area is very cool!
-
WISER center, required thesis, the snow. :)
-
WISER, conversational style interview
-
The people were great! You have 2 - one hour interviews so you have plenty of opportunities to present yourself. Also, at the end of the day they offered optional sessions and the History of Medicine discussion was awesome.
-
Faculty and staff are incredibly friendly; students seem genuinely happy; WISER is just amazing.
-
The simulation center, the breadth of the clinical facilities, the quality of the clinical training, the positive attitude of the students, the emphasis on research, the interviewers' friendliness.
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Pittsburgh. There's a lot to do and a very rich culture. Much better than I expected. The students were all very very friendly and happy to be there.
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The cities of Pittsburgh and Oakland, where the campus is located, are surprisingly nice. The hospitals ans facilities were state of the art. The admissions staff and students were very nice. The anatomy lab had a good amount of space.
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WISER center, friendly students and admissions office, PBL emphasis, UPMC hospital, great opportunities available for Pitt students
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everything...everyone seemed happy to be there and genuinely liked the school.
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Everything; the students were happy and down to earth and the location is nice.
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WISER simulation center is amazing. The academic environment appears to be based on cooperation, not competitiveness. Also, all lectures are podcasted if you miss class or decide you would rather listen to lecture in 1.5X speed.
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Everything about the school: the med students, the WISER facilities, the anatomy lab...
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The simulation lab, the quality of applicants, the campus, everything.
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the students, the number of institutes in upmc, wiser
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The opportunities for research and travel abound. The student affairs office is helpful and interested. - I was impressed
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Tour of facilities, discussions with students
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WISER center and other facilities are great!
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Students and faculty were very happy. Focus on creativity and diversity. Only PBLs have mandatory attendance. Great art and indie scenes, public transport in Pittsburgh. WISER!
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the facilities!
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WISER center, student-friendliness, city of Pittsburgh, research opportunities
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The opportunity to see all of the facilities, to meet with many students and to see how happy they were at pitt, the general school spirit in oakland, the cheap 28x airport transportation, the expanse of UPMC, the simulators
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The student body-- they were very friendly.
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The friendliness of the school. The facilities. Especially the WISER facilities.
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Pittsburgh was a much nicer city than I thought it would be. The simulation center was cool, and everyone was sooooo extremely friendly.
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Research funding (ranked 6th in NIH)!
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Just how friendly and respectiveful all of my interviewers are. My faculty interviewer especially impresses me and I can tell she actively try to make her interviewee comfortable.
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The teaching facilities and the hospital are absolutely fantastic, better than just about anywhere. The students seem pretty happy there and the housing situation is also excellent. The curriculum is a good mix of PBL and traditional teaching. Thesis requirement provides nice research emphasis. The sim facility is really cool.
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eh...
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The facilities are amazing. The students are really friendly and helpful.
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The interviewers were soooo nice and down-to-earth. The definition of conversational interviews. The admissions staff was also very friendly. Students were very enthusiastic about the school. Tons were eager to answer questions; seemed extra excited by prospective students.
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The people. Everyone was very nice and enthusiastic about the school. The medical students seemed very happy. The WISER center was pretty amazing.
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students think very positive about the school and very friendly. Nice anatomy lab and wiser center.
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the location was so much better than I though it would be! The view of the downtown at night is completely amazing and so is the waterfront!!
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Interest level of the admissions members and faculty in the prospective students.
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WISER of course. The location of the school. The hospital system. And I even liked the city of Pittsburgh.
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WISER center is amazing, the apartments where most MS1 students live is nice with a great location
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WISER center, my faculty interviewer who really wanted to get to know me well
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WISER center
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Students and faculty seemed amazingly friendly and happy, vastness of UPMC, amazing resources such as WISER center.
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The WISER center, UPMC umbrella gives you lots of opportunities.
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WISER facility, student satisfaction, faculty interaction, great opportunities
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The WISER center was very impressive. Also, the sheer number of hospitals within a close proximity of the medical school was impressive.
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EVERYTHING! Simulation lab is fabulous. Curriculum incorporates a substantial amount of PBL which really appeals to me. Massive hospital system all located within a couple of miles. Students seem happy and, well, quite normal. Other applicants were also incredibly friendly and pretty cool. I am in love with pitt.
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Facilities were top notch and people were extremely friendly.
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Faculty seemed very friendly and open, students seemed genuinely happy, large medical center with a lot of options (especially for research)
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How friendly everyone was and how all the med students work together versus compete with each other. Also, the hospital facilities, especially WISER, are amazing.
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Interest in student's success, B-WISER is AWESOME, the curriculum, everyone was nice
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Students are really nice and seem to be very tight....everything seems to be tailored to the MD student
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WISER center; low-key, closed file interviews, very conversational...mostly questions about reasons and motivation for medicine, going to Pitt, research and extracurriculars that I've done
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Pittsburgh is a good blend of urban and small town. Everyone was very friendly, the students seemed very happy to be at Pitt, and the WISER center is great.
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Honesty of interviewers, enthusiasm of staff and students
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The simulation center, extensive hospital facilities, Pittsburgh is a charming city (just wish it was closer to home).
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The facilities, and the enthusiasm of the faculty and students.
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The people (students, faculty and other staff) are incredibly nice
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WISER center, student-focused school, early clinical experience, PBL
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Everyone was very friendly, hospital is very high-tech and fancy, student interviewer was enthusiastic
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Seems like a great school with great facilities
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Pittsburgh as a city is really nice and has a lot of things to do. The facilities were excellent and the students I met were really friendly and had only good things to say about the program.
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WISER center, library has lots of electronic subscriptions, everyone was very friendly and enthusiastic
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The school is SUPERB! It runs the gamut from excellent clinical exposure to cutting edge research.
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Scope of facilities and opportunities.
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Pittsburgh seemed like a hospitable city. The senior admissions staff was very accommodating, my faculty interviewer was very friendly and forthcoming about the school. Its a great medical center.
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Everyone was really friendly and seemed to want us to have a good time instead of being stressed out pickles. The WISER center was also amazing (including pediatric and labor and delivery simulations plus possible expansions). I was impressed that medical students are allowed to learn how to do central lines since at some schools that isn't the case (and that they can practice on mannequins before doing it on people!) I was also really impressed by the vastness of Pitt's med system including the Magee Women's Hospital and the new Pitt dorm for medical students (at least the pictures/idea of it and how cheap it is). I also really like how the curriculum includes a scholarly project with options for global health participation, but I'm not sure that should be required from students who aren't research/community health oriented (However, if you're not, why go to such a strong research oriented school?)
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Students seem genuinely happy. They really like the curriculum (Pitt students only take one science class at a time, and its very condensed, i.e. all you do the first 3 weeks is anatomy, but then you're done with it for the year) Also, the PBL supplements the lectures very well, and they seem to like that. Facilities were perfectly fine. Pittsburgh seems like a very nice city, very liveable, safe, affordable, etc. And the school is very close to downtown. The hospital complex is pretty impressive. They seem to own the entire city. And the WISER center is incredible.
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Great research, great faculty.
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The facilities, WISER, the faculty support for students.
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the WISER center was cool, Pittsburgh seemed like a nicer city than I thought it would be, the students (the few that we met) were pretty friendly
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The dummy simulations....so awesome. The people were really cool and helpful.
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The simulation department.
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The ample opportunity available to do research. Also, Pitt Med is geared towards keeping their students satisfied. The fourth year students seemed real cool, but some of the first year students seemed weird.
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The wiser center, my student hosts, the assistant director of admissions was a jolt of positive energy.
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The quality of the facilities, the WISER center!, library system, hospital affiliations and availability
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The facilities and the close proximity of all the hospitals and housing options
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The facilities, Pittsburgh and the cost of living, the research opportunities.
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The area. Wiser lab. friendly people. how much research they do. the new med student residence
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how nice the students and staff all are, WISER!, the amount of research and the number of opportunities to do stuff, paula davis on the admissions staff (she's awesome!)
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Wiser Center and Pittsburgh
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amazing facilities ranked 7th for NIH funding. LOTS of money for students, really nice down to earth students, cstp and pstp program covers full tuition and an extra year of research and/or obtaining a Msc degree
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The friendliness of everyone and how many medical centers are in the city.
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The facilities are great. The WISER center is amazing. Also, you're only taught one major science class at a time. That's really nice. A lot of schools will teach you Anatomy and Physiology at the same time, but not at Pitt
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The facilities and the students' overall attitude. Everyone at Pitt is extremely friendly.
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the facilities were great, and the student interviewer was awesome
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the student and faculty member that i met with for the md portion were so amazing and encouraging. i really like the area of pittsburgh.
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I loved the school. Pittsburgh is so pretty and all the students seem to be very happy and well adjusted. They all have more going on than just studying.
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How nice people really are at Pitt. That may sound like a cheesy thing to say as an impression to some, but seriously - you will see what I mean if/when you come here. Students, faculty, staff - they're such warm-hearted people, and brilliant too. =)
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WISER simulation labs, the number and quality of hospitals, the flexibility of fourth year in terms of electives, the friendliness and personability of the med students
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nice and friendly faculty and students
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The school is really focused on taking action when students aren't satisfied. I haven't seen (yet) another school so focused on student satisfaction.
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The WISER center is awesome. The students were really friendly, especially my excellent hostess.
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WISER is incredible. The city seems to have a lot of culture/activities. Undergraduate campus provides lots of other things to do as well.
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The atmosphere was generally cooperative, warm, and welcoming. The admissions staff, faculty, and students seemed genuinely interested in us.
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The WISER center is amazing, and such a cool idea! I also liked that the clinical experience starts at the end of the first year. Visiting the anatomy lab was great. The most important thing for me was that everyone we met on tour and during lunch with the second year students was enthusiastic, relaxed, and at the same time really excited about being a student there. They all seem to like each other and have good things to say about the school and the faculty.
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U Pitt was amazing. Situated in the heart of downtown, the medical center spans over the Oakland area and provides state-of-the art facilities, including the WISER simulation center. Also, everyone was so friendly and helpful. The city is remarkable- really affordable and vibrant. I had a great experience.
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I absolelty feel in LOVE with the camus, the adminstrators and the students. Pitt is by far my number one choice now!
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admissions dean seemed to hit it off nicely with me. Pitt is the ONLY med school in the town and seems to own half the city
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Pittsburgh is a really beautiful city
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the Wiser simulation center--quality Emergency Med program. Pittsburgh is great. good solid top 15 school.
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The simulation center(s) and the display of
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The students are terrific. Pitt has great facilities.
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The facilities are amazing. I don't think anyone who visits can be unimpressed with WISER. The faculty interview was very informative. The food in the hospital cafeteria was great and cheap (you get a meal ticket for $5, and it actually buys a lot of food).
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WISER simulation center, facilities, general mood and friendliness of students and admissions staff
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simulation lab
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What didn't? I thought the facilities were superb, from the WISER center to the fact almost all of Oakland is owned and operated by UPMC. Excellent clinical opportunities, and superior career potential for any type of specialty. The students were genuinely happy, honest and forthcoming about how great their school was. I came to Pitt wondering if I would a good fit for the curriculum, which was my main concern, and I walked away feeling like I fully understood how they're organized. The day was long, but necessary given the fact that they want you really check you out and get to know you. I also thought Pittsburgh is a beautiful little town. Very family oriented, so if you're single, good luck in trying to meet somebody.
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students and faculty were very laid back; my med student interviewer was so chill and honest. My faculty interviewer was incredibly nice as well. I walked through the anatomy lab while they were doing a lobotomy on cadavers ... that was awesome.
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WISER simulation center
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SimLab, Anatomy Lab, Opportunities are abundant.
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The school is very high tech. They tried to sell Pittsburgh as a city, PBL, and WISER (advanced simulation lab). Everyone was extremely nice. The med students seemed to enjoy the school a lot.
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The hospital system does more transplants per year than any other hospital system in the world. Also, they have a whole floor of a hospital dedicated to simulated teaching on dummies.
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The facilities, the people, the city, the philosophy...everything.
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Everyone was extremely friendly (except for one of my interviewers) and the school definately seems to cater and care about its students. The facilities are amazing!!!! The Assistant Dean is super friendly!
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People at Pitt are just so DAMN nice. I'm from Florida, and so I see a lot of stuck up rich people, and we also get a lot of excessively rich snowbirds from NY who love mistreating everyone in their path - and in Pittsburgh in general, although they dislike being labeled "mid-west", they are very much extremely amiable and trust-worthy people. I had random strangers go out of their way to walk me down 5 to 10 city blocks to make sure I got where I needed to go, I also had a med-student meet me on Saturday after my interview and drove me around on his own time and gas for abour 4 hours all over the city ... he said, to repay him, to do the same for someone else in the future because someone did it for him a few years back as well. More than that, the excitement of the students and the faculty is contagious. They really love their school and they're so psyched about their philosophy of Person-to-Person, and their new organ-systems approach to teaching, as well as science block scheduling: that is - you only take 1 science course at a time, and the rest is Medical Interviewing, Ethics, Clinical Exposure, etc etc. Also, insomuch as the tour - the WISER Center is way cool! They even have a dummy there that can mimick childbirth under varying fetal positions and rates of contraction, not to mention dummies with all sorts of trauma and respiratory conditions - they can simulate a tychypnic patient even, or practice tracheotomies when the patient's jaw and mouth become too stiff to open.
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The facilities are very nice. The faculty seemed very interested in the students, and for research oriented people this is a very good school. All students are required to do a mentored scholarly project of their choice, meaning research.
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WISER center, students were very open in their opinions, the facilities we saw seemed nice and updated
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WISER center/early clinical practice, the interviewers, outdoors stuff
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Everyone was very nice. The WISER center, which is their simulation lab, was AMAZING. The students were really nice and helpful, even if the ones that weren't part of the tour. One student offered to walk me to my interview site.
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Laid back, friendly faculty/students; Pittsburgh is a cute city with a neighborhood-like atmosphere, I actually really liked it
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The students - every single person I met was very encouraging, and they all spoke very highly of their experiences thus far at Pitt. Also, I really like the block curriculum.
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WISER center was awesome, the students seemed really cool and diverse. My two interviewers were people I could connect with. The fact that Pitt is a medical city, the proximity of the gym to the med school, the escalators in the med school (they're neato), the other students in the interview were very friendly
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The associate dean of admissions was the most jovial, light-hearted, easy-to-talk-to person I have met so far in the interview process. Simulation lab was very interesting. The usually painful financial aid talk wasn't so bad.
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the number of healthcare facilities owned by U. Pitt--it pretty much owns everything in that region!
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The medical students seemed to be a good group & they were enjoying themselves. The simulation center is pretty cool.
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The facilities and the medical center
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The medical center is huge! The are several hospitals clustered together. And Pittsburgh is beautiful, which surprised me.
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EVERYTHING. its by far the best school ive been to yet (ive interviewed at 8 schools). just read other sdn posts----they're all accurate. the school is incredible.
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Everything. The area around the school was a lot nicer than I expected and the school itself is so nice. The facilities and hospitals are wonderful and the people are so friendly. I met tons of students that I could se myself becoming friends with.
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So many things! My student host and her friends were all really fun and nice, clearly enjoying each other's company and happy to be at Pitt. I went out to dinner with several of them, and they were all eager to answer any questions I had. Everyone says Pittsburgh doesn't deserve the bad rap it sometimes gets. On the day of the interview, we started with a two hour tour of the place. The WISER center is phenomenal. How great an idea is it to practice on fake patients first! The other really great part of the tour was that when we got to the gross anatomy lab, the first years were all still in class! The whole tour went in and just mingled with the class for a good 20 minutes, who were all enthusiastic and friendly and happy to talk to us. It was so cool to see all the cadavers. After the tour were a few info sessions, followed by lunch--I should use lunch as an opportunity to say that I was very impressed by my fellow interviewees. I can totally see them as my future classmates, and I'd be really happy about it. Ok, so after lunch were my interviews, which were just great. I had four of them (student, faculty, director of diversity affairs, dean of admissions), and they were all so conversational and interesting that we accidentally ran well over our alotted time in two of them! When the faculty member and I ran over so I was late to #3, she walked me to that interviewer's office, and when we had trouble finding it, she stayed on the search with me until we did. When that one ran over too, she called ahead to let #4 know that's why I was late. All four interviewers started by asking me how my day was going. They were sincerely interested in how my Pitt experience was treating me, plus it was a totally natural way to start a conversation. After all the interviews, I showed up in the admiss office only to find out that there was some random ice cream sundae buffet three floors down! Several of us went dashing down the escalator together, laughing, and got ice cream: what a great end to a great day. A few nonspecific other positive impressions: I love the curriculum: a great combination of structured lecture and PBL, so it's the best of both worlds. All the students say that they're very cooperative with one another: they're always sharing successful study techniques, pointing out which cadaver is good to see what on, emailing charts they made, etc etc. The people at Pitt were truly the most impressive thing. From the students to the staff to the faculty to the other interviewees, everyone was friendly, enthusiastic and warm. Love it.
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The facilities were superb. All the hospitals were linked some how. The WISER Sim center is awesome, absolutely the best in the world.
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Facilities are second to none and probably the best orthopedics department in the country. Lots of research money and opportunities. Students seemed to like it.
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EVERYTHING. Pittsburgh is dedicated to always improving, and the facilities are amazing. WISER is incredible, and there are so many hospitals that med students have access to, right next to the medical school. This was the first school I've gone to where they took us into the anatomy lab while they were dissecting, which was an eye-opening experience. I thought I might get grossed out, but instead I was fascinated!
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facilities are very impressive; med program is very very community based and cooperative environment; students ALL say they are "happy"; rankings are high; lots of research opportunities for students
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The resources and facilities available to the students are amazing. Seven hospitals in the area that attract patients from all over the nation and international patients. The simulated patients are incredible. Practically all the students I met were extremely happy where they were.
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The WISER simulation center. I can't wait to (hopefully) be working in there. They have an outstanding record of success on their boards and the match. There is a HUGE hospital system associated with the school.
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Everyone I met at the med school (faculty, staff, and students) were extremely friendly, enthusiastic, and welcoming. The environment was cooperative, not competitive. The Wieser simulation lab was amaaaazing.
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The facilities are phenomenal. The students were enthusiastic, the staff impressive. This school is doing a lot of things right.
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they had excellent facilities, great hospitals surrounding the school as part of the UPMC system. the people were wonderful and i really felt i got a good glimpse of the diversity of individuals that make up pitt's med school
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Facilities look brand new. Lots of money at school (building new facilities all over the place). Medical school is next to undergrad campus. Their clinical skills lab is absolutely one-of-a-kind amazing. Solid research experiences available to students. UPMC serves a very large community of people.
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The day was well organized. I got to meet a lot of students who were very friendly and informative. The school is very impressive.
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SIM lab, endless opportunities, lots of hospitals, my faculty interview's passion for what he does, ventilation system in the gross lab!
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Nearly EVERYTHING! The school really blew me away with: 1) the research!! The people who are doing what I'm interested in doing are really amazing. 2) the organization of its MSTP, and the involvement of the MSTP administrators (they seem not only dedicated to their students, but also make great efforts to stay apprised of each students research and general happiness. The students I met were all very positive about how the Program is run.) 3) its curriculum (longitudinal clinical clerkships during grad. years, a good balance of lecture and PBL); 4) its students (all seemed very bright, well-balanced, and honestly very happy with life at Pitt.); 5) its facilities (they have pretty much anything you could want there -- no need to send samples out -- and they are actively building more) 6) the hospitalS (UPMC is the only hospital system serving Pittsburgh, so they have a ton of opportunities) 7) its strength in history of science/medicine, bioethics, etc. (and the opportunity to take these undergrad. classes) 8) the city -- this is the thing that I was most worried about in checking out the school. But I found Pittsburgh to have a very comfortable, small-town (albeit not bustling) feel to it.
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Facilities, top academics available
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*How down to earth and intelligent students were *The extent that the administration listens to student concerns, and you meet with the dean at the end of the interview day. *The WISER center-- didn't think it would be cool as cool as it was but WOW!
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WISER simulation lab, extremely friendly students.
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The facilities are great. The school runs a massive hospital system that is pretty much all connected to the school directly or with tunnels and skyways. The simulation lab is the best around with 25 simulation mannequins and 10 simulation rooms. The school's committment to constantly improving the curriculum.
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Pitt has an incredible simulation lab with more mannequins than any other institution in the country. Pitt has a huge, modern medical center comprising many different hospitals. Most importantly though, everybody at the school was extremely friendly and helpful. They stress their focus on treating students well and respecting them as real people--my visit certainly confirmed this.
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simulation lab, current med students kicked ass, thoughtfulness of curriculum design, and opportunities to do research in the regular md program.
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Awesome SimMan lab, just incredible. A really well done tour, showed the best of the medical school
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Pitt seems to have very good clinical affiliations. The area is just a med school surrounded by like a million hospitals, it's the hub of where medicine is practiced in Western PA. It is also research-intensive, lots of opportunities there. Admissions staff were very friendly and the students were too (the few we met). The simulation lab is really amazing - I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else!
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1) school has 16 simulated mannequins (mad cool), called sim-mans, AND a sim-baby. pitt has a separate department that's responsible for its maintenance and how they are employed to teach students. GW only had one and Mt. Sinai only had two. first and second years don't really get a chance to use it as much, but the sim-mans are a staple for the students' third and fourth year education. the sim-mans + regular clinical rotations in the third and fourth year means the students get tons of clinical exposure and really learn their stuff. 2) being in an underserved urban community, their are ample amounts of clinical exposure for the students which begins in the first year. 3) Pass/Fail grading system with no internal ranking among the students means that the students are not competitive and they tend to work together a lot. 4) Pittsburgh is a pretty cool town as well. city provides all of the cultural opportunities of a big city, but has a small town friendliness about it (I live in NYC). 5) students do WELL above the national average on the USMLE and Pitt's match list is pretty darn good. 6) Pitt is the hub of medicine for the western part of pennsylvania, so med students get exposed to all sorts of cases --> great clinical exposure
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The students all seemed happy with their choice. The WISER facility with the simulation options was the largest I've seen. The faculty seemed genuinly interested in working with students and their ideas.
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Teaching facilities are pretty cool and there seem to be all of programs to help students explore their interests (i.e., flexibility in combined degree programs, fellowships, etc.). Also, there are many many hospitals afffiliated with Pitt, which is always a benefit. Also, compared to California, Pittsburgh is an incredibly affordable city to live in.
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The tour...this school's facilities were AMAZING
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the facilities at pitt are awesome! the students and staff really seem to be enjoying themselves and are extremely helpful the sim lab is great with about 16 sims to practice on
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Both of my interviewers were great - easy to talk to and great conversation.
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I liked the old town feeling of the city, the amount of effort and money they are putting into the school and their programs to make this a better school, the new Hillman cancer institute, the simulation lab was really cool, the fact that they will have a third biomedical science tower pretty soon which will house a neurodegenerative institute along with a lot of imaging and structural biology facilities, how friendly everyone was (the faculty and student interviers, random students and PIs we met with). Overall, I really liked the school and I was quite surprised about that too. Went in thinking Pitt would be my safety school, but I actually ended up liking it a lot
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See above.
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The hospital buildings are really pleasant inside. The simulation lab is amazing. I quite like the city of Pittsburgh, which combines the best features of big cities and small towns.
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The faculty was incredibly friendly and knowledgable about their school. The students were friendly and seemed quite happy and, for lack of a better description, NORMAL. My interviewers were engaging, pleasant and did a great job of conveying the school's interest in me as a person, not just a set of numbers. The campus and facilities are very impressive, and the town seems like a great place to live. I also appreciated the continental breakfast, although I was too paranoid about my suit to consume anything other than apple juice.
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The nice, welcoming, personal, and trusting environment cherished by faculty, staff, administrators, and students. My faculty interviewer treated me with a lot of respect, and was very positive!
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I mentioned to Dean Curtiss that I would like to contact a certain group of non-trad students and he e-mailed me the list before I got home from the interview.
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the people were wonderful, the students truly love the school. I just had a wonderful feeling
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Pittsburgh is a great school in a nice city, and all of the students really seem to like going there. Great facilities and lots of research money.
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The genuine interest of my faculty interviewer.
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simulation center, enthusiastic students
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Everyone at Pitt is incredibly nice! They must put something in the water, because every admissions staff member, faculty member, and student was nothing but helpful and had great things to say about the school. The curriculum seems very effective, I like that they want everyone to do some sort of research during med school. And the simulation lab is awesome!
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Everyone was very friendly. Curriculum seems well thought-out.
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This school is GREAT!! I liked Pittsburgh and the faculty and admissions office people were so nice. I felt that everyone was really happy they had a chance to meet us. UPMC is huge.
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Everything. Pitt Med is fantastic. The clincal and research strengths really work well together here to make for an outstanding medical school and hospital system.
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Everything honestly. The school REALLY cares about you as a student, they are incredibly welcoming and informative. The tour was great, little long though. My interviewers were SOOOOOO nice and welcoming. I honestly felt as if I was talking to an old friend, it was so casual, both faculty and student interviews.
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The program is absolutely outstanding. There are doctors practicing in every specialty that a student could be interested in. Students are trained to communicate well in Problem Based Learning Groups, respond well in the simulation lab and practice well on clinical rotations at one of the finest hospitals in the country. The students seemed well rounded and bright without having medical school be their only focus in life.
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great facilities, very good interviewers, very cooperative and low-stress student body
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The LENGTHY tour...they actually took time to show us A LOT and there was no rush and it was extensive so long, but WORTHWHILE. Also, the fact that one interview is done by a student is very impressive. Actually feels like a campus instead of one big building because there are so many hospitals and buildings all interconnected.
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everyone seemed happy to be there and really gung ho about thier school and the opportunities it provides, the city seemed like it could defenitely be cool, the other interviewees were pretty laid back and seemed down to earth which is nice
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the student-faculty interaction and opportunities available to students. 3rd years get to second assist on surgery during their rotation!
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The academics were pretty outstanding.
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Simulation lab. Quite unique to UPitt but gimicky. The anatomy lab was nice and everything looked new. All the buildings are connected so you wouldn't need to leave once you are inside one of the building.
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Pittsburgh is a nice city, and the simulation lab is awesome.
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The UPitt area of town is pretty nice and cozy. The 1st year students did not seem overly stressed out even though they were in the midst of a few exams. Very clean anatomy labs. Pittsburgh is EXTREMELY cheap!
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The new simulation lab is awesome. They have the most sim. bodies in the country (16) and they really seem to have a great program going to get students to use them in a helpful way. The faculty was really nice and the students were all very friendly and spoke very highly of the school. Also, Pittsburgh seems like a great place to live despite it's reputation.
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Simulation lab (Wiser program).
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People: students, factuly and staff all seemed to be very happy and excited about being at Pitt. Simulation lab was amazing! Curriculum: how PBL works, grading and block system. Many hospitals right next to the medical school.
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Simulation lab, satisfaction of the students, cheap living expenses
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The true satisfaction of the students. The advanced technology of the school and the simulation labs.
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The simulation lab is absolutely amazing!!!
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simulation labs, people, and pittsburgh
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everything. you gotta love pitt
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curriculum
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The simulation lab was nice. Also, the anatomy labs didn't smell. There's also a NICE new gym across the street from the med school.
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cool and nice students and staff. How nice my faculty and student interviewers are!
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The simulation lab is awesome. Creepy, but awesome. The instructors give you the notes for class in a syllabus. I liked that alot.
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the facilities, student/faculty enthusiam
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The simulation lab, the students, and people. Pitt is doing some great things!
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Caring environment, community-like feel between students and faculty, the many facilities available, state-of-the-art equipment. Cost of living in Pittsburgh is pretty nice.
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I had a fantastic faculty interview. We had the same medical interests; she was very down-to-earth. The student interview went very well also. Everyone was extremely easy to talk to. The tour was long but I was impressed with their facilities. Most of the hospitals are interconnected. Plus it's in a pretty good area of Pittsburgh.
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the new athletics/recreational facility is amazing. the anatomy and the simulation labs were also very nice. the students, in general, seem to love the place. housing is also very affordable, and there seem to be enough activities to participate in outside of med school.
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Enthusiastic students and faculty, excellent hospital system, tons of activities in Pittsburgh
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The simulation lab, PBL, how happy the students are!
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The simulation facilities, the friendly atmosphere
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Very open and positive environment. Even met some second years at Starbucks who were not involved with the interview process, and they had many good things to say about the school. Their patient simulation facility was pretty amazing - you get to practice many critical skills as a med student that would be hard to come by in a clinical setting. Pitt is a beautiful city too, and most of the medical facilities are connected. With so many medical centers and only one medical school, Pitt offers many more opportunities involving students than most other schools!!! Two thumbs up.
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The simulation lab, the students, the library, Oakland
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students and fellow interviewees...the students there are cool
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The laid back lax atmosphere
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The medical center encompasses a lot of different hospitals and is a great place for any specialty. Also, the atmosphere of Pittsburgh is really cool, and it's an affordable place to live.
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facilities: namely the GA and histology labs, the simulated patient area, sheer number of teaching hospitals in the area; admissions office staff was very friendly; pittsburgh itself is much prettier than one would expect (when looking from above... see below for more on this); curriculum/grading (they have a History of Medicine faculty member who is very interesting); very obvious committment to making this a "big-dog" school; the quality/normalness of the students and the other applicants
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The friendliness of everyone involved. All the students seemed happy there. The great facilities (especially the simulations lab. Way cool robot patients). The curriculum (Pass/Fail, block system). The city (not too big, not too small. Seems like there would be plenty of stuff to do).
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How happy and interested the students were and how new the medical facilities were--the anatomy lab is so nice =). I also liked how the curriculum is structured.
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All the staff, students and faculty were very nice and approachable
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The student interviewer was great! He made sure that I was calm and all of the questions were the "get to know you" type. The 15 minute interview with the admissions member was very informal. She was very informative.
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Emphasis on research; laid-back students; low cost of living in Pittsburgh
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the facilities and the curriculum
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The students seem to really love Pitt, the city, the school, and the things that are happening there.
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curriculum, all the students seem happy
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My faculty interviewer was great. Although he kind of put me on the spot at first, the conversation we had was very enjoyable. He not only took the time to really get to know me, but also shared a great deal of insight about medicine and life in general (He was a 77 yr. old retired Doc...really had alot of inspiring things to say). I also liked the Curriculum and the campus.
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how nice everyone was, students were really cool and got along, faculty was great; curriculum is new and does a good mix of PBL and traditional stuff
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The interviewer was very nice. He walked me to the cafe to show me where i could get some coffee. UPMC is impressive as well.
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The new weightroom right across the street from the dental school.
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Everyone was really nice & the program seems good.
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(1) The town itself. Pittsburgh is a friendly place, unlike most big cities. (2) The curriculum, which is half problem-based and half lecture. (3) The students, who seem to get along and hang out a lot together. Some are usually found at the bars in Squirrel Hill or ShadySide on Saturday night, so if you are there you might want to head over.
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The number of hospitals associated with the school and their reputation.
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Great facilities, no doubt about that. Solid curriculum, great location, great hospital.
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the curriculum is flexible and focused on how to best provide the massive quantity of information in a manageable format. the curriculum also allows for a great deal of active synthesis of material to help students learn to use the information they are learning, not just recite it. the student body is made up of all sorts of people who appear to be really happy at Pitt. Pittsburgh itself is a really nice city with lots to offer both in the city and just outside. A healthy place to be a student
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What didn't? I knew little of the school and less of the city. The schools' financial and material resources are both significant. I really liked all of the students and faculty that I met. I have interviewed at three schools so far (good schools!) and Pitt did by far the best sales job on me! They also scheduled comparatively long periods of time between interviews, and I ended up talking to the faculty guys for over an hour each. Each one was also appropriate to my fields of interest. The fairly progressive and integrated curriculum also was attractive. The city seems fine.. clean by our standards, and relatively low-crime. There are good, cheap college eats available in Oakland. In short, the effort that the institution and the MDPhD office are putting into elevating the status of their already-quite good program is impressive.
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The students absolutely LOVE it there, cheap rent, great faculty
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The city is full of character and the people are extremely friendly.
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The city. I didn't know Pitt is such a beautiful city.
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students are very happy
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My interviewer.
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The importance they give to students.
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The campus was nice, the area was affordable, the people were great.
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the genuinely friendly and happy everyone was that I came in contact with
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Everybody was very courteous and I was very well recieved.
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How much the students love their school. Every one of them was more than willing to talk about the school and it made a wonderful impression on me.
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The students were very happy. My student interview.
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the curriculum and the anatomy lab.
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Everyone was friendly. The students, staff, and faculty were trying to sell the school to me. They came across as if they were honored to have me interested in their school rather than vice versa.
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The facility is great and the students are very friendly.
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the happiness of the students
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The facilities are great, Pittsburgh is beautiful, my faculty interviewer and I really clicked, and the admissions director is very outgoing.
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The students were really happy.
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The friendly students and the surrounding area- take time to walk around Oakland, Shadyside, etc!
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the town of pittsburgh - i was raelly surprised that it was a cool city and there was stuff to do - the students loved the school and the facilities were nice.
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Students are SOO happy. I had a twisted notion of the city and Pittsburgh is actually very beautiful. The school has a ton of money. I was very impressed by both the research resource and the clinical resource. Overall it was very positive.
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A ton of things. Happy students, sat in on PBL class, great teaching hospitals, location...
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The students
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The city itself was quite beautiful
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How utterly impossible it is to fail; the number and proximity of the hospitals.
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Medical students that did not seem to be stressed out, down-to-earth faculty, great surgery research
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Everyone was EXTREMELY friendly--the faculty, the administration, the current students, and the other applicants. The interviews were really low-stress and the interviewers were easy to talk to.
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The curriculum.
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Tons of clinical exposure, great administration, curriculum
What impressed you negatively?
Applicants commonly expressed negative impressions about various aspects of the interview experience at the medical school. Feedback included concerns about lengthy and rushed interview days, outdated facilities, unenthusiastic faculty and staff, lack of student interaction, lack of diversity, disorganization, and a mixed perception of the city of Pittsburgh itself. Suggestions included improving the tour experience, enhancing student engagement, addressing facility updates, better showcasing research opportunities, and providing more information on financial aid.
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Nothing
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The interview lasted the entire day which was nerve racking, but they wanted to add breaks for us so it’s understandable
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Concluding session was improvised and rushed. Everything else was aight though.
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the team exercise facilitator REALLY struggled with operating Zoom.
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I think that the group session at the end was too short.
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While the faculty interview went great, I didn't really vibe well with the student that interviewed me. This was probably just unique to my experience. Also, I don't really see how the group activity could give an accurate representation of how we work together with others.
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I felt (and later met other interviewees who felt similarly) that many of the students we met were from Pitt's undergrad assurance program or were otherwise from the area. While the students weren't not excited, they seemed somehow a bit more subdued than many students I've met at schools of similar caliber.
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my interviewer was nice but showed very little emotion. it was hard to gauge if I was impressing her
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It seems like the school is still figuring out how to develop a modern curriculum that works well for the students and prepares them well for boards.
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some of the students seemed a little pretentious, like they were better than us because they were already Pitt students
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Nothing, this school is great.
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No decisions until 1/31
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Facilities seemed a bit out-dated. Not many students came to talk to us during lunch/throughout the day, so I had a hard time gauging how happy students at Pitt were.
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Nothing tbh.
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Nothing. Someone else on here said that you need a first author publication to get in but that's sooooo false. I asked everyone I met here and they said that was definitely not true.
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My interviewer told me "we don't want candidates who don't have first author papers" (which I don't)
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The location -- the buildings are all basically tan and gray, really depressing-looking, especially on the outside. Also only 3 students turned up to the student lunch.
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Anatomy lab kinda felt dark and old.
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Seemed like everything in the immediate area was centered on the medical field
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The faculty and staff involved in the non-interview portions of the day seemed a little...unenthusiastic. I'm sure this was largely a by product of exhaustion by this point in the interview season, but it certainly didn't help sell me on the school.
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Didn't get enough of a chance to see classrooms and hospital areas
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The facilities are old, the people were rather lackluster and seemed almost bored. Pittsburgh isn't the greatest city. The airport is over an hour from the school.
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Nothing about the medical school or the program - the city wasn't really my favorite but that can't really be helped
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Nothing.
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My only complaint is that it was tough to carry on conversations with some of the students I met, which is not at all a problem I had at other interviews. Granted, it could have been me - maybe we just didn't click. And I'm sure these experiences aren't representative of the Pitt students as a whole.
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Student tour guide and student interviewer seemed kind of lethargic. Maybe I caught them at a bad time?
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Nothing really - except for the fact I was told by Pitt students that 1st year PBL can be hit or miss depending on who'd in the group with you because not everyone makes a good effort to prepare (because of p/f). However, all the students I talked to raved about the second year small group discussions with specialists in each field.
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Weak lunch left me hungry
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That is a giant hill you will need to climb...but if nothing else, it's good cardio.
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I found nothing that really made me not want to attend.
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People in Pittsburgh are crazy into football (I'm not a big sports fan)
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Location, Facilities, Students seemed depressed
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The towering ridgelines around the river valley that Pittsburgh sits in made me claustrophobic to be outside.
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People were so nerdy they were socially awkward, Pittsburgh as a city I found depressing, did not get a good vibe.
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Nothing really. Heard that Pittsburgh isn't the greatest city, but didn't get to explore it much so I couldn't judge for myself.
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The med school sits atop a large hill. Running late to lecture would = running up a big hill and arriving out of breath and sweaty = insult to injury. Loved everything else :)
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Nothing really. If anything, the food was not that great.
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My interviewer told me what I should have done before applying to medical school, but followed that up with why I'd be great for medical school and as a physician--then went on to explain what I should tell the admissions committee to get accepted to the school (which is odd considering the interviewer is really the only connection to the committee). It was a little discouraging.
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The first year students are stuffed in an old looking lecture hall in a basement. My tour guide likened it to a subtle version of hazing. The first year small group rooms are also outdated. The second years are updated to much newer lecture halls and have really nice small group rooms.
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block-style classes (only one at a time very intense for a few weeks); Pittsburgh doesn't seem like a huge or very diverse city (went to school in NYC) - although this was also one of the things I liked; some of the facilities seemed a little old, but this didn't appear to impact the curriculum (the curriculum was definitely dynamic and not stagnant).
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lack of emphasis on unique aspects of curriculum (from the talk it seemed like pitt did everything just like everyone else)
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Nearly everything besides breakfast. The facilities seemed dingy, way too much time was spent sitting around in the admissions office, the whole day felt unorganized, the students seemed arrogant and did not seem to interact well with each other, faculty interviewer had an open file but told me she didn't read it, the WISER center (supposedly the shining light of Pitt) did not blow me away, faculty member presenting the curriculum did not know much about the curriculum... I could go on and on. I did not feel welcomed or impressed.
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7 students/cadaver in anatomy lab is more than I expected.
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They interview nearly 1100 people for ~150 spots. The interviews don't seem to matter much; the interviewers are not on the adcom and are not your advocates, they just submit a report. Most people are WLed after interview, a few are accepted, and some are rejected. My interviewer was also very strange, and kept looking around the room while I was talking.
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Nothing, really. Pittsburgh was somewhat hilly, but I enjoy that.
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nothing really...except the WISER center had kind of an off day so we didnt get to see it in action
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The weather (cold). And while Pittsburgh is a pretty place in general, Oakland (the area where the school is) dominated with really tall med school/hospital buildings
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If anything, the exterior of the buildings could use updating, but inside it's amazing.
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Nothing really... Although the anatomy lab can be fancier.
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Nothing much
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Traffic going into and out of the city during rush hour ;)
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Tuition! Yikes!
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The economy of Pittsburgh is supported only by the medical center, it seemed like. I think Pittsburgh is trying to reinvent itself, but it just seemed dreary to me. Although their sports teams are great.
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my faculty interview was a little far away
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I had a hard time hearing the tour guide...
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While our tourguide was really nice and helpful, the tour was kind of a dud because our group was so large ~15.
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Nothing really!
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Hoagies...omg, heart disease on a bun! jk
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Nothing in particular.
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the students that met us for lunch (they spent a lot of the time talking about partying and getting drunk on the weekends)
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nothing, really.
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I wish I had been interviewd by an MD instead of a PhD. The PhD was nice but I would've felt more in my element with an MD.
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the city
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Some of the facilities are old- anatomy lab, lecture halls, etc. I lost my nametag and it was raining...haha
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Faculty interview was a bit stressful.
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Not much really.
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Scaife Hall is kind of slummy inside; the city is so hilly
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no extensive tour of the hospital; amount of walking required to second interview (however, the interviewer was so great that the long haul over there was well worth it!)
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The facilities seemed kind of shabby.
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My student interview was short (30 min)
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Nothing at all.
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My faculty interviewer was quite abrasive and seemed intent on finding out if I could deal with living in Pittsburgh. Not a fan of the grading system, and the competitive environment has a rep for being something of a shark tank. They're pretty cheap with your lunch budget. Had difficulty getting a student host even though I contacted people within plenty of time.
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Pittsburgh isn't the greatest. The anatomy lab seemed awfully crowded.
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The admissions staff that gave the tour were terrible. They were not well spoken and everything seemed so rehearsed. Awful impression of the place through them. Also, because of this, the only student you meet is the one who interviews you! BAD!!!! as a result, didn't meet or see anyone I could be friends with.
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The facilities were pretty shabby. Kind of a suprise/turn off, but loved the school either way.
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Pittsburgh isn't the greatest place in the world, but it isn't bad either. It is very different than what I am used to.
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buildings are a little old.
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the anatomy lab looked a bit old as did the rest of the building, but the lab had amazing displays of aborted twins and all sorts of body parts. it was awesome
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The quiet life of Pittsburgh
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Lecture halls seemed a little dingy. It also rained the entire trip. I thought my faculty interviewer was a little self-absorbed.
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Tour was poor, lecture halls were old, anatomy lab seemed ancient
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the lecture halls are old and without power outlets, windows, new seats, etc.
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Kind of provincial in many ways
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Nothing negatively impressed me, although some current students said they wished the lecture hall was a bit nicer looking. I thought it seemed fine though.
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Just felt like there was something missing. Also, could not understand several of my interviews due to think accents, made the conversation awkard. My last convo with the adcom was not good...he just talked and I could not even respond to him he was talking so much.
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anatomy lab looked kind of drab and gloomy, lecture halls equally gloomy
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The medical school itself seemed a bit old (especially the lecture hall).
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admissions overview and curriculum discussion were pretty weak, could have gotten, and did get, all of this info online
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Area around campus was not great. Most students live either directly on campus or few miles away. Pittsburgh is not a tier I (or even tier II) city. Also, the facilities appear to be a little old and run down--classrooms are oldish looking for such a well funded program
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dont really like the area too much, but that wouldnt hinder me from going here
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Nothing really.
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Some facilities seemed older
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The interviews were rather fast paced. You go to studnet then faculty than admissions officer one after another. I had no time to relax or even get a drink! By the end of the 2.5 hours, I was pretty worn out.
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I reserved a cab the night before. The next morning I was informed that my order was placed but that none of the cabs were responding to it. The hills are not a bad thing, honestly it's not that bad. However, if you drive in I would get there before the sun sets. The roads in Pitt are hilly (read as 45-60 degree inclines) and it may be frustrating if you are not used to driving there.
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Interview group was large (15, and my interview the day before was only 4). The class size is pretty big. Interview with student was a little awkward, so I felt like I spent most of the time trying to make him feel comfortable as opposed to the other way around.
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Pittsburgh is a different kind of city but I think I could get used to living there.
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Nothing really
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med students didn't show up for lunch (they had a class, it turned out)
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It's in Pittsburgh
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Not a lot of diversity in the city.
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The classrooms have no windows, students and faculty seem ambivalent about Pitt's version of PBL - curriculum is very PBL heavy. The admissions tour should have been given by a student, rather than by admissions staff.
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Inaccessibility of some resources (but was due to students taking exams).
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The tour guide was drab and disinterested. The weather was a bit cold and wet, but I suppose that's to be expected.
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I didn't like the fact that med students don't get to use the WISER center until 3rd year. I also didn't like the fact that parking seems expensive on campus but yet my student interviewer said not having a car was a real hindrance. I did like the fact that the bus system is free for Pitt students including the ride to the airport (Although recent news looks like this may be changing :-() Since I like to travel a lot, a cheap way to the airport is a total plus! I also didn't like the fact that there wasn't much time for conversations with Pitt med students. While we had lunch in the cafeteria, there were only two med students present for a group of 14 my day. Since they sat next to each other in the middle of the long table, only those people around them were really able to interact with them/ask detailed follow-up questions. So, other than my student interviewer conversation (which was helpful but obviously a bit restricted especially since I was nervous), I didn't really get a vibe about student life at Pitt med. I also thought a handout or something summarizing the tour beforehand would have been really helpful. While our tour guide was nice, she couldn't really answer questions about student life at Pitt. Plus, the tour was really rushed and with so many buildings, I just remember the library and the maze of hallways plus viewing Pittsburgh from the top of some research building. A guided tour with a map or summary at the beginning would have been more helpful! Also, with this in mind, bring comfy shoes to change into! I did and was sooooo glad since my faculty interview was across campus from both the student interview and admissions dean interview afterwards.
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Theres a mandatory ''scholarly project'' (research) that you have to do to graduate. The school did seem a bit research oriented compared to others, but their clinical stuff is great too (WISER center). Also, it seems like they have a lot of class. The campus isn't beautiful, but the city seems cool.
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Where were the students? The only student I encountered all day was my student interviewer. Is there a reason they don't want students to talk to the interviewees??
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I interviewed during finals week so many of the students seemed very stressed out.
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my faculty interviewer was not friendly - not mean, but not friendly, just really bored and apathetic. He basically wrote down everything I said, never really bothering to look at me or show any emotion.
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Pittsburgh didn't seem that great.
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The tour was given by a staff member who could not answer any of our questions. The only medical students we met were those who interviewed us. The interviews took place outside of the building and you had to find your person.
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Some of their students seemed very nerdy and competitive. Also, I am not a big fan of Pitt Med's campus.
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First it was cold (28), the tour was long, and rushed, with a staff member instead of a student, the discussion about their curriculum was only 20 minutes, and their was no presentation or information given about financial aid, or cost of tutition.
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the hill!
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I was the only Pittsburgh native applicant on that particular interview day- eveyone else was from out of state
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The tour was a bit longer than strictly necessary.
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the traffic. the hills
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how hard they tried to sell the school- i mean yeah, pittsburgh's not exactly the coolest city out there but the dvd they played for us was a bit over the top... when they were showing us the skyline of pittsburgh with the rising music, i remember thinking it didn't really look like what i had seen driving through to get to the school...!
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The tour guide. zero enthusiasm...but I guess if you're giving tours 4 days a week, it would get annoying.