Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine
Bethesda, MD
Allopathic Medical Schools | Public Non-Profit
Overall, applicants ranked the school in the top 19% of interviews, indicating it is highly regarded. They found the interview mixed with a low stress level, and felt they did well.
⭐ Overall Impressions ▼
How did the interview impress you?
Most respondents felt positively about their interview.
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.
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
💬 Interview Questions ▼
What is one of the specific questions they asked you?
The most commonly asked interview questions at medical schools revolve around reasons for pursuing medicine and military medicine, leadership experiences, adaptability to military lifestyle, strengths and weaknesses, ethical scenarios, commitment to the military, and personal reflections on challenges and accomplishments. The interviews often focus on understanding applicants' motivations, qualities, and preparedness for a career in military medicine, with some applicants potentially experiencing an MMI format and being asked about nondisclosure agreements.
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Best/Worst INTRApersonal quality
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What concerns do you have about the military lifestyle?
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What is your biggest accomplishment?
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Why Military Medicine?
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What are some of my hobbies?
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Why do I want to attend USUHS?
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Why medicine?
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Tell me about yourself.
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Why military med?
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You have lived in one place all your life. Are you sure you can handle moving around constantly with the military?
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When is a time you went against a direct authority
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why military medicine
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Tell me about a person you think is a good leader. What qualities do you you think make him a good leader?
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What specialty are you interested in?
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Why do you want to serve?
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If you had a weakness, what would it be?
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Tell me about yourself?
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What interests you in medicine?
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Do you see yourself able to handle the rigors of being a physician along with the stress of uncertainty of locations in the military?
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What aspect of the military interests you?
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What do you like to do in your spare time?
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Would you consider yourself adaptable?
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How I found myself at an interview to be a physician in the armed forces
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Which branch I wanted to serve in and why
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Do you have any questions for me?
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What will you do if you cannot keep up with the weight requirements and cannot rank up?
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Who is your best friend?
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He told a personal anecdote of a friend and fellow physician who almost died, and asked how I felt about being in harms way.
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How would I feel about being deployed.
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I'm a civilian, the first interviewer was great and asked explicitly about whether or not I was prepared for the commitment.
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How would your friends describe you?
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Is there anything else you'd like me to know?
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What are characteristics of a good leader? Give examples of leadership positions you've held.
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Why Military?
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why usuhs instead of hpsp?
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Good qualities of a leader
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How did you learn about us
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Leadership skills
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My opinion on the David Petraeus scandal.
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What do you do to relax?
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What makes a good leader?
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What characterisitcs should all military physicians possess?
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Why do you want to leave your current career field in the Air Force? (I am prior service)
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What are your strengths/weaknesses?
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What can you tell me about the situation in Afghanistan?
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Why USUHS?
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strength/weakness
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why USUHS? why not HPSP?
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Describe your leadership experience.
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Why medicine? Why military medicine? What leadership experiences do you have... elaborate? What questions do you have for me? Why not HPSP instead of USUHS?
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How did you end up here (specifically USUHS vs. another medical school)?
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Why military medicine vs. civilian medicine?
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Why military vs. HPSP?
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If you could go out tonight and do anything (see a movie, read a book at home, listen to some live music, see a show, etc.) what would you do and why?
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What was the best book you read in the past two years?
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Why medicine? Why military?
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Have you considered the HPSP?
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How are you going to support your family while in Med school?
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What is your MCAT/GPA? (they aren't supposed to ask this, but my answer was followed by the interviewer telling me that I would get in, then talking up his specialty - which made me happy)
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Why are you changing careers in the military? (I'm prior service)
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Describe extracurriculars
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What do you hope to accomplish?
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How did you get to this point in your choice to attend medical school?
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Where are you coming from? How was your trip in?
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Why don't you tell me about (insert random fact from your personal statement)
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Why USUHS vs. HPSP?
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"Tell me about yourself." The interviews are closed file to the extent that they don't have your GPA or MCAT scores, and only one interviewer had my AMCAS essay. They did have my secondary essay in front of them, however, but I didn't get the impression that they had read it before I walked into the room.
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How committed are you to being in the military?
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What are the most important issues to you when choosing a medical school?
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what attributes/experiences would help you in adjusting to this school, and what would be your biggest challenges about coming to this school
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What field do you see yourself practicing in?
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Specific questions about my application
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What area of medicine?
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Describe leadership experience?
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Why do you want to be a doctor? Describe your research?
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Why military medicine? (Know and be able to articulate exactly why you want to go into military medicine. This was a question that was focused on during both interviews).
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Do you think that you will be able to adapt to the military lifestyle?
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What is your leadership experience?
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When did you become interested in becoming a doctor?
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If you had the chance to add on to your personal statement what else would you say?
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What would you do if you caught a fellow student cheating?
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___ ___ and ____ are problems in military medicine, why would you want to do it?
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Tell me about _________ activity
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What led you to medicine?
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If you saw some of your classmates using drugs what would you do?
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What area of medicine/specialty are you interested in?
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What book has influenced you most significantly recently?
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How do you feel about taking care of military personnel? (I had emphasized an interest in humanitarian aid as my reason for military medicine in my app)
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Why USU instead of HPSP?
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Anything not in your application the university should know about?
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Why military/any connections to military?
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What leadership experiences have you had? What is your take on traveling and relocating to different places?
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What will be your "support structure" if you attend here? How and when did you decide to pursue medicine?
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Why Military Medicine? What was your biggest disappointment, and how did you deal with it? What is something that you wish to improve on?
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Very conversational interviewers. Their chief concern was that you understand what you're getting yourself into with military medicine. My first questions was actually What do you want to talk about?
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Why military medicine? Why military medical school?
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Other general stuff.
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Why do you want to be a MILITARY physician? Although, I have always wanted to be a military physician, so this one was actually very easy to answer. If you have a tough time with this question, then this may not be the school for you.
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Best book you read in the last year and why?
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List all leadership experiences.
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Why med? Why mil med? Why USUHS?
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Are you aware of the commitment and do you think you are up to it?
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Why do you want to be a doctor?
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Why should we pick you over another candidate?
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leadership experiences?
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Why the military?
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how are you a leader?
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Tell me about your leadership qualities? Examples? Do you understand the commitment? Do you have any questions for me?
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Tell me more about ... leadership experince.
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What characteristics should a physician have?
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Why are you a better candidate than these other students?
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Is the fact that there are a number of people without health insurance really a problem? (Maybe this was a trick question, not sure. I just said, ''of course'')
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Tell me the pro's and con's of military medicine and those of civilian medicine?
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What kind of experience do you have with the military? (I am a civilian)
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How did you choose your major?
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Tell me about our research.
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Have you seen anything about military medicine in the news lately?
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I see you keep mentioning pathology all over your application. What if you graduate and the army says they don't need you in pathology, but some other specialty?
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You wrote in your application that you learned about the ''big picture of death.'' what *is* the big picture of death?
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tell me about your leadership experiences. there were a lot of other questions. but it wasn't that difficult. goodluck!
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why medicine
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why military
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Why military medicine? What makes you think youd like the military?
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why medicine? specific examples
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why military medicine? specific examples
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why military? specific examples
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What would your friends tell me about you?
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What's not in your application that I should know about?
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Why medicine? Why the military?
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As an Officer in the military you are expected to be a leader. What leadership experience have you had? (Both interviewers asked this one.)
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How would you feel about being stationed in the middle of no where?
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Why medicine? Why military medicine?
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I am a prior serivce army lieutenant, so they mostly asked me about my leadership duties.
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Give an example of a time when you were a leader and things went well, and one time they didn't?
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What are the pros/cons of both HPSP and USUHS?
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WHat is the biggest domestic issue in healthcare?
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What is your biggest failure? How did you deal with it? Be ready to give specifics
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Do you think you want a career in the military? (As opposed to just fulfilling your commitment.)
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If you get accepted, will your husband move here with you? Have you discussed it with him? (We're both active duty military...)
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Name problem in healthcare system
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Tell me about yourself
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Talk about specific volunteer experiences.
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What kind of medicine do you want to practice, why?
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Why medicine, why surgery, why now? (I'm old).
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What leadership qualities or experiences have prepared you for a career as a military officer?
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Why **military** medicine?
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Tell me about your research.
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When did you decide you wanted to be a doctor?
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What are some of you leadership and clinical experiences?
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Leadership qualities and experiences.
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Motivation for military medicine.
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Tell me about your trip to Russia
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What books have you read recently?
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What do you like to do for fun (hobbies)?
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What do you believe is the weakest part of your application?
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Why medicine? Why military medicine? Do you think you are prepared for the sacrifices associated with a career in military medicine?
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Why should we select you? What are your strengths?
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How do you feel about going to war?
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What branch of medicine would you like to go into and why?
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Why millitary medicine?
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For someone who is not involved in research, explain to me your research work.
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What did your volunteer work entail? What did you like most about it?
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What is the biggest weakness to your application? And why should I choose you over all the other applicants here today?
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How would deal with a situation where you are aware that your work area is a high probability target, yet you have to keep working there?
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What in your opinion is the difference between military medicine and civilian medicine?
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Why military medicine? (CLEARLY the most important question to be prepared for)
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What is the accomplishment you are most proud of?
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What is the difference between medicine and military medicine?
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Why military medicine? (They asked everyone this!)
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Why a physician? Other professions also help people.
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Would you still enlist if you attended another university?
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It will be about your leadership experiences.. ie. What's your most significant/difficult leadership experience?
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My work experiences
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Why a doctor and why a military doctor?
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Why medicine? Why military medicine? They were trying very hard to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into.
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What specialty are you considering?
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Why doctor?
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If you were the doctor in an Iraqi prison and a patient came in that had just set of an IUD and killed two American soldiers what would you do.
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Why military medicine/ why do you want to be a doctor? I didn't get the military medicine part in my first interview mostly because i answered it in my answer to why i want to be a doc. If you don't answer it will be asked.
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You said you are a competitive person are you unwilling to listen to others when you get competitive? This was my second interview and the guy didn't really seem to listen to my answers so it was his second crack at this question even though i answered it previously.
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I didn't really get asked that many questions. It was more a chance for me to ask them about how they like their military career.
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Why military med? You will for sure be asked this, so know your answer. If you don't know, they will see right through you.
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Given 2 minutes, tell me why you should be selected over everyone else interviewing today.
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Describe one time you failed.
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How would you insure the uninsured?
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Talk about your leadership experience.
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Tell me about your motivation for military medicine.
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What motivates you to persue a career in medicine.
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Why should the government invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into your medical education?
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How do you feel about dying for your country?
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Why USUHS and not HPSP?
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How do you feel about being deployed? And What will you do after your 7 year commitment is over?
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So your research sounds really interesting... Can you elaborate more on it and tell more about the details of your research?
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So, you talk about (in your essay) this long standing question about if healthcare should be a priviledge or a right? Tell me your experience in both fields and how you feel about it.
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What do you do in your spare time? Tell me about your leadership experiences/challenges.
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What one thing would you change about yourself?
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Why medicine? Why military medicine?
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How would you get a recalcitrant patient to set and achieve a goal?
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What sort of photography are you interested in? Interviewer, like me, happened to be an amateur photographer.
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What's your leadership style?
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How do you feel about being assigned to a military base somewhere in the middle of nowhere?
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What's your greatest achievement and failure?
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Where do you see your medical career in 10 years?
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A series of questions about my ECs and how they prepared me for both medicine and military medicine.
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How do you feel about being a doc in the military? How do you feel about military life and handling everything associated with it? How would your family react to you being in the military? Basically a series of questions around the theme of why medicine and why the military.
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The ethical question and the question about a day off, as highlighted above. What would your friends say is your best quality. What would they say is your worst quality. Also, a 2 minute drill type question. "In 2 minutes, tell me why you should be picked for acceptance over everyone else in your interview group."
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how do you feel about being deployed?
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what specialties are you interested and what have you done to prepare yourself for medical school?
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why military medicine over civilian and why medicine in general? why usuhs?
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what are your strengths/weaknesses and how will they come into play in the future?
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Tell me about your military experiences.
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What is a difficult leadership situation you have faced?
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What is your family like?
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Describe your leadership involvement.
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Describe yourself. Why do you want to be a doctor?
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Describe leadership roles you have undertaken.
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How did you become interested in the military?
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Why are you interested in medicine in the military?
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How do you stay in shape?
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Tell me about your background.
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Why do you want to join the military?
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How do you handle stress?
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What are your opinions on universal health care?
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Why military medicine now in your life? (I have been out of undergaduate for several years)
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Descibe Leadership experinces
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How do you handle stress, what is the most stressful experience you've had?
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what are your strongest/weakest leadership qualities
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What specialty?
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many ethical questions about physician asst suicide etc.
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Explain some of your leadership experiences and skills. Extracurricular activities.
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What is your favorite book? Why Military medicine?
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Describe your leadership experience/abilities? How do you overcome attributes that negatively affect this?
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What do you think you're role in the class here would be?
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Why the military? Why USUHS?
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Why do I want to become a doctor?
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Why do I want to become a military doctor?
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What examples of leadership can you supply?
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Why military medicine? Since you come from a middle eastern background how did you feel about acceptance by the public pre 9/11 post 9/11
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ethical situations, think through them and look at what they're asking and you'll be fine.
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In two minutes tell me why i should pick you over all other candidates
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tell me about this ...... experience of yours
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Tell me about your family?
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Tell me about your research experience?
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What made you decide to become a doctor?
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Are you comfortable with the thought of giving up all of your rank and seniority to become an ENSIGN again?
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How do you think you'll handle the transition from nurse to doctor?
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How would you deal with breaking the news to someone that they had a fatal disease?
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Are you introverted or extroverted? Are you a Risk-taker? Do you need time alone from others?
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How would you comfort a patient dying with Bone Cancer? How would you tell them and their family?
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How would you deal with the commitment?
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Tell me what experiences led you to want to become a physician?
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Why this school and not any other US school?
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Talk about [blah] experience.
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Tell me a little bit about yourself.
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Why do you have (such and such) discrepencies in your academics (my gpa is a little low)?
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How would you handle long workdays? overseas deployments?
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How would you handle making a wrong decision while practicing medicine?
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What made you pick medicine?
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So, tell me about yourself.
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What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?
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Why medicine? Why military medicine?
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ARE YOU TRIPLE SURE YOU WROTE YOUR AMCAS ESSAY?! (jk)
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Do you read alot? what about greek mythology?
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Why miliatry medicine?
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Describe your leadership experiences
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How do think your clinical experiences will help you in preparing for military medicine?
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What do you think of being deployed, having to travel abroad?
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How can you apply what you've learned in your previous career towards a career in medicine?
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Why should the military invest in you?
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Are you aware of the commitment?
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What are some examples of your leadership ability?
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What experiences have you had, which demonstrate your communication ability with patients?
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How will you deal with the constant scrutiny you will receive as an officer?
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Please explain this specific weakness in your application and demonstrate that you have adequately compensated for this weakness so that it should not be a concern for your success in medical school.
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What challenges have you overcome in your life?
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What are you thoughts about being deployed? Would you go?
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Why do you want to be a physician?
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Tell me about your leadership experiences and role
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What are your best attributes
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Why military medicine and why USUHS?
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Has there ever been a time when you failed as a leader?
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What are the differences between military medicine and civilian medicine?
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Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
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What have you done in the field of medicine?
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What kind of research or clinical experience do you have?
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Whay do you want to be a doctor?
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What else would you like to say about yourself that is not presented in your application so far?
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Why do you wish to pursue military medicine?
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Describe leadership roles and situations you have had.
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What do you do to relax/seek support/refuge in?
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Because I am active duty AF, I was asked to elaborate on my job.
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Tell me anything about yourself not reflected on the AMCAS application.
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describe a diffulty you have had to deal with and how you hope to overcome it.
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What are advantages and disadvantages of military medicine?
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What made you want to join the military at such an early age?
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How is regular medicine different from military medicine?
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What's psychobiology?
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top choices for military branch, and why?
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what would you do if you were deployed on an overseas medical tour (iraq, etc).... but you have a family, other people who could go for you, etc. would you still do it? what would you tell your family?
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why medicine, why military medicine
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Why usuhs:
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Can you handle military life?
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Are there any medical ethical issues you get fired up about?
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What do your pareants think about you joining the military/getting deployed?
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What kind of leader are you?
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How does your family feel about you joining the military?
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How would you deal with a superior telling you to do something that you do not agree with morally or ethically?
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How have you demonstrated leadership abilities, describe experiences etc.
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What are your three biggest strengths and weaknesses?
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What one thing about you do you think would prevent you from going into medicine/entering medical school?
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You do know that if you go into the military, you give up many of your rights and freedoms?
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tell me about your research?
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How would you tell a pilot he couldn't fly anymore?
What was the most interesting question?
Students said most interesting question asked at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine discussed various topics including favorite microbes, career aspirations in the military, ethical dilemmas, and envisioning future career paths. The interview format may have been an MMI, with some respondents mentioning nondisclosure agreements, while other common themes revolved around military service, personal motivations for joining military medicine, and handling challenging scenarios.
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What kind of book am I writing?
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What's your favorite microbe?
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Do you see yourself making the military a career?
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Give me an example of a time where you made a difficult decision, knowing the reaction would be negative.
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How would your friends describe you?
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What was the most decorated USN Vessel (more of a for fun question then an actual interview question)
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If I had a patient who was unable to move anything except his eyes, and his treatment is costing over 1 million dollars to live and you ask him if he wants to live in this state he responds that he does what do I do?
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Honestly, he was more interesting than I was, picking his brain was rad.
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What branch did you choose?
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Ethical question.
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(something along the lines of) Today, the depth of medical knowledge is too much for one doctor to know, how would you cope with this?
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A pharm company rep invites you out for a free dinner at Ruth's Chris, what would you do? Why? What advice would you give a friend in the same situation?
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Tell me a story about a time that you were involved in resolving a conflict between people.
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what would I do in a certain scenario
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How do you envision your career as a pediatrician in the military?
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Where do you see yourself and your family in 10 years?
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Why in the world did you run away from home?
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How much can you bench? Mile-time? Squat?
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How are you going to support your family while in Med school?
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Why military medicine?
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What was your greatest failure?
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Where do you see yourself in 15 and 30 years from now?
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Most people don't realize how hard deploying to a place like Iraq or Afghanistan can be. Do you know what you are getting into and can you handle it?
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Describe something you "failed" at, describe something you are proud of
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Both interviews were very conversational. The interviewers were friendly and eager to talk up the school which is a plus. No left-field questions.
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What kind of medicine are you most interested in and why?
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What speciality? Here I'll tell you how to achieve that.
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What field of medicine are you interested in? (I like this question because I'm pretty excited about my field of interest)
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What was the most influential book you read in the past several months?
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How do you deal with stressful situations that you come unprepared for?
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Nothing really out of the ordinary, one of my interiewers was Public Health Service and he asked me if I knew the different places a PHS doc could serve
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Both interviews were very conversational. I had two great chats about medicine in the military.
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Do you know what you are getting yourself into?
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nothing out of the ordinary
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The questions were all expected, none were "interesting"
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why do you have a desire to serve? Where does that come from?
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No interesting questions
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The questions were predictable.
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What do your parents think about you joining the military?
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What have you learned from both the good and bad leaders that you have worked for in the past.
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What is your favorite book? Why?
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Do you like lawyers?
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Standard questions.
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Were you your grandfather's doctor, how would you have dealt with the situation? (It involved an end-of-life issue where my grandfather became suicidal and tried convincing the family to kill him when he was put in restraints)
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If you were busy with a patient and a nurse called you and said that she thought there was something wrong with another patient, what would you do?
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What makes you think that you would like a military environment?
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None
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What would your friends tell me about you?
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I was asked a series of questions probing whether or not I knew what I was getting into by joining the military. It seemed that my interviewer did not exactly take me seriously, since I am a female who comes from a non-military background. I think he thought I was a Private Benjamin sort of person...which is totally wrong.
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What is the greatest disparity in healthcare today, and what can be done about it.
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You are from the west coast so why do you want to come to the east coast?
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What is the most pressing international health issue? How would you address it?
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An ethics question about whether or not the military should perform (fund) heart surgeries on children with a specific, deadly congenital defect, knowing that, at best, the child would only live to be a teenager.
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What was the most difficult thing you've had to overcome in your life? (And follow up question - What did you learn from that experience that will help you through tough situations you may encounter in the future?)
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Whats the biggest problem in healthcare?
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How do you feel about learning procedures on a living animal who will later be euthanized?
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With your fiancee's family very much involved with military, and with your own family being entirely civilian, do you feel you were led one way or another for/against joining the military?
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What reading have you done about military history?
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None.
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"What's your favorite beer?"
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A few of my extracirriculars lended themselves to ethical questions. I was asked if I supported the teaching of intelligent design in public schools and my thoughts on stem cell research.
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Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
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Say you were accepted to both USUHS and _____ [my state school, where I had interviewed previously], which school would you choose?
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Describe a recent failure and what you learned from it.
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What's the most disgusting thing you've seen in relation to medicine?
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If you got notified two days before that you would be deployed off the coast of Africa for 3 months right before Christmas, what would you do?
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My interview questions were the regular garden variety interview questions. Nothing controversial or weird was asked. No hypothetical type questions either.
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What would you do if you worked in an Iraqi prison and your CO ordered you to gain intelligence from your Iraqi patient?
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You're obviously very interested in aerospace medicine. What will you do if you don't pass your flight physical and can't become an aerospace doc?
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What is the worst problem in military medicine?
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Would you be willing to carry a gun to defend yourself and your patients?
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How do you feel about dying for your country?
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No question that was interesting but... one question that was asked of me was more of an advice. "So you write about eventually influencing health care policy, how will you prepare for that?"
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What differentiates you from everyone else I'm interviewing.
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What was your greatest leadership challenge?
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How do you feel about having to be in an environment where you are being shot at and having to attend to victims? (Not word for word, but that was the gist of the question).
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The most interesting question that I was asked was in my second interview of the day. I was basically asked to describe what I would do if I had one day entirely to myself and no monetary limits or time constraints to the day or anything like that. The question itself was interesting because my interviewer really wanted a lot of detail in my answer. So instead of just saying that I would spend the day at Fenway Park, my interviewer wanted to know what seat I would be sitting in, what I would have to eat, the time of year, who the Red Sox would be playing, who would pitch, that sort of thing. The level of detail my interviewer wanted struck me by surprise.
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what would you do if a patient asked you about assisted suicide?
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why usuhs? what branch of service?
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Questions about my outdoors experience.
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How would you handle a challenge?
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What do you envision your military career will be like as a medical doctor?
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"I like to see how you read." He then handed me a surgery textbook and asked me to read a paragraph outloud and what the section meant.
-
What accomplishment are you most proud of in your life?
-
All questions were very Standard
-
How do you see your career progressing over the next 20 years?
-
nothing out of the ordinary was asked, the ususal of why medicine, why military medicine
-
What are you most proud of?
-
What would your friends, or girlfriend have to say about your personality? Without saying that you want to serve the country, explain why you want to go into military medicine.
-
Why the military? Why USUHS and not the Health Professions Scholarship at a 'traditional' school?
-
How did I like the weather in Maryland compared to the weather in Louisiana?
-
The dude that I was interviewing with had a psychology background... I made a comment about the suicide rate of GIs in Iraq and how they might need people with psychiatic backgrounds... He like the comment but turned it into a question as to why I think that rate is escalating
-
Ethical question about whether or not i would develop a bio-weapon....
-
Do you like to go to clubs to go dancing?
-
Having been a military nurse for the past 9 years, what do you see are some concerns for making the transition to being a doctor?
-
What was your greatest dissapointment?
-
Eh...not really interesting questions..just run of the mill kinda stuff...they really want to know why you want to join the military
-
Why do you want to go into Military Medicine?
-
How do you think you'll function with a lack of sleep?
-
"What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?"
-
Did you write your AMCAS essay? Or did you copy it?
-
What do you think of the current healthcare environment in the U.S. How would you fix it?
-
What is one thing that you love about yourself?
-
How can you apply what you've learned in your previous career towards a career in medicine?
-
Is the educational gap b/w you and your wife a strain on your marraige; how do you tell her what you're up to?
-
Do you think that periodic journals or textbooks are more reliable? What happens if I read something in a textbook that I know, based on my experience, isn't true?
-
If you were before the admissions committee, what would you say to convince them that they should give you an invitation to the school?
-
What makes a good leader?
-
Tell me something that I wouldnt be able to find out on your application
-
If asked to participate on research regarding the production of biological warfare weapons, would you do it?
-
Do you know what pediatricians do in the military?
-
Why do you want to be a doctor?
-
Which branch of service and why.
-
It was a line of questioning that pulled this out. In explaining a challenging leadership activity, I was asked, "If you had the opportunity to do it over again, would you, and what would you change?"
-
Tell me about your experiences with military nurses. Have you had any negative interactions?
-
What would be a negative thing about coming to USUHS?
-
How many siblings I have, and what they do for a living.
-
What do you see happening to medicine in the next ten years?
-
All the questions were fair. It was laid back and interviewers really took the time to get to know you.
-
I see you boxed in college. What did you elarn from boxing?
-
What do you like about military medicine?
-
The interviewer asked some difficult questions about what I thought about socialized medicine, and military medicine.
-
If a baby was born with no brain and would die, but the parents wanted you to keep the baby alive on a respirator despite the high costs, what would you do?
-
How do you feel about joining the military post 9/11?
What was the most difficult question?
Students said most difficult question asked at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine discussed a wide range of topics from ethical dilemmas like prioritizing patients in a combat scenario to personal motivations for choosing military medicine. Many responses indicated a focus on leadership experiences, future goals in medicine, and unique challenges in military healthcare, with a prevalent mention of the MMI format and potential nondisclosure agreements regarding specific questions.
-
You are the only surgeon in the tent. 2 patients come in with the same life-threatening injuries and same outcomes and need to be operated on immediately. One is a marine, and the other is an enemy soldier. Who do you operate on first?
-
Where I saw myself in 10 years?
-
None. very conversational.
-
Why do you want to treat military and their family compared to civilians?
-
Honestly nothing too difficult, just standard questions.
-
What do you think will be the most difficult aspect of medical school?
-
Name 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses.
-
I got a really interesting scenario dealing with practicing medicine under a semi combative situation
-
The same as my most interesting question.
-
At every school I think "Why med" is difficult to articulate.
-
If I put a group of 10 people in front of your right now, how would you lead them?
-
Why should we accept you?
-
What role should pharm/med equipment companies play in their relationship with doctors?
-
Why is choosing military medicine not a more difficult decision for you?
-
none really
-
Describe a time when you were in a leadership role and had to deal with a difficult situation. How did you fix it? (Not necessarily difficult, but I hadn't really prepared for that one and my mind went blank... silly of me).
-
If you could tell me one thing about you before leaving that isn't in your application or your essays, what would it be?
-
What was the most difficult personal encounter you've had? Why was it so difficult? What skills did you use to cope/deal with it?
-
Given the current state of the war in Afghanistan, how would you go about fixing it?
-
How are you going to support your family while in Med school?
-
Why military medicine?
-
What would you do if you got to med school for the first year and it was way too easy for you? (haha right....)
-
What three adjectives best describe you and why? ^^I should have been prepared for this one
-
Most people don't realize how hard deploying to a place like Iraq or Afghanistan can be. Do you know what you are getting into and can you handle it?
-
(same as the most interesting one)
-
Why military medicine? (Although I was prepared, we kept coming back towards it and approaching it from different angles which was a little flustering).
-
None of the questions were very difficult.
-
One of my interviewers told me beforehand that he would be a "nay sayer" so he pushed and questioned every answer I had to his original questions.
-
Everybody we are interviewing is academically qualified, why should we pick you?
-
There were no difficult questions. Very conversational.
-
There are a lot of qualified applicants/interviewees... what makes you a better choice/why should we pick you?
-
If you wanted to enter military medicine, why didn't you consider an HPSP scholarship instead?
-
Why should we pick you over everyone else interviewing? Always tough to answer without sounding intentionally modest or overconfident.
-
If you saw a classmate cheating, what would you do? What if he was your buddy?
-
Do you have any experience in leadership in the field of medicine?
-
Tell me about a time when you were a leader and you succeeded and a time when you failed.
-
There were no difficult questions
-
pretty straightforward questions
-
So . . . tell me about yourself.
-
So tell me about yourself (I HATE that one!).
-
The entire interview was no-stress, but at the beginning he said that there would be one question that would put me on the spot. Then at the very end, he asked me "If I had the final say in your application and you could tell me one thing, what would it be?"
-
What are your two biggest strengths? What are your two biggest weaknesses
-
What is the worst class you have ever taken.
-
What is wrong with medicine? (This came after two minutes of loading the question)
-
As an applicant, what is your greatest weakness? (Not because I don't have a lot of them, it is just a tricky question cause you don't want to sound too weak or not humble enough)
-
Same
-
I mean.... not a difficult question, but I guess it was such a broad question to be asked. right off the bat "why do you want to become a doc" and I mean, i had an answered prepared, but it was just the timing that threw me off.
-
What would you say to someone who told you that you're only going into medicine because your dad is a doctor?
-
None particularly difficult. We did have an in-depth discussion about my motivations for entering medicine, the military and military medicine.
-
Many qualified people apply to USUHS. Why are you better than many of them?
-
None.
-
Name a time when you were a leader and things wen't well, and a time when things did not go well.
-
What are the pros/cons of both HPSP and USUHS?
-
See above.
-
Explain both a positive and negative experience you've had with healthcare.
-
Why military medicine (really I wasn't asked any difficult questions)
-
None were too difficult or unexpected.
-
i was prepared for the questions - nothing was challenging; my second interviewer (an Army Major) just probed a bit further into my motivations for medicine and military medicine in particular
-
You mentioned you would like to give something back to society, could you explain what you mean?
-
nothing really
-
Why haven't you also applied to the HPSP program?
-
"What made you interested in USUHS?"
-
What is your biggest failure?
-
What is the biggest weakness to your application? And why should I choose you over all the other applicants here today?
-
What, in your past life, has prepared you for a life in military medicine?
-
Describe the hardest thing you have ever had to overcome
-
Describe a recent failure and what you learned from it.
-
What in your life has prepared you for a deployment?
-
What will you do if you and your husband are stationed different places?
-
I finished school 8 years ago and interviewer wanted to know why I did not work in a health care related field since graduation.
-
None were to difficult.
-
What do you think are the positives and negatives of the Peace Corps vs. the military as institutions?
-
Same as the most interesting.
-
What do you think you will like least about medical school?
-
None were reaally that difficult.
-
None, really - all were standard
-
I set myself up in my essay: one paragraph made it sound like my wife wasn't so supportive, which is absolutely wrong, she's very supportive.
-
How do you feel about healthcare in the United States.
-
The questions in both interviews were not difficult at all. The ethical questions I was asked could probably be considered the most difficult. I was asked how I would handle a situation where, as an infectious disease doc, I was tasked by the Pentagon with coming up with an infectious agent that rivaled one already held by China, with the knowledge that the agent could, if used inappropriately, kill everyone in a major city. The basic gist of the question was to ascertain where one's focus was, either toward the military and the defense of our country or towards being a doc and avoiding the creation of such a deadly agent.
-
what would you do if asked to perform a caesarian if it wasn't required?
-
nothing too difficult; since i come from a military background, they assumed i knew what i was getting myself into
-
What makes a positive leader? I have ROTC experience and I didn't want to give a formulaic answer.
-
Describe your leadership experiences.
-
What is your opinion on each presidential candidates' health care proposals?
-
Why become a doctor and not a nurse or physician's assistant?
-
What is your greatest failure in life, how did you deal with it?
-
NA
-
What is your biggest weakness?
-
what makes you a strong leader
-
None
-
What is your personal weakness?
-
What personal characteristics will influence your leadership abilities (positive and negative)? How do you overcome the negative ones?
-
No question was difficult.
-
Do you think as an engineer you have enough clinical exposure?
-
Nothing very difficult... How will your volunteer goals fit in the military life style?
-
How do you feel about giving up being a LT and becoming an ENS again?
-
Define and distinguish between assisted suicide and euthanasia and give your opinion on each.
-
If there's one thing I could tell the Admissions Committee about you, what would it be? (They never straight out asked me why I wanted to become a physician, so I used this question to let them know)
-
Tell me something I should put in my writeup that you haven't yet mentioned.
-
"So, tell me about yourself." (who doesn't hate that one!)
-
Are you sure you wrote your AMCAS essay?
-
What is your weakness, how will I manage to succeed with a career in medicine with this kind of weakness?
-
None were difficult
-
There really wasn't one... I was very suprised not to get something. Both were very casual conversations.
-
See above. Not hard really, but these questions weren't the kind I was expecting.
-
What experiences have you had, which demonstrate your communication skills?
-
How would you decide who would be placed in the highest risk positions and who would get to be in safer positions?
-
How does your wife feel about the possibility of deployment?
-
Describe how you are as a leader?
-
If I (the interviewer) had the power to move you to the top of the alternate list, how would you impress me in one minute?
-
nothins
-
What do you think the problems are with military medicine?
-
Why medicine?
-
Since my MCAT scores weren't great, I was asked to justify why.
-
"We know you have the academics and qualifications to pursue medicine, what are you going to do/who will you turn to when you are faced with the most challenging times in medicine when your overwhelmed with the information ahead of you?"
-
None of the questions were difficult.
-
What was your worst leadership experience and how did you handle?
-
Nothing was difficult.
-
What will you do if you are rejected from medical school?
-
There was nothing extremely difficult...just make sure you know your strengths and weaknesses.
-
Why? (The first question of my first interview. Excuse me???)
-
I was given a combat scenerio where a soldier is wounded, and may need to go back into the battlefield within a few days. What do you do?
-
Why do you want to be a military physician, and how will you handle living abroad, if called to so do?
-
What courses of action would you take in order to make a person who had religious objections to having a dialysis undergo the treatment if it was necessary?
-
none really, very low stress
-
How would you tell a person he had pulmonary lymphoma?
🤝 Interview Format and Logistics ▼
How long was the interview?
Most respondents had an interview of 20 - 30 minutes.
How many people interviewed you?
Most respondents were interviewed by 2 people.
What was the style of the interview?
Most respondents had a one-on-one interview.
What type of interview was it?
Most respondents had an open 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.
📍 On-Site Experience ▼
Who was the tour given by?
Tours were most commonly given by a Student
How did the tour guide seem?
Most tour guides were enthusiastic about the school.
How do you rank the facilities?
Most respondents rank the facilities as above average.
What is your in-state status?
Most respondents rank the facilities as below average.
What were your total hours spent traveling?
Most respondents spent 4-6 hours traveling to the interview.
What was your primary mode of travel?
Most respondents traveled by airplane to the interview.
About how much did you spend on room, food, and travel?
Most respondents spent more than $500.
What airport did you fly into?
Respondents who flew to the interview generally used Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
-
reagan national
-
Washington Dulles
-
Reagan
-
REG
-
IAD (Dulles)
-
IAD
-
Dulles International
-
Dulles (fly to Ronald Reagan if you can)
-
DIA
-
DCA
-
Baltimore - BWI
-
BWI
Where did you stay?
Most respondents stayed either Hotel or at a hotel.
What is the name of the hotel you stayed in?
-
Radisson
-
Quality Inn and Suites, Gaithersburg
-
Quality Inn
-
Park Inn International
-
Omni Shoreham
-
Navy Lodge
-
Marriott in Silver Springs
-
Marriott Bethesda
-
Marriot
-
I used AirB&B cheap rates and can find some very nice places (people's homes or vacation homes they rent out)
-
Hyatt Regency Bethesda
-
Howard Johnson Express (very cheap)
-
Holiday Inn, Arlington, VA
-
Didn't stay overnight
-
Comfort Suites (College Park)
-
Clarrion
-
Clarion Hotel
-
Cambria College Park
-
American Inn (very close by)
-
American Inn
-
America's Inn
-
America Inn?
How would you rate the hotel?
Most respondents rated their hotel as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
Would you recommend the hotel?
Most respondents would recommend their hotel.
What is your ranking of this school's location?
Most respondents rate the school location as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?
Most respondents rate the area’s cultural life as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What are your comments on where you stayed?
No responses
✅ Interview Preparation and Impressions ▼
How is the friendliness of the admissions office?
Most respondents said the admissions office was friendly.
How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?
Most respondents said the admissions office was responsive.
How did you prepare for the interview?
Applicants commonly prepared for the interview by reviewing military medicine and USUHS values, practicing articulating their reasons for pursuing military medicine, conducting mock interviews, and compiling lists of questions to ask. Many utilized resources such as SDN forums, Dr. Ryan Gray's materials, and feedback from current students, while also familiarizing themselves with the school's curriculum and values through the website and school catalog.
-
Familiarized myself with military medicine and USUHS curriculum/values, practiced articulating my "why military (medicine)," and prepared a list of questions to ask
-
USU website, student doctor network interview feedback, reading "The Premed Playbook", reviewed my application (resume, AMCAS app, secondaries), compiled list of practice questions, and mock interviews
-
SDN, Dr. Gray's book, mock interview
-
This forum, friends who are at the school, Dr. Ryan Gray's PreMed Playbook Guide to the Interview
-
SDN, mock interviews, practice
-
This page. Dr. Ryan Gray's book and podcast. Mock interviews.
-
Reviewed this forum, Dr. Greys interview tips videos, and conducted mock interviews.
-
Reading this feedback, PreMed Years podcast, previous USUHS threads
-
Talked to students, learn everything I could about the school/military medicine, practice, practice, and practice!
-
Used this website : )
-
Thoroughly researched the school, its curriculum and military medicine. I spoke to physicians who graduated from the school and who are active duty service members in order to make sure that USUHS and military medicine was the choice for me.
-
I read these.
-
Reading these.
-
Looked into my branch of choice, SDN, USUHS website, mock interview with my boss
-
Read the website. Stayed with a student.
-
Read their website and my application.
-
Read their catalog, read forums on this website, contacted current students
-
Read the interview feedback here on SDN and prepped for the questions other students have been asked before.
-
I read the school catalog, watched recent videos on what the military is doing globally, poured over the school website, and talked to people who had interviewed there in the past.
-
SDN forums, survey, medical interview practice questions from online, school catalog
-
Read SDN/Interview feedback, looked over the school catalog, re-read my applications, read some books on military medicine.
-
Read about Tricare. Know some of the differences between the branches. Know differences between USUHS and HPSP.
-
SDN, re-reading my essays, and staying with a student host (DO THIS).
-
Wheaties, SDN, the usual.
-
School website, SDN milmed forum, read through AMCAS, mock interviews
-
Read the USUHS handbook, talked with a bunch of military physicians, shadowed at NNMC Bethesda, meditated. I was prepared.
-
SDN
-
make sure you have a well articulated response to why you are interested in becoming part of milmed and are aware or some of the negatives. They expect us to be idealistic, but also be grounded in something.
-
Talked to some current students, read material on the website, read SDN forums, did a lot of research on the state of military medicine and health care.
-
Read the interview reviews on this site. Practiced in front a mirror although that probably wasn't necessary because the interview was so laid back.
-
Read interview feedback, read entire school catalogue, read book on medical school interviews, practiced a lot, in the end I came up with a fantastic narrative for combining all the answers smoothly and eloquently, 10 minutes before the first interview! The new approach worked great and I had the 2 best interviews of my life.
-
scanned over sdn, usuhs website, knew my application/activities WELL. It is open file in the sense that they can see all your activities/app materials, but no grades or mcat
-
Read my personal statement and the handbook they sent me.
-
SDN, reviewed file, mock interview.
-
Practiced answering questions.
-
sd.net, talked with a friend who is a student there, read up on the school.
-
Interview feedback, looked over AMCAS and secondary essay
-
read over these forums, a lot of the questions asked as USUHS seem to get recycled.
-
SDN, read a book about the medical school interview, prepared answers to likely questions, read up on medical ethics, contacted military docs to ask about their experience, prepared a list of my own questions
-
This website! Read school's website, and most importantly... bombarded my host with questions about the school.
-
Glanced over the USUHS Catalog. Reviewed the Interview Feedback on SDN. Wrote up potential interview questions. Read over my AMCAS and USUHS personal statements.
-
Read through sdn forums and did some mock interviews with my family which was actually really helpful since I said some things I knew right away I didn't want to and could ensure that I wouldn't say them on interview day.
-
Read the admissions manual, twice. Studied up on the military medicine forum on SDN.
-
SDN, interview feedback, made list of talking points
-
I used this site and practiced with friends.
-
SDN, mock interviews
-
read sdn and essay on why military medicine
-
Internet searches, talking to successful applicants, learning about state of health care in america.
-
Read interviewfeedback.com.
-
Read my essays, the student bulletin, and interview feedback
-
SDN and school catalog.
-
SDN, researched school stats, commitment
-
SDN feedback, read my essays, spoke with three different USUHS students
-
SDN, MSAR, USUHS catalog
-
Browsed through the catalog
-
read this website.
-
SDN, listened to the morning presentations to try to conjure up an answer to the 'why military medicine' question.
-
SDN, AMCAS, Application essays, looked up common interview questions and mock interviews
-
I re-read my AMCAS essay and secondary essays. I have a friend who goes to the school so I chatted with her and a classmate a couple nights before.
-
I didn't.
-
read student doctor.net feeback, reviewed my essays
-
Interview feedbacks, USUHS website etc.....
-
Re-read secondary and AMCAS, SDN, USUHS web-site.
-
SDN, reread my application, AMCAS
-
Reviewed AMCAS and USUHS applications, reviewed SDN feedback, and researched school website and bulletin.
-
SDN, spoke with graduates and students, school website
-
USUSH website, SDN, talked with current students
-
MSAR, SDN feedback, asked other students their experience, pre-application visit to the school, reviewed apps, read current topics in medical journals (yes, this is my first choice school - I'm not really a gunner)
-
MSAR, website, AMCAS, secondary app, student host and his classmates, SDN interview feedback
-
USUHS website, read about military medicine, SDN feedback
-
sdn and read over AMCAS
-
SDN, MSAR, school website and catalog
-
Looked at website and studentdoctor.net.
-
Printed off my AMCAS application and all of my secondary materials & interview questionnaire and reviewed them all. Spoke with friends attending the school / family members in the military.
-
Read SDN, review AMCAS and USUHS secondary, browse USUHS website
-
SDN, AMCAS, Secondary essay....the interviewers see only your AMCAS and secondary essay (a short time priuor to the interview) so be prepared to explain them
-
Read NY Times, various sources about Health Care policy
-
USUHS website, talked to USUHS grads
-
Shadowed Air Force doctors, mock interview, sdn feedback
-
Read over AMCAS, SDN and secondary. Spoke with a close friend who is currently a doc in the Army.
-
Read CNN health, reread my essay, SDN, read catalogue for school.
-
Read my app, USUHS website, SDN, and talked to a friend who's currently a 3rd year there
-
Read over my application, looked at the extensive website, stayed with a student, looked at studentdoctor.net
-
Studied the interview feedback, researched the school, reread my app, talked to students.
-
This school is very unique. Many applicants are intimidated by the service committment and the military basis of this school. Fortunately, I was made to feel very relaxed and I learned a lot about all the benefits that come with the school.
-
Read SDN; looke at USUHS website; talked with student host night before the interview
-
SND, school website, talking to other students who are currently attending.
-
Read SDN, practiced, read up on military medicine
-
Talked to a doctor who happens to have been a student interviewer when he went to USUHS, talked to doctors who have been on the admissions committee, practiced questions from SDN, and went over my application.
-
SDN and the school's website.
-
Read a lot about the school. They have some informative stuff on the USUHS website. Also read SDN.
-
read the questions on this website, usu website, my amcas and usu essay.
-
current events, apps, this website, stayed with a med student
-
Read SDN, thought but didn't rehearse.
-
Read over the MSAR, re-read my secondary essay, and read over my application.
-
SDN, reread personal statement and AMCAS app
-
practice interviews
-
Read info on this and other websites, practice interviews, read books with possible questions.
-
Website, SDN
-
SDN, reread application
-
read about school & postings on this site, questioned students of school
-
Read everything in sight
-
read about USUHS school programs etc.
-
Nothing, this was my 5th interview.
-
Reread AMCAS and essays. Should have looked more into military medicine
-
Read over my AMCAS essay and secondary essay....This is the only information your interviewers have.
-
read and the school...came to this site... practiced
-
read sdn, my file and stuff like that
-
Read my secondary apps and my original app.
-
SDN, Web site, primary and secondary, spoke at length with some administrators there I knew.
-
By thinking about why I wanted to become a military physician.
-
SDN, website, the briefings in the morning are really helpful..and I would take a glance at your personal statements because they more than likely have read this before interviewing you (both of my interviewers had things highlighted on my statements which they asked me about)
-
Read SDN feedback and forums, read experiences of people in military programs on the web, did mock interviews, etc
-
SDN, Website
-
Talked to other students who had already interviewed this year and last year.
-
Read this site, read their site. Read up on the different branches of service, because they ask you to choose between Army, Navy, Air Force and Dept. Health Services that very day--big decision if you're taking this school seriously!
-
USUHS supplement book, watched the news, read over AMCAS and USUHS Supplement essay.
-
AMCAS, secondary essay, and SDN
-
read brochure, this website
-
Website, catalog, and visited the school prior to the interview. Spoke with friends that are current students.
-
Staying with a student host is invaluable. They can give you a great perspective on military medicine. SDN interview feedback as well as the USUHS catalog.
-
SDN, read the handbook published by the University, Interview feedback, Mock interviews at school.
-
Website, SDN.
-
Read interview feedback from this site, read my AMCAS file, read my secondary application, read the website, talked to a recruiter, had mock interviews, and read up on current events.
-
this site, friends that interviewed there, spoke with my host.
-
Talked to students, read website,
-
Read the school's website, researched current events, looked over my applications, read this website, asked the host student questions.
-
read the website
-
Read this site
-
Nothing just chilin
-
Read SDN, stayed and talked with student host, review my essays, etc.
-
Read the web site. Stayed the night at a student's apartment. Picked his brain about the school. I would recommend this for anyone travelling a distance to come here.
-
I read SDN, reviewed my application, and received advice from my student host.
-
reviewed file. Other than that, just was self. Been goal to be career military physician ever since started college
-
SDN Interview Feedback, USUHS website, reviewing my application, mock interviews, and staying with student host.
-
read this feedback site, reviewed AMCAS and secondary app, school website
-
Read the schools web page, this site, and participated in the host program.
-
Reading the guide sent in the mail, the student doctor network, and looking up interview questions on the internet.
-
Read the student bulletin, spent way too much time surfing the school website and looking for military info on the web :)
-
I read this website, the school's website, and my AMCAS application.
-
read this site, researched the web.
-
read materials, applications, and website
-
read up on the school's website, interview feedback
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interviewfeedback.com, read application
What impressed you positively?
Applicants were overwhelmingly impressed by the friendly and supportive atmosphere at USUHS, with many highlighting the camaraderie among students, faculty, and staff. They appreciated the positive attitude, pride in the school, and sense of community demonstrated by everyone they interacted with, as well as the excellent facilities and opportunities available at the institution. Suggestions were made to visit the simulation center and to take advantage of the hosting program to get a comprehensive understanding of the school.
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Very friendly and helpful interviewers - most of the interview was spent discussing my questions/concerns and they were happy to share their own experiences
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How calm and laid back the interview was.
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Admissions staff, students, and random staff were SUPER kind. Excellent facilities. Got back to me in less than 3 weeks.
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The camaraderie and how inviting the staff and students are
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Great environment of cooperation at this school. It seems that everyone wants the person next to them to succeed as well.
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The staff and student's positive attitude and pride in the school.
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All of the students and faculty stress how close and helpful everyone is. Each med student knows that one day you may be working on them, their families, or they may be working on you. They want to see everyone become great physicians.
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Great culture, awesome facilities, leadership opportunities
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Everyone was incredibly nice. The interview day was packed with a visit to the simulation center, lectures, and tours. Had a great interview experience and was accepted soon after. The students there are helpful and eager to talk to you.
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The staff and the students! Everyone just seemed happy to be there and so proud of their school
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The facilities, the simulation center, the new integrated curriculum, the friendliness of the interviewers, students and administrators... pretty much everything!
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The school was absolutely great! The anatomy lab was awesome, only 2 students to a body compared to 4 or more at most other schools. The simulators were so cool!!! I loved everything about this school, the students all seemed to love it and were all there to help each other whereas some other schools students sabotage each other to make themselves look better. Residency match is over 80% for students' first choice residency first time around, and about 60-70% for their top location choice as well. I was scared about some things I had read about residency with USUHS students that they can essentially be told which specialty to be placed in but this is not the case.
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The facilities were unexpectedly nice. First interviewer was great. The dean is hilarious. Interviewing class is large -- there are a lot of you -- and they'll still know who you are. Bethesda is way cooler than expected, reminded me a lot of living in a smaller SF.
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wonderful wonderful school - everyone looks genuinely happy to be there which is not the case at other schools
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Most friendly, genuine student body I have met out of almost 10 interviews. Seriously, these people were so nice and welcoming. LTC Saguil's presentation was the best admissions brief I've seen yet. This was quite unexpected as military PowerPoint presentations tend to be insufferable. The opportunity to do lots of rotations outside of Bethesda.
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Everything
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It was well organized, and the staff was very friendly.
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Very friendly atmosphere. Also, there are many opportunities for taking rotations in exotic places.
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The enthusiasm of everyone at the school. Everyone talks about how friendly students are at a lot of medical schools, but I would say that it is at least a notch higher at USUHS. Maybe it's because everyone there is "in the family." I saw very clearly how supportive the military is of family and that impressed me a great deal. The whole day was very organized. The new curriculum also showed thoughtful planning. I did not know beforehand that preclinical instruction was compressed into 1.5 years.
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Students help each other!
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campus, campus location, admissions staff, students, new curriculum
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Everyone from the interviews to the doctors who gave the presentations to the admissions staff to the students to my fellow interviewees were so friendly and down-to-earth!
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The interview day was well organized and busy... not much sitting around. They had coffee and food and lunch was good. Also, the student panel was really helpful and it made a huge impression on the applicants. The interviewers were colonels and were very friendly... that's a good sign if somebody of that rank will take the time to interview a student.
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Camaraderie, laid-back atmosphere, the community where the school is located, positive treatment of interviewees, lunch.
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The overall camaraderie between everyone there (including faculty). The simulation center was amazing. The presentations on operation Kerkesner and Bushmaster, etc. Basically everything was impressive.
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The learning environment is outstanding. Students are friendly, facilities (especially sim center) are top-notch, and the faculty really tries to get to know and advise each student individually. It's also great that students from all 3 branches of the military are located in one spot.
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The facilities are very nice and the students are happy. I like that you rotate through various academic military medical centers. I spent the day before my interview with a friend who is an MS1 and got to see a lot of stuff.
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Very open and friendly environment. Interviewers were very relaxed. There was a very informative tour. Every student enthusiastically pulled for us to join their particular service and were all very jovial. I got the sense it was a very close-knit group.
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Everyone was very laid back and didn't try to intimidate us.
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Very laid back interviews. The faculty and administration were very open and friendly...I just walked into the commandant's office and chatted for a half hour. Students giving the tours were honest and open but genuinely seemed to like their school.
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The friendliness of everyone on the campus. Everyone walking by introduced themselves. All the current med students were willing to stop and talk to us interviewees.
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By far the best thing about the school is the strong sense of community. The students and applicants I met are the friendliest and easiest to get along with folks I have ever had the privilege to meet. Also, in my opinion the school offers the best oppertunities in the country to its students. From the incredible sense of community to the limited concern over malpractice, to an extra 200 hours of training, to only 4 to a cadaver in anatomy, to the world class sim center, (soon to include its own holodeck!) to 2.5X as much exposure to preventative medicine, to the ability to rotate to dozens of military hospitals and most importantly, better match statistics than the civilian world for most specialties, (in the army). Oh and the campus itself is nicer than most universities I have seen and is located in a gorgeous spot in the woods, with wonderful recreational facilities, 2 gyms, a softball field, football field, running track and hiking path. Another thing that was great was the hosting program. My host was incredible, truely the coolest guy I have ever met. He made me feel completely at home and even gave me an entire bed room all to myself, (I had come prepared for and expecting to be using a sleeping back on the floor). He even let me stay an extra night so that I could stay for the simulation center tour, the van ride to and from was the most enjoyable part of the day, as it allowed me to really get to know my future classmates and hopefully forge long term friendships with my future colleagues of many decades to come. Oh and lunch was great as well and included a Q&A with second year students. It really ended the intimidation of the uniform to get to know these wonderful people, who just 2 years ago where sitting in the same chairs as us. And of course the interviews themselves, which where purely to the point, friendly conversations about our motivation for military medicine, not the kind of interrogations one sometimes finds at other schools, with strange questions designed to trip up the applicant. Overall every part of the day was fantastic, made me feel completely at ease and only added to my excitement to come here.
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the facilities, and the simulation center at the walter reed annex facility. I recommend everyone go to that. you will be tired after a long interview day, and it will not impact your standings whatsoever, but I thought their sim center was state of the art and better than most schools I've interviewed at. Might as well go and get your money's worth while you're there.
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Real closeness among students, helpful atmosphere, state of the art training equipment, rotation in Hawaii!
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This is a great school. The students seemed to really love it, the school has the backing of the federal government and is located in major medical and research hub right outside D.C. (i.e., NIH and new Walter Reed hospital are literally right next door). If you have the chance, take the tour of the Walter Reed Sim Center, it really is a top-notch facility.
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Everything! People were friendly and tried to make the day as low stress as possible.
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GREAT simulation center - the best you'll find anywhere, really good attitude from students - all very friendly and not stressed like at other schools, you get the impression the professors really care and want their students to do well.
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You get paid $53k/year to be a med student and are guarenteed roughly $75k/year through your residency. The campus is nicer than a lot of the private campuses I've visited. Profs and students are all very nice and not the "up tight" military atmosphere you might expect. If everybody wasn't wearing a uniform you would have no reason to think this was a military med school.
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welcoming atmosphere, good community, desire to see students succeed, openness of students and faculty, SIM center was obviously, very cool.
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The students were awesome - friendly, open, willing to help and give their opinions of the school - their honest opinions.
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The overall environment was very friendly and positive. All the MS1 and 2 students were very kind and enthusiastic. Presentations really helped with my understanding of USUHS.
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The students were really helpful. The informal panel during lunch gave a lot of diverse veiwpoints on life at USUHS and everyone there seemd to genuinely enjoy it.
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EVERYTHING. The simulation center was out of this world. Immersive 3d mock casualty extractions and state of the art simulators are sweet. Operation Kerkesner and Bushmaster look like a blast. The students were fantastic. I stayed with a student who was awesome. Hung out with a whole group of first years after my interview. They were all great. The staff, faculty, and almost every student I saw all day stopped to wish me luck and give me advice. Everyone was so nice and really wanted to make you feel like part of their family.
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Great facilities, the sim center was awesome (it's an incredibly long day, but you won't regret going on the tour). Several students screamed "come to this school!" to our group during the school tour.
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How happy all the students were at USUHS. I did not hear anything negative about the school from anyone I talked to.
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The students seemed happy to be there. There was more of a sense of community than at other schools.
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enthusiasm and passion of all
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Everyone is incredibly happy there.
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EVERYONE was extremely friendly. The students love the school, and everyone helps each other out. The school is like a big family.
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The students at the school seemed to be very approachable and were happy with their experience so far.
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USUHS really seems to care alot about the students. They take care of everything for you, and the students are incredibly happy there. Before my interview, I knew nothing about military medicine, and didn't really think that I was interested, but it really made me think a lot about what I want to do.
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Very enthusiastic students, seem genuinely happy at the school. Nice facilities, great location.
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The facilities are fantastic, the students are very upbeat, and the school seems very organized and friendly.
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Facilities, benefits for students while in school, professional staff/faculty, podcasted lectures, opportunities for international research and paid away rotations, patient exposure within the first couple weeks of school, very high USMLE pass rate last year, high student satisfaction with the program.
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The school's resources are amazing! It's probably the best place ever.
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Everyone seems to like it a lot, it is actually really chill, which I wouldnt expect from a military institution. Metro makes commute quick, easy and cheap. ~$50,000 a year plus free healthcare.
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the honestly of all the people. they even said "make sure you want to come here 100% before you come"
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the students at the school are very friendly, the metro (rail system) is very efficient and cheap
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Everyone I encountered at the school was happy to be there and smiled a lot. They seemed to know what they were about and liked their position.
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Very impressive facilities, and Wash, DC is incredible. If you want to be a military doctor, this is the place to be.
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just about everything, but mostly the amount of very attractive women on campus...esp since the campus is on a navy installation
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Great love that students had for the school.
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The government/school goes to great lengths to make your transition as easy as possible.
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diversity of student body, honesty
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The camaraderie among the students and faculty.
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Everything - the faculty gave sincere and enthusiastic briefings, the students seemed to have a great comraderie, the area was nice, etc.
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Openness of students and faculty Location of school Unique opportunities available to students
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Student enthusiam, two MS1s with similar backgrounds sought me out before the interview (I didn't know them before), great facilities, great instructors, the list goes on and on
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facilities, student satisfaction, structured everything; open-door policy of admissions folks (though many had to leave early that day); library has bunk-style carrels; apparently excellent patient simulation lab
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students are enthusiastic and help each other out. Most are pretty happy about studying at USUHS
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all administration were very helpful and friendly.
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The students work together a lot.
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Nice facility and labs, friendly staff, students are friendly and cohesive
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the true sense of family on campus. I was really impressed by the fact that 40% of the class comes married and it becomes over 70% by the time you graduate. There are an average of 55 babies born to your class in their 4 years there. Also, the university has an open door policy; I ended up meeting with every member of the admissions committee.
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I wasn't too excited about the military because I had this preconcieved notion that students would have to do drills in between classes, but the campus is like any other school, open and layedback.
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I love the D.C. area. The school is only a 10 minute subway-ride from all the national monuments. Plenty of fun stuff to do in the area. As for the school, I was impressed most by the attitude of the students there: new and old alike. They were up-beat, friendly, yet serious about their schooling. The admin & staff I met were also very upbeat. The medical school consists of several connected buildings with a huge cadaver lab on-campus. And you can't really beat the learning opportunities from case exposure offered by the military.
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How informative and welcoming the faculty is, how friendly the students are, lack of competitiveness between students
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enthusiasm of everyone about the school, the city, and the education
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Facilties and resources are amazing. Just down the street fron NIH. Some classes instructed by NIH researchers.
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All the students and staff, the information and overall experience
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The students all seem to be very happy there. All the staff was friendly and there really seemed to be a sense of community.
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Students and staff were very positive. Overall a very happy and supportive environment. Bethesda and the DC area are decent areas to live and find stuff to do.
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Students are really happy there and there seems to be really strong facilities.
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The friendliness of everyone and how happy everyone seemed to study/work there. Between interviews, one of the students I ate lunch w/ saw me sitting in the library and came to sit down next to me to talk more about the school. The deans had open-door policies all day, and the admissions staff were great. Also, the chocolate chip muffins @ breakfast were awesome.
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The benefits are incredible. Also, the school really does prepare you for a career in military medicine. Many people in high positions within the military med corps are USUHS grads. The facilities are really nice as well, on beautiful grounds.
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The students were happy and enthusiastic.
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The students loved their school! Not a single person seemed stressed out nor did I hear anyone complain. It seemed like everybody was working together through their classes.
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The cohesiveness of the school on all levels from the students to faculty.
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The enthusiasm and comrodary of the students. The willingness of both the faculty, staff, and students to share advice to us.
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Very happy students, thorough tour, the school isn't anything like West Point or the other service academies - basically like a civilian school with people wearing uniforms. Each student gets their own bone kit (real, no plastic) to take home the first year.
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40% of matriculants are married. 60-70% of graduating seniors are married.
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The students. They all seemed to really like the school.
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How generally happy the students were. All of them seemed like they really wanted to be there and they were one hundred percent comfortable with their decision. Everyone was also so incredibly nice. The staff and students were all informative and very willing to answer questions. Everyone there definitely recognizes the fact that the decision to go to USUHS is one that requires an individual to have all of their information out on the table in front of them and the school and its students go out of their way to provide that information. They do so in a manner that is non-pressuring as well, which is very nice.
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the comraderie between students and faculty. everyone was so informative and honest. the briefings were great and thorough. also, all the speakers are available for questions on a personal walk in basis. i highly reccommend seeing them.
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i loved usuhs! it's been my 1st choice ever since i began college, so i was ecstatic to get an interview
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There is a lot of cohesion among the students and faculty and the atmosphere is NOT like a military academy. There were single people there, and a lot of my age group in the DC area.
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The people were all tremendously generous and everyone loved the school.
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The level of comradery amongst the student population. Everyone seemed genuinely happy to be there.
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The camaraderie amongst the students.
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The friendly and helpful attitude of everyone.
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Students loved the school, Very smart down to earth faculty and staff, also Very honest about the military commitment
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Students, faculty and staff are welcoming and enthusiastic about the school. Interesting rotations are encouraged (e.g. tibet, india). Good research funding available.
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the people, staff and faculty--they all truly care about helping each other to become great doctors
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Location, student's attitudes
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well organized, really learned a lot about the school during the interview day, all of the open-door visits with faculty was a great perk!
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(1) Good facilities. Alot better than I thought they were going to be. (2) Everyone there is really gunho about going into military medicine. (3) You get paid some major cash while going to school. (4)
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Very friendly students and staff-there was a real sense of camaraderie. All the administrators and deans offices were open to interviewees. The student host program was great!
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Public transportation
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everyone was helpful and everyone seemed happy.. .great facilities... some cute girls... I saw a nice lookin blonde
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Great emergency med exposure, good money
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Students were very content, great emergency med exposure, high placement of first choice in residency, many nearby opportunities outside of school
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The curriculum!! 800 more hours than any other medical school in contingency medicine and ER medicine. This is why I want to be a military DOC!!
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The Students, Faculty, Campus, and Enviornment.
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The students are great! The facilities are very reasonable!And the pay ain't bad..DO THE STUDENT HOST PROGRAM!
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Everything; the students and faculty all seem to be really really happy to be here. I stayed with a student host the night before; definitely a good idea if you are thinking about coming here and have had no experience with the military.
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The people were friendly (except for my faculty interview). The facilities are nice. The whole systerms offers a wide variety of experiences
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The campus. It's small but very functional and well designed.
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How relaxed and easygoing everyone was. It wasn't just that the students were friendly, but more importantly, that they looked comfortable and relaxed. I didn't see a single stressed-out looking individual, which bodes well for a high quality of life there. The interviews matched this attitude, and were very conversational and low-key but professional.
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The friendliness of everyone! It seems as though they go out of their way to make sure that you remember USUHS. Also, the gross lab was pretty cool.
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Very nice atmosphere, nice people, and the length at which the school goes to accommodate its students. Traveling opportunities. Students appear very happy.
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The friendly students, everyone is very well-mannered.
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Professionalism of staff, and the friendly students.
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Wonderfully supportive environment. Fairly casual nature of the school (in light of it being military). Open-door policy.
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The open door policy of the administration. The accountability and training that seems to pay off in military residency matches.
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Student satisfaction. Supportive atmosphere.Huge trauma medicine experience. Best 3rd year pediatrics clerkship rated by Ambulatory Pediatrics Assn.
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The facilities, the breadth of the curriculum, the location, the friendliness and openness of every level of administration, even upper-level administrators, the happiness and friendliness of the students.
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The diversity of the taught material; the 800 hrs more they train compared to other Med Schools; the tightness of the students...really friendly.
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Students worked together well
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Everybody is sooooo nice!!! They were hospitable, friendly, helpful and funny.
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how friendly everyone is!
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How nice everyone was. The school has a real plesent atmosphere. It seems like the students are looking out for each other
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I really like the atmosphere and the comraderie among the students.
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The facilities were neat, only 4 students per cadaver. The faculty and student body is extremely friendly and supporting. The area and resources available are awesome. The curriculum is unique from typical medical schools and geared towards my interests. You are a commissioned officer with full benefits while you are studying here.
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Every student I spoke with was open and honest. Most only had positive things to relay about the school. The faculty seemed very committed to the students' success.
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Everything. Medical equipment and books provided. Committment of USUHS to have students succeed. Relaxed atmosphere, despite being military. Camaderie of students. SPECIALIZATION IN PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND INFECTIOUS/TROPICAL DISEASE.
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Student's quality of life.
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how much everyone truly loves this school - the skyrocketing satisfaction rates are no joke! people really came out of their way to welcome us, tell us about their experiences and why they liked USUHS, even when the big brass wasn't around. also, my interview group was amazing... so many different kinds of people - civilians, service academy students, a navy SEAL, an army delta force guy, a submarine officer. briefings were very informative, staff and students are really friendly and they emphasize the family/support network of the military, definitely allayed a lot of my concerns.
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The cohesiveness of the student body.
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The commradery of the students.
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Everyone was extremely helpful and nice. It was like a family.
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The camraderie at the school, and how well the students interact with faculty and each other. It's very close-knit.
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The students are very happy there. The students have no costs and only $20K of their $35K is taxable.
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The students all seemed very pleased with the school, they all thought the seven year committment was worth it. They like getting 35,000 a year as students.
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the campus grounds
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the staff and students were sooo nice and supportive, and the student satisfaction rates are off the charts
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Students truely enjoyed USUHS and most of the students had multiple acceptances and chose to attend USUHS
What impressed you negatively?
Applicants commonly expressed concerns about the long military commitment required after attending USUHS, the lack of diversity among students, the outdated or unimpressive facilities, the high cost of living in Bethesda, the lengthy and sometimes disorganized interview day schedule, and the limited food options during the visit. Suggestions included improving communication about the military commitment, enhancing diversity among students, updating facilities, providing more diverse food options, and streamlining the interview day schedule to provide a more efficient and informative experience for applicants.
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One of the interviews was, unfortunately, an interrogation style, but overall they are very relaxed and conversational.
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Honestly nothing. I was great.
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They definitely tried to sell the school a little hard, while my other schools didn't.
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Honestly nothing
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Nothing
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Nothing really. Just the cold!
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N/A
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None.
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Lunch wasn't all that great...if I had to list something
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So far, only positive impressions!
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Honestly I don't think there was anything that impacted me negatively, it was great!
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Nothing, really. Bethesda is expensive. The school itself is nestled away behind the hospital. Be aware of the years of service required.
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The off site simulation center tour added ~1.5 hours to the day for very limited benefit. Every school shows you a sim center that looks exactly like this one, except this one has a multi-million dollar 3-D boondoggle with smoke machines and speakers.
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It's good that they go so in depth about the school, but man it's a long day (8-4).
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Several of the first year students without prior service could not answer my questions regarding military life.
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Inconsistencies between emails from admissions, security, and recruitment.
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simulations lab wasn't as great as everyone was saying; its nice but not over the top awesome
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Nothing really... I guess the school buildings are kind of ugly, but that's not a deal breaker for me.
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No army representatives in the student panel!! Only navy and air force... wtf?!
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Nothing really. If you realize what you're getting into as far as the military commitment is concerned, I wouldn't expect to have much negative feelings from this interview. If you didn't realize, you'll be well aware that they expect you to be dedicated to the service, etc.
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Seven years service commitment is tough to swallow for non-priors.
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The lectures were a bit long at the start of the day, but not too bad. I guess they were helpful for people coming in without any knowledge about the school/Military medicine, but they were boring for me.
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Could've used a hot lunch instead of a cold sandwich since it was a chilly day. Had some trouble getting past the front security checkpoint as a non-military applicant.
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At several times we were interrupted by noise from some local onsite construction, but this was just temporary and they did their best to work around it.
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The construction in and around the school was a bit annoying.
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There is a lot of construction going on so the area wasn't the most pleasant to look at, but in the future it is going to look great with the new Walter Reed Army medical center. Just a cautionary not because the construction will likely going on for the next couple years at least I would imagine.
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At first I felt really intimidated by the uniforms. The poise and grace with which students carry themselves, when combined with the uniforms, makes the students seem almost godlike and unapproachable. After a while though, this passes and you realize that this is the nicest group of people you'll ever meet and I ended up feeling as comfortable at USUHS as I do at my undergrad university where I have spent 4 years.
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nothing really. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the information I found out about military medicine. I had a very different perspective about it before.
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Still nervous for such a huge military commitment
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All around the school offers a great opportunity to become a physician and serve your country and thus attracts a certain group of applicants (which is both good and bad). The school attracts older, married applicants and could benefit from a greater degree of diversity (though it is actively making strides in the latter).
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time commitment to the military
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lack of communication about student host program
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Didn't really find anything that I didn't like
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The lunch menu only consisted of a single item: chicken caesar salad or a sandwich of your choice. The taste wasn't great.
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They had to scramble to get interviewers, which led to a bit of a confusing schedule and some people (fortunately not me) had really bad interviewers who I assume usually are not used. Part of what happens with deployment schedules though not enough doctors around for extra duties outside the clinic.
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Having to wear class B's to the ICM. ACU's are way better.
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Students weren't taking the school, etc. as seriously as I expected. The morning presenters were a bit hostile whenever someone asked about the residency assignment system. Students with non-military background didn't seem to have a very good grasp of military terms, etc. at all.
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The facilities are kind of ugly and the campus is on the back of a Naval Hospital.
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The housing prices in Bethesda.
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nothing; i was suprised at how much i ended up liking the school and the people
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It seems as though everyone on campus is married and has already settled down. I might feel a bit lonely if I went there.
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Nothing.
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The abundance of males. :)
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The traffic around DC, the worst I have ever seen; but, what do you expect
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Even though I knew about the long obligation to the military (7 years after residency) it always hits harder hearing it in person. Field exercises...yuck. Also, the curriculum has been slow to change to a systems based one like many schools.
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I can't really think of anything. I was very impressed with everything. It will probably take awhile to get the locations of everything down, especially the way the buildings are connected underground. (I managed to get lost.)
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I guess the timing. like we were told to be there at 8 and i think we actually started the day at 9:30. the seminars in the beginning took a long time, but i think they were worth listening to.
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Rotations are almost all at different bases, and your picks of those locations are based on a lottery. Im not really a fan of the DC metro area. Didnt seem very diverse at all, although the area is super diverse.
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school is very small.
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Although research is an option, it seems to take a back seat to clinical care.
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Generally the feeling that I was not taken seriously. I also had one really bad interviewer who wasn't conversational, so I had to lead the dicussion.
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lots of construction going on..no big deal
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Nothing much, it rained though!
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Traffic/Home prices
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not necessarily negatively impressed me, but took me a little by surprise the competition betw the branches, i know its there, but it was definitely apparent
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Construction (I understand this is a necessary evil at times, though)
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The students seemed to be confused about the military commitment following graduation. I had done my research, but if I hadn't they probably would have confused me. I heard about half the students we talked to say that they would begin paying back their 7 year commitment when they began their residency (which is not true - residency doesn't count toward payback). It seems like they would have figured that out by the time they're 2+ years into their education there... I also felt like some of the students I talked to (but certainly not all) had a general lack of military knowledge.
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The fact that you don't have total control of your career path and we're still at war... They pull doctors from all over the military to serve in Iraq. Although they didn't hide this fact at all, they were very open about it.
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curriculum is very traditional (little to no clinical exposure the first two years); likely no funding for doing research abroad (can pay your own way though); board scores are average at best; no opportunity to sit in on any classes b/c we had so many briefings by admissions folks
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The cafeteria food wasnt great and you have to pay for it yourself
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First and second year are a traditional lecture-based format, so class can be from 7:30-4:30.
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I will have to wait 9 weeks to find out if I was accepted.
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The campus is secluded. You can't take a break and walk to a local restaurant because it is situated deep on a millitary facility.
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The temperature dropped from mid 60's to mid 30's the week I visited. But that had nothing to do with the school. N / A
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I was a little lost during the presentation about military rank and pay grade
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not sure if D.C. is for me, traveling there was not fun
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The near certainty of deployment. They were upfront about it though.
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The traffic! Try to get a hotel close by or take public transportation or you'll be sitting in traffic for an hour.
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Facilities are somewhat old. Traffic is brutal in the DC area. Cost of living/home prices are a little too high.
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Learning that if you choose HPSP over USUHS, you don't get the same preference for military residencies, even though you're both technically considered military applicants. USUHS gets first pick, which is good if you there; not so great if you don't.
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That you will owe 7 years for your time there. I'm in ROTC and already owe 4 years. Also, the emphasis on having a career in military medicine. I'm really excited about being a doctor in the military, but I'm not sure if I want to stay in for that long.
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The interviewers seemed a little unenthusiastic.
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My wife came with me onto the base she toured the campus with me. Although the admissions said that she was fine, I got some weird looks and statements regarding her presence.
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Small school. Older buildings. But these things did not detract from the experience for me.
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The cost of living in the area. And there seemed to be a high percentage of married people in the school.
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Gray/old facility, food wasn't great, there was no resource for finding out more about Army- and PHS-specific career progression.
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The bad pictures on the walls of the lecture halls, which have NO WINDOWS. Two years in these two lecture halls. NO WINDOWS. I'm not even claustrophobic. A fish-eye picture of a baby taken under florescent lighting blown up to five times life size is simply a disturbing image to spend two years with.
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No student housing.
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Everyone being in uniform was not so much negative as much as it was weird. It's just a little weird to see so much cammo around. The other element that was a bit negative was the fact that a lot of the students were married. Many were married before they got there and others married individuals in their class once they came to USUHS. Since I am nowhere near marriage, it definitely was a bit odd to see so many medical students already married.
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the camouflage attire and high incidence of marriage. the security paperwork and clearance was very cumbersome and tedious.
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After being in ROTC for four years my commitment would be 11 years after attending USUHS!!
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There is so much security to get on the campus that you have to get an early start. Also, they don't tell you that you need to have a copy of the interview invite ready to show the guards at the entrance.
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The lengthy morning brief.
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The ultra conservative attitude of the Dean of Admissions and some of the profs.
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Lots of paper work
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Large commitment of school, military residency and 7 years afterwards.
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Snow
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several comments that talked about the voracious sexual appetites of men in the navy, and how the word "woman" was never used when referring to any students at USUHS. Women DO attend, but their presence there did seem minimized. This was offset however, by fabulous presentations by two female faculty members.
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The students have to wear camos to school and they don't look very comfortable.
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The tour was very brief. I would have liked it to include more of the facilities.
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The WEATHER...It's REALLY cold!!! And the traffic is horrible up there, I would strongly advise taking the METRO. It's fast and cheap!
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cadaver lab smelled.., but whatever my roomate has stinkey feet that smell worse
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It seems that the money is the only great luring feature. I think i would be a great doctor if i went there, it is just that i would have to be a great military doctor...
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The price of nearby housing and the horrible traffic.
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I think this place has a strong potential to be REALLY COLD. BRRRRRR. The students were kind of luke warm, though they did come off as enjoying their program and their lifestyle. The pay was pretty good $43,000.00 a year. But most of the students were married so I got put with a married one. We didn't have much in common since I was single, but I still got the picture. Good school, great program, great friends, great benefits.
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Nothing. Everyone was kind and helpful.
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The fact that I'd have to be deployed.
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They over-emphasized the amt of money you'll be saving/making as a student. It is good money, but if you come here for the money, you'll hate it.
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Faculty interview wasn't very friendly. He wasn't bad, but he didn't give me any indication that he or the school wanted me to go there.
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Housing costs in the Bethesda area (i'm married with two kids though)
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The facilities, like most schools, are pretty ugly and "functional" instead of pleasant. But there was nowhere that I thought of as horrible or unacceptable.
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The classrooms. Basically, you get stuck in one room for the entire day. But, if you can overlook that, the study cubicles in the library are neat.
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Not very impressive facility
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The university is not so close to the hospitals and other medical buildings
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Housing is pretty expensive, especially if you want to live near the school. The school itself though gave me no complaints.
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Commitment, time 7 years!
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The fact that there is not a specific review for the board exams and the fact that the pass rates have not been as good of late.
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Having to wear uniforms everyday
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There wasnt enough time to get a through tour of the facilities
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the facilities are not cutting edge
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Everyone has to wear a uniform.
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Rainy weather on interview day
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I got the impression that all lecture classes are held in one room. The professors may change but the students stay within one room.
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Without housing all students must find apartments. The university will help locate, but the area is extremely $$$. Also, the closer you are the more $$$ it is. While you are paid, it takes a large chunk of your pay. The commute is something I don't like either. It can be a hellish commute to school if your running late for some reason.
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The admissions clerk rather abrasively stated that I was interviewing for a waitlist spot because the class was already filled.
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No lap top plug ins at library--other than that nothing. Loved everything about school.
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Facilities
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relatively small school, everyone wears camo's everyday
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It was all very good.
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The buildings were hideous and enclosed in a small place.
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Everything was wonderful.
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The library isn't very big. But the do have bunk-bed style study kiosks! You gotta see 'em to believe 'em.
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The facility is older.
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Students must wear camo and boots to class every day. You also have to spend a month and a half in training to learn how and whom to salute the summer before school starts.
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the crappy school building
-
the buildings are being renovated, and made some of the buildings look kinda crappy
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Location, there are alot of people living in the DC-Bethesda area.
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
Applicants commonly wished they had known to relax, be themselves, and not stress about the interview process. Many also mentioned the importance of preparing paperwork ahead of time, wearing comfortable shoes, and being aware of the extensive briefing at the beginning of the day.
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That I did not need to stress about it. Instead just talk about myself and my perspective.
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So. Much. Paperwork. Took me a solid 4 hours to assemble, fill, and send each form. Also, be prepared to get medical clearance. If you have no existing medical conditions, it's quick and painless. THIS CAN PREVENT YOU FROM GOING TO THE SCHOOL.
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Nothing to be nervous about. The interviewees told us up front to relax and enjoy the conversation
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How easy it was to reach from the DC metro lines
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Do not put off doing the security paperwork!
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I did enough research to be prepared for the interview day. Wearing comfortable and appropriate shoes is a MUST since there is a lot of walking on interview day.
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Everyone, and I mean everyone, was wearing very plain colors, white button-downs, with black or gray suits and dark ties. I wore a colored button-down under my suit and idk if this will impact me positively or negatively, but I guess I will find out!
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Better directions about getting to the school itself. When you get to gate security there's a 50/50 chance they won't know why you're there. The school is a small part of the base.
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it was cold on my interview day and i didn't realize we'd be moving from building to building and the simulation center is a car ride away from campus
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One of my interviews would consist of approximately two questions then a 15 minute long monologue on the virtues of USUHS.
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More role playing skills
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That when people say it's relaxed and easy, they aren't lying lol
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That there was no living area on campus.
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nothing; i was pretty prepared
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Nothing... I felt pretty well prepared.
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I wish I had spent more time sleeping. Arrive early the day before, especially if you are from a western state. Get AT LEAST 5 hours of sleep... it's a long day and you have a 1 hour commute in the morning if you're staying in the city.
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Arrive earlier the night before, too much can go wrong.
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Don't take a cab from the airport, or anywhere really. If you don't have a ride, take the Metro. It is fast, cheap, and reliable.
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Nothing.
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That I could leave my luggage there.
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I felt well prepared. Make sure you read the forums on SDN about milmed and HPSP vs USUHS.
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Relax! Just because it's the military doesn't mean it's uptight. :)
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I felt pretty prepared.
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I had been expecting to interview with a faculty member and a 4th year student. Instead I got a faculty member and a full Army Colonel, which at first terrified me. But as it turned out the Colonel was just as laid back and awsome as everyone else and soon I was completely at ease. The interview flew by and left me with the impression that it had gone absolutely smashingly.
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that my hotel shuttle didn't do dropoff's to USUHS and cabs take forever to get there. call for a cab EARLY, or make sure your hotel shuttle (which goes to the NIH and NNMC) doesn't mind taking you to USUHS. you will have to have your car searched but it's really quick and not a big deal. Also, everyone is wearing uniforms, but they are a "relaxed" version of what you probably think of as a military uniform. usually just slacks and a sweater that says army/navy/air force on it.
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Interview would be closed file.
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which bus to catch from the metro to the school. It's a black 14 seater (van)with a little USU logo on the side!
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How much those darn car rental places jack you around - the stated $112 price went up to $200 after taxes and fees and what not. What a rip off.
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Since traffic is HORRIBLE in Washington, D.C, it took me an hour just to get to the school from IAD. It's better to go with BWI airport because there's no traffic on the way.
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That we'd have a chance to fire questions at the student panel. Come prepared with anything and everything you'd want to ask you'll get multiple answers and really be able to figure out if this place is for you
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That the subway in DC is Not scary at all. I swallowed all of my gold fillings for nothing. And that DC was actually quite easy to navigate.
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How long the day was... lots of walking. Wear comfortable shoes.
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Nothing
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I can't catch a 5:30pm flight from BWI after finishing up with my interviews at 4pm.
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I learned a lot there, but I honestly think that going to the school and talking to them is the only way to learn about it. One thing that I wish I would have known is that you don't need to get fingerprints done in advance. They will do it there for you, I really went through a hassle to get it done and there was no need.
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There is no need to be nervous. I was told this ahead of time, but I didn't believe it. The interviewers are not out to trip you up.
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I should have recieved a packet of security information that they wanted done that day, didn't get it.
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I should have given it more thought as to how long it would take me to get there in the morning. Stay close by or with a student host.
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I wish I had known the Metro was going to be single-tracking or else I would have come down the night before and avoided being late. That's nothing foreseeable though.
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definately stay close to there. the traffic is horrendous on 495.
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That the rotations are at bases all over the US.
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flying into regan is the way to go. it allows you to take the metro to the school quickly (appr. 1 hr and only $3.20) stay with a student if you can arrange it. it is a great way to get to know student life.
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I didn't think that there were any surprises, but I live in the D.C. metro area and am familiar with it (and the traffic).
-
learn to use the Metro system to get from your hotel to the school, it will save you tons of cash
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How beneficial it was to stay with a student the night before the interview.
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More about the specific medical opportunities in EACH branch of service
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Bring your passport or birth certificate! The school is a long walk (15min at least) from the metro station (medical center)
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Nothing new - and for the military people interviewing, you really can leave your cover in the car (no hat no salute area throughout the school and you don't leave the school for the tours).
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acceptance chances are closer to 65-75% if you're interviewing earlier (cited overall admissions stats are 50-some% if you interview); extensive research and clinical opportunities abroad, particularly in infectious diseases; time exists to train in operational things (airborne, shooting, etc.) the summer after 1st year; officer candidate school starts in mid-June for Army (may interfere with my wedding plans)!!!
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You cannot get on base the day before the interview without a military ID
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look for the van shuttle with the USUHS logo from the metro stop
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About half their matriculated students have prior military experience.
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Students at USUHS not only have med. school paid for, they also receive a housing and meal stipend on top of officer pay (and you start out at 2nd Lt. I believe).
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Nothing... this is an awesome school and definitely my first choice.
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Should have brought a coat. (Nothing much. I came prepared, knowing my transportation routes. It was a good experience all-around)
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Knowing about military rank, commitment time, and pay grades could be beneficial, definitely not necessary to be an expert on it
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DO NOT FLY INTO BWI if possible! INterviews are in the afternnon so if you have connecting flights that are 6pm or earlier you WILL NOT make it. In that area even the awful hotels are >$100 per night
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Not to fly into BWI.
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That all the student hosts would be getting their students together the night before, I might have stayed with a host.
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Ridiculous traffic. It took me 50 minutes to drive 8 miles. I was almost late for interview.
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While residency years don't count towards payback, they do count towards retirement. Also, that you're active duty during school and get officer's pay in addition to having tuition waived.
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If you're in ROTC, WEAR YOUR UNIFORM.
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You should be over confident and talkative in your interviews especially with anyone from the military. Give them something good to write on their evaluation sheet.
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Nothing really surprised me. I did a lot of research before interviewing here.
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I wish each branch of the service will present their selling points of their service more. Self research needed to be done in this department
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The whole school is a salute-free zone, it looked like most of the "prior-service" applicants are actually ROTC/academy cadets/midshipmen
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The library and lecture halls have seriously modernist architecture. Still quite nice, though. Also, NIH is right across the street, but it doesn't sound like there's much interaction between the military and civilian sides of Wisconsin Avenue.
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How far it was a walk to the school from the subway stop. It's a hike!
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Do not worry if you are unable to stay with a student host. I did not and at first was a bit worried that I would miss out on gathering "inside" information about the school but there is plenty of time during the day to talk to students and to get a feel for the school.
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nothing, i found out everything i needed to know by speaking to the faculty. one should research air force, army, phs, and navy prior to interview because you have to choose that day!
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usuhs is perfect if you're planning a military career! not only do you get a full salary and benefits during your education, but you get phenomenal experience as a 3rd and 4th year during your rotations
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How nice the school was. I barely turned in my secondary. Also, someone I know from high school goes there; I could've asked him a lot of questions had I known.
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I wish I had known who my interviewer would be, but that's not an option, so c'est la vie!
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try not to drive
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get your physical cleared asap
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You get a chance to meet many members of the admissions board, so have plenty of questions to ask...it gets your face in their memory
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see above
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That you don't need to have all of the paperwork done to get onto the campus. And you don't need to have all of it done before you get there. The paperwork is unreal. Also, be ready for a looonnngg briefing in the morning. The briefing is very informative, just very long.
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Where the shopping malls were!!!
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hmmm i knew a lot since i live near there.... so nothing
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I wish i would have arrived earlier the day before
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How far most of the students live from the school.
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Traffic is a little hectic there.
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The questions were probing and unexpected.
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I think there are about 300mph winds here (jk)..but seriously you're probably just going to have to suck it up. You can leave your coats and whatnot in the admissions office while you tour around (you hardly have to go outside)
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I was well prepared. I had no surprises.
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How much the yearly salary is! Apparently it's gone up to $43,000, which is really impressive. Also, the driving directions provided by the school are pretty bad, so make sure to consult a map before you leave the house if you intend to drive.
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Drink coffee before the day starts. They prep you in the morning for a couple of hours and I definitely wished I had more caffine.
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Be prepared for the long 3-hour 'briefing'...It's a collection of talks from various people trying to sell the school to you. Also, they interview about 500 people and accept about 270 for 167 slots.
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The school is not as strict(military-like) as I expected. There is no need to be intimidated
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Traffic is crazy around D.C. This didn't come up during the day for me, but don't tell the interviewer that you want to enter military medicine because you don't like HMO's... the military has one of the largest HMO's in the country.
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Bring $$ for lunch.
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I wish I had known about the board pass rates.
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That I didn't need to stress about completing the EPSQ (Security Background Check) BEFORE I got to the interview (which they recommend -but is not necessary).
-
many of the people who interviw are over the age of 25. They are not the traditional group of college graduates.
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I wish I had known some background information on the host student. I wanted to bring her a thank you gift, but didn't know what she would like.
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bring moneyyy for lunch!
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That it is a long walk from the subway to the school
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I should have researched my choice of service more thoroughly to my advantage.
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I researched the program well and did not encounter anything unexpectedly.
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I wish I would have known how amazing all the sites are in Washington DC so I could have planned more time to look around.
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very high acceptance rates from the interview stage on.... they say they interview around 500-600, and accept 400 (for a final class of 160-some). reassuring. also, was not aware of the BLS/ALS/critical cardiac care certification for all students, it was really interesting.... 4th year USUHS students have the trauma/emergency med skills of 2nd year residents
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I felt really prepared.
-
Contrary to all the previous posts, it is possible to get a semi-stressful interviewer, so watch out.
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That I should have studied the maps the school sent us better. You have to get onto the Naval Base to get to the school.
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Same as above.
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that the school had so many married students!
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Mormons?!?! The school is 20 percent mormon? how weird is that?
What are your general comments?
Applicants generally had a positive experience during the interview day at USUHS. They appreciated the welcoming and informative environment, the open-door policy of the faculty and students, and the emphasis on being transparent about the commitment and expectations of military medicine. The relaxed interview atmosphere, the friendly interviewers, and the opportunity to learn more about the school's program and community were highlighted as positive aspects of the experience.
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Great interview. I wish all interviews were like this.
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Overall seems like a great program. Commitment is long, but should not be an issue for those with a desire to serve.
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Just relax! The entire day is very informative and everyone is very kind and helpful.
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Great school. It would be an honor to get accepted here. It honestly blew away my expectations.
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Great school and interview day!
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Great interview experience! I was way more impressed with USUHS than my state school. The students were very open and friendly as well as the admissions staff. Be sure to take advantage of the host program if offered an interview here. This really helped answer some questions and made interview day more enjoyable.
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Excellent school, excellent program, excellent people, excellent mission! USUHS is top choice for those who are interested in being a physician who will serve our country.
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Loved this school, definitely became one of my top choices after the school tour. The Assistant Dean of Admissions is great, such a nice and funny guy. I would want someone like him as my doctor.
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Loved the school.
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i hope i get in! they make a great impression and if military medicine is what you want to do, there's NO better place to do it
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Solid school. Good curriculum that gets you out of the classroom in 1.5 years which is a huge draw. Lots of opportunities to travel the country during MS-4. Lots of really cool career possibilities and also lots of really crappy billets. Commitment is a big one. 4 years of med school plus residency plus at least seven years of payback. They tried to tell a balanced story, but it came off a little too rosy in my opinion. I think they could be more up front about the fact that it's all about trade offs - you will gain a lot (of money) and lose a lot (of freedom) by attending USU. I'm also quite surprised that they don't strongly recommend or even require applicants shadow a military doctor before matriculating. There were other interviewees there who clearly didn't have a clue about what they were potentially getting themselves into.
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Loved it!
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I thought it went pretty well. My essays made it pretty obvious why I want to be in the military, so I didn't field a lot of questions about that. The first interviewer (Army Lt. Col.) and I spoke about sports a lot, which he said was so I couldn't give him practiced answers. I thought that was pretty interesting.
-
Interviewers had maybe 5-10 minutes to read my file before the interview, so they thumbed through it and asked me about it as they read.
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USUHS may have started as the backup option, but after interviewing there it has quickly become my top pick. Everyone at USUHS is friendly and supportive. There were no tricks to lure you into the military or anything; rather they are very transparent and want to know that you know exactly what you are getting into. Pretty much all of the students that talked to us during lunch and led us on our tour had no prior military background.
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Seems like the hardest part about choosing this school is the commitment on the backside of residency. Great culture, great program, and great people.
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If you want to do military medicine, this is the best school to attend. Hands down.
-
Great school if you are ready for the military lifestyle. This university definitely has a different feel than civilian universities.
-
My first interview, but I really left with a good feeling from it. I absolutely recommend a student host to get the inside scoop ahead of time, to take you to campus and show you where to go, and put your mind at ease about the interview. Also, I arrived at 7:15am (check-in is between 7:30-8:15) because my host had to be at school early, and about half the interviewees were already there. Odd. The interviewers have no idea if you showed up on time though, so I don't see the big deal there. Be prepared to see several ROTC and current active-duty military also interviewing with you. Also, many people were already married. It's a very diverse set of individuals interviewing at this school.
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Great place. I hope I'll will be matriculating next fall.
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This is really a great school. It's under the radar, but has nowhere to go but up. If you have done your research and are prepared for a career in the military, it's a no-brainer that this school should be a top choice.
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USUHS is a gem of a school, but people have to be realistic about the commitment. I am prior military, so I have a good idea of what I'm getting into - but people need be cautious about the 7 year commitment and shouldn't pick this school unless they are sure that they want to spend a career in the military and do Military GME (almost 100% of USUHS grads do military residencies). Also, you will travel your 3rd and 4th years, but USUHS is connected to both a large teaching hospital and NIH. There is plenty of research going on. Also, USUHS academic years are longer than other schools and you will be involved in military training.
-
Missed the Simulation Center tour because interview went over but I had an incredible interview so it all evens itself out I guess.
-
Best medical school no one's ever heard of.
-
I might be a little biased because I am fairly certain the military is right for me to begin with. Medicine and the military are just combining my two dreams. By the way the interview format is two 30 minute one-on-one interviews with either a fourth year student or a faculty member (usually at least one high ranking officer but they are not intimidating at all.)
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Prior to my interviews at USUHS I had considered it to be among the best schools in the country. After visiting it and learning about the kind of strong, supportive community they have and all the wonderful oppertunities they make available to students, I am convinced that not only is USUHS the best medical school no one has ever heard of, but the best medical school period.
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The interviewers were incredibly NICE. I thought it would be harder than a normal MD school just because it is the military but I was completely wrong. they were super nice and relaxed and the admissions office will help you take care of all your paperwork and anything you need to know. overall, I recommend everyone to go on this interview. I was hesitant at first just because I wasnt sure if I wanted to do this military med thing or not (I have gotten other MD interviews) but I am glad I went and learned more, accurate information from the people who actually know the facts. It is a great school and a great offer.
-
They don't have your grades or MCAT scores when they interview you.
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I was very impressed. Its important to consider the pros/cons of Military GME and military life in general before deciding if this is the right path for you. Personally, its one of my top choices (accepted in Oct.).
-
Remember to bring your security paperwork, form of identification, and keep up on scheduling your physical if you are really interested.
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Great school, great community, support system, close proximity to the NIH and opportunities for networking, would be a solid learning experience.
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For anyone that has hesitations and or worries, the interview can and will clear up your questions. I liked the campus, I liked the people and the opportunities offered are as good if not better than their civilian counterparts. If you aren't afraid of the military this is a fantastic opportunity. MOST IMPORTANTLY- find a host!!!! I stayed with two, by luck, and both were very helpful in answering all of my questions.
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Overall great experience
-
As a future military physician, I can think of nowhere else I'd rather be.
-
Open file interviews- but they just have your AMCAS activities and all your PS's. One interviewer basically just read off my AMCAS activities one at a time and asked questions about each and then did something similar with my PS's.
-
I was so nervous before the interviews since these were my first ones, but once I got in and sat down, the interviewers made me very comfortable!
-
It was extremely positive and sold me on the school. I have no prior military experience and I was not scared away!
-
good. laid back. interesting and enthusiastic interviewers
-
I can't imagine an interview day going any better. This school is awesome, and if you are committed to career military medicine, this is by far the best way to go.
-
One on one interviews with O-6 (Col.) doctors in the Army and Air Force. One very positive interview and one weird one. Be prepared for some odd-ball questions if you get the same kooky Colonel I had. I just stayed positive and did the best I could. For the most part the interviews were very laid back and non-threatening.
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Overall a very good interview experience. It cleared up many of my doubts about attending USUHS, and I left feeling that I will enjoy my experience at USUHS if I am accepted.
-
The interviewers made me feel very comfortable. They didn't try to stump me or give me a hard time.
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Very laid back interview. They really make an effort to tell you what its going to bew like at USUHS, and just want you to decide if it is right for you. They don't hide anything, which is really great. Thee are only four spaces that interviewers fill in on their reports, the three questions below, and then a general comments space.
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There is a long presentation in the morning because I think they want you to know what you would be getting into. It is very impressive, however. They definitely try to be a medical school and not a military academy.
-
Left the house at 520am, road the bus for 45 minutes to the metro, road the metro for another 75 minutes or so, then walked to the school. Got there super early only to sit around and look at other people in uniform. I was kind of suprised at how many of them there were. The presentations in the morning were a little long and kind of boring, that was expected. The campus was impressive. Lots of resources. The afternoon kind of drags on. You have to spend time at the security office for your security clearance paperwork, you need to stop by regarding our physical, and also fit in the two interviews. It was a long day but I felt I answered all the questions I had.
-
Everyone was unbelievably friendly. It started out with almost three hours of speakers, went on to a tour of the place, and then going through two interviews. In between or after two separate interviews (depending if yours were scheduled back-to-back or not), you needed to go see Security and/or this one administrative officer regarding other paperwork. After everything, they took any and all interested interviewees onto the grounds of Walter Reed to see the medical simulation center, which is an amazing place you simply have to see with your eyes to believe.
-
it was definately good. the people were really nice and the facilities are really good as well.
-
Very organized day. The USU campus is a LONG walk from the entrance gate. THe morning starts with about 3 hours of presentations from deans and other administrative people, which are informative, but super boring (especially the dean of students). After that there is a tour, which is cool. My guide was an C-17 pilot in the AF for 9 years before he decided to go to med school, and one of the other guys in my tour group is a Navy F-18 pilot looking to do the same. The buildings are kinda old. STRONG sense of community within the student body. Interviews are pretty chill, I interviewed with an Army Captain and a 4th-year student (AF 2nd Lieutenant). Be sure to take the shuttle back to the metro, youll be tired from all the walking.
-
it was very good. it has moved USUHS up on my list, but am still reluctant to more there for school. benefits for joining the military are great though.
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The day began with dropping off a security questionnaire to the security office. After that a number of school officials gave us an introduction to USUHS that made me feel as if they were trying to give an honest presentation of the school to people who have a big decision to make. Then, there was a tour given by a 2nd year student followed by lunch with him. After lunch there were two interviews that were staggered enough in order to have time to speak with the school officals who addressed us in the morning. After the final interview at 4 o'clock we were free to go.
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The morning session was very informative, with a series of speakers and presentations. As someone with no military background, I learned a lot about the logistics of being in the military. We went on a tour with a student, which was ok. We then broke for lunch, and finished the afternoon with two 30 minute interviews. Overall, this was the best interview organization I've experienced. The other schools where I have interviewed filled the day with useless BS like student panels and stuff. I liked how they just presented us with the facts, interviewed us, and sent us on our merry ways.
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I had a great time at USUHS. Interviews were very laid back for the most part.
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The interview was an excellent experience. You begin in the morning with talks on the details (i.e. how much time you owe, where you would spend your third and fourth year, etc.) The afternoon is spent with your interviewers and meeting with security and commissioning personnel. Finish around 4:00.
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Not bad - first was a little more stressful than the second. I wish I had asked what specialty the interviewer was in before the interview started b/c i do research in his field, but I only dabbled on that b/c i didn't know... Overall very nice
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The morning was filled with various briefings. We then went on a tour of the facilities with our student guides, followed by lunch in the cafeteria ($6 provided by the school via a meal ticket). Interviews were scheduled for the afternoon. Allow for the possibility of having a 3:45 pm interview. A lot of the faculty had open door policies during the afternoon, which provided applicants with the opportunity to ask questions about life at the school or military medicine, etc.
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It was my first time visiting Bethesda, and I really liked the area. There are tons of shops and restaurants just blocks from the University. The downside is that housing in the area is expensive, and I don't think I would want to commute from the more affordable areas (although it seems lots of the students do commute, and they're more than happy to talk to you about it.) The interviews were laid back and conversational. The morning of briefings was long, but we got to hear from several docs in different branches of the military. I was really impressed that several of them, even after long careers as military doctors, still have an idealistic view of what it means to be a doctor and what it means to serve in the military.
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Good, very relaxed. Interviewed with 4th year first and the only question that she asked me was
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Great overall experience - solidified my choice with this school as top pick.
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got to the base with students around 6 a.m. people started checking in at 7:30, and we finally got underway around 8:30. NUMEROUS briefings made by admissions staff members (too many, really), then a tour (my guide was former Army Delta Force, now class president). not much downtime during lunch, then the interviews. they are VERY low-key and low stress. just go in prepared to answer their big three questions (why med? why MILITARY med? leadership qualities?). interview format is partially open (they have access to your AMCAS and USUHS personal statements, as well as your AMCAS extracurricular activities) - it's closed in the sense that admissions already looked at your grades/MCAT and deemed you fit for an interview, so the focus here is on motivation and whether you're a
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There were lots of briefings in the morning which were mostly interesting but some boring. Interviews are in the afternoon, and are pretty relaxed. There is time in between to visit with any administrators you wish and its a good idea to do so.
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it was very laid back and just had a regular convo with the interviewers
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8:30 - 11:30 deans talked to us 11:30 - 1:00 students took us on a tour interviews and office hours Make sure you bring your security clearance papers and passport! Visit the deans during office hours - they will put a note in your file!
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Check in for interview is 7:15-8:30. Wear a coat and possibly a rain coat becuase you will have to wait just inside the base entrance for the shuttle. When you sign in, have all your security forms, etc. handy. After sign in, you are conducted to a large meeting room where you sit and wait until 8:30. Most interviews I've done have had about 6-8 students. There were probably 20-25 at this interview. It was intimidating for a civilian since over half the group was in uniform. From 8:30-11:30 you listen to very informative briefings about the curriculum, the military aspect of a USUHS student's life, etc. At 11:30 you get your sheet telling who you will interview with and at what time. Most are conducted in the library. Before the interview, a first or second year student will take you on a tour and then to lunch. You must pay for your own food. My student guide took me to my interviewer. My first was with a 4th year student. He was very laid back and let me ask 30 minutes worth of questions basically. The second was with an orthopaedic surgeon who works at Walter Reed. I heard other interviewees that had a bad experience with him. I didn't have a problem, just thought he was quiet and more reserved. Neither interview mentioned my academics. The only thing in my file that either brought up was a trip I took to Russia. The rest was just for me to ask questions. By the way, your interviewers only write up a report for the committee. They do not sit on the committee. After my interview, I checked out at the admission office. I was done around 3:30, others were probably there until 4:30.
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It was very relaxed and we just had a conversation.
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My interview was relaxed. My interviewer and I just got to know each other. We talked about why we wanted to join the medical profession and millitary medicine. I want to reiterate that you need to have an answer to this question, "Why millitary medicine?"
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Relaxing, refreshing, non-stressful, and overall a wonderful experience. We had some great 2-way dialogue as opposed to the classical "interrogation."
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Arrived there at 7:20am they say check in starts at 7:30, most everyone aws already there though. Breifings all morning until lunch. Some were very informative and dispelled any misconceptions about the school, others were boring and repetative. Before lunch they took us on a small tour of the facilities. After lunch we had interviews and were ecnouraged to go talk with various administrators at their offices between interviews. These are some of the people who are on the admissions committee so it helps to show your face and ask questions.
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Great experience. They succeeded at making you feel comfortable. I thought they were very evenhanded about their school. They know the education is quality but the military is not a good fit for everyone.
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I got to the school early and found everywhere I needed to be and then went a relaxed in the cafeteria. The morning started with everyone relaxing or trying to, around the table in the conference room. We then had briefings from the various deans and commandant. The interview times were given out and you had lunch and a tour given by a student. The student area has Wi-Fi, there are coffee bars, great study areas, and the cafeteria was good. The afternoon was interspersed with the 2 interviews and time to talk to people on the admissions committee. I would highly suggest talking to Col Tashiro, he's the commandant and very friendly. My interviewers were both great. My first was a female major and she wasn't real interactive other than asking the questions, so when it was my turn I asked her some questions and got into a dialog that ended up making it a great 2-way discussion and great interview. The second was a Navy LtCmdr and he was great. Even showed me the sheet they have to fill in and the area they looked at. Overall, I had a great day and came out of the experience knowing that was where I wanted to go to school. They are also very prompt on getting letters out. I got my acceptance letter within 2.5 weeks of my interview.
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I was really impressed by the school. Only four people to a cadaver, classes taught by experts in their field, non competitive, extra opportunities to learn about preventive medicine, combat/medic skills. The students help each other and the teachers provide concise notes with all you need to know for the test.
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A very good institution. Interview was very structured and organized. The admissions staff are very energetic and enthusiastic.
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My interviews were really relaxed but don't let your guard down to much because then the tough ethics questions come out of nowhere. My second interview was strange and the guy didn't seem to try to get to know me and he took a very long time to preface his questions.
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If you're serious about a specific field like aerospace medicine or some other branch of military medicine, this is a great place to be. The school fully realizes the enormity of your decision in coming here--it's essentially the next 15 or so years of your life as opposed to 4 at a civilian school. They give you informative answers and don't try to woo you the way that military recruiters do. They are investing in you, and therefore want to choose the right applicants as much as you want to choose the right school for you.
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My first interviewer started off by telling me had done over 150 med school interviews. As our interview progressed, he would kind of put answers into my mouth even though I was still talking, responding to his questions. He seemed a little abrasive, and I don't think I did very well with him. My second interviewer was an Army doctor at Walter Reed, who basically told me all about his career, how it's been great for me, and then we just had a relaxed conversation about what it is like to be a doctor in the military.
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Started at 7:30 A.M. at the admissions office. They provided breakfast food, OJ, water, and coffee. Attended briefings all morning, ate lunch in the cafeteria with a student tour guide (which applicants must pay for, but since they don't charge a secondary fee, you're still ahead about $65), and then went on a tour. After the tour, interviews were scheduled between 1:00 P.M. and 3:00 P.M. During downtime, we were welcome to talk to admissions committee members (which is helpful). You also have to check in with security to be sure your paperwork is completed properly. It was tough to gauge how my interviews went, because the interviewers weren't very expressive.
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Relaxed, maybe too relaxed. Both interviewers recommended me for acceptance, but they both wrote in their evaluations that I was very well-mannered and quiet, and I did not "brag" enough about my accomplishments.
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Overall, the day was very interesting. The morning briefings were informative and gave a good general sense of the school. I enjoyed the open door policy and actually got to talk with quite a few individuals. Interviews were very laid back - they are trying to ascertain your motivation for attending and to see if you are a good fit for Military Medicine as well as gauge you as a student.
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It was a great experience since it was my first interview. The Interviewer was very nice and helped calm me down and asked alot of questions about myself. They made a point that they were also selling the school as much as I was selling myself. In the morning, a Col. (forgot his position) came and summarized what we will be experiencing during our 4 years here. He gave advice on how we should view our selves as doctors in the military and our role as advisors. Another officer came and spoke to use about balancing life and career and also introduced the greater Waashingotn DC area and it's life style. Over all they were really welcoming and great school. I was also impressed how the people of admissions open their doors for us to visit.
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I stayed with a student the night before - very useful for information. The morning presentations gave a good overview of the school, and the tour was the most thorough and well-organized I've seen. One downside: there weren't any Army people to answer my questions. The two interviews were very low-key, with all the typical questions. I was disappointed that the open-door policy didn't mean much, since none of the people I wanted to talk to were in their offices anyway. But overall, I left with a much better impression of the school.
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After lunch I knocked on the interview room door two minutes early. Thank god because I'd accidentally gone to the second interview first! They want to know four things: Why military medicine, why USUHS, leadership, and communication. I answered all of them in my first answer (which was five minutes and heavily rehearsed). That left 25 minutes of each interview to answer in more detail and ask questions.
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The morning briefings were very informative and got me excited about the school. The first interviewer asked all the standard and expected questions. The second interviewer was a lot tougher and asked a lot of questions about why military medicine as opposed to civilian medicine.
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The interview experience as a whole was terrific. Everyone was incredibly friendly and informative. The school recognizes that it is not necessarily for everyone and they go out of their way to make you aware of what you are getting into with USUHS. They really push to make sure you make an informed decision (and one not just based upon the money). The campus is great and the proximity to the NIH, etc was an added bonus as well. The interview day is not too long either and you have 2 separate interviews in the afternoon with time in between to explore the school and just talk to students and faculty. One interview can be with a medical student. Mine was with a 4th year. My second was with a captain in the Navy. Both went very well. Your interviewers just have a copy of your ECs and your personal statement from the school's secondary app.
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This was a great interview experience. you learn everything there is to know about the school. You just have to be ready for the 7 year commitment after med school. Everyone was sincere and honest. If i was absolutely sure about the commitment, I would no doubt go to this school, especially over hpsp.
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awesome interview experience--i felt like i fit right in. make sure that you do everything in a timely manner; snags with DODMERB can greatly delay your application...complete everything ASAP and send in everything they ask for; it took me five months to get all the paperwork sorted out
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The students I was with were nice, and the med. school students were very humble. Not conceded like some schools.
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Wonderful experience. Anyone already wanting to go there will only supplement their positive view of the school. If you're just wanting to go there because they pay your way and because there's no malpractice, they'll figure it out in the interviews and they'll weed you out. Only apply there if you're committed to military medicine (not the same as medicine in the military) and be sure to listen to the briefing.
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USUHS is a great school and I would be greatly honored to accept an invitation to attend next year.
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Get a good night's sleep because the day starts early, runs long, and some of the morning's presentations are quite boring. The intervies are not structured and usually take a conversational tone. If you have no prior military service, think long and hard about why you want to go to this school.
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Very informative presentations in the morning. Two interviews after lunch with the opportunity to visit with senior school administration in the afternoon. This was my first choice of medical school to attend, and it remains as my first choice after the interview.
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Great interview
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Very positive experience, well organized admissions process. Interviewers have a copy of your personal statement and ECs but no grades or MCAT scores.
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overall this was a good interview experience during which you get to learn more about the school, its students, the curriculum and military life
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Fun, easy-goin
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high security, informative, and every student practically is married. is there hope for a single person there?? don't know
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The school was very impressive. For some reason I went in there thinking that because it was a military school, it was going to be shanty
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I stressed out the night before because I realized I'd forgotten to complete the security background info and stayed up late doing that. Everyone was great and totally put me at ease. I could see myself being happy here.
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AWESOME, If you plan on interviewing here I strongly advise that you stay with a student host. This is a great opportunity to learn about the school from a students' perspective. And plus all of the students are GREAT!!!
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Overall very good... I felt that everyone was helpful and that the students really wanted to welcome you.
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It is a good school if you want to be in the military, after going i decided the program definitely wasn't for me, the HPSP seems a better option, but a lot of other people getting interviewed really wanted to go there, so all the power to them, i hope them the best, i'm applying for the HPSP.
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Easy going interviews where they just let you talk about what you had been involved with.
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Excellent interview experience. There was a girl there that flew in from AFRICA to interview there, if that gives you any idea how prestigious this school is. It's definitely not a school for those people who think of it as a last resort. This school is serious about it's mission and if you're not 100% on board with it, they will know and you will FAIL in the end. I'm very impressed and though it was my #1 choice going in, it solidified my resolve once I interviewed there.
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Both my interviews went well. I answered the questions without becoming flustered or nervous. I just answered honestly and thought about what I was going to say before saying it.
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The whole interview day does run from about 8:15 to 4. Overall, I would say it was a very positive experience. I really feel conflicted now because there are really high points to coming here and also really low points (like moving around). Let me just say that most likely, they're not going to ship you to Iraq or some other cesspool of violence unless there is a major war going on..otherwise you do have options for where to go (like San Diego,CA and Pensacola, FL)..so it really comes down to whether or not this place is right for you..I'm also the type that gets really nervous before interviews, but trust me!, it's really not that bad, no surprises
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The interviews were pretty laid back, jst standard questions. The school is very open and honest about their intentions. They tell you exactly how things are going to work and want you to come only if this place is for you. They talk a lot (maybe too much) about getting time towards retirement and the amt you'll earn as a med student (They pay you 43k). After today, I am definitely considering this as a very serious possibility. If you interview here, take advantage of the open door policy. Everyone here is REALLY happy to be where they are and will gladly spent time to talk to you. I spent over one hour just chatting about military medicine and the options it offers with one of the Deans and 20-30 mins with several others. Get a good night's rest the night before because the 1st 3 hrs of the process you are being "briefed" on what you are getting yourself into.
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The day was alright. I wasn't too excited to interview there, and I was hoping that my attitude would change during the day, but it didn't. I have about the same thoughts about the school as before-nothing better or worse. The real concern for me is the time committment, and I was hoping they would convince me that something would make it worth it aside from the money issue. I just can't seem to make the benefits outweight the negatives. If it were the only school I were accepted to, it would be fine, and I would be happy. Since I have been accepted to another good school, I probably won't go here. If I were looking for a military career, this would be a perfect option, but since I want to be in civilian medicine, this just won't work.
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The day begins in the early morning with various lectures. We break for a tour of the campus followed by individual interviews. The interviews were one-on-one and the interviewers had access only to our essays, not MCAT scores or GPAs.
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If you can imagine practicing millitary medicine, this school is great. It boasts of a much stronger curriculum than other medical schools (with 800 more hours of specialized instruction), a great family-like atmosphere, a strong student support system and expert faculty. I was impressed with everyone who spoke to us, and really think that the little bit of freedom lost by joining the military is gained by all of the perks.
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Great! Except the pressure interview where the guy thought I had cut/copied my AMCAS essay since he thought it was too exceptional! Ha. But, overall, just a great place where I would love to spend my 4 years for medical school.
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It's very laid back. They asked a lot of questions about my family background. But as for questions about my interest in medicine and such, there was nothing that they asked that wasn't already in my file.
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Excellent school, excellent program, excellent people!
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The first interview was with a Public Health Service Doctor. It was very informal, and he actually showed me the interview sheet they fill out. The second interview was with an Army doctor from Walter Reed Medical Center. We ended up having an enjoyable 30 minute conversation. Both interviews were low stress affairs.
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Very relaxed day.
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Very laid back interview day. By the time the presentations are over, I was pretty gung-ho about going there. Everyone at the school is very interested in getting to know you. My only gripe was that after lunch, the interview day seemed to go too fast and didn't allow me any time to talk with other interviewees or dean's.
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The day begins with talks from many of the deans, which is followed by student lead tours. Interviews were held in small rooms within the library with many applicats sitting outside waiting for their turn. They are looking for: why medicine? why the military? What are your leadership abilities? Do you have communication skills?
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Overall, it was a positive experience. Of the allopathic (MD) schools where I interviewed, this one impressed me the most.
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I really enjoyed the interviews. The people there were very kind and helpful. The first four hours of the day were spend clarifying the military requirements and specifics of going through the program.
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Great experience
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Great experience overall. Had a fantastic time at the interview and with my host student. I would highly recommend applying to this school.
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It was a good interview experience. The interviewers are nice..however the student affairs dean and I got into a discussion on why he believes his wife, an MD, should remain at home and take care of the kids....interesting, old fashioned chap!
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It was very stress free and enjoyable.
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I got accepted at USUHS eight weeks after the interview by the Air Force baby!!!!!!! Relax and show your true self. Bon chance!
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The interview was great. Since it snowed, I had only one interviewer instead of the usual two. We talked about why I want to pursue medicine and the rest of the why's. I was the last person for the day so I was not press for time. I struck a conversation that lasted over an hour. Usually, I think the interview should only last 30-45 mins but I figure why not ask a few more questions before leaving.
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There are two interviews, each one half hour long. Typically, there is a 4th year student and then a practicing military physician O-3 or above. Even though the campus is small and compact it is extremely easy to get disorientated. When you park in the lot, remember where you park!
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I would highly recommend that prospective students take advantage of the student host program. The hosts are informative, easy going, and definitely go out of their way to relieve any anxiety you have. Also, I would suggest that all interviewees take advantage of the open door policy on interview day- be sure to visit the Dean of Admissions, Dean of Student Affairs, and anyone else willing to talk to you. Everyone is there for you.
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I loved this school and everything about it. I plan to be a career military physician whether it be via USUHS or HPSP. For those who are hard core going into the military, this is for you. It is an excellent program that exemplifies why military medicine is so superb.
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Interview was very low-stress like everyone says. USUHS is not for everyone, but everyone there seems to be VERY happy.
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i was interested in this school before, but after interview day it is definitely now my #1 choice. people are really happy here. cheesy as it sounds, there is a big sense of community/cooperation between not only students, but students and staff as well. it's surreal... you are walking and working among some fascinating people, it almost feels like you've stepped into a movie sometimes with the backgrounds they have. not really sure how things work out here in terms of relationships.... a lot of married students with families already, and they really do a lot to support you and help make things work. but for singles...? few women, very diverse population so not really sure about how much inter-dating.
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It is an awesome school.
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A very good experience all in all.
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I would love to have the opportunity to go to this school. It would be my first choice.
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If you know that you want to join the military, by the end of the interview day you will want to go here, no questions asked.
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There were about forty of us interviewing. The day started about 7:30 a.m., so get up early and arrive early. The parking is in the basement of the school and the admissions office is on the first floor. The day starts out with briefings, which were great. Military medicine is described and we are informed that it is not for everyone. We were given a tour of the school, which is older, but has everything you need. Students are required to wear their dressy uniform or their combat uniform (most prefer to wear the combat uniform). The students are very happy here. 1 in 3 students is married. The student body is diverse. There is a lot of traffic in the D.C. area, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to arrive at the school. Regarding the interviews: my first interviewer asked a lot of questions about military medicine, while my second interviewer focused more on finding out who I am as an individual. Be prepared for questions about the military.
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The faculty was great. I really enjoyed the experience interviewing. It is somewhat confusing trying to get to the school, I had to walk for half a mile with my luggage once I made it to the front gates, the school is way back behind all the the other navy buildings, no shuttle.
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The staff and faculty were extremely helpful in answering questions. Everyone seems to LOVE the school, even though it really needs to be rebuilt. They emphasized how much the USUHS loves to take care of its members and their families. So many of the students have spouses and children. The admissions staff were very energetic and enthusiastic. The day was hot and VERY long, but informative and fun.
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very helpful. i learned a lot about militaty medicine, and everyone is so helpful and the deans and higher ups were so involved in student affairs
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Amazing school with very friendly students.
What are your suggestions for the admissions office?
Applicants commonly suggested modernizing the student portals, warning students about paperwork, and transitioning to electronic secondary applications to streamline the process and reduce redundancy. Additionally, they requested clearer communication about following up after interviews and more responsiveness to emails, while praising the friendly staff and well-organized interview days.
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Modernize the student portals
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Warn students about the amount of paperwork during secondaries.
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N/A
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Nothing. Super helpful. The day was very well-planned and organized.
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I absolutely give the staff and students 100% positive feedback. The only thing I can suggest is that in the given materials they state in bold font that we should not call to followup after interviewing. As an applicant I would appreciate a little more openness to having students followup on their applications. Yes, I understand that it is important for the office to protect their valuable time from us neurotic students who may call impatiently while we are waiting to hear responses hehe, but at the same time, after the student has been waiting long it is nice that they feel welcomed to pick up the phone and say Hello! to reiterate their interest in the program and to see how they are doing, without feeling they are breaking the "do not contact" rule. Keep up the encouragement to the students which was great! I can wait to be a part of USUHS!
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Be friendly, they are mostly friendly!
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Eliminate redundancy in the required forms.
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Electronic secondary applications would be nice.
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Send the RF86 at least a week in advance, not the day before the interview.
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Please convert secondary process to digital!!
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The staff there are great. My only suggestion is keep up the good work!
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It is time for USUHS to move to an electronic secondary format, although I understand why they still use a mail format. Applying to USUHS requires more than other schools.
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Better hurry up and wait. They are very helpful once you get a hold of them, but a responce could t
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Maybe make the supplemental be an online process, thus saving on postage, paper and speeding up the
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online secondary application submission.
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E-mails are not always responded to in a timely manner, probably due to the overwhelming volume off
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Would have liked to sit in on a class while there. Please more responsiveness about student host pr
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