University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Medical School

🙂

How did the interview impress you?

Positively 🙂

What was the stress level of the interview?

2 / 10

0 = Low Stress, 10 = High Stress

How you think you did?

7 / 10

0 = Bad, 10 = Great

What are your general comments?

The day was very well organized and the interviewers really seemed to come to us rather than have us cross the entire campus to go to them. Interviews are scheduled to be two 25 minute back to back interviews, which is nice because that means that everybody gets to hear all the talks and go on the school tour. The school tour doesn't show you too much though, which is kind of a pity. Breakfast and lunch were provided and students who were on campus studying came out for the free food. However, they were all really nice and sat down with us to talk to us about their experiences at UT Southwestern. My first interview was extremely laid back and we just talked about how idnividual primary care practices "evolve" over time. My second one was more formal, but by the end, we were just trading reading recommendations and talking abotu the theater. Both seemed really nice. I know that some people that went got really hard questions from their interviewer though, so I guess it's just luck of the draw as to which interviewer you get.

Interview questions they asked

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

I was asked this too

What was the most interesting question?

Let me see the size of your hands (we were talking about surgery). But the conversation itself was pretty interesting as a whole.

I was asked this too

What was the most difficult question?

Nothing too difficult. One asked me what I had learned shadowing in an inner-city clinic about problems with Medicaid coverage.

I was asked this too

How did you prepare for the interview?

Mock interview, went through a list of possible interview questions, slept, and read some stuff on SDN. My first interviewer was very open and that helped me relax for both of the interviews.

What impressed you positively?

I went in with the preconception that the students would be really stressed out and unfriendly, but in fact, I got a chance to talk to at LEAST one student from every year except for the third-years. They were all really honest and helpful, and I felt that we could ask them anything. By the end of the day, people were still asking us if we had questions and we were all shaking our heads no. The buildings are really nice, the carrels seemed like a great bonus, and the city has lots of fine arts venues (which I happen to be into). I like that they spread out the tests throughout the semester instead of having them weeks at a time. Although the class size seemed big, everyone assured me that there were lots of small-group opportunities to get to know our classmates. I was also impressed with the amount of extracurricular activities and community outreach initiatives they had.

What impressed you negatively?

Parkland is a huge hospital...and our tour guide took us through the basement of it to get to the Children's Hospital. And the basement felt like...a basement. Students pretty much told me that it wasn't super cut-throat like everyone seemed to think it was but they did mention that sometimes they felt that their success was measured by awards and publications rather than other more intangible factors.

What did you wish you had known ahead of time?

That we could have called the admissions office or office of student affairs to set up a day during the week to follow a medical student on their rounds for a day. It would've been a great opportunity to explore the school further and I would have gone into town earlier or even stayed later to do it.