Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine

🙂

How did the interview impress you?

Positively 🙂

What was the stress level of the interview?

3 / 10

0 = Low Stress, 10 = High Stress

How you think you did?

8 / 10

0 = Bad, 10 = Great

How do you rank this school among ALL other schools?

9 / 10

0 = Below, 10 = Above

How do you rank this school among other schools to which you've applied?

9 / 10

0 = Below, 10 = Above

What are your general comments?

You have 5 interviews during the day, and 2 faculty interviews whose labs you would like to work in. The interviews are a bit long (45 minutes) and they are particularly looking to see if you will quit the PhD portion of the program halfway through. You go out to dinner with students that night, then meet for lunch the next day. Then you go on a TWO AND A HALF HOUR tour (a bit long) that is actually very complete. You even get to see the helipad! That night you have dinner at the director's house with students and faculty, and basically they are looking to see if you are well-adjusted or not. They are great about answering questions and discussing the downfalls of the program.

Interview questions they asked

Why MD/PhD?

I was asked this too

What was the most interesting question?

Who is your hero?

I was asked this too

What was the most difficult question?

Explain a failure in your life and how you dealt/deal with it.

I was asked this too

How did you prepare for the interview?

SDN, school's website, AMCAS application

What impressed you positively?

The people are very nice. The facilities are BEAUTIFUL. There is a scholarship that anyone who wants it (in medical school) can get to go abroad to help underserved areas. The MD/PhD pays for your entire time in the program--even during your grad school years so the responsibility doesn't fall on your PI. Cost of living is INCREDIBLY cheap. Rochester is very safe. M1 and M2 are pass/fail.

What impressed you negatively?

Rochester is, well, small. There wouldn't be a lot of opportunities for my fiance, although someone in the program said his wife was able to find a job at Mayo (because where else would you work in Rochester, beside IBM?). The medical school is very inflexible about re-entering into your M3 year--you have about a 2-month window during the fall before you have to wait until the next year to start your M3. There isn't an abundance of laboratories in the Virology and Immunology departments (my area of interest) but each lab does GREAT research. In your M1 year you don't do anatomy until the middle of the year. Also you only get 5 weeks off in the summer--only enough time to barely do one lab rotation, which only lasts one month (SHORT!).

What did you wish you had known ahead of time?

M1/M2 are pass/fail. Also that Rochester is very small, and it basically consists of Mayo and IBM.

What is your ranking of this school's location?

6 / 10

0 = Bad, 10 = Great

What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?

6 / 10

0 = Bad, 10 = Great