University of Texas McGovern Medical School at UTHealth

I definitely recommend staying with a student host. I stayed with an MS3. I stayed up talking to her for about 2 hours. I felt like I had the insiders perspective when I went on Friday. Going the day before helped me to relax and to get a good feel for the real medical student life. Interview: It seemed like both interviewers had looked through my application and were trying to get to know me more. The first one almost seemed like he was verifying what I wrote down. The second was fun to talk to. I guess that is why you interview with you 2 people. Ms Murphy said at lunch that they look at who interviews you and if you get a bad review they often will just throw it out when they present you to the admissions committee. I guess she anticipated my experience when I said who I was interviewing with. They did not ask me any ethical questions or questions related to anything besides me or my application. I felt like I was the one directing the conversation and could say what I wanted to. I did hear about a couple people being asked basic Texas History (who was the first president: Sam Houston, etc). Good luck.

I read through the interview feedback section on SDF, I read the articles on SDF, I read the Sunday Times, I googled about the current health care debate and the most recent bill, I went over possible questions in my head, I read up on UT-H mainly through the website.

Dr. Kalloway is as great as every says. I was impressed with friendliness of everyone I encountered. Brand new facilities. Looks state of the art. I like how they want you succeed.

I wish I had known the following details: There were 56 students interviewed on my day. We were split into 2 groups. One started at 7:45am and finished at 2:30pm. Mine started at 9:45am, and finished about 4:30pm. We were a little bigger than the morning group with about 30 students. Morning group did interviews first, afternoon group did interviews last. Here was my schedule for the day. I arrived in the parking garaged and went to the very top floor (8) to find parking by the elevators. It probably took at least 10 minutes to get parking and walk to registration. Budget extra time to get there. Walk straight out of the parking garage across the street into the building across the street. Go in and walk straight. You'll see the security guard. Make a left and you will see the registration table. They give you a bag containing materials for you, including a pen and notepad, maps of the area, day schedule, and interview schedule. They have breakfast for you. Opening remarks start after 10am. Nice room. Table in back of room with bagels, danishes, juice, water, and other breakfast foods. Before 10am is a great chance to start talking to other interviewees and MS 1 and 2s. Multimedia presentation about Why UT-Houston. We then went on a Bus tour. Lunch at noon (Beef, chicken, mushroom fajitas with rice and beans + chips and salsa, fruit, cookies and cake, bottles of water, tea). 1 faculty and 1 MS at each table. Med students answer questions to the whole group at the end of lunch. After lunch, we went on the walking tour (morning group had opposite tour times). We even went up to where the helicopters take off. My interviews were scheduled for 2:30pm and 3:30pm. Those who had the 2pm and 3pm did not have any break after the tour to prepare. Walk into the day ready to interview. 4pm we regrouped with Dr Kalloway and Ms Murphy to answer questions. They had water and soda and snacks for us as we filled out the evaluations. Everything is pretty relaxed and organized. Lots of opportunities to talk with current med students and other interviewees. I went to the social the night before. It was fun. I stayed late. At the social, there was a large variety of dress. At the interview day, everyone wore a suit besides me. Mostly dark colors with the girls wearing brightly colored blouses underneath. More pant suits than skirts. Most had their hair tied back. Only about 3 or 4 girls with their hair down. Like me, Dr. Kalloway wore a 3 piece outfit that wasn't a suit. Most of the interviewees were from the big name Texas Schools and the most prestigious schools around the country. I met a lot of fellow Longhorns. Lot of non-trads. Variety of ages.