Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

As I mentioned earlier, I had a great time meeting all the students. I sat through a few classes, and got a first-hand feel of a typical day as a med student at Vanderbilt. The teaching faculty are very nice and also very engaging. They gave great lectures and always got the students to participate in lively discussion. All the first years I met said that Anatomy was their most intense course because the professor cowrote the text that is being used all over the country. But the students try really hard, and everyone comes out ok in the end. They just started the Pass/Fail system for first years, and Honors/Pass/Fail for subsequent years. I guess this eliminates some of the pressure on the students, but not completely. It is easy to get stressed out here (the workload is rather heavy), but the students are very good at encouraging one another and there seems to be a genuine camaraderie between them. The only downside to my visit was the actual interview itself. I felt my interviewer was not prepared for our meeting at all. He only asked me typical med school interview questions and did not seem familiar with my personal statement (by the way, the interviewers only see your AMCAS application, NOT your secondaries). He didn't ask me if I had any questions for him and didn't really say anything about the school that I hadn't already read or heard from others. It turned out that I had originally been scheduled to interview with another faculty member, so I guess that would explain the lack of preparation. However, I did get a chance to meet the other doctor who had originally been scheduled to interview me and we had a great time talking for a short while. How I wish he had interviewed me in the first place! We could only talk for a few minutes, but I felt so much more at ease with him than with my actual interviwer. I hope his brief meeting with me will count towards my review, as I am not sure what my interview feedback will contain.

What would you do if you were partnered with another student who vehemently opposes your interest in serving underrepresented communities?

Vanderbilt students are simply awesome! My interview fell around their finals, but they still took some time out of their busy schedules to talk to me about the school and to give me advice concerning my interview. I was very impressed by how concerned they were about my welfare.

Although my overall impression of Vanderbilt was a good one, the actual interview was a bit of a disappointment. I was kept waiting for about 20minutes because my interviewer was busy chatting with another student. He didn't really apologize to me, but told me to talk about my undergraduate school while he ran around getting information for that other student! I felt so inconsequential. Also, the tour is really just a Q&A session with a quick walk around Light Hall. If you can, walk around yourself before or after your interview.

Nashville does not have a good public transportation system. I am very fortunate that my student host and other medical students I met had cars and could drive me all over the place. Getting a car will be a good investment. I asked why we didn't get to see the hospitals (the VA and Vanderbilt Medical Center are very close to Light Hall) and I was told we'd get a better tour if we got accpeted to Vanderbilt and came for second look weekend.