SUNY - Upstate Medical University College of Medicine

If you were on the ward by yourself, which hopefully wouldn't happen, what sort of doctor would you want to come to your aid? (This was really a question about what kind of doctor did I want to be.)

In reference to a biography on Jackie O. that I was reading and took along for those "down times" I had read about on sdn, "Have you got to the part in her life when she was married to Onassis?" I hadn't, yet, but gave my impressions of her life to that point. The only downtime I had was the few minutes before the second interview.

What job have you found the most intriguing/enlightening? (In reference to my work in a group home for MR patients, a veterinary clinic, and an oral surgery office).

Oddly, about my father -- "Describe your father to me."

See above

SDN, school website, AMCAS app, annoying the docs for whom I work on "hot" topics in healthcare/medicine

I was genuinely pleased with the friendliness and down-to-Earth quality of all those I formally met. The interviewers did not seem to be the Ivory Tower sort, but normal people who worked hands on in medicine.

Parking for visitors -- in the lot across the way $14 for the day. Really, Ms. Welch, if you read this -- maybe interviewees ought to be offered a day pass!! :)

see above (parking)

Before my first interview, I was able to observe about 10 minutes of 1st year physiology class where a hemodynamics demonstration was in progress. Having come into the middle of it, I was a little baffled. I was then off to the hospital for my first interview, which was with a clinician in pediatric nephrology. He was very welcoming when I entered his office and took my coat. He asked about my life in Ohio (where I grew up) as he is an alumnus of OSU. I believe our interview lasted about 35 minutes, which surprised me, but it was very comfortable. He told me about the school -- more focused on producing practitioners rather than researchers (a bonus for me), as well as about living in Syracuse (snow). I returned to the meeting room we interviewees were assigned and met up with some others who were waiting for lunch. We opted to take a peak into the physiology class, which had changed topics and instructors since I had been there. This bit on blood pressure didn't seem as foreign to me as the first class(stuff I am exposed to at work), but alas a little hefty for my comrades. We returned and chatted and ate lunch -- wraps, fittingly simple and good. And as a fellow interviewee has already posted, the Director of Admissions talked with us about financial aid, acceptance, etc., as well as the 3rd/4th year campus choice. Soon, I was off to my second interview, which surprisingly lasted nearly an hour. We chatted about the book I had brought, other perspectives brought through different fields of study (as in anthropology and psychology), books, and of course stuff in my AMCAS app. Again, I stress how comfortable the interview was. The difficult question for me was the one about my father, a little personal, but I suppose it gives the interviewer a perspective of how I handle myself with 'close to home' questions. We discussed the virtues of taking up a cause an going with it, finding better medicine for childhood asthma was the example. I could see myself finding such an issue, but I was adamant that I wished to maintain a practice and not becoming an administrator. The hour had passed quickly and I was then off for a long ride home. I was nervous about the 4 week wait to hear news, but alas 2 1/2 have passed by already!