How is the friendliness of the admissions office?
No responses
How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?
No responses
How did you prepare for the interview?
SDN, Pitt's website, Pitt's big brochure, Read over my file. Read over this sheet I prepared with things i wanted to talk about. I saw another person with similar notes. This was my second interview so i was less nervous. My mental state was a bit altered as well since i had only One hour of sleep on the plane. I was loaded on caffeine so i was a bit more chattery than my usual.
What impressed you positively?
The facilities were superb. All the hospitals were linked some how. The WISER Sim center is awesome, absolutely the best in the world.
What impressed you negatively?
I'm not looking for this in a school but this school isn't a typical college campus. It doesn't have grass fields and nice architectural buildings that i am used to from Cal. The hill may discourage some people but I'm quite accustome to them from my college and home town.
My visit also showed me my competitions. Everyone were very high calliber and I dont know how i feel about my chances against these great applicants.
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
WISER Sim Center = very high tech dummies that students use to learn many procedures. So instead of practicing on people, you get to practice on a dummy that can talk and breath and has a pulse.
What are your general comments?
I flew the red-eye flight so i left CA at 8pm and arrived in Pittsburgh at 6:30am. Changed into my suit at the airport bathroom and took the 28x shuttle to the school. I did not anticipate the hour long ride and didn't know where to get off so i overshot the stop and had to walk 5 blocks back the other way. By the time i sroll into the admissions office at the top of the hill, I was already 15 mins late.
Day started with a tour to WISER - awesome sim dummies. We were suppose to go tour the anatomy labs but MS1 had an exam that day. About 10am, we had an admissions overview which didn't quite explain anything to me. We also had a cirriculum overview which was pretty good. Lunch was okay, $5 worth of food only. Around 1pm is when the interviews began.
First interview was with Student, randomly matched. Student has no info on you except your name, school you went to, and city you're from.
Afterwards, you either do Faculty interview or Associate(assistant) Dean interview for 15 mins. Associate Dean has your entire file and it is her job to figure out what questions adcom may have regarding the entire application.
Third interview for me was faculty. She has your PS but nothing else. My faculty interview didn't go so well. On the other hand, I think i nailed the associate dean and student interviews.
All the interviews asks exactly the same question: Why medicine, Why pitt, What extra cirricular. Each interviewer has a sheet they had to fill out with these questions on it. I think my faculty interviewer plowed through the questions in our first 10 mins so she will have it filled out. Then we talked about some non-sense: oil prices, hybrid cars, Hong Kong. I thought the interviewer was very nice but seem rushed.
After you're done with the interviews, you fill out this eval and then you're ready to leave. Some people had late interview schedules so they couldn't leave until 4pm. I was lucky and left at 3:15pm. Caught the shuttle and arrived at the airport at 4:15pm for my flight at 6pm.
I attribute my good interview day to the two pennies I picked up as i dropped them at the security checks before i flew to pittsburgh. Both pennies had the heads up. I'm keeping these pennies for a while.
What are your suggestions for the admissions office?
No responses
