How is the friendliness of the admissions office?
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How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?
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How did you prepare for the interview?
i read a lot about the school and about healthcare, the other feedback on this website made me very nervous so i stressed a little too much and tried to figure out how to solve all the healthcare problems in the nation, which was useful and enlightening, but they didn't grill me on all the issues, they just wanted to see that i was thinking about how things are and how to make them better, i think. i got the impression that they didn't care which problem i picked, just that i had a good thought process and workable ideas, so my advice is play to your strengths. if you know about surgical errors then think about how to reduce them and if you know about infectious disease then know how to prepare the country for the avian flu pandemic. be creative, be yourself.
What impressed you positively?
i actually enjoyed the interview. this is weird because i expected not to and i wasn't at all looking forward to being grilled on politics, health policy and ethics. okay, the interview was tough, my hardest yet, but i found it challenging in a good way and kinda fun.
What impressed you negatively?
yeah, like people have said before, the facilities are not knew and they know it, but i'm not big on fancy stuff. i prefer this school over the ones that sell themself on a fancy dummy or some other bit of technology or architechture. i started the day feeling not especially comfortable, but i think it was my expectation about the unfriendliness of the interview process here - which i think is a myth. it may be different and perhaps slightly intimidating with the whole 3 on 1 format, and the interviewers did seem to be trying to keep a stony face, but they were nice people, i could tell they were really friendly and warm but just trying to be less... well, they let me finish my answers. they just listened and kinda waited for me to end, which i could see being very uncomfortable, but it wasn't. because they were listening very closely, remembering details, and preparing the next question as a spoke. that was my impression, anyway, it wasn't negative but just different.
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
one thing that is very true is that lunch won't fill you up. i brought an energy bar to get me through the day. also, since they do the interviews sequentially, they tend to be behind a bit so prepare to have a longer day than printed on your schedule. it's fine though, there's a computer in the lounge where you can check your email :)
one interesting thing is that all out of state, minority, and those coming from an underserved background or planning to work with the underserved have a meeting with a rep from the office of multicultural affairs. i wasn't sure what the purpose of these type of meeting were (if it was another interview or just for info). just fyi in general, a meeting like this can increase your chances of admissions because you have an additional advocate (if you impress them i guess), but since all the non-WWAMI students meet with a rep it seems like they must choose some to endorse because endorsing all of us wouldn't help the committee narrow down the out of staters. anyway, this was a new thing for me so i hope this helps someone. just be ready to talk about the applicable issues and your own background and motives.
What are your general comments?
U Dub is awesome. hey, there was no glitz or glam today. nothing fancy, no one tried to impress me with anything except maybe the tour guide saying that it's the largest office building west of the pentagon or something. they just keep adding on new additions, which is cool. the newest is the surgical center, which is nice. it's just about the onlly new nice building i saw. they want to improve the facilities, but obviously money is the big decision maker. i assume that when there is money it is put elsewhere like into all the great programs that have in rural healthcare, international opps, reseach, the colleges, etc. the school has it's priorties in the right place - unless you feel the need to be spoiled during medical school, and i'm not judging, i'm just saying there are a lot of schools where you can have a nice student lounge, shiny new class rooms and all sorts of fancy stuff, and that's awesome, but this school sold itself to me by not focusing on all that... if that makes sense, anyway, you'll like the school or you won't :)
What are your suggestions for the admissions office?
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