University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

No change 😐

4 out of 10

My student interviews was great. When I first went in, I was so nervous my cheeks were burning, at the end of the interview, we were chatting like old friends. She gave me her opinion about the school - the positives and the negatives which I appreciated (because not a lot of people there addressed the negative aspects of being a student at U Penn). My faculty interview was definitely strange. The interviewer offered me a piece of gum as I walked in because he was chewing one. Then he asked me a few questions from my application - but sometimes I felt he was being condescending and making light of what I wrote in my personal statement. Then we talked about Alaska the whole time (he had lived there, I've spent a few summers in the great north). At the end, he gave me ten minutes of "my time" and said he did not want to call it "questions time" because then students feel compelled to ask him your standard propective students questions, to which they probably already know the answer. So, we talked about Alaska the last ten minutes. This interview took me by surprise - nothing I was expecting. No questions like why medicine, why Penn. At the end, I really could not tell whether the interviewer really liked me or was mocking me...it was hard to tell from his attitude.

Why are you here? (there are questions my student interviewer aske me; the faculty interviewer did not ask any questions I could share, since they were specifically related to my personal statement).

Do you think it's human nature to be violent? (This was in relation to something I wrote in my essay)

SDN, school's website, read up on healthcare (was not asked anything of this sort) and ethics books (again, the topic did not even come up).

None too difficult, really. My student interviewer asked me what I thought a community was - a straightforward question, but I think I rambled on and on. This was my first interview, I was a bit stressed out.

The campus is beautiful. The students seemed really excited to be there. The facilities are incredible.

We were there from 9:30 - 4:30 which is a really long day. By the end you're exhausted and really have no energy to sit and listen to the last part of the orientation (after the interviews some students come down to speak about themselves).

Everyone gives you advice as to how to dress, how to behave, how to sit properly, etc...which makes you stressed out and really nervous. I should have been relaxed, really - being worried just makes you look unsure of yourself.

Student