University of California Irvine School of Medicine

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Irvine, CA

Allopathic Medical Schools | Public Non-Profit

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⭐ Overall Impressions ▼

How did the interview impress you?

Negatively

What was the stress level of the interview?

No responses

How you think you did?

6 out of 10

How do you rank this school among ALL other schools?

6 out of 10

How do you rank this school among other schools to which you've applied?

3 out of 10

💬 Interview Questions ▼

What is one of the specific questions they asked you?

So I see here you did research.............................(I was waiting for a question, which didn't come, so I just launched into talking about it). Do you like research? Is it valuable? Will it help you be a better doctor? That's interesting that you're not to into research, as in your PS, you said you thought it had value (oops, trapped myself).

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Tell me about your volunteer exp? Where they valuable? What did you do? And THAT made you want to go into medicine?

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You claim to be a California boy, why did you go to school somewhere out of state? (I have good reasons). Rough interview all around, and I overall didn't do as well as I would have like. I let my guard down, and I got spanked all over the place.

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What was the most interesting question?

What sports do you play? Is that really a sport? (seriously?) We dont have access to your GPA and MCAT, but, we will soon. How did you do on those? What do you think your prob of getting into medical school is? No, like a percentage? What about 79%? Do you really see yourself going to Irvine? Basically, I think he recognized that I wasn't too into the school, and didn't want to waste an acceptance on me (with good cause. I'll be writing the admissions committee and taking my name out of consideration. I regret wasting everyone's time).

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What was the most difficult question?

First Question, after I sat down and made a comment on the nice weather. "So why are you here?" I stammered something about my reasons for medicine and UCI, but it really caught me off guard.

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🤝 Interview Format and Logistics ▼

How long was the interview?

45 minutes

How many people interviewed you?

What was the style of the interview?

One-on-one

What type of interview was it?

Open file

Was this interview in-person or virtual?

No responses

Where did the interview take place?

At the school

📍 On-Site Experience ▼

Who was the tour given by?

Student

How did the tour guide seem?

Enthusiastic

How do you rank the facilities?

No responses

What is your in-state status?

In state

What were your total hours spent traveling?

7+ hours

What was your primary mode of travel?

Automobile

About how much did you spend on room, food, and travel?

$101-$200

What airport did you fly into?

No responses

Where did you stay?

With students at the school

What is the name of the hotel you stayed in?

No responses

How would you rate the hotel?

9 out of 10

Would you recommend the hotel?

yes

What is your ranking of this school's location?

3 out of 10

What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?

3 out of 10

What are your comments on where you stayed?

No responses

✅ Interview Preparation and Impressions ▼

How is the friendliness of the admissions office?

9 out of 10

How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?

9 out of 10

How did you prepare for the interview?

SDN, Website (which sucks. broken links all over the place. I e-mailed the admin office to get information I couldn't access through the site, and I never got a response), talking with host student about the school

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What impressed you positively?

The weather is amazing down there, it is fairly close to my family.

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What impressed you negatively?

I was extremely unimpressed with UCI. As a little context, I knew I was already accepted to Case Western prior to the interview, so I went to it with a critical eye, hoping to find something that would jump out and grab me. There are some major problems with the school. 1. The hospital is a 15-30 min drive away from the school. Essentially, all 3rd and 4th year students never have any reason to be in contact with 1-2 years. Major negative. Additionally, all the research that is going on, is completely separate from the hospital. Not only is this less effecient, but the research faculty and clinical faculty aren't able to work together as much 2. Orange County. It feels like the school just bought up 120 acres of coastal land, and plopped a very spread out school on top of it. Then surrounded it by rich people's houses. If you like going to school in the suburbs, then you and I differ, I prefer to be in the thick of the action. 3. First year students have a test EVERY Monday! Wow, thanks for not only allowing me to have zero fact retention, but also wasting all my weekends. 4. Apparently the international programs are weak and underfunded (host insight) 5. I talked to very few students that really wanted to be there for any reason besides it being the only school they got accepted into. There are much better schools in CA that most of the students also apply to, Irvine is not filled by students that also get into those schools.

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What did you wish you had known ahead of time?

Regardless of the time of day, you will hit traffic in LA at certain points.

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What are your general comments?

My interviewer challenged me greatly based on the way he asked his questions. After almost everything I said, he would either try to pick it apart, or ask me some tangential question based off my answer. I'm not a big fan of the (on average) more materialistic culture of Southern California, hence my low cultural rating. It seems that too many people care too much about things that dont matter at all. And it's hard for me to deal with the speaking style down here. This interview was by far my hardest, and I honestly didn't do too well. I was completely honest in the interview, and I didn't really try to sell myself too well, which I dont think helped me too much. All in all, it was a great learning exp, but not a great school. It's important to note that my views of the school are not related to my success during the interview. I will not be attending this school either way.

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What are your suggestions for the admissions office?

More interview days so we dont walk around in a group of 30 students. Also would allow more flexibil

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University of California Irvine School of Medicine

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