How is the friendliness of the admissions office?
10 out of 10
How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?
8 out of 10
How did you prepare for the interview?
School's website, read over my secondaries and personal statement, SDN Interview Feeback
What impressed you positively?
The school's inviting and warm atmosphere, small town feel (Rockford), tightly-knit and helpful student body, new construction and renovation projects being undertaken to expand the school, decent cost of living in the area, early clinical exposure, suitable facilities.
What impressed you negatively?
The only negative aspect of the Rockford site is that you are not there your first year. Students in the Rockford track spend the first year in Urbana-Champaign, and then transfer to Rockford for years 2, 3, and 4. As for the campus, the area, the people, the facilities, the curriculum -- there is nothing negative to be said about any of them.
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
That the interviewers would rely solely on my secondary and personal statement to ask questions (it is much different at the Chicago and Peoria sites), that it would be just one 30-minute group interview with me and three interviewers (at Chicago, its 3 one-on-one interviews that each last 30 minutes), that there would not be any lunch (I don't know if this applies to the other sites).
What are your general comments?
I will preface my comments by saying that I am a Chicago native, and want to take the Chicago track. My interview, however, was at the Rockford site, which I knew almost nothing about. It should be noted that if you are interviewing at Chicago or Peoria, reading this feedback will most likely be a waste of your time; the interview style/format at the other sites is quite different. The University of Illinois at Rockford gave me the impression of a school that is genuinely concerned about its students. The M2s and M3s that we had a chance to meet had nothing but praise for the curriculum and the school. The curriculum at Rockford is unique in that students get REAL clinical experience starting their second year. Now, the students at Chicago can boast and say that they get clinical experience their second year too, but the students at Rockford are trained to take patient histories and assess basic symptoms by the time they are halfway through year two. By the time they start M3, they've already got as much skill as someone who has done a family medicine rotation, making their transition into a hospital setting a very easy one. They continue to spend one day a week in a Family Medicine setting, and during the fourth year are completely responsible for the well-being of dozens of local families. Rockford only has one residency program: Family Medicine. Therefore, while students at the Chicago and Peoria campus are receiving training from residents during their rotations, and also competing with residents to be able to perform procedures, the M3 and M4 students at Rockford are working directly with the Attending Physicians and performing "front line" procedures that they normally wouldn't be able to perform until residency.
As for the interview, it is a very quick and easy process. The interviewers are generally very courteous, and the entire interview only lasts 30 minutes. This is in stark contrast to interviews at the Chicago campus, of which I have heard several horror stories. The interviewers here had access only to your secondaries and personal statement, they did not have any GPA/MCAT information. They did not ask too many of the standard questions (why do you want to be a doctor, why do you want to come to school here, etc), rather they asked a question from your PS or secondaries, and then used your answer to lead into more questions. In a way, this style of questioning makes it impossible to "rehearse" your answers, because you never know what they are going to ask. But, the questions usually are not difficult ones. Overall, the interview day was a good experience. Although I prefer the Chicago site due familiarity, I came away with a new appreciation for what the University of Illinois is accomplishing out west in Rockford.
What are your suggestions for the admissions office?
No responses
