Philadelphia, PA
Allopathic Medical Schools | Private Non-Profit
Application Cycle: 2009-10
⭐ Overall Impressions
How do you rank the facilities?
10 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
How do you rank this school among ALL other schools?
10 out of 10
0 = Below, 10 = Above
How do you rank this school among other schools to which you've applied?
10 out of 10
0 = Below, 10 = Above
What is your ranking of this school's location?
10 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?
10 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
💬 Interview Questions
What was the most interesting question?
If I forced you to go abroad as a medical student, where would you go and what would you do?
(Better have a good answer to this as Penn's big push these days is global health)
What was the most difficult question?
If you had three free months to do something completely non-medical, what would you do?
✅ Interview Preparation and Impressions
How long was the interview?
40 minutes
How did the interview impress you?
No change 😐
How many people interviewed you?
2
What was the stress level of the interview?
3 out of 10
0 = Low Stress, 10 = High Stress
How you think you did?
4 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What was the style of the interview?
One-on-one
What type of interview was it?
Open file
Where did the interview take place?
At the school
How did you prepare for the interview?
Reviewed AMCAS and read online about Penn's unique curriculum.
What impressed you positively?
The students! For such a smart and highly motivated crowd, they were incredibly personable and grounded. They all were enthusiastic about the school, their classmates, and their city. Nowhere else have I enjoyed hanging out with medical students so much.
What impressed you negatively?
The school's faculty has a major inferiority complex with Harvard/Hopkins/Yale, and Philly has a huge inferiority complex with New York City.
My faculty interviewer was also pretty pompous. After belittling my career aspirations, he told me that as I was interviewing at Penn, he'd like to hear ''Be in charge of the CDC, NIH, or UN AIDs Council'' as an answer to his query of ''Where do you see yourself in 20 years?''
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
How inbred the program seems. If you're not from an Ivy League school, you're going to feel out of place on the interview day.
What are your general comments?
Stayed with students in Center City the night before, went to class with them at 8 AM, then the official day of info session, anatomy lab, tour, lunch (phenomenal view), and two interviews.
One interview was incredibly relaxed with a student, while the other was much more formal and with a faculty member. The student will have pored over your AMCAS application, but the faculty will likely have just skimmed it.
📍 On-Site Experience
Who was the tour given by?
Student
How did the tour guide seem?
Enthusiastic
What is your in-state status?
Out of state
What were your total hours spent traveling?
4-6 hours
What was your primary mode of travel?
Airplane
About how much did you spend on room, food, and travel?
$101-$200
What airport did you fly into?
PHL
Where did you stay?
With students at the school
How would you rate the hotel?
10 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
Would you recommend the hotel?
yes
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