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?
This web site is the best resource on the planet! I also did a practice interview at Career Services, read my file, read chapters on interviewing... by the way all that is overpreparedness... just read this site and your set.
What impressed you positively?
I arrived two nights in advance and slept on a friends floor the first night and in guest housing (a bed) the second night (for free). I took two classes to get a feel for the class and learning style. The notes and transcript service are awesome. The people are REALLY friendly and "chill" is the appropriate word. None of them looked stressed out. All of them really like the organ systems approach. There are LOTS of student activities that go on. I didn't meet anyone that wasn't involved in less than 7 activities. Students have the opportunity to teach "mini-courses" in things such as Yoga, Karate, Swimming, Photography or whatever else they are good at... and as the instructor you can keep the tuition that you set. The web resources are really great... online quizzes and other things. There will be a completely wireless network in a few months. You can apply to be a resident assistant or director in your second year. Discounted tickets are available for broadway shows and the student center is really equipped with a nice pool, gym, and bball court, pool table etc. They have a problem based learning course called CBL, and they also offer early clinical experience. Also, there are electives offered in your first and second year which is pretty rare for medical schools. Everyone gets their own personal workstation outside of the dorms to be able to study and read textbooks. Speaking of textbooks, most people get by without them and use them as supplementary material. You get tested on the notes. The lectures that I attended were not boring (at least I didn't think so). The professors tie in clinical correlates (minimally) with the material they present. The students are really excited about their early clinical experience. The Emergency elective is a shadowing experience so most are psyched about that.
What impressed you negatively?
The public showers in the dorm style housing are too short. I had to bend down to wash my hair! The surrounding neighborhood lacks stores and places to eat. There's a pizza place, sandwich place and a dunkin donuts. BUT, the student center has a cafeteria and you can always order takeout. Printing isn't free in the computer labs so you need to buy a printer or fork out 10 cents per page. The way they teach anatomy is fairly unstructured but it gets the job done. The anatomy labs are NOT in a dungeon, however, the hallway they are located in could use some renovation (wires hanging from the ceiling).
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
There is a shuttle service from the school to the nearest subway stop due to safety precautions. (a very positive feature if you ask me) The people are really down to Earth and 99% are not cut-throat competitive. The class size is fairly large, and there isn't much in the way of personal attention BUT if you went to a large university as I did, then you know any experience is what YOU make of it. You can always seek advising and get it.
What are your general comments?
The interview itself was ok... just ok. My interviewer never worked with students; not in class, not in research. So he really couldn't answer my questions. He was a very nice man though.
All my questions were answered the day before anyway by the students I had met.
The overall experience was really good and the school does a great job educating their students and providing things to do outside of class. They tend to plug the whole "less debt" thing.
What are your suggestions for the admissions office?
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