Tufts University School of Medicine

Negatively ☹️

7 out of 10

Man, I was ready to give this school a fair chance, but based on my experiences interviewing I didn't feel like people were all that psyched about the school, even the faculty. If the faculty aren't advocating their own institution, you know something's wrong!

What is life?

What is the most important quality for a doctor to have?

Read SDN, made sure I could talk about the research I'd been involved in (I was asked to explain it)

What is life?

The admissions committee provide you with a LOT of information about the school during the morning-afternoon talks. You do learn a lot about the school.

One interviewer told me that basically all medical schools are the same (meaning that he saw no reason that Tufts was unique) and that the school suffered from being in the same city as Harvard, by competing with Harvard for hospitals (many of the hospitals in Boston are affiliated with Harvard), and in general expressed his bitterness towards it. My other interviewer delivered this rapid-fire series of questions (such as What is life? What is one word that describes logical thought? Why are your MCAT scores unimpressive?) and when I asked him to clarify one of the questions, he said, "I'll ask the questions. You give the answers." While two people don't represent the character of the entire school, I did not get the impression that I was particularly welcome, or that the interviewers were selling the school. One of the Admissions Committee members warned us that we should be prepared to demonstrate any talent that we claimed we had in our AMCAS application. You could be asked to sing if you claimed you sang, and any knowledge of foreign languages could be tested by your interviewer. The admissions officer said that they'd found some people to be "liars" in the past...I didn't get a good vibe from that.

Bring long underwear because you never know if there will be heavy snow or significant windchill.

Student