How did the interview impress you?

No change

What was the stress level of the interview?

2 out of 10

How long was the interview?

60+ minutes

Where did the interview take place?

At the school

How many people interviewed you?

2

What was the style of the interview?

One-on-one

What type of interview was it?

Open file

What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 1)?

"Both interviewers seemed to want to know a lot about my family and childhood, so the early questions were very much focused on that." Report Response | I was asked this question too

What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 2)?

"Questions raised from skimming my application." Report Response | I was asked this question too

What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 3)?

"Some generic ethical situations. The situations themselves don't matter, I think, just pick a rational answer and stick with it." Report Response | I was asked this question too

What was the most interesting question?

"Nothing in particular - some interesting ones as my application got probed in depth, but they were specific to my file." Report Response | I was asked this question too

What was the most difficult question?

"Some ethical questions where my interviewer played the devil's advocate to challenge answers, but even these weren't that difficult and seemed to be more about looking at thought processes and how you can defend a position. Nothing overly difficult." Report Response | I was asked this question too

How did you prepare for the interview?

"Just read their website." Report Response

What impressed you positively?

"Amazing facilities. Additionally, they have good departments for EVERYTHING, so no matter what you want to do you can learn about it from the pros if you're motivated enough to seek it out." Report Response

What impressed you negatively?

"I think I would just say don't go in expecting this place to knock your socks off just because of the name. It's definitely a good school, but people seem to undeservedly put it on a pedestal just because it's Harvard. Financial aid seems to be lacking somewhat too." Report Response

What did you wish you had known ahead of time?

"LOTS of down time, although this will depend on your time slot interviews. It allows you to explore the campus, though. Also, neither of my interviewers had read my file much, so a bit too much time was spent watching them read over the essay/LOR's/etc. and cherry picking questions." Report Response

What are your general comments?

"Ehhhhhh, a little bit underwhelming. I mean, it's HARVARD, so obviously it's second to none in terms of the facilities and the amount of money that's thrown around. But in terms of the actual medical student experience I came away unimpressed. I got the feeling that the biggest selling point is the name itself - when interviewees would ask the students why they chose to go there, the most common answer by far was something like "Well, it's Harvard, you can't turn them down". Kind of odd. I guess the name has some merit in terms of residencies, but I went in expecting a little bit more. Students were of the "We never study and we have fun all day" ilk, which is kind of hard to believe and makes you wonder what they're hiding. The whole "New Pathways" thing is basically just PBL, but they also have some more traditional lecture courses. For the interviews, I had two separate faculty members. Lots of follow-up questions and "what do you mean by that?"'s, but not at all in a malicious way - I liked both of my interviewers a great deal. Overall a very low stress experience. " Report Response

Who was the tour given by?

Student

On what date did the interview take place?

10/15/2003