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Individual Response

  • Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University
  • Allopathic Medical School
  • Greenville, NC
Overall Experience

How did the interview impress you?

Negatively

What was the stress level of the interview?

3 out of 10

How you think you did?

8 out of 10

How do you rank this school among ALL other schools?

3 out of 10

Questions

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?

Closed file

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

"What were your MCAT, GPA, SAT, etc." Report Response | I was asked this question too

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

"Tell me about yourself." Report Response | I was asked this question too

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

"Where do you see yourself in ten years? (Both interviewers asked this. From what I understand after reading other SDN feedback, this is a trick question designed to see if you are planning on a primary care career. If not, they red-flag you as someone not interested in general practice)." Report Response | I was asked this question too

What was the most interesting question?

"Standard, boring closed-file stuff" Report Response | I was asked this question too

What was the most difficult question?

"See above" Report Response | I was asked this question too

How did you prepare for the interview?

"SDN, re-read AMCAS and 2ndary. I got admitted to UNC (my 1st choice) the night before my ECU interview, so I didn't spend a ton of time preparing." Report Response

What impressed you positively?

"Very little." Report Response

What impressed you negatively?

"See my summary of the experience for a complete run-down." Report Response

What did you wish you had known ahead of time?

"This school is not nearly as great a place as it purports to be." Report Response

What are your general comments?

"When I left for my ECU interview, I had only been admitted to Tulane (obviously a sketchy choice at this point in time). I wanted to do well at ECU to at least have a school on the plate that wasn't destroyed by a hurricane in the last year. I got the phone call from UNC while I was at the hotel preparing for my ECU interview the next day. UNC was my 1st choice, so I felt I could relax on the interview prep. I still wanted to do well, though, because it's always nice to have choices in the end. I have one friend who attended ECU as an undergrad. He hated it so much he transferred out, and when I told him I was going there for my interview, he offered one piece of advice: "Make sure you lock your hotel door." That didn't bode well. He was right - I took a mini-tour of Greenville by car the night before, and the city is not friendly. It's mostly rural, and the population is seemingly composed entirely of poor minorities. I don't mean to sound elitist, but I felt like I had been dropped in the middle of Harlem, only without the benefits of a large city like NYC. The hospital is similarly disappointing. While the hospital itself is relatively modern, it is surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. It's like the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz... a big shiny new thing emerging from a rural countryside, and looking totally out of place. From there it got worse... My first interviewer was lovely, I really liked her. She was a young psychology PhD, and made me feel very comfortable. My second interviewer was AWFUL. He was the stereotypical old man concerned primarily with my summary numbers (MCAT, GPA, SAT, etc.) than with my personality. He spent most of my hour with him trying to convince me that ECU was probably the wrong place to be if I wanted to specialize, completely ignoring the other evidence that ECU might be right for me. He sat far away from me, making the situation even more uncomfortable. Each interviewer receives an envelope with your basic biographical info; he didn't even bother opening it when I handed it to him, and therefore most of the questions he asked me were those he could have answered by spending 30 seconds reading the summary sheet. The facilities, while fairly modern, would be hellish to endure. EVERY SINGLE FIRST-YEAR CLASS IS HELD IN THE SAME SMALL ROOM. That means, for an entire year, you'll be spending about 8 hours a day in the same room. Talk about Cabin Fever! The same is true for 2nd-year students. They have a different room, but all their classes are still held in a single room. The school feels like an afterthought to the hospital - it's a big hospital building, and the med school is simply dispersed throughout a number of rooms in the hospital. There's no dedicated med school building, no "college campus" atmosphere around the hospital, or anything else you see at most other med schools. The tour guide seemed neutral, and was evasive when I asked if there was anything she disliked about Brody. The "tour" was pretty much useless; since all classes are held in the same room, she simply showed us that room for a few minutes. Then we went to lunch, which required walking through the hospital to the cafeteria, but she never gave any info about the hospital at ALL. Everything I know about Pitt County Memorial Hospital I learned while trying to find its address on Google. The cafeteria food was OK, but the Admissions Office only gives you a $5 waiver, so be prepared to spend some of your own cash if you want a drink, yogurt, whatever. It's the only lunch facility in the building, and our tour guide said it gets old after a semester. There are no other restaurants within walking distance of the hospital. Overall I was wholly unimpressed with Brody. The interviews were bland due to their closed-file nature, the facilities are not good, and the students are unenthusiastic. ECU would be a last-resort option for me, and given that over 50% of their students are re-applicants, it would seem that most of the students are people who couldn't manage to get in anywhere the first time around. Not the place for me." Report Response

Tour and Travel

Who was the tour given by?

Student

How did the tourguide seem?

Neutral

How do you rank the facilities?

1 out of 10

What is your in-state status?

In state

What was your total time spent traveling?

7+ hours

What was your primary mode of travel?

Automobile

About how much did you spend on room, food, and travel?

$101-$200

Where did you stay?

Hotel

What is the name of the hotel you stayed in?

Hampton Inn on Memorial

Would you recommend the hotel?

yes

General Info

On what date did the interview take place?

12/20/2005

How do you rank this school among other schools to which you've applied?

3 out of 10

What is your ranking of this school's location?

1 out of 10

What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?

1 out of 10

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