Dug this up, from back on Dec 1st, and it's by none other than 'da boat'! I found it helpful
I guess it's a good opportunity to reminisce Erik!
Thanks DancinSarah!
TUCSON-
My first interview was in Tucson. Mine took place on a Monday, and I intentionally selected the one at 2pm to make sure I would have plenty of time to get down there. As it turns out, those who are scheduled for an interview at 11:00am must arrive at 10:30, half an hour early. Those who are scheduled for an interview at 2:00pm must arrive at 11:45am. This was a bit surprising, but I still managed to make it down there in time. I was a little annoyed that I wasn't told that before-hand because I would obviously have chosen to simply arrive 30 minutes earlier!
The Tucson campus was very nice, and the students went out of their way to walk up and offer to answer questions or just talk about life there. It was easy for them to guess what I was doing because I was wearing a suit and reading the posters on the wall that they all walk by everyday. While standing in the hallway prior to check-in I, personally, had 3 students walk up and congratulate me and wish me luck. One told me not to worry and said he remembered standing and waiting just like I was doing.
I found my way to the admissions office around 11:30am and went to check in. When I told the woman behind the desk my name she seemed very confused that I wasn't on her list. After about a minute that all got sorted out (I don't know what happened...) and she handed me a folder with some information about the school as well as a name tag, and instructed me to wait down the hall with the other students there to interview. I was relieved I had not arrived on the wrong day, but it worried me that the very first thing that happened was a problem.
I met down the hall with 6 or 8 other hopefuls (some having already interviewed in the morning) and we waited until around 12:00pm when one first-year and one second-year student arrived and said they were going to take us to lunch. We headed through the campus and up to lunch, (sandwiches in bags, which were actually pretty good. I had the chicken salad on a croissant), we ate lunch and had an informal conversation about who we were, what life was like on campus, and what we all thought of the whole process. We then did a tour of the campus and heard a bit about the curriculum and financial aid. They assured us they had no connection whatsoever to the admissions process and were only there to make us feel more comfortable. I hope they were serious because I took that as an invitation to loosen my tie and take off my jacket, which was already becoming a nuisance.
The tour was modest but interesting. They didn't go out of their way to point out anything as being extremely cool, but offered realistic assessments of the usefulness of certain things. We were shown the pathology classroom where students use giant plasma screens to examine tissue, a few classrooms which seemed nice, and a very lived-in student lounge. In fact, there were ~15 students in the lounge as we walked through, and 4 of them were playing mario-kart on a big screen in the back room of the lounge while the rest chatted in the main room. They spent some time describing their first experiences in the simulated-patient exam rooms, and noted the cameras that link to "big brother," so that you can get feedback on your progress. That was unnerving, but it did make me think they were trying innovative things to enhance the learning experience during the first 2 years.
After all of this was done it was time for me to do my interview. We said goodbye to those students who had done the 11:00am interviews and headed back to the admissions office for our interviewer-assignment. I received my assignment, listed simply in the John Doe, Ph.D. (Discipline) format. My assignment was to a Ph.D. in one of the biological sciences, two others interviewed with MDs, and one hopeful interviewed with an MD, PhD. We were then either given directions, or ushered to our faculty member's office. Luckily I was personally guided, and knocked on the door. I was not particularly excited when I saw my assignment because I worried that the interviewer and I would have very little in common, but luckily again, I was wrong.
The interview was "closed," meaning that he had never seen any of my information aside from my name. We met, and he asked me to simply tell him about myself. As do most people, I stumbled a bit when I tried to explain "myself," but I felt that I got into the swing-of-things pretty quickly. With no desk between us and such open questions it felt very much like a conversation with a friend. As luck would have it, we had a lot in common! We talked a bit about medicine, a bit about life, a bit about education, and the interview ended when I said I didn't want to take up any further of his time (we had already surpassed our hour) and we shook hands and I thanked him.
Walking out of his office was the official "end" to the interview process in Tucson for me, and I was able to go straight home.
Overall the experience in Tucson was very friendly and I felt very welcomed by the students, and put at ease by the tone of the interview. The only time I felt out-of-place was driving away from the campus when two young students in an SUV that was *blasting* music hung out of their windows and insulted me about my car. I laughed it off as I reflected on how happy I was about the way the interview felt.
Phoenix-
My second interview was in Phoenix. I felt a bit more confident about this interview when I was going there, based simply on the fact that I had already had an interview in Tucson and felt it went well. I knew before I went in that I had a bias toward Phoenix as that is where I was from so that added enough nervousness to keep me from getting a particularly good night's rest, despite my the confidence from Tucson.
I knew this interview process was scheduled to start at 8-something, and we were told to arrive by 8am. Having ridden the light rail from Tempe the previous weekend I knew that it took 50minutes on the rail, so I figured it would take around 40 minutes by car in morning traffic. It ended up taking 12 minutes, placing my arrival time right around 7:15am. When I got to the campus I realized that there were no signs directing us where to go, and none of the buildings were open to the public. After ringing the buzzer at building-1 I realized that nobody was even in the building yet. With it too early for the local businesses to be open I decided to simply wait there. In about 15 minutes one of the custodians opened the door to let me in. I feel like there is (or should be) an old saying that "When you wear suit and act like you belong somewhere people will let you in just about anywhere!"
I waited in the main waiting room for about 15 minutes when finally another student hopeful came and sat in the chair next to me. The custodian had let him in as well. It was a few minutes more until the receptionist arrived and suggested we go to the conference room in the back where they had set up breakfast for us. She didn't tell us that we could eat, but by that point I was quite bored and figured they wouldn't be too upset if I started!
I was immediately struck by the incredible design and feel of the building we were in. I noted the amazing decorations (student/faculty art, beautiful photography, and classical medical equipment) and the wonderfully comfortable seating. Everything was clearly new, and looked as though it had been purchased at an IKEA, with lots of glass and steel. The walls were also painted colors surprisingly more vibrant than the usual tope, eggshell, off-white, or white. Later, on the tour, I noticed an entire wall painted neon green with a bright orange modern-design couch. The feeling of the buildings was a lot like the feeling of being in a new car, clean while remaining comfortable.
Two first-year students and one second-year student joined us for breakfast and we chatted about everything that we expected and what they liked and disliked about the medical school process. At precisely the time told to us, we were escorted to a conference room upstairs where we were met by folders with nametags, an itinerary for the day, a sheet with the name and a short biography of the faculty chosen to interview each of us, and a rather suggestive piece of paper with "NOTES" printed in its header. A pleasant woman with a surprisingly confident and concise manner greeted us and quickly introduced us to the associate Dean who would give us our orientation. I was impressed by how well-prepared the school was to truly "present" their campus to us. With a powerpoint and what appeared to be a well thought-out orientation we all were introduced to the campus. The incredible organization of this orientation gave it the distinct feeling of a business pitch, aided by the conference room and the powerpoint. This portion of the interview process felt much more formal than it did in Tucson.
We were split into two groups, one to receive the "talks" prior to the interviews and the other (which I was placed in) was to interview first. The fact that they had taken the time to put us on different (pre-assigned) sides of the conference table made me feel- well, if you've ever been to a time-share presentation you'd know. It leaves you with an incredibly positive view, and I enjoyed it very much... but the organization and timeliness was perfect to the point where it was a bit weird.
At the end of the meeting we all were relieved when someone asked for the bathroom, which were all escorted to. Upon leaving the restroom we were greeted by a new faculty member that walked us to our respective interviewer's offices. We were told that our interviewer was selected for us by the admissions faculty after a review of our AMCAS and secondary in order to place us with someone that we'd have something in common with. That was reassuring because I felt as though I'd done well in my first interview because I got along well with the interviewer.
My interviewer was great. He informed me that while they were allowed to choose to do "open" or "closed" interviews, he had opted to simply look at my name and numerical stats. He asked me a few more pointed questions than what I had in Tucson, but still each felt very open and the overall tone was conversational. At one point I even told him that I had hoped he would have asked me a certain question I had a prepared answer to, and he obliged and asked me that question. We focused primarily on medical topics, and after about an hour he thanked me and sent me on my way back to the conference room where i had breakfast. I was relieved that the "hard" part of the day was over, and now (according to my itinerary) I simply had a financial aid (15min) talk, lunch, a goodbye speech, and a tour (optional).
Lunch was fantastic. They let us select from a list of ~15 sandwiches and salads and went and purchased it from Crave, located across the street. There were four med students, two M1 and two M2, that came to eat with us. I removed my jacket, loosened my tie, rolled up my sleeves and truly enjoyed my delicious sandwich. We chatted, very informally, with the students. We discussed everything from medicine, to having a family, to our distaste for admissions essays! And, we were greeted by a familiar faculty face at precisely the time our itinerary said we would be.
The goodbye speech was essentially telling us what the remainder of the process would be like, explaining what to expect, dispelling some myths about the process, and we got a DVD! (Short, sweet commercial for the school). We then were walked to our final leg of the trip, a tour of the campus.
I have only positive things to say about the Phoenix campus, the majority of which relate to the new and modern buildings. Everything was absolutely spotless, the spaces appeared to be well thought out and designed for comfort and convenience. Overall, the campus felt welcoming. Coincidentally, one of the hopefuls I interviewed with at Tucson was also in my interview group in Phoenix and we held back a bit during the tour to discuss how it compared. While Tucson and Phoenix had a lot of the same amenities, there was no question that Phoenix was newer/cleaner. So much so that it felt almost deserted. While we were in the student lounge area there were video games, TV's and even a ping-pong table - but not a student to be seen.
At the end of the tour our guide walked us to the parking lot, thanked us again and assured us that we could contact her with any questions. Having made a new friend in the guy that interviewed with me at both campuses, I caught a ride back to Tempe and we spent the next few hours comparing how we felt about interviewing at both campuses.
Each had their own unique character, but both had a tremendous welcoming and friendly atmospheres. If you do end up interviewing I hope you have the same experiences I did. They were great.
I never thought I would say it but the interview process actually made me much more excited than I already was to have a shot at going to medical school and eventually becoming a doctor.
What was it like for you guys?
