Random fun (or maybe not) experiences on the interview trail:
– Best interview day lunch: UT Southwestern in Dallas
– Best overall interview experience: Denver Health
– Best resident interviewer: Mayo Clinic
– Coolest PD: Dr. Suau at LSU in New Orleans
– Best tour: UCSF in Fresno
– Worst tour: All tours that included visits to the ICU. They all look the same
– Best interview day applicant group was at Emory
– Nicest-looking ED: The new University Hospital at LSU New Orleans
– Oldest-looking ED: Cook County Hospital
– Least diverse program: Vanderbilt
– Went overtime on almost all of my interviews (not intentionally)
– Longest individual interview was ~45 minutes (15 minutes overtime)
– Shortest was ~8 minutes (3 minutes overtime)
– A good number of interviewers do actually read your personal statement
– Most interview questions were very predictable. Just Google that Northwestern U document
– Three interviews were in a different language. This is for the people out there exaggerating their foreign language proficiency. You will get caught.
– Some programs offered paid-for (i.e., cost of airplane tickets, hotel stay, booze) 2nd look visits to a very small number of candidates. I went on three of these.
– The best pre-interview socials were the ones hosted at a resident's house rather than a loud/packed restaurant/bar.
– Cringed at the number of non-Texas applicants who only applied to UT Austin out of all Texas EM programs.
– Airbnb + Uber are the best.
That is all.
I like this, so I'm adding to it.
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Most fun group of residents: Nevada, hands down. They really seemed like a big group of friends and genuinely wanted to get to know us. They even e-mailed us after the interview day was over inviting us out for happy hour, too bad I had to catch a flight.
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Most fun interview day: Christus Spohn. One of the faculty came by in a Hawaiian shirt and scrub pants, and they drove us to the beach during our tour. We took off our shoes and walked in the surf. Everyone was super nice and the coordinator was so sweet. They put you up in a hotel the night before, and the social was fun (beer and pizza, totally my speed).
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Best interview experience: UT San Antonio. The faculty are super fun, and the APD let me pick the Pandora station that played during my interview. It's a good sign when the faculty are heckling each other and dropping "that's what she said" during the program presentation.
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Worst interview experience: Western Michigan. The interview went on forever (7AM-5PM). The PD's interview questions made me feel like I was at a psychiatrist's office. The residents were polite but didn't seem thrilled (I think our tour guide seriously needed an SSRI). At least they put you up in a nice hotel the night before and they provide drinks.
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Most diverse program: Baylor. I felt out-of-place for not being a minority applicant.
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Best eye candy: Jackson/Miami campus. Good grief I almost tripped and fell on the tour.
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Cringiest applicant moment: I'm at the Baylor social talking to some of the residents, beers in hand, talking about the city and if they're happy at the program. Some guy sits down next to us (no beer in hand) and introduces himself to the residents. The first thing out of his mouth is "So do you use the HEART score?" All of the fun was sucked out of the room.
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Weirdest interview apparel: bow ties. Seriously. Unless you're going into pediatrics and you're from the southeast and interviewing in the southeast...just don't do it. However, special props to the lady applicant wearing snakeskin shoes, you rocked the hell out of them.
Big +1 for Uber and AirBNB. I was able to rent an entire house for $45 a night on one of my interviews, in a major city.
