BCN Flights

Your interviewers will usually be two faculty members or one faculty member and one medical student. In the latter case, the faculty member will carry more weight, but don’t underestimate the input from the student. Acting like he/she is a peon in the admissions process will guarantee your rejection. The faculty interview may help you get in, while the medical student interview can weed you out.
Again, either or both may be on the admissions committee, so it’s not a good idea to say anything too bizarre. Instead, the interview is your chance to expand on information that may not be clear to the committee. Applications do not have enough room for detail, and they force the applicant to abbreviate and oversimplify. Just remember to be yourself, since it’s usually easy for an experienced interviewer to tell if someone is lying or exaggerating.
Some schools turn the interview into a contest. At Northwestern and Emory (or so the rumor mills report), a few students are lined up and interrogated as a group by a panel of admissions officers. Although this can be an intimidating and somewhat impersonal situation, you can benefit by using the time when other applicants are talking to formulate a better response of your own.
Many people tell horror stories of how a “friend of a friend” had some doctor give a him a really hard time in an interview, Of course, it’s possible you’ll encounter a jerk, but most interviewers want to make the experience as stress-free as possible. Don’t forget—the interviewer has been through the same thing and will be aware of (and usually sympathetic to) your nervousness.
One of our classmates did have a real hard time in one interview. At the end, the doctor said, “Sorry I was so hard on you, but it’s only because I really want to recommend you. I wanted to be sure you had the right stuff. If I don’t want somebody, I usually just give him a real easy interview.”
So don’t try to judge what somebody thinks of you by the way they treat you in the interview. Sometimes, they just want to see how you react to a stressful situation.
For example, there’s an interviewer at a Texas school who shakes your hand, smiles, and asks, “So, how many times a week do you masturbate?” A friend of ours answered, without missing a beat, “Not as much as I deserve.” Another friend was asked, “So, when are you going to get married?” To which she replied, “Is this a proposal?” Yet another female friend was asked, “Once you get married, how will your husband feel about your palpating another man’s scrotum?” Her reply was calm and professional.
Interviewers ask such questions only to see how you react to very personal or taboo subjects. Reacting with humor or maturity is far wiser than getting angry or upset. Remember, a physician must handle complex moral and ethical issues— and all types of patients—in a dignified, tactful manner.
Then there are interviewers who just like to hear themselves talk. They want to impress you with how much they think they know. All you have to do is be a good listener, seem interested, and be patient. It’ll be over soon.
Finally, if you don’t know an answer to a question, just say, “I don’t know.” Nothing sounds worse than someone fumbling to make up an answer.

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