The Interview

Jen has been telling me that I need to write a blog about the interview and I figure it is time. It started bright and early at 7:30 which means that I had to get up at 5:30 in order to get ready. I got there early, at about 7:10. There were 13 of us in the interview group and so they took us into a conference room and gave us the orientation. Some of the things that were said were interesting, for instance, the U is starting a new curriculum next year which will give students clinical exposure in their first year, rather than their third. The students didn't even really know about the changes yet.
After the orientation we went back to the admissions office and broke up for our individual interviews. My first interview wasn't until 8:50 so I was able to sit for a few minutes and worry and let my nerves get excited. I got escorted up to the faculty member's office. His name was Dr. Edward Nelson and I came to find out later that he is the Chief of General Surgery at the University of Utah Hospital. Not the biggest shot, but still a pretty important member of the faculty. It was intimidating before I knew that, but after I found that out I am really pretty scared. He seemed to like me though. It is so hard to know with surgeons though. They are very focused and able to give horrible news without showing emotion, and he sure was good at that part. Although some of the things that we talked about caused him to go off on a little bit of a tangent and talk about one of the things that he is having to do right now. In talking about litigation rates of doctors, he talked about how he had a deposition after my meeting regarding a patient that he saw once over 7 years ago.
After meeting with the faculty member, I had an hour of free time, but there were not any classes currently going on, so I was able to wander around the campus and see some of the buildings that are associated with the School of Medicine. Unfortunately though the cool areas were off limits, but it still interesting to see how many buildings there were that were attached to the School of Medicine.
At 10:30 my interview with a 4th year medical student started. His name was Cabe Clark and he is going into anesthesiology. He was really excited to hear about all of my research and all the things that I have done and am doing. After the interview he told, "Well you are a really strong candidate," in discussing the chances of getting in.
Once that interview was over we were allowed to go and sit in on a Biochemistry class. It was really basic biochem which was encouraging on some levels.
The tour of the facilities was interesting, $41 million dollars spent on a new building and $3.3 million had to be spent on artwork in the building. They had some amazing labs, and lecture halls. Students have access to the building 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which was great I thought.
We were able to enjoy lunch with some 2nd years at Heritage Hall, the school cafeteria/lunch room. I spent about a one and half hours talking to a few of them. They had a lot of good things to say about the School, the faculty and the overall environment.
Overall I would say that I think it went well, but I have no way of knowing. That is the truly frustrating thing about all of this. Unfortunately I likely will not find out until March. They do not have rolling admissions and so most students do not find out until March.
If anyone has any questions you can ask in comments and I can try to answer them in this post, or a new post.