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======================================================== Weill Cornell Medical College Summary: -Although it was raining on interview day, we were able to get around via the underground tunnels. I liked the layout of the school and really loved the vibes from NYC in general. -Interviews were fine. My faculty interview did feel a bit rushed, but it was understandable considering how most of the physician interviewers had patients and appointments to attend to. My student interviewer was amazing! -Olin Hall had a bit of a funky smell.... -As of now, I think Cornell would provide some of the best clinical training opportunities. Their focus on serving a diverse patient population in one of the most diverse cities in the world appealed to me as well. Their AOC program seems more like a fun opportunity for students to really explore their interests instead of some dumb forced project. -The students seemed fun and happy. I felt like I got along the best with the students/interviewees here. Waitlisted: Nooooooooo :( I’m pretty sad because I think Cornell honestly has one of the strongest global health programs out of all U.S. med schools. NYC is the only city in the U.S. that can outdo my hometown, so I’m crossing my fingers for some of that Cornell love ================================================ University of Virginia Summary: -The city itself was a bit too small for my liking. It was very inconvenient and expensive for me to actually get to Charlottesville, but I wasn't very familiar with the geography/airports of Virginia. Overall, the city itself seemed to be lacking in diversity and I was the only non-white interviewee. -The school doesn't seem to have a distinct mission that set it apart from other schools. -The interviews were the best part of the day. Very laid back and conversational. The faculty and staff members here just seemed super friendly in general, especially the lady at the front desk. -Tour was a bit underwhelming. They took us to lunch and then we went around the hospital. I was so disappointed that they didn't show us the medical simulation center because that was something I was really looking forward to (whereas most of the other schools I went to show off their awesome simulation centers!!). -Didn't get much interaction from other medical students aside from the two that led the tour. Waitlist: Not surprised! Waitlisted from a school where one of my interviewers asked me where else I was going for interviews and I made an off-handed comment about the lack of diversity in Charlottesville. Although I’m sure UVA is a great school, their interview day was honestly one of the most underwhelming interviews I’ve ever attended and my gut feeling was that I’d be miserable going to school here. ================================================ Case Western Reserve University Summary: -I really liked how they let us sit in on a CBL session. Out of all of the schools I’ve seen thus far who talk about using CBL, Case was really the only one who went the extra mile and showed students how serious they are about CBL. I could tell that they've perfected their own CBL method, and students were having productive discussions. -The faculty interview wasn’t great. My interviewer didn’t seem very interested in me at all and asked maybe 1-2 questions about my activities. They had a list of classic behavioral questions that they went off of. Overall, this threw me off a bit because I was expecting an open interview with a couple of behavior questions thrown in, not a full on "Tell me what empathy means/Talk about a time you failed/etc" session for 45-50 minutes. But the student interviewer was great! -We weren't able to see the new building since its still in the middle of construction. So the tour was super underwhelming, unfortunately. -I loved Dr. Mehta's energy! The other staff/faculty members were also very friendly. Waitlisted: Not exactly surprised considering I had one of my worst interviews here. Case wasn’t one of my top choices, but I was a bit disappointed since their new building looked cool. Miss me with that mandatory class/no recorded lecture/esspensive af school tuition shit. ================================================= Vanderbilt University Summary: -Nashville really is the city with the nicest people in the U.S. Seriously. Everyone I met here was so nice! -Vandy so far had the most impressive facilities. Everything is very shiny and new. Medical students get their own frickin library for studying. And their children’s hospital has a Taco Bell inside! -Interviews weren't that great. My interviewer was super sweet and nice, but it felt awkward because Im not great at small talk and I think it had been a while since my interviewer read my application. But they were still really nice and even walked me to my second interview! The second interview went much better in my opinion since it was short and somewhat MMI-esque (lots of behavioral questions). -Very very very big focus on research. The research project is mandatory and they basically expect all of their students to publish something before graduation. Only 10% of their students did something related to global health, which made me think that either the school doesn’t allocate a lot of resources to their global health department or the students here don’t care much about it. -The 1-year pre-clinical year seemed a bit intimidating. The students were honest about how it was hard but worth it. I did like how the curriculum lets students really customize their education during years 3 and 4 with interesting electives. It seems like a school where hard-working students really thrive. The P/F aspect of the clinical year was also something that I thought was great since it meant the school was doing something to address the subjectivity of clinical year evaluations. -I feel like Vandy would be my top choice if they showed me that they have plenty of opportunities for students to go abroad and do rotations or projects. As of now, I don't exactly know how strong they are in that department. Update: The more I interview at other schools, the more I see how truly unique their curriculum is. Vandy would be an amazing choice for me if I ever plan to go into a competitive specialty. It seems like their curriculum is designed to make medical students highly competitive for residencies. Waitlisted: As you can see...I have the tendency to make top tier schools waitlist me :^). I’m still not too sure how much I’d like Nashville though. The culture and diveristy of the south is pretty different compared to what I’m used to. ====================================================== University of Iowa Summary: The people in Iowa City seemed very friendly, but overall the city did feel a little boring and not very diverse. -Not the best interview experience. It was a short close-file interview with two faculty members and I personally like open-file better. -The facilities were very nice. Their children's hospital was impressive and shiny. -The mock CBL session was super fun! If you have a lot of clinical experience, it may feel a bit underwhelming and the other interviewees will rely on you a lot. I thought it would have been great to have the chance to observe a more advanced CBL session (like at Case). -Students seem friendly and happy to be there. The staff and faculty members were all super nice as well. The admissions director lady was so sweet and remembered all of our names! They are very open and transparent about the admissions process, which I appreciated. Acceptance: I was pleasantly surprised by this acceptance. It was one of the more unique interviews that I had attended, and I remember liking all of the friendly people here. Definitely an acceptance I’ll be holding onto! Grading is H/P/F for pre-clinical sadly. BUT they have a global health concentration thing. Someone I know who grew up in Iowa City told me that it’s a lot more diverse than I’d think. =============================================== University of Cincinnati Summary: -They will treat you like kings and queens. Honestly some of the friendliest admissions staff people I’ve ever seen. -You get a free water bottle and pen/mini pad portfolio!!! I was lucky to get a pen at my other interviews. -MMI was standard. UCinci is the original MMI school, so it definitely felt like they knew what they were doing, whereas at Vermont it felt new. -Very open with what their curriculum is like and how they prepare their students for STEP. There was never an answer that was like “Ehh, well our exams are KINDA similar to board stuff, which PROBABLY prepares people well for STEP” (Looking at you, UVA and Vermont). -We only got a brief look at their hospital which was okay, but holy smokes their medical school building is NICE. It’s possibly THE nicest med school building I’ve seen on my interview trail so far, on par with Vandy’s facilities. I also loved the layout of the building; everything is located in the same place (anatomy lab, classrooms, study rooms, coffee carts), but it’s spread out and not crammed into a tiny, vertical, claustrophobic building like BU and it doesn’t have inconveniences like the single-file escalators at Stony Brook. -The impression I got from this school was that they actually care about their students. They will spend money to improve their school instead of buying themselves another BMW. And it shows! So far, Cinci is one of my top mid-tier choices. Acceptance: Cinci remains one of my top mid-tier choices next to Iowa. I feel like I can safely cross Stony Brook off of my list now. Lots of STEP/studying resources to look into on their web portal. They’re P/F! But with internal rankings. They seem to have opportunities to go abroad too. ==================================================== University of Vermont Summary: -They didn’t really have a tour. The inside of their medical school building was nice. -There was a lot of emphasis on the Vermont vs. Connecticut rotations, which I honestly did not care about -The M2 student didn’t clearly answer my question about whether STEP materials are incorporated into the curriculum, and from listening to the M2 at my lunch, I got the impression that students are expected to be pretty independent with board studying. Not the best sign. -The MMI was weird...didn’t like some of their questions. -Lots of older non-trad students (like people who graduated from college 10+ years ago old). -City seems nice and charming, but holy moly it was cold. Also didn’t seem or feel very diverse, which was expected. Update: I’ve legit heard nothing since being put on hold (basically still waiting for a final decision) and I’m convinced they forgot about me. Will be sending in a withdraw letter soon. Thank u, next ================================================= Washington University in St. Louis Summary: -Impressive facilities and hospitals! The Core Apartments were super nice, although the guest rooms were small. They’re also located right next to the school with a gym nearby. Apparently, the cost of living in Saint Louis is also very affordable. Something to keep in mind! -Interviewers were really pleasant and comforting. They seemed interested in what I had to say and it truly felt like a conversation. -The students seemed a little bit off?? Definitely met some gunners. Most of the students were chill and the student I had lunch with was great, but some of the first years seemed very awkward. -TONS of resources for students. The only school that sent me so many e-mails prior to my interview with offers to meet for various clubs. According to a student, it’s SUPER DUPER easy to get involved with a research project. -Dr. Polites was so cool! He mentioned doing some global health project in Shanghai….very interesting! Possibly something to ask about if I get accepted. -It was great how the brochure and presentation mentioned stuff about opportunities to go abroad. -The curriculum is a traditional 2 year model (now P/F both years) and it will be undergoing renovations next year. THIS MAY AFFECT ME DURING MY SECOND YEAR BEFORE STEP! Not sure if I want to be a guinea pig for a new curriculum, although I don’t know how drastic the changes will be. The student giving the tour wasn’t very specific about how STEP is dealt with at WashU. It just seemed like the students sort of deal with it on their own, given that WashU has a history of selecting people who crush standardized exams anyways. -I don’t know if it was just the student giving the tour, but she gave me a pretty unenthusiastic response for clinical rotations. Grading is pretty standard and subjective, unfortunately. However, the Barnes Jewish Hospital is a safety net hospital like BU’s hospital, and would still provide amazing clinical training. -Out of all of the schools I’ve interviewed at so far, WashU felt like the most well rounded. They covered all of their bases with research, global health, community health, etc. and made everyone with different interests feel included. Waitlisted: I’m somewhat 50/50 about this decision. WashU is clearly a great school with a superb reputation. The faculty members I interviewed with were amazing. BUT I do know one person who plans to matriculate here who’s probably a sociopath and one of the most neurotic assholes I’ve met. I don’t know if I could mentally handle going to the same school as this dude...so I’m considering this a blessing in disguise.  ================================================ UCSD Summary: -Meh...it was great to be able to drive to an interview for once. I totally thought this would be my cheapest interview but I was proven wrong when the apartment airbnb I was staying at decided to tow my car :^) Good old La Jolla -I definitely felt nostalgic while visiting. But if I look at the cold objective facts, nothing really stood out to me about UCSD aside from their cheap IS tuition. Because I’m no longer under consideration for their global health program, I’ve sort of lost interest. -But like...I wouldn’t mind the cheap tuition tho u know what I’m sayin -Interview was horrible. Worst MMI ever. Please change your damn questions and interviewers. Waitlisted: My alma mater did me dirty. I guess I’ll never donate to them