Interview at Drexel: Summary

I stayed with a first-year medical student, who I found through a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend. His apartment was right across the street from the medical school, making it very convenient to just walk over the morning of the interview. He was very hospitable but holed himself up in his room all night studying for a test. I arrived late and was hungry, but my host told me that there is nothing - literally nothing - within walking distance, not even a convenient store. So instead, I heated up a can of soup and ate a banana I had stashed away.

Interview day started at 9am, but I got there an hour early to eat breakfast at the student cafeteria. The omelet was pretty good but settled heavy because of nerves. There were 15 of us total, not counting one or two who showed up late because of traffic. We all sat awkwardly around a conference room table, some keeping quiet and some making nervous small talk. I was rather amused watching how each person handled the stress, knowing full well that people-watching was how I handled my own.

First item on the agenda was a Powerpoint presentation on the history of Drexel college of medicine. Then, we were given a tour of the medical school. The complex is relatively new, even with some construction still in progress. When we were down in the anatomy lab, surrounded by cadavers, we heard an ominous thud-thud. All the applicants looked around at each other. "That has never happened before!" our tour guide apologized, then she explained to us that they were driving piles for a new simulator for first and second year medical students, to be completed in 2010 or 2011.

We also stopped in two classrooms that demonstrated their two programs, one called Interdisciplinary Foundations of Medicine (IFM), which is lecture-based, and the other called Program for Integrated Learning (PIL), which is small group learning structured around case studies. I am particularly intrigued by the PIL, because I think that I retain more information when it's put in context, and because I spent my undergraduate years learning in small groups.

The PIL students were in the middle of discussing a case study when we walked in; they were so absorbed that the discussion continued without skipping a beat until the faculty moderator interrupted them to talk to us. I asked a lot of questions, of course. Most pragmatically, they tell us that there is no statistical difference in USMLE Step 1 performance between IFM and PIL students. Still, I would prefer to see the data myself and still feel a nagging discomfort about whether such a radical departure from the traditional medical curriculum could adequately prepare me for the Step 1. Fortunately, deciding between IFM and PIL is something I don't need to worry about until later.

After the tour, we were given a "surprise" essay to be completed before the day was done. These days with online pre-med forums, admissions committees can't keep secrets. It was to be hand-written, and space was limited to half a page.

Next, we had a student interview over lunch. The student who interviewed me was very laid back and easy to talk to. She conducted the interview more like a social conversation, but also throwing in some standard interview-type questions to keep the conversation rolling: "What do you do for fun, in your free time?" and, "If I asked your three best friends, separately, each to describe you in one word, which words would they choose?" Interestingly, student interviewers at Drexel have full input on the admissions committee.

The rest of the conversation followed naturally from my responses about running, San Diego (she spent some time there), traveling, etc... Then she asked me if I had any questions for her about Drexel (I had already asked her about her own background and how she ended up at Drexel). The most important question that I asked was this: "I have heard a lot of great things about Drexel, and not to be negative, but is there anything about Drexel that you don't like or disappoints you?" Aside from the cafeteria food, she answered that some people do not like doing their clerkships all over the state of PA. Earlier in the day, though, I learned that housing is automatically provided if a hospital is located more than 40 miles away; also, if there are extenuating circumstances, one can request to stay in the Philadelphia area.

After lunch and the student interview, I waited for my faculty interview, scheduled at 1pm. My interviewer was a half hour late, though, because a meeting went over. Dr. XXX was started the interview by saying, "Let's jump straight to the parts in your application that the committee is going to have questions about. It was an open interview, I saw, which means that the interviewer has full access to my entire AMCAS file, including grades and MCAT scores. I decided to take her cue and answered her directly about the aspects of my application that need more explaining.

Dr. XXX went through my entire academic record with a fine-toothed comb, starting at my thought process in deciding to go to a small East Coast liberal arts college. Why did I major in biology? Why did I go to graduate school in neuroscience? Why straight out of college? Why did I leave my graduate program? Why did I move back to San Diego? Why did I get a job rather than find a new Ph.D. program? How did I come back to medicine? What precipitated that decision?

In summary, Dr. XXX's interview was a very methodical exploration not just of my academic history but of my motivations and thought processes behind each and every decision and turning point in my career.

At the end, she opened it up to questions. My first question was this: "Are you satisfied with my answers to your questions?" She said yes, without hesitating. Next, I asked her about her personal experience with Drexel. This was very informative, as she has in essence spent her entire career at this institution, through all its transformations.

Thus ended my interview at Drexel. Decisions in 6-8 weeks.