Session 30

Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you.

Today, the questions revolves around the interview process and the feedback they received from a physician about the interview process.

OldPreMeds Question of the Week:

Poster had a talk with a neurosurgery resident and gave so much insight into the journey, highlighting the fact that entry to medical school is not a destination. He is in the last year of residency as a chief resident after 18 years of education and residency. Poster shares the resident's insights and the deal breaker is the actual interview where only personality matters subject to the interviewer. Poster wants to ask any other insights into the interview.

Here are the insights from Ryan:

There are no such things as GPA and MCAT cutoffs.

If you got an interview at a medical school, they've taken the leap of faith that your scores are competitive enough to be a student at that school.

Once you have your interview and matched up among everybody else that had an interview, your GPA and MCAT still might fall short. If you have a perfect interview against another perfect interview of a student and everything else is equal but the other student has a higher MCAT score or GPA, they might get the spot over you.

Go into the interview thinking that the acceptance is yours to lose. You have to be there prepared and ready to go.

Over the years, schools have been refining what they use to select students. The AAMC has the core competencies that medical schools look at. Then the medical schools look at your applications, secondaries, interview skills and comparing you to a core competency list which takes some subjectivity out of it.

Ryan is releasing an interview book soon on Amazon as well as its print version. Go to www.medschoolinterviewbook.com to sign up and be notified when the book releases or if it's already out.

Major takeaway from this episode:

Personality is not the only thing that matters and that it is subject to the interview. Personality matters in everything in life and you need to be prepared for that interview.

Links and Other Resources:

www.medschoolinterviewbook.com