Hey guys,
I thought we should start a post and share our experiences at each of the places we interview...both good and bad.  Please include some of the questions you were asked.

blah blah random research project you did WHAT blah blah good letter from chairman at so and so do you have any questions for me?????

This is slightly unrelated, but I was wondering if anyone else has had interviews which are more pimp sessions than anything. I’ve had quite a few. Any thoughts?

No pimp sessions yet.  Which programs are into pimping?

Almost all the questions I’ve been asked are simple questions just to get to know me.  Probably the hardest one was “What makes you different from all the other applicants?” I prepared ahead of time for it, so it wasn’t that bad…

The most awkward/funny moment was when my contact fell out in the middle of my interview.  I apologized to my interviewer and said, “Sorry, my contacts are bothering me.”, but he didn’t notice that it fell out.  I didn’t have the nerve to ask if I could put it back in, so I did the entire 20 minute interview half blind with my contact sitting in my hand.  Then, to top things off, the contact fell out of my hand at the end of the interview, so I had to pretend I was tying my shoe so I could pick it up off the floor.  It was funny in hindsight, but my head was killing me by the end of the interview from only having one contact in.

annoying yet classic: “what is your greatest strength...greatest weakness?”, “what contribution to neurosurgery will you have made in the next 10years?” (well considering the residency is 7 years and I might do a fellowship afterwards, I think its a stupid question), “what makes you unique?”, “what is your greatest accomplishment?”, “tell me about yourself from the beginning” ( I seriously answered.."well I won’t begin from conception but I’ll tell you how I got interested in neurosurgery")

Besides the “what makes you special” questions one I thought was difficult to answer because you have to be extra PC:  “so you rotated at so and so tell me the strengths and weaknesses of that program”.  Don’t want to say something bad about a program but also need to show that you can objectively evaluate a program appropriately.

Been to several programs and met with around 50 individual interviewers so far. Agree with injinjay… a lot of just “getting to know you” queries like “tell me about yourself/your family,” “other doctors in the family?” and “where did you grow up.” Fairly pleasant, relaxed exchanges. One annoying (but not surprising) thing was when they obviously have never seen your application before and they dig through it while you’re talking and ask questions that could have been addressed by reading your application ahead of time. Luckily, I caught myself a couple times before I made some smart-ass comment like, “WELL… as I explained QUITE CLEARLY and AT LENGTH in my personal statement....”

Roughly 1/4 of interviewers asked ONLY “what can I tell you about this program.”

The most common classic questions were “how did you become interested in NSGY,” “why did you apply to this program,” “where have you applied,” “what are your greatest strengths/weaknesses,” “are you married,” “tell me about your research,” “what do you do in your spare time,” “what makes you stand out from the rest,” and, “where did you do rotations.”

Two people at different programs did some role-playing scenarios. For instance, they asked about what I would do in some difficult situation with an uncooperative nurse or a negligent senior resident. They would then ask more questions based on your response. Required no medical knowledge per se.

I haven’t been overtly pimped (yet), but the ONE time I was asked about “my most memorable case” he mildly pimped me on related knowledge. 3 very BASIC questions, very benign.

Also, a few places I interviewed individually with one or two current residents… usually the chief(s) or the 4 or 5 who will be your 2 chief. I found them to be slightly more rigorous than those with the attendings. This is the only thing that has caught me off guard so far (thanks UH!). There was one exception where it was just a room of residents and random chatter and laughs (more of a get to know you than a formal evaluation).

Anyway, so far interviews have been pretty enjoyable… been meeting a lot of cool people… seeing the country… stimulating the economy…

Good luck!

wait a sec… are we supposed to read the personal statement?

i agree that the “resident room” tends to be more rigorous than the others.  it’s in their best interest, i think, to make sure that whoever joins their ranks be able to carry their share of the load.

Thanks, Stem Cell for your thoughtful review of Brown. It was very complete! However, from now on maybe we should use the following page for reviewing specific programs:  http://more.studentdoctor.net/residency.php

It has a more standardized format and can be as brief or detailed as you like which will encourage more people to use it. Because… there’s no way you have time to review all the programs you’ve visited as well as you did for Brown! (I, personally, hope you do as it will benefit us all, but let’s be more realistic!).

Of course, if Kenny wants to do one up for UH it might save us from having to mess with SDN....

If Kenny Lui hooks up UH to use the more user-friendly format I’ll definitely contribute too. Working on 22 interviews and I already am doing this ‘review of systems’ for myself. Once you’ve visited half a dozen programs you realize they are very similar, out of necessity. ACGME requires a certain case load with varied training per resident… Anymore, I’m guaging the resident’s and faculty’s personality, stability of program, and exposure to varied fields. These are arguably the most important factors governing ‘resident success’, whatever that is.

Stem Cell - 18 November 2008 12:42 PM

1st year is general surgery, and now also some neurology, neuroradiology and neurosurgery.

I’m not sure this is the case anymore.  I thought all neurosurgery programs starting in 2009 will not have the typical general surgery experience.  Have people heard differently on the trail?

Mayfield - 18 November 2008 05:04 PM

Stem Cell - 18 November 2008 12:42 PM

1st year is general surgery, and now also some neurology, neuroradiology and neurosurgery.

I’m not sure this is the case anymore.  I thought all neurosurgery programs starting in 2009 will not have the typical general surgery experience.  Have people heard differently on the trail?

Every program is handling it differently! Most still have some amount of Gen Surg. Several still have 6 months.

6 months too much in my book....

Mayfield - 18 November 2008 05:04 PM

Stem Cell - 18 November 2008 12:42 PM

1st year is general surgery, and now also some neurology, neuroradiology and neurosurgery.

I’m not sure this is the case anymore.  I thought all neurosurgery programs starting in 2009 will not have the typical general surgery experience.  Have people heard differently on the trail?

While the PGY-1 year is now under the control of neurosurgery, many programs still have a component of general surgery and there are a couple programs at least that are keeping 12 months of general surgery for the PGY-1 year even though it is controlled by the neurosurgery department.  Bottom line is with neurosurgery taking over the PGY-1 year, there is going to be a lot of variability in the year from program to program.

Yea, it varies from place to place with gen surg still taking up from 3 to 6 months. The actual responsibilities range from exclusively floor work to trauma and vascular and ent months. Lots of variability. Many PDs still don’t have a handle on their PGY 1.

From what I remember at AANS last year...they said the ideal program would be neurosurgery for 6 months, neurology for 3 months and general surgery for the last 3 months.  The general surgery portion was going to be decided from program to program, but likely to consist of ENT, ICU and Trauma.

Shocking to hear that some programs will be doing 12 months or even 6 months of general.