The Interview

One day, one interview, and one lasting hope.

I woke up at 530am at my friend Shin’s house and started my day with the best shower in 4 months – hot water and water pressure! I ate a small breakfast of banana blueberry bread my mom made and sent and got all put together in my interview duds. I walked 20 minutes down Massachusetts Avenue to the BU medical school campus. I followed another young person with a backpack in a suit and knew I was headed in the right direction.

Around 8am we all moved from the awkward fruit and coffee breakfast to a small auditorium. The dean of admissions at the medical school greeted the 36 of us. He immediately began to make jokes and tried to lighten the mood. He explained that we were not here to prove something to him but to learn about the school and see if we are a good fit for one another. He gave a history of the school, a variety of anecdotes with well-planned, cheesy jokes, and explained the course of events for the day.

Just after 9am, I went with half of the other interviewees back to the conference room in the admissions office. We spent the next hour chatting with a member of the faculty, Dr. Jodi Abbott, a high risk pregnancy ob-gyn. She wore quirky glasses, a bright pink scarf, and tight curls. This session was meant to be a Q & A about the school and Boston but we were all thinking about the interview. Fortunately, Dr. Abbott had lots to share about her experiences and supplied a few answers to commonly asked questions. She was lighthearted and very obviously passionate about her work and commitment to BU. I would choose her to be my doctor, mentor, or friend.

At 10am, I walked across the medical school quad to one of the ambulatory (out-patient) care centers to the urology department. After twenty minutes, Dr. Wang greeted me in his patient waiting room and we went to his office. Dr. David S. Wang is an urologist who specializes in robotics and minimally-invasive prostate procedures. On his desk was my application and photo staring back at me. He also had a full-page of notes and questions ready for me after reviewing my application. He began by asking me to give a brief summary of my life and how I came to be living in Guatemala. I then explained some of the significant things I have down recently – what I am doing in Guatemala, my teaching curriculum, my experiences as an RA. He also asked how I became interested in medicine. He continued with conversational questions for me to further explain why I chose to do things. With each story I told, he would end by saying, “Well we could talk about that for an hour. Let’s move on.” At one point, he mentioned that I was definitely not lacking in extracurricular and volunteer experiences (I took this to mean he was impressed with my background). He asked me some challenging questions: If you could not be a doctor ever, what would you do? Do you have any regrets from college? Have you had any ethical dilemmas recently? Of course, you have to answer strategically but confidently. I felt very comfortable with our conversation and I had to remind myself that this was an interview. He ended by asking me to explain my response to a situation where a son is translating for his father, the patient, but does not want to tell his father that he has cancer. After all of Dr. Wang’s questions, I asked a few questions about the opportunities to volunteer in the community and global health. Dr. Wang told me the programs available at BU were compatible with my interests. Dr. Wang also told me one of his favorite things about working at BU is that he treats CEOs and the poor in the same office (I really like this too). BU hospital’s mission is to provide equal care to every patient. After over an hour of interview time, I thanked Dr. Wang for his time and he gave me his card, offering that I email at any time.

After the interview, I rushed to lunch, to which I arrived late. Current first and second year students joined us to answer more questions and share their experiences. I really liked this part because you get a sense of the type of people who are students. I think I could be friends with them – how nice to go to a school I like with people I want to be friends with. Lunch was a simple sandwich and salad.

After lunch, fourth year students took us on a tour around the school. We visited the library, anatomy lab (I saw real cadavers for the first time!), student lounge, two hospital lobbies, auditorium for first year classes, and the testing room, which is actually the top floor with floor-to-ceiling windows and beautiful views of the city.

The afternoon concluded with two additional presentations in the conference room. The first was about finances – the cost of attending, scholarships, loans, etc. The average student leaves BU with $170,000 in student debt. Yay! The second was a wrap up by the dean. He assured us that he had an equally enjoyable day as we did and continued to emulate the message about finding students that were a good fit for BU. He explained the selection process and timeline for admission offers. They try to make the selection equitable without the date of interview giving preference for admission; this is different than most schools which have rolling admission. The dean also shared some staggering statistics. Of the 12,000 applicants this year, they will offer 1000 interviews for the 125 open seats in the incoming class (the other 55 seats will be filled from other affiliated programs). There are two groups of interview. The first group of interview ends in December, which includes about 600 interviews. At this time, the admissions committee with individually review each interviewee and decide to admit, reject, or defer decision. They will offer 1/3 of the incoming seats in mid January. In March, after the remaining interviews are given, they will send a second round of decisions to admit, reject, or waitlist. If you were deferred in the first round, your application will be re-reviewed in the second round. If you are waitlisted, you have a high chance of being admitted if you are patient and continue to show interest in the school. We were all encouraged to update our applications whenever necessary to provide the admissions committee with the most information possible.

After the closing remarks, I stuck around with about 8 other people who were interested in learning more about the combined MD-MPH (Masters in Public Health) program. It is an additional year of school but you receive your credits at a discounted rate from BU’s Public Health School (ranked 2^nd or 3^rd in the nation). This is an option I would consider if I attend BU. It is also offered at a few of the other schools I applied to.

Ultimately, I LOVED Boston University. Their mission and impact on the community really resonates with me and the type of doctor I want to be. There are few places in the States where doctors are providing top-of-the-line medical care to uninsured or poor patients because they are equally deserving of great treatment, not just those who are insured or can afford it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and plan to update my application after I finish Somos and have commitments for the spring.