UofS interview experience weak compared to Queen's

[Guest justanotherpremed]

Just to start off this post: I'm not trying to degrade the students at U of S nor the faculty. I'm simply trying to share some of my experiences with others on this board to let them know what I'm thinking and what I feel it means for applicants to the U of S. Here's a comparison of my interview experience at U of S and Queen's:

 

At Queen's there was a dinner for socializing on the friday, where all of the students told me at length of how much they like Queen's and why I should go there.....U of S had no dinner and no student ever told me I should come to the U of S

 

Queen's - two separate tours to show you Kingston and the school, the guy I was billeting with showed me around the impressive anatomy lab.... U of S had no tours that I know of

 

Queen's - dinner on second night and a party at meds house, again students encouraging me to come there..... U of S again had nothing

 

Queen's - talk by dean and by students ... video made by the students to get you to come to Queen's.......againt U of S had nothing of the sort ( no talk, no video, nothing)

 

THe interview itself was pretty similar between the two schools...

 

So here's my reflections on what the two schools have told me:

 

Queen's - great school with friendly students, willing to help you out, very proud and enthusiastic about the school itself , want to get you to choose to come to Queen's

 

U oF S - students I saw and talked to were civil at best, not doing anything to go out of their way to comfort you, not that proud nor enthusiastic about going to U of S meds, not really keen on getting students to come to their school..

 

There was absolutely NOTHING at U of S... that would remotely make me want to come to this school.....

 

:hat :smokin

[Guest Lactic Folly]

I can't comment on Queen's as I never interviewed there (and I'm sure other programs in Canada also have activities/events for applicants), but I thought that my interview at Saskatchewan compared favorably to the ones I had at Alberta and Manitoba.

 

None of the three schools had info sessions/talks during the interview days that I was aware of (Manitoba had a pizza night on Friday which I missed). UofS didn't have a list of student contacts but it made no difference as I have always gotten quick and helpful replies from the moderators and other students on this board.

 

Saskatchewan: I liked being able to sit down and chat with the first year students prior to the interview. Got a nice full glass of water inside the interview room, and the interviewers were concerned that the sun might be shining in my eyes (it wasn't).

 

Manitoba: Clear signage led me to where everyone was standing around. No water when I got there (trivial point but that is the only complaint I have) - received a nice info packet about the school afterwards. No scheduled tours either but my guide was quite willing to humour all my questions.

 

Alberta: Water in the waiting room but not in the interview itself.. waiting area was comparatively silent. Tour was scheduled but somewhat cursory - we didn't go into the hospital proper, which I think would be a major selling point for the school.

 

Actually, I feel that UofA did the least to 'sell' their program, though my perceptions could have been coloured by me being somewhat under the weather that day. I can see myself happy at each of these schools; each has their unique strengths. I'd be excited to attend any of them - it sure beats entering a graduate program I'm not interested in, or waiting a year to reapply!

[Guest byjude]

I wonder if this has a lot to do with the type of audience.

 

Understandably, to offer that many activities to entice prospective students is quite expensive and time-consuming, especially for a smaller class of med students.

 

The thing with USask is that they have a captive audience - many of the successful candidates are in-province applicants who will choose to stay because a) it's close to home and their GPA or MCAT may not meet higher cutoffs as an OOP or in Ontario. So it's a cost/benefit analysis - is it worth investing a large effort in selling people who will most frequently choose to go there anyway?

 

I would think Alberta and Calgary would invest greater efforts -since they are competing between the same pool of applicants, but it seems that their programs are sufficiently different that they can assume that most people will choose based on these differences, and again, selling the program isn't that necessary.

 

But Queen's probably has greater justification for going to the trouble and expense. First, since school spirit is one of their selling features, you had better assume they will try to promote it off the bat. Plus, they are competing for their applicants with a few other Ontario schools AND the school(s) in applicants home provinces since there are a large number of OOPs interviewed. Judging by the number of waitlisters Queen's goes through, as well as its general ranking as the lowest Ontario school in terms of #people on this board who rank it their number one choice - so basically they need to sell their school because they are in a big market.

 

Just a consideration.

 

I agree - the selling stuff really makes the difference, but what can you do..

[Guest MEDORBUST]

Kinda of agree with you. The ushers were acting like they were more interested in acting cool, and chatting with the pretty girls about to get interviewed then making me feel comfortable. A little disappointing. But not a big deal, in my eyes.

[Guest justanotherpremed]

Thanks to you guys for answering. I think that we can agree that the schools mentioned here have mostly done a poor job of "selling their schools". I was interested to read the comments like "what are you gonna do" and "not a big deal". I think it depends on the person. To me, this is a very big deal, but there ya go.

 

And also thanks to the U of S meds moderators. By not answering this post, you have proven my point. :hat :smokin

[Guest kosmo14]

In case you were not aware, the moderators are in med school. That means we do have a fairly busy life. It may go a few days before I have time to read this forum. I am not too sure what to tell you about this, but I am sorry you didn't enjoy your experience. There is not much I or any other moderator can do about the way the admissions office chooses to sell our school. I personally offered to provide a tour for those interested and I had not takers including yourself justanotherpremed. We do have a great school and too bad you didn't see that when you interviewed. Sometimes the people who get the most out of anything are the people who choose to take the initiative to do it for themselves. >:

[Guest justanotherpremed]

I am currently a student at the U of S, so I am well aware of its strengths and weaknesses.

 

As I said, I wasn't trying to knock the students with my orginal post. I was kinda ticked off that I saw some moderators answer other posts and not mine, so my last post was pretty inflammatory, and I apologize for that.

 

It still blows my mind the differences between the two schools' interview weekends as I've outlined above. :hat :smokin

[Guest QM6]

Hey there,

 

Just a delayed response to byjude's on interview weekends at Queen's: we have a darn good school and we're proud of it, pure and simple! I think we've got an amazing class of students here, I'm always blown away when I hear about all the things everyone's been up to, all the different paths they've taken to get here. We have a pretty good draw, our med school has a good mix of Ontario and OOP students, one of the highest out there, kinda making us "Canada's national med school".

 

So I'm not too sure what you're getting at with your waitlist comment, from what I know all the Ontario schools are roughly the same when it comes down to the numbers. And obviously, like every med school in Canada, there's certainly no shortage of people that want to come here. The quality of our school and our grads speaks for itself - there's never any need for us to "sell" Queen's as if there weren't any takers in this "big market".

 

I suppose one element of the interview weekend events is to show off the city of Kingston and that, yes, you can have some fun in a small town. (Sometimes maybe too much...) But anyway, whatever way you spin it, hope everyone that stopped by (or will be stopping by this weekend) liked (or will like) what we've put together, and good luck!

[Guest byjude]

QM6,

 

I apologize if it came across that way - I didn't mean to flame Queen's (in fact, it's my personal favourite at the moment).

 

However, I do think that Queen's does have to work a little harder to sell itself - not that it doesn't have good material to sell, but because people aren't always as aware of this. The fact that you arrange such extensive welcome events on interview weekend is just one of the great features of Queen's that people become aware of when they learn more about the school.

 

That said, I stand by my argument that Queen's does have to work a little harder to get the respect it deserves. Because you have such a mix of geographical origins in your class, and not one of the big cities people think of living in most often, you don't have the benefit of geography which is often a strong selling feature. (eg, A lot of people might want to go to school in Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal simply because of the city, regardless of what the school is like).

 

Compared to McMaster, Queen's curriculum and admissions policies are pretty standard, so again it doesn't have an enthusiastic crowd of applicants based on these features alone.

 

And I do believe it is somewhat true that Queen's waiting list moves a great deal. Last year, they ended up admitting over 200 people (not sure the exact number) for 100 seats. I don't know of any school that needs to admit more than twice as many people as seats. U of T, for instance, admits about 250 for 200 seats.

 

So, based on those on-paper features, it would be easy for applicants to not be especially enthused about Queen's. Of course, they're excited to be at the interview, but if they have other interviews, it's unlikely that many of them will come into the weekend being partial to Queen's over the other school (except, likely for geographic regions, eg, wanting to live close to home, or wanting to get out of your hometown!). Not to say that Queen's is bad, just that before going there, it may not appear to have any defining feature that makes it any better than the other schools that invited them to interview.

 

THat's why it's great that Queen's puts on the events that it does on interview weekend. Because this in itself is one of the selling features of Queen's - not just that they went to the trouble to welcome the interviewers, but because the school has such an attitude that makes finding enthusiastic volunteers that easy. It's not necessarily that you "sell" the product to interviewees, so much as the product sells itself, and the product just happens to be an diverse and inclusive school community with great spirit.

 

Seriously, I don't mean to denigrate Queen's by any means, but I'll bet that after interview weekend, the number of people who would PREFER Queen's over other places they've interviewed (for reasons other than geography) will drastically increase, now that they've seen the place in person rather than just its standard presence on paper.

[Guest QM6]

Hey byjude,

 

Gotcha. I'll agree with you there, most people coming to Queen's prolly haven't ever considered Kingston as a top place to study and live for 4 years. So we do try to give a flavour for what's around town, with the dinners and the city tours. Obviously the city doesn't have the same initial draw as the bigger centres... but I have to say, the town certainly does grow on you when you get the chance to take it all in. (Too bad interview weekends always have to be on the tail end of winter... I guess it makes arriving here to our gorgeous, verdant campus in September all the better though.)

 

As for the waitlists, I guess our sources just differ there for some reason. I understand that for 2003, the number of offers was well below 200, in fact the lowest ever in recent memory, which was a bit of a point of pride for us Meds '06 in charge of "selling" Queen's that year. (Judging from the amazing video and letter/comic that went out this year, I won't be surprised that it'll come down even more for 2004. Kudos to Meds '07!)

 

Anyway, good luck, hope to see you here in Meds '08!

 

Edited for spelling

[Guest Sn22]

In reply to justanotherpremed's post. I'm not sure which moderators you were refering to... in case it was me, I thought I would reply. I'm not sure what you want to hear. I'm glad that your Queen's interview treated you well and its unfortunate that there is Nothing that would make you want to go to the U of S.

 

What I can tell you is that I am proud to be a part of this college. In early March, around 50 med students from first and second year volunteered and because of this the PreMed society was able to offer 50 mock interviews to prospective students. We answered questions, gave feedback, and gave up our evenings because we wanted to help you guys out. At least another dozen people signed up to usher all weekend for interviews. It is unfortunate that my classmates' good-will isn't recognized.

[Guest ioncannon97]

Well, I'm a UofS student who just finished interviewing at the above four schools and here's my take on it:

 

1) UofS is a much smaller school with a smaller class and thus less resources in terms of students to put on a huge show.

2) Toronto, Western, and Queen's all had excellent interview weekends but they, in a way, have to because they are competing for the same students (all have similar requirements for getting interviews). Thus, they need to sell their school to attract those who get multiple offers.

3) UofS doesn't really need to do that since most of its interviewees are in-province and know saskatoon and the university well. It doesnt really make all that much sense to have a huge weekend organized for just the 5 spots that are out-of-province.

 

That being said though, a dinner on the saturday night and an information session during the day wouldn't hurt. I know some of the UofS med students well, and am sure they are talented enough to create a great video and things like that. So, maybe next year!

[Guest ioncannon97]

Yes, and as member of the premed society executive...I can tell you that the response we had from med students for the mock interviews were amazing! So, there is no lack of willingness to help applicants among the med students.

[Guest ioncannon97]

Boy, I just can't seem to finish all my thoughts in one post....just one more thing. Throughout the Queens weekend, the med students, when trying to sell their school, constantly made reference or comparisons to UofT. Thus, I think that the proximity of Kingston to Toronto (which, as mentioned above, attracts students much more easily as indicated by how little the waitlist moves) is a big factor for Queens needing to "sell" their school.

[Guest Etobicoke2]

When I came for my interview, I met a med student who took time out and gave me a tour of the school....can't remember her name....

[Guest CareBear15]

"UofS doesn't really need to do that since most of its interviewees are in-province and know saskatoon and the university well. It doesnt really make all that much sense to have a huge weekend organized for just the 5 spots that are out-of-province. "

 

Well I think that line of reasoning is a little sad. McGill organized an amazing weekend for their out-of-province applicants, and they only have 5 OOP spots as well. I think it's always important to make applicants feel welcome, no matter how few will end up in the program. I could compare it to another scenario: let's not care about the 1% of the population that is homeless just because the remaining 99% of the population are familiar with how to get by in life.

[Guest Lactic Folly]

I'm not sure that's a valid comparison, since OOP interviewees are not likely to be disadvantaged, and in fact should have strong applications at multiple schools. If I'm not mistaken, McGill has over twenty spots for American and international students in addition to the OOP Canadian spots (plus they have a much larger class than Saskatchewan, and thus more resources).

[Guest ioncannon97]

I agree with lactic folly, UofS's main goal is to train doctors for Saskatchewan. That's a very important and noble thing considering the shortage of physicians here. The 5 OOP spots are just to make the class more diverse but are not the main focus of the school. McGill is a different story and thus its hard to compare the two schools. In fact, I have always had a hard time understanding why Mcgill has so many spots for Americans and almost none for non-Quebec Canadians. I guess they are more worried about their international reputation than about giving dedicated Canadian students an opportunity to become doctors.

[Guest byjude]

I don't know Lactic Folly, I would argue that Ontarians suffer an inequality of opportunity in competing for med school seats. Isn't promotion of equal opportunity what anti-poverty action is all about?

 

But it's true, ignoring med school applicants isn't quite the same as ignoring the homeless.

 

On the one hand, I would argue that maybe some non-Ontario schools choose not to host big welcoming interview weekends not only because they have smaller class numbers & resources, but perhaps because it's so difficult to get an interview as an OOP anyway that they've already selected for top-notch candidates. Maybe the admin doesn't feel a need to win them over with huge welcome wagons because they don't need to desperately sell themselves to retain the top OOPs - since most OOP interviewees are already very strong applicants anyway.

 

I would also think that any OOP applicant sort of needs to come armed with a greater understanding of the school anyway - since they are trying to justify why they would move across the country specifically to study there (unless it is the only school that accepts them - but that's like arguing you want a job for the money). So, in that sense, maybe there is part of an expectation that OOPs don't need as much spoonfed wisdom about the school since they're presumably already well-researched. But I agree, that knowledge should still make one hungry to learn more - especially in terms of a facilities tour. Of course, it seems the tours are there for the asking - so I suppose this shouldn't be a concern..

[Guest RageoftheDragon]

Hey,

 

You praised the premed mock interviews there above. I was just wondering what you thought about the startling correlation between having a mock interview last year and failing the actual interview. I don't know how that went this year, but I heard that alot of candidates interviewing for what are now 1st year spots failed hard after taking a mock interview, and doing well in the mock.

 

Oh yeah, and what department are you in? Congrats on the early acceptance.

 

RotD

[Guest Folken Strategos]

^I don't understand how that could be true. That's not to say I know for sure, but since very few people fail each year (out of the total number of interviewees), it'd be hard see a negative correlation between having a mock and failing the actual. Last year, I had no mocks and failed the interview, but then again, I suck at interviews so I deviate from the norm anyway.

[Guest RageoftheDragon]

Well, that's what the general rumor was, based on whomever was giving mocks and doing follow up observations. One simple explanation could be that the mock interviewers looked for different factors than did the actual interviewers, and the mock interviewee was therefore led astray. Another is that the interviewee may have gained too much confidence (coming off as arrogant in a real interview) or conversely, was depressed by their mock performance and subsequently did poorly.

 

RotD

[Guest byjude]

Or maybe the people who took the time out to do a mock interview were the ones who were most concerned about their interview skills (or lack thereof) - ie, a self-selecting bunch. I can't see how anyone could do worse as a resulting of doing a mock interview, but I could see how a person would be more inclined to do a mock interview if they felt they needed to make some improvements.

[Guest ioncannon97]

Hey Rage,

 

To answer your q's above:

 

I wasn't involved with the mock last year so I wouldn't know....but I doubt that a mock interview would cause you to do worse....My own mocks (with PremedClub and with friends) did nothing to make me a worse interviewee..instead they made me more confident and more of an experienced interviewee. I think practice does make perfect...for example, my last interview was at UofT and was, I felt, my best one. This was mostly because I knew what the whole 45 minutes were going to be like and had answered many of the questions they asked at previous interviews, etc. What you heard may just be the experience of a few people who were going to do poorly, mock or no mock. The mock I had with the first-year med students at UofS was great. They gave me great feedback that I actually used in the real interviews.

 

Oh, and I'm in Biochem...yourself?

[Guest RageoftheDragon]

I've no doubt you interviewed well out in TO ioncannon, as you seem to do fairly well with interviews. I have heard some interview panelists tell me that they've found themselves failing people who seem rehearsed though, and that could be a result of too much mock interviewing. I actually turned away a few people who wanted me to give them one, as I did not want to concrete them into a few statements or anything from too much practice. And as for all the arguments for Mocks, yeah, the intentions are great, but I'm just quoting what many people told me was the result of mocks.

 

I'm in micro, jealous of your biochem partying asses!

 

RotD