Interview Weekends 2006: Information.

[Guest JSS02]

Got mine finally, it's on April 6th.

[Guest murdock]

Does anyone else have a Western interview on Saturday and Queens on Sunday?

What's the quickest way to get from one to the other? I'm flying in all the way from NF

for them, so I scheduled them both on the same weekend.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Train is about 6 hours from Kingston to Western. Try booking a train leaving London the afternoon/evening of your Western interview - you should get in later that night. Try also to billet with a Queen's student (they did that last year if you got in touch with the coordinators on time) - you should be able to crash at their place that night. There really aren't any convenient Kingston-London flights as far as I know, and the bus takes about 6 hours as well.

[Guest Kingston]

No letters yet in Kingston! ARGH!

 

Anyone else?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Hmm. . . that's odd. WAIT (our admissions officers are extremely busy at the moment so please don't unnecessarily harass them!) to see what happens Monday and if you still have no letter, try e-mailing or calling the admissions office. The contact info should be in the OMSAS booklet and on the UWO meds website. Sending out 400 (roughly) invites without at least one error is difficult.

 

Good Luck!

[Guest downupdown]

Hey Alex,

 

I'll be down on the weekend of april 6th and am still rearing for a game. Will e-mail you with further details.

 

see ya then!

[Guest count down]

how did the interviews go for you all out there that had it on the March 23/24th weekend?

Was it a relaxing experience or an unpleasant experience?

[Guest wondering]

does anyone in the know KNOW if the order of interview weekends mean anything? ie are the first groups usually the successful applicants? and the second group in April is a lesser quality pool? Anyone from last year's med class got in from the april interview?

[Guest oop]

Alex:

since you are downtown, can you please tell me what you think of EXECUTIVE SUITE on Dundas Street, would it be better than Comfort Inn also on dundas street? Must be a convention going on as the Delta is fully booked.

Thanks.

[Guest heyheyhey]

Hey i am there april 6th see u there and GOOD LUCK

[Guest oop]

where did you find lodging?

any advice?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

There is absolutely NO preference for which weekend you interviewed, or what time. Last year the difference in interview weekends was that they grouped all the out of province applicants into the final weekend - though judging by the turnout from today (I met people from U of T, St. FX, U of O, U of Alberta, U of Winnipeg, U of Victoria, UBC, U of Saskatchewan, SMU, Guelph, Mac, Queen's, and more. . .) I don't think that's the case this year. I interviewed last year on the last possible day of interviews, and I got in. Good luck in two weeks. . . which reminds me, we'll probably get a chance to meet as I'm helping out on the Sunday.

 

Later,

 

Jeff Rader

Western Meds 2005

[Guest awong37]

Regarding hotels, I can't comment much on their quality. My advice would be simply to go with whatever seems more comfortable for you... location isn't that important, since everything's pretty close by cab anyways. Whatever works for you in terms of the best balance between balance and price should be good. However, if you want to get a "taste" of the city, perhaps you should think about staying someplace downtown so that it'll be easy for you to get around after dinner, etc.

 

Best,

Alex.

[Guest Ready]

If an interview lasts 30 minutes is that necessarily a poor sign? Or is it quality above-all? That is, if you click with everyone in the room and answer the questions concisely (with examples) is there a need to fill the entire time slot?

 

any thoughts..

 

 

thanks

[Guest awong37]

If your interview goes by pretty quickly, and you find yourself the first person to have finished for that particular block of interviews during that time, there's *no need* to worry! I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of others who are worrying the other way... i.e. OMG, my interview lasted an hour, is this a bad thing?

 

Regardless of how you feel that it went, it's over now, so relax and either focus on the next one or chill and wait for the good news. Worrying never did any good for anyone.

 

Best,

Alex.

[Guest Roaster]

Thanks Alex, that's reassuring. For my next batch of interviews should I aim to fill the entire slot or just ride the wave?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Ride the wave.

 

One thing to keep in mind on interviews is the nature of the interviewing committee. . . At Western, the committee consists of 1 faculty member, 1 student, and 1 member of the community at large. These people may or may not have been involved in interviews before. They're all given an info session on what to look for when conducting an interview, and how to conduct that interview, but beyond that it is up to the committee to interpret how things go. So, while they're told to conduct ?50? (can't remember the the exact number) minute interviews, be relaxed an conversational, etc., that might not always be the case. So don't stress if your interview didn't go the full ?50? minutes, or went longer than that, or if one of the interviewers was confrontational. It quite likely has no bearing on how you scored in the interview.