foregoneconclusion Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 I'm trying to find ways to really formulate a great response to this question. It's usually the first question and I want to leave a good first impression. That being said, I'm not someone who likes to brag or really drone on for a few minutes talking about what I've done to get there. How did you guys approach this question? More specifically: 1) If the interviewer already has a lot of information about you, how much detail did you go into? 2) How long did you spend answering this one question? 30 seconds? 1 minute? 2? more? 3) Did you include things like family? How many extracurriculars do you want to bring up here as opposed to bringing them up later? Did you spend any time discussing why you want to be a doctor when that will inevitably be a question later on? I'm just having trouble and I think my answer sucked last year. In a nutshell, it was: My name is blah blah, I was born in blah, raised in blah, bit about my parents, bit about loving medical science, bit about volunteering, bit about travel, bit about wanting to be a doctor. Really cliche and long-winded. Any advice would be great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 From a person who has no experience at the interview stage, I would discuss my growth and development these last couple of years showing my direction and heading, integrating relevant experiences from my activities (work, ECs, internship and volunteering) and studies - and I would make the point that I am a work in progress. I would elaborate for several minutes and go with the flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 I would do the same regardless of what you think they know about you. They may only have skimmed your material in some cases, forgot something important to you, or like some schools not read anything at all. I heard the rule of thumb was 2 minutes. That's what I used and it worked for me. I didn't DIRECTLY talk about why I wanted to be doctor, but it is hard to really talk about yourself for very long without having some hints put in there. Family was important to me, so a what briefly my life into context with that. I'm trying to find ways to really formulate a great response to this question. It's usually the first question and I want to leave a good first impression. That being said, I'm not someone who likes to brag or really drone on for a few minutes talking about what I've done to get there. How did you guys approach this question? More specifically: 1) If the interviewer already has a lot of information about you, how much detail did you go into? 2) How long did you spend answering this one question? 30 seconds? 1 minute? 2? more? 3) Did you include things like family? How many extracurriculars do you want to bring up here as opposed to bringing them up later? Did you spend any time discussing why you want to be a doctor when that will inevitably be a question later on? I'm just having trouble and I think my answer sucked last year. In a nutshell, it was: My name is blah blah, I was born in blah, raised in blah, bit about my parents, bit about loving medical science, bit about volunteering, bit about travel, bit about wanting to be a doctor. Really cliche and long-winded. Any advice would be great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 This question is honestly one of the best ones you can hope for in an interview. You should think about it in case you're lucky enough to get it. Higlight all of the things you want to talk about for your interview, you can be sure they'll follow up on what you say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 This question is honestly one of the best ones you can hope for in an interview. You should think about it in case you're lucky enough to get it. Higlight all of the things you want to talk about for your interview, you can be sure they'll follow up on what you say. That's a good point - it is great when they give you control of the conversation. Better chance of putting on a good presentation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewfieMike Posted November 5, 2009 Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 haha, whatever you do, don't reply with "what would you like to know?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted November 5, 2009 Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 that may well be the kiss of death Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted November 18, 2009 Report Share Posted November 18, 2009 I didn't like my answer to this last year... however the question was compounded with 2 other fairly big questions.... I was put on the spot to compile several answers, that I could have gone on for about 3 or 4 minutes for each, into a single answer... and I droned on too long and still missed some key areas I probably should have brought up.... If I get to the interview stage this year and come across this question again... I think I'm going to step away from being overly chronological with it and try to come up with a few themes and elaborate on each of them quickly, maybe tailoring the themes to the school... Last year, I sounded too much like a bibliography without focus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted November 18, 2009 Report Share Posted November 18, 2009 Very strange first post, or those bots are becoming really active. We might need a better CAPTCHA system here Just reported it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted November 18, 2009 Report Share Posted November 18, 2009 If any successful applicants from the previous years have any additional advice as to how they handled this question themselves, I'd greatly appreciate it.... It seems fairly straight forward, but there are so many different ways you can tackle it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 No dice eh? Lol, all those with dynamite strategies must be bogarting them. Or perhaps a more logical idea is once one gets into medical school, the frequency at which they read the medical school interview thread decreases drastically.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karma Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 I think your story has to show them that your love for medecine goes a long way back, that it's not something you decided all of a sudden, and that many of the things you did where because you love it so much, like volunteer in a hospital for exemple. Also, show them, that while you're passionnate about medecine, it's not the only thing you're passionate about in your life. Like for exemple, that you play music, sports,etc etc. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowplay Posted December 16, 2009 Report Share Posted December 16, 2009 I didn't talk about medicine at all. I figured they knew that I was interested in it, or I wouldn't be there. I gave a brief introduction like "Hi, my name is Shadowplay, and I'm a #th year student in <program.>" Then just talked briefly about the last few years - where I'd lived, why I chose that, why I chose this school, what I do for fun, etc. It must have worked. But I think all they really want is to see if you are personable enough to talk about yourself, without coming off as arrogant, or completely antisocial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 Even an extreme summary of my life over the past two years would require 5 minutes. I can't even imagine it another few years from now. Gotta work on condensation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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