Alice L. Walton School of Medicine

More info about curriculum + faculty there

So many things... the way the curriculum is developing means that you will be a guinea pig in their curriculum. Not many shadowing opportunities, no anatomy or dissection at all (not good for surgical specialties)

The facilities, very beautiful, the faculty are also very supportive. Bentonville is beautiful.

I've had a lot of mock interviews throughout the cycle so instead of that, I just filled out the template that I use for all interviews which includes info about the school's mission and vision, what kind of student they say they're looking for (usually if they mention it, either on the website or 2ndary portal), my secondary essays main takeaways, quick biography of my interviewers (and questions I want to ask them), and the 4 reasons I wanna go to this school (buckets: research, clinical, community, and curriculum). The question I usually struggle answering eloquently the most is "why this specific school?" and "why do you want to be a physician?" so I usually write down my answer to that first, then I practice answering it once, then I'm golden. Strongly recommend you do this, too. Covers all your bases and should not take more than 1-2 hrs once you do it a couple of times.

Very new school where you can see the gaps of it being a new program. They only have one class, which makes it really hard to get the generational knowledge you need to have a high-quality education. The tuition free aspect is the tradeoff for students being guinea pigs at this program. Seems like they are grateful to be there, but not having a match list or enough shadowing opportunities in basic specialities like psychiatry is concerning.

The whole thing was about 5 hours. It begins with a 1.5hr session school overview about the curriculum, mission, campus, local NWA area, and a brief Q&A. Be sure to have a lunch packed because you have little time in between that first session and interviews that run for the next 2.5hrs. Each are 30min long with either a 30min to 1hr break in between, depending on which block you get. While waiting for interviews, they bring in current students that you can ask questions and then you all come back together to wrap it all up.

The interviewers read your personal statement and experiences beforehand, so they ask questions about your particular story and ask you to talk about things you didn't have in your application.

The time is really short by the end when you can ask questions yourself, especially about the interviewer's background.

The interviews were very laid back. It didn't feel like I was being grilled.

Practice questions, mock interviews, shadowing in different places, and learning about the healthcare system.