Harvard Medical School

Personally, I think they should still ask why question, as expecting an answer and getting the answer from people's mouths are two different things.

Nothing, really

In comparison to other schools, it clearly knew why students were there and did not bother to ask the 'why' question.

I enjoyed the interview overall, and most of it was conversational

Read my application; asking students, in school and graduated (and turned out, it was not that useful because they don't ask WHY HMS)

it's conversational and not a stress interview, yes, but that doesn't mean they won't ask you questions that challenge you... if that makes sense. don't be nervous, though, genuinely! they rly are just trying to get to know YOU (from what i can tell). also, i was never randomly asked an ethical question or anything; everything built on either an answer i'd just said OR something written in my application

they do truly SO much to help you get a really great understanding of HMS. by the time i was interviewing, i had a really really great sense of HMS's unique offerings in a way that was "beyond the website," and even of its downsides, which honestly impressed me. this 100% improved my interview performance, because i was ready to connect specific interests i had with HMS in a really genuine way

mock interviews

My student interviewer was one of the most bizarre student interviews I've had this cycle. The interview was supposed to be a causal hour long conversation, but he grilled me on certain parts of my application that did not leave room for open-ended replies, but more-so yes/no. He was also in a rush so he ended my interview exactly on time or a few minutes early. Seems like from the get-go that he was not interested in learning more about me.

Standard interview questions. HMS describes its interviews as very much a conversation, and I felt that way with my faculty interviewer. She was a very sweet lady and the conversation flowed well.

Wish I had known how much freedom I was going to have. I would have planned my day more fully.

The whole process was very disengaged. There was very little structure to the day--like they just wanted you to figure out on your own what you wanted to do, and do it. It seemed like they didn't care that you were there.

Just the magnitude of the institution was striking.

HMS doesn't try to impress their interviewees so there weren't many structured events during the day. You'll have a lot of down time. If you are in school, bring homework - the applicant lounge has nice study stations. I also recommend checking out their case-based learning classes.

Both of my interviewers read my application thoroughly and tried to learn as much about me as possible. They seemed to care a lot about the intention behind my activities/experiences and my career vision.

My tour guide couldn't be any less enthusiastic about giving us the tour lol

The amount of freedom we had on the interview day

Read SDN interview feedback, read their website, talked to students there

Cohesiveness of students, collaboration, low stress environment and students opinions of faculty support.

Explored the city and relaxed, and asked students questions the night before