University at Buffalo State University of New York School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences - Admission Interview MD Program

Buffalo knows they are not the big dog of the medical school world. Sorry, but it's true. I arrived at the school the night before my interview. As I was walking around inside the school, I found a posting on a door. It was the name of every interviewee and the academic institution they attended. Over half the students were from Columbia.

Buffalo is facing two problems,
1. Since they are a state school, they are going to interview people who have a close connection to the school. They interview students who attend NY institutions, some of whom are residents of another state, who will most likely attend their state institution.

2. Buffalo is the guy who takes his sister's friend to the prom so he has a date. The students who attend Buffalo are some of the brightest; however, they have a perception problem. NY kids hope to go to Columbia, Albert Einstein, NYU School of Medicine, Cornell & etc. Isn't it great the number of medical schools NY has compared to the rest of the USA?

There are two important tasks when you interview. First, they will give you a pep talk followed by lunch except during your lunch they will hand out an essay. If you read SDN, you'll read people saying it's not a big deal. Well, I do not buy it!


Some medical schools have applicants interviewed by two interviewers. One simply fills out the form grading you on your interview. The second ACTUALLY reports to the committee. You can always spot who reports to the committee by the pointed questions they ask. The one who does not report is usually relaxed while the one who does report has an agenda. If you had to attend an art history class and you had to teach the class the next day based off what you learned, would you act different? would you have an agenda? Yes, its obvious in the behavior. My interviewer who reported to the committee immediately started asking me questions about my essay topic by playing devils advocate.


Second, you will need to be prepared for the TWO types. The first type, usually the one who reports to the committee, will diligently ask questions about your background and experiences. For example, if you volunteered in Mexico would you treat a Hispanic in the ER if he/she had no insurance. What is the right answer? You need to realize two aspects: Medicine + Business. You should treat the patient since your the sweet loving doctor, but you also realize the hospital will collapse when too many patients are like this.

The second type of interviewer has no f*** clue what they are doing. This individual will start reading standard questions off a list. They do this b/c they have not read your file diligently. This leads to questions such as,
1. Tell me when you did something unethical
2. Tell me your best and worst 3 traits
3. Tell me when you led a team and failed? How did it turn out?

If the interviewer is nervous and new, then fine read the questions. However, when its due to poor preparation then get the bloody hell out of the room. A few standard questions is fine, but I had an interviewer ask over 15 standard questions. The conversation was about as stimulating as my conservations through the drive through at McDonald's.

ME(interviewer): Tell me the hamburger you are most proud of?
CASHIER: The Big Mac b/c my father would buy me one after baseball practice

ME: writing response while never looking up
CASHIER: Is this person interested in this?

ME: Tell me the hardest decision you have had to make
CASHIER: (Internal dialog: Thanks for showing zero interest in my last response. I'm 22years old, not much has happened) I've had to fire Jose, an employee, b/c they were a no-show twice.

ME: How did that turn out?
CASHIER: Bad. Actually, he thanked me for reducing his income. Then Jose realized his past mistakes and went on to get his MBA.
ME: Writing while never looking up... Tell me when you had to.....