Johns Hopkins Interview Part 2

And now I present to you all part 2 of the Johns Hopkins interview.  This time I will actually describe the interview day. We had to be in by 11:00 am, which was a welcome change from the usual 8:00 am report time. Once inside the admissions building, I got a security bracelet thing, and was shown into a room back in the admissions offices. This was my biggest interview groups with roughly 20 people present. I felt like I was the only one from a smaller southern school, as there was definitely a majority of Harvard, UPenn, Princeton, Michigan students and alumni.

Anyways, we were given a talk by both an admissions and financial aid counselor. The talks were fairly standard, but not overly welcoming or warm (oh yeah, and no merit aid given by JH). Next up was the lunch, which was supplied by Panera Bread (yum!). One slightly weird thing, we had assigned seats at lunch and we were placed with students and/or faculty who sat near by. Lunch was fine, but I got the feeling we were being judged…

My favorite part of the day was the tour right after lunch. The Johns Hopkins medical facilities are amazing and huge (and only getting better). I got to see the giant Jesus statue, and it seemed like everywhere we went the tour guides were telling us about someone making medical history (both past and present). They both knew Dr. Ben Carson (famous neurosurgeon, Wikipedia him), and the medical school building is brand new and beautiful. Everything from classrooms to study lounges to the anatomy lab is just phenomenal. You can’t help but be impressed.

Once back in the admission building, the interviews started. We were handed a schedule which gave an exact time for our faculty interview. I had an awesome faculty interview, and really connected with the physician (he is in EM so we had lots to talk about). Each interviewee also has a student interviewer. I think this may have been where I fell a bit short. It was a short and non-flowing interview. She would basically ask a question then make a note about my answer. She never asked follow up questions, and insinuated that because of my background I may not be able to relate to the patient population of Baltimore…

One more weird thing about interviews here…in-between scheduled faculty and student interviews, all of the potential students sit in the admissions room (which is standard). However, the room is also full of current medical students at Johns Hopkins. Supposedly they are all judging you and keeping mental notes for later. I heard about this earlier on the Student-Doctor Network, so I was outgoing, very talkative, and excited about the school.

I was ultimately rejected from Johns Hopkins. I was disappointed, but I did give it my all. I liked the people, loved the facilities and opportunities, didn’t like the weather, didn’t love the city. All this said, I would’ve liked the option to attend here, but it wasn’t meant to be. I am A-ok with that.