December 19, 2015
Goodness, I haven’t written one of these in a while. To be honest, DukeMed really surprised me, and I was surprised to be receive an interview at all. Its secondary application was by far one of the most intensive, and Duke is very proud of that. “We really want to know that we’re meeting the right type of students,” Dean Armstrong said on Interview Day. While the essays were challenging to write, I really appreciated the rationale behind them. I did feel that Duke wanted to hear about my life experiences and values, and I was beyond excited to receive an interview invitation from them!
I arrived at RDU airport at 5:30pm and took an Uber to my host’s place. Apparently, I chose the worst time of day to travel because traffic was packed–and it showed in my Uber fare. Once my host helped me settle in, she drove us to The Parlour, an ice cream shop where DukeMed students organized a social for all the interviewees. Even though it was finals week, the DukeMed students were all really relaxed and friendly, answering all of our questions and providing candid opinions on their med school experience.
One of the major things they addressed, of course, was Durham. “Let’s get one thing straight: no one goes to Duke to live in Durham. Students choose UCSF to live in SF. Students choose schools in New York or Boston because they want to live there. Students who choose Duke do so because they love Duke.” For whatever reason, this statement really struck me, and I think it was something important to focus on. Indeed, compared to San Francisco, New York, and Boston, Durham is not nearly as exciting. A small Southern town, it has enough for people to do and is described as “easy living,” but it doesn’t offer anything truly spectacular. Some would argue that it is Duke holding it together. To me, Durham is really similar to a lot of smaller suburbs: safe and clean, but not exciting. It provides a quiet comfort that would urge me to make the best of all the opportunities available at DukeMed, and I think I appreciate that.
In addition to its location, the medical students also spoke earnestly about Duke’s curriculum. For decades, DukeMed has pioneered a 1-year P/F preclinical curriculum (without any internal rankings), followed by 1 year of rotations. It is this set up that inspired Vanderbilt and Harvard’s models. Year 3, or “Year FREEEEEEEEE” as the students like to say, is formally called the Scholarly Concentration Year, in which students spend 12 months doing research or pursue a dual degree. DukeMed truly prides itself on this model, as it allows the students to customize their medical educaiton and maximize their residency application. While students across the nation are doing their rotations as MS3s and figuring out what specialties they want to go into, students at DukeMed have already finished their clerkships and can use the 3rd year to conduct relevant research on their specialty of interest. This is especially important if one wants to go into competitive specialties. Personally, I find this really exciting, and I really appreciate that Duke students can do their 3rd year anywhere–at Duke, at another institution, or even another country! In year 4, students go back to Duke to finish the clinical electives, but again, these are geared towards one’s specialty of interest. It’s amazing!
Interview Day itself began with a nice breakfast: bagels, pastries, fruit, and coffee. There were 20 interviewees in total, which are split into 2 groups of 10 for the MMI stations. I was in the afternoon group; while I was a bit bummed about this since I hoped to get the MMI out of the way. Dean Armstrong came in at 8:30am and provided us with an introduction of DukeMed’s history, its values in the admissions process, and the purpose of the MMI. Honestly, she is definitely one of the most inspiring educational leaders I’ve had to the honor of listening to on the interview trail. She holds such strong values and expectations of the students at Duke that half the time I sat there thinking, “So how am I sitting here?!”
Following Dear Armstrong’s pep talk was a financial presentation. Nothing too different here: Duke looks at the demonstrated need, then provides 60% of that need in grants. What did surprise me was that Duke’s merit scholarships take place of loans; a student could therefore attend DukeMed debt free. Of course, I’m shamelessly hoping for it, but I try not to think about it until I hear good news in March.
After the financial aid presentation, a member of the adcom escorted the morning interviewees to the MMI stations while an MS1 came to talk about Duke’s growing emphasis on Team Based Learning (TBL), which is a hybrid of a flipped classroom model and case based learning. We did a short (and corny) activity demonstrating this before going on a tour of Duke’s facilities. Honestly, thoughout the entire tour, I grew really starry-eyed at everything. I truly could imagine myself being there, and it makes me that much more excited and nervous about decisions.
Following the tour, we all gathered together for lunch with current students. An MS3 came in particular to talk about his 3rd year experience–and honestly, he became in instant legend among us interviewees. Getting involved in neurosurgery and global health research since Year 1, garnering over $150,000 in project grants, matching in NeuroSurg…SO INSPIRATIONAL. I can only hope to be as resourceful as him!
And finally, it was time for the afternoon group to interview. Although I had hoped to be part of the morning group, I ended up being glad that I wasn’t. After learning about how amazing DukeMed is and how happy the students are, I feel much more relaxed and optimistic about the MMI. I think I was also less stressed since I have an acceptance in hand. Furthermore, I found Duke’s MMI stations to be a lot more fun than UCSD’s! It really did feel, as an MS1 described it, liked I was on a gameshow. While I do feel that I could’ve done better on a few stations, I’m not going to let myself overthink things.
Overall, I am very happy and impressed by DukeMed. I loved all that it had to offer, and truly hope for some good news in March. I guess we can only see!
