Technion Interviews

[DrMedMan]

Has Anyone had an Interview with the TECHNION AMERICAN MEDICAL PROGRAM? How long does it last? What should we expect? Etc..Etc..Etc..

Thanks

[dondon]

Has Anyone had an Interview with the TECHNION AMERICAN MEDICAL PROGRAM? How long does it last? What should we expect? Etc..Etc..Etc..

Thanks


technion has begun interviewing and accepting candidates already... during my interview last week i was told the following:

technion has 400 applicants, 60 interviews, 32 spots

[J.J.]

Hi everyone,
Did any of you hear anything from Technion yet?

[dondon]

anyone here going to the technion?

[levtechnion]

I strongly recommened you go somewhere else. the Technion is in the midst of a strike right now. classes are being canceled. Also the School will increase your tuition by several thousand dollars after you get there when it is to late to find somewhere else.

[TechSlave]

I am sorry to say this but the way in which you will find out whether you have been accepted or not is indicative of how things work around here at the Technion American Medical School. That is to say, everything takes forever. I am sure you have all heard about he problems here, well, they are true. It's not as hard as people say, in fact I think it's probably an easier program then a lot of american med schools. Unfortunately, you have to deal with a lot of intangibles that you may not have considered. #1 - there will likely be another war with Lebanon since they just voted in a pro-Syrian president.
#2 - do you speak Hebrew? I guarantee that if you don't, you won't learn it here unless you are extremely motivated. They don't give you the time or devote the energy to teaching it. Some students in my class have even hired private tutors to teach them.
#3 - Haifa isn't as bad as people say, but I recommend you don't live in Bat Galim where the majority of students in the 1st and 2nd year have chosen to live. Sure, it's close to school, but it also has no night life, no more than 2 decent restaurants, and not even a decent beach. I recommend living anywhere else, and buying a car, perhaps with a roommate is your best bet. Any other questions let me know.

[Technion2008]

Why are you so negative about the school?
what year are you?
i am going to technion in August. first year.
Where do you think one should live?
have you heard that technion has reduce the number of student to 32?
Do you have an email?

[sleeplessinhaifa]

Why are you so negative about the school?
what year are you?
i am going to technion in August. first year.
Where do you think one should live?
have you heard that technion has reduce the number of student to 32?
Do you have an email?

The claim that class sizes have been "reduced" is just a gimmick used by the school... The last two years, mine and the year below us, both have about 30 students per class. There was no reduction, neither was there an increase. They just tell that to you to make you feel more special that you made the "24 MCAT" cut-off. Sorry.

[TIMMY!]

Hey guys,
So I am in my first year here at Technion, and there are some truths to the things being posted, but also some of these things are simply false.

I cannot say for certain why people would write these things, but i strongly suspect it is to release their frustration for some of the difficulties you will face here.

First of all, for Interview questions, search though this forum. There are questions posted that I found useful when i interviewed last year.

Next, the strike that took place in Israel did not affect our program in the least. No classes were cancelled, nor was that even a concern. Tuition was raised, but that happens. The situation was not one where we showed up and they said "by the way......" but rather they told us this year that tuition for next year would increase. This is not unique to technion. Tuition increses happen.

There ARE administration problems. This leads to frustration and makes things more difficult than they have to be. The program is new, and run by Israelis - this is not going to be an easy thing to deal with, if you insist on having everything run smoothly. As frustrating as this is (and truthfully about twice a day i feel that i cant take it anymore) none of it will be the death of you. It would be easier to be in a school without these issues.

In regard to "in fact I think it's probably an easier program then a lot of american med schools" - are you serious!?!?!?!??! I know that if I started to write how hard people have to work here just to pass, you will just chalk it up to the inadequacies of the accepted applicants, but you should realize that what your doing is making these future student think they are in for a walk in the park, when the reality is (forget comparing to other programs) you will have to work harder than you ever have before, and keep pushing yourself when you think you cant go on.

To give you some reference, there are student here from Barnard, Yeshiva, Binghamton, U Penn, MIT etc. - student with GPA's in the high 3's and MCAT's in high twenties and into 30's that stay in the library until it closes at 10 pm, at which point they find anotehr place in teh building to go study until 11-12-1 am. So forget these comparisons to otehr schools you are reading, and think where you fit in that spectrum.

You should also know though, that its still do-able. Medical School is tough. You all have heard that. Is it tougher here or in the US? Who cares? The "intangebles" do not make it easier.

Somthing very important that you may have realized, is that you cannot blindly accept anything you read on public forums as a truth. Certain people will make everuthing sound negative while others the opposite.

Anyway, Congratulations, If you have any questions feel free to ask - but you should ask several people to get different perspectives.

[SMVMD]

I strongly recommened you go somewhere else. the Technion is in the midst of a strike right now. classes are being canceled. Also the School will increase your tuition by several thousand dollars after you get there when it is to late to find somewhere else.

This is such a load of **. I am currently a student in the American program and I'll tell you that: 1) our program isn't affected by strikes...our classes are held regardless of what the Israeli students/professors do (our classes weren't disrupted by the strikes this year) and 2) The tuition was raised, presumably, as a result of the US dollar's devaluation against the shekel (25%) in the last year. And the tuition increase was only $3K. Remember that in US schools, tuitions are about 2x what it is at the Technion (~45K v 25K) and that American schools also increase their tuition each year.

[SMVMD]

...................

[SMVMD]

Why are you so negative about the school?
what year are you?
i am going to technion in August. first year.
Where do you think one should live?
have you heard that technion has reduce the number of student to 32?
Do you have an email?

TeAMS student here...

Look, it's a fairly young program (at least in its current form). So there are still some kinks in the program. Not to mention the initial culture shock of studying medicine in an Israeli university. All that said, I think it's a very good program (problems and all) and I think everyone needs to keep in mind that NO medical school is going to be without its problems.

I strongly recommend living in Bat Galim (check out yad2.co.il for apartment listings): 1) you're close to school, 2) close to the supermarkets/barber shops/hardware store, 3) close to the train station (from the Technion, you are about 30minutes by bus from the train station and the bus that takes you to the trains only runs once an hour during the week and once every 2 hours on saturday night) and 4) close to the beach. I've been living in Bat Galim and have actually really enjoyed it (it's much better than having a 1.5hour round-trip commute between the medical faculty and the dorms on the technion campus).

There have been some break-ins Bat Galim and Kiryat Eliezer (the adjacent neighborhood), so I recommend looking for apartments that are on the 3rd floor or higher. Additionally, whatever you do, try to have an Israeli help you find an apartment. Many of the TeAMS students have been searching for apartments through a man named "Gil the Realtor", someone of dubious character, who has been known to walk into students' apartments in the middle of the night (and other sketchy stuff). Have an Israeli friend/colleague/relative help you out so that you can bypass the unsavory characters.

[UAGrocks!]

I'm currently in my third year of medical school at UAG in Mexico and interviewed with Technion a little over two months ago for admission as a transfer student into Technion's third year program. I was rejected, and I thought I'd write and talk about the interview.

I was invited to New York City for the interview through an email from Dr. **** Alexander, who is actually a professor at Brown Medical School in Rhode Island but apparently also teaches at Technion. So I went for the interview, which was conducted by him and a faculty member from Israel named Professor Ido Perlman. Dr. Alexander appeared to be a fair and objective interviewer, asking questions to extract information from me. However, Dr. Perlman turned out to be a complete prick. I knew five minutes into the interview that I was not going to be accepted into Technion and that I had come to New York for nothing. The first thing he asked me was whether or not I spoke Hebrew. Of course, I didn't. As far as he was concerned, that was pretty much the end of the interview. I told him that I would work aggressively to learn Hebrew, and if he were to (hypothetically) accept me today, I would be more than happy to have a conversation with him in Hebrew a month from now. He didn't seem to care. After that he pretty much attempted to denigrate everything I had to say. I told him that I was one of the top ten people in my class at my current medical school, he told me that it might mean that the quality of the student body at my medical school might be bad. I told him that integrity was a character trait that was very important to me, and he said "Everybody says that." I told him that I was currently preparing to take the USMLE and am currently scoring over the 90th percentile on practice tests, and he told me that the USMLE is a simple test and does not indicate how I might do at Technion. And so it went on and on like this, where I would say something and he would find a way to shoot it down. At the end of the interview I admitted to these two interviewers that I was going to leave New York very "dissatisfied" by this experience. I had taken a taxi from my hotel to the office where the interview was conducted, but I decided to walk back to the hotel afterwards. I walked for about 90 minutes in the heat, with my suit on, and my shoes were blistering my feet, but I didn't care. I was too demoralized by the whole experience to care.

I got a 32 on my MCAT, I had a 3.8 GPA at a very prestigious college, I have a master's degree, and I have already completed the first two years of medical school with very high marks. I went to the interview thinking that I had a legitimate chance of getting accepted as a transfer student. Instead, these people had no intention of accepting a transfer student and I had traveled to New York for a courtesy interview. I'm already in medical school so I'm not too upset by the rejection, but I feel like I wasted my time, money, and energy on a wild goose chase.

[sleeplessinhaifa]

Wow, that's incredible... I am sorry to hear about, really. I have met both the people you are talking about, so I really cannot call you out on it and say that you are lying or exaggerating. I wish you to do amazingly well on your USMLE so that you can get a great residency in the future, and completely forget about this experience.

It's interesting to find out that we are not the only people who are treated with arrogance and disrespect - I fugured they would first want you to be in the "no way out" situation that we are in before shafting you.

We do have one transfer student from an American school (I know, don't ask why - 'cuz it's a mystery to all of us), however that student's circumstances are unknown to the rest of us so I really can't comment on that.

P.S

The Israeli professor you mention is actually the Dean of the medical faculty.... :roll:

[levtechnion]

good point

[sleeplessinhaifa]

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[sleeplessinhaifa]

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[UAGrocks!]

It's interesting that after I wrote about my interview experience on this thread, several people replied to give their personal interview experiences, and their dealings with Dr. Perlman. However, those postings were removed. It looks like someone here is out to make sure that nobody is overly critical about Technion or its administration. Is this representative of the Technion culture? It definitely shouldn't be that way. This is a forum where we explore all aspects of a particular university, even the not-so-flattering stuff. If there is a Technion administrator who is selectively deleting postings onto this thread then I think that someone at this school should speak up and try to stop it. It's the American way.

[levtechnion]

No there is no Technion administrator but the technion is activly trying to track down the posters and kick them out of school so most people are running scared. Myself included.