As I promised early on, I wanted to share my interview experience with any newbies who are currently awaiting their own interview and are probably anxious and nervous. To all those awaiting their interview – rest easy knowing that the entire process was truly an extremely pleasant experience. Everything was straightforward, nothing unexpected. The whole experience impressed me quite a bit and really firmed my decision to attend Saba.

I received a phone call from admissions approx. 1 week after mailing my app stating that they had received all the required docs and wanted to schedule an interview. My interview was scheduled approximately 1 ½ weeks from that initial phone call.

To prepare for the interview, I read everything users of Value MD had posted and did the following:

-Learned facts about the school from their website. I skimmed the basic science curriculum, the clinical curriculum, affiliated hospitals, missions statement etc etc. I wanted to be sure I really knew everything about the school and saba.edu was the best source for this.

-I learned about the island life from sabatourism.com. Everything you could possibly want to know about Saba is listed on this website. You’ll probably end up knowing more then the interviewers if you read this site thoroughly – at least that’s what they ended up saying to me!

-I formulated an outline of the basic questions of why I wanted to be a doc and what my motivations were to pursue medicine. Having this general framework really made answering the interviewer’s questions much easier.

-Review your app in detail. They really do take the time to look everything over thoroughly. Know your essay well, and anything you put down on your app. All is fair game.

As for the interview itself, even though I knew I was well prepared, I was still nervous. My interview was scheduled at 11:00am, and I remember it being 11:04 wondering why they hadn’t called yet! I think they just wanted to keep me on the edge of my seat for a bit longer – they called at 11:05am! I was interviewed by two individuals on speakerphone. I was asked a first set of questions by the first interviewer, followed by a second set from the other.

The first few minutes were nerve racking, but I was quickly put to ease after hearing their introductions. I realized that their genuine purpose was to get to know me and really evaluate if I was capable of succeeding at their medical school. From what I remember, they asked me the following questions:

-Describe your current job by taking us through a typical day

-Why are you interested in leaving your current job to pursue medicine?

-General transcript questions about C’s in classes, and why I thought I received those grades. Did I feel like I could handle the basic science course load?

-Tell us what you know about Saba School of Medicine

-Tell us what you know about the island of Saba

-How does your family feel about you going to a Caribbean medical school?

-What do you know about the USMLE’s?

-Where would you be interested in doing your clinicals?

The last 5-10 minutes was used making jokes, them asking where exactly in California I was from, and about how one of the interviewers had family close to where I was from! At that point, I knew the interview had gone fairly well! I remember cracking a few jokes and making them laugh, which really lightened the mood even further.

They ended by thanking me for my time, and I did the same, and that I could expect to hear from them within 1 week.

I received my acceptance package exactly 5 days after my interview for the January 2006 class! That is a pretty impressive response time.

Overall, everything that has previously been posted about the interview was spot on and I thank everyone for posting their own experiences. It really made things much easier for me.

If anyone has any questions, please fell free to post or PM me.

Again. congrats md2be123 on your acceptance. I also would like to post my experience. Was accepted for May 06. Interviewed on Thursday and receive my acceptance letter exactly Thursday following week as they said. Very impressive on timing and prompt response. Two interviewers called me exactly 2pm central time. First, introduce themselves and move on with questions about me, why medicine, jobs, clinical experience. Everything is like a conversation between two interviewers and me. One interviewer asked question and I respsonse, then next interviewer asked me as well. it looks like they asked me while going thru my app and PS. Then I have a chance to ask them questions. Overall....great experience, nice people trying to get to know you as a person. Good luck to everyone still waiting.

__________________
Hyperglycemia,
"Help enough others get what they want and you will be able to get everything you want in life." Zig Zigler

Thank you to you both for providing this information and to everyone who takes time out to put up posts like this that are so helpful. I have an interview scheduled for August 19th and appreciate having this resource. I assumed as I had sent the application from Canada, that everything would take much longer. I mailed on July 25th, had an e-mail sent to me on August 1st to confirm the application was received and complete (despite being told to allow 8-10 business days by Canada Post), and got the call the 8th to schedule an interview. I'll be sure to provide any useful tips if anything comes up that hasn't already been posted. Can any Canadian students let me know about how long from the time of the interview it was until something came in the mail, the American students are saying a week for acceptance, should I add a week on to that for mailing?

Congrats TO*MD for your interview. As far as I know...SABA is really fast in response and they said 7-10 business days. It should take around a week or later for you.

__________________
Hyperglycemia,
"Help enough others get what they want and you will be able to get everything you want in life." Zig Zigler