UNECOM Interview

I returned from my trip to Maine early wed. morning, and have been super busy until now. Overall I was really impressed with UNECOM.

I arrived into Portland and rented a car to drive down to Biddeford and meet my host at his house. I stayed with a second year student who shared a house with three other medical students. He was really nice and was able to answer any of the questions I had. All of the second years had just had a big exam that day, so I went with my host to the local brewery with about 20 of the other second years. It was a lot of fun to get to talk with lots of the other students. Most of the students at this school are non-trad, and have either taken a number of years off between undergrad and medical school, or actually had another career before deciding medicine was for them. This provided a great atmosphere of students that are very dedicated to their studies but also have the life experience to complement that. The food at the new brewery was really good, but sadly their beer was average at best.

The next day, I carpooled with my host to campus (about a 3 mile drive from his house) where we all met in the cafe area of the medical school building. One of the best parts of the day is that we had an open tab at the cafe and were able to eat whatever we wanted for breakfast and lunch there. The presentation of the school was well done, and provided a lot of good information.

My interview was the last one of the group. I was interviewed by a panel consisting of a second year med student, a DO, and a PHD professor of pharmacology. The interview went really well, I thought, and was more about getting to know me and my motivations to pursue medicine then anything else. They were very good at answering all of my questions at the end, and didn't make me feel rushed even though we went over my scheduled amount of time.

The curriculum seemed very good, and they put a lot of emphasis on international experiences which is something I am very interested in. I was also able to attend a class with my host. I went to his osteopathic manipulative medicine lecture and part of the lab. Except for being singled out by the professor as a prospective student at the beginning of lecture, the class was very interesting. Mostly, I saw a lot of parallels with PT, and a lot of potential to help a physician especially sports medicine or orthopedics.

That evening, I went with my host out to dinner at a sushi place in downtown Biddeford (picture to the right). The area is absolutely gorgeous, but I will let the pictures talk about that. I also drove down the coast just past sunset, to look at the ocean although there wasn't anywhere for me to stop and walk along the beaches as most of the beach in that area is privately owned.

Some negatives about the school: in the third year you choose where you want to do all of your core rotations (none of which are in Biddeford, the closest is in Portland, and the others are scattered all over new england) and that is where you live and complete the entire third year. I would prefer to have the option to move around and complete rotations in different areas. You also need a car because almost every med student lived away from campus. Third, you are sharing the campus with the undergraduates, in fact the medical school building is used for both undergraduates and med students as well (this is nit picking a little, but I think I would prefer to not deal with undergrads through med school)

Overall, I really liked the school and would definitely consider going there.