Interview # 1

Texas Tech ... Lubbock, TX - Categorical

Dinner - Lots of food at steakhouse. Food is really good. Got to talk to the residents and have their honest opinions and the going ons of the program. They seem to be happy to be there, not really have complaints. Got to meet the other applicants and just talk about random things and also hear about their other interviews as well. I got lucky and manage to coordinate rides with a couple of the applicants. Being 1 of 3 gal applicants there, got the story behind them having only 1 gal in their program. One left due to personality issue and the other left wanting to be full time mom.

Interview Day (Sat) - Starts with breakfast @ 8am. Again their theme seems to be food. Day starts with a couple of slideshows by Dr Hall, program director, introducing Lubbock and the program a bit. He is funny, very laid back, approachable. Then interviews start. Each of us has 3 interview sessions, 2 one-on-one with faculty and 1 with 2 residents. There are 12 of us and about 5 faculties and 4-5 residents. The rest is luck of draw to see who you get. I interviewed with Dr Boswell, Dr Hall and 2 of the residents. Standard questions. Asked about my personal statement, my research, what I liked and how I dealt with struggle and of course my school and OMM. I just hoped that I answered coherently. In between interveiws, can chat with other residents popping into the conference room for food. Everyone there is very open about answering any questions. They are up for accreditation renewal so they'll know in Nov. They are planning to rank 25 ish to match 4. Their ranking process is very mechanical. Everyone is given a score and then are put in order after interveiw. They would talk about it before submission. Lunch is provided and a short tour after. The hospital looks fairly new and has electronic records. It's a decent size, not too small. They have plenty of call rooms and they all look very nice.

Hotel - Hawthorn Suites - gorgeous hotel for the price of 80ish bucks. The only thing I could complain about is not having shuttle service or not being too reliable. Interview is on Sat morn and we were told that they would have a shuttle for us in the morn even though they don't normally run on Sat morn per program coordinator. Anyways, I asked them 3 times about and they didn't have a clue to what I was asking about. Thankfully, I met one of the guys on the plane and ran into someone I knew from Dallas at the hotel. We ended up bumming a ride from another that rented a car and staying there as well. Also there's not much around the hotel besides Covenant Hospital and I didn't know what else is there and being that dinner was not till 8pm, I got hungry after I landed at 12:30pm. Took quite a bit of walk but ended up eating at the hospital cafe. would be nice if the hotel could provide some surrounding area info for those of us without rental.

Overall - Solid program. Not have enough pediatric but do send residents to Dallas Children's. Seems to have good education to pass boards. Lubbock is interesting being that it serves West TX, NM and surrounding states. Will consider.