Genetic Counseling Fall 2017 Applicants

[KeepSwimming2017]

@Ellaie @bubusaur Have you guys interviewed at USF yet? Mine is this Friday...I'm so nervous!!

[AnonymousGC]

Anyone interview at Jefferson yet? I'll be there tomorrow ?

[mml004]

Hi everyone! I am thinking of applying for a genetics counseling program starting in Fall 2018. It seems so far away right now, but I know it's better to get a head's start now! 

My original plan after graduating with a BS was to head off to pharmacy school, but that didn't end up working out. I guess my experience with that sort of rejection has me in a "why bother, I won't get accepted anyways" fog. But I'm hoping for a different outcome with GC. 

I'm prepping to study for the GRE, does anyone have any tips? Standardized tests like this never go well for me.

Also, any tips to decide where to apply for? My state only has 2 schools, but this would give me a reason to move to a warmer climate. Only thing is I'm close with my family, so while moving to the other side of the country would be nice, seeing them only on holidays would be hard

[Gadgette]

1 hour ago, mml004 said:

Hi everyone! I am thinking of applying for a genetics counseling program starting in Fall 2018. It seems so far away right now, but I know it's better to get a head's start now! 

My original plan after graduating with a BS was to head off to pharmacy school, but that didn't end up working out. I guess my experience with that sort of rejection has me in a "why bother, I won't get accepted anyways" fog. But I'm hoping for a different outcome with GC. 

I'm prepping to study for the GRE, does anyone have any tips? Standardized tests like this never go well for me.

Also, any tips to decide where to apply for? My state only has 2 schools, but this would give me a reason to move to a warmer climate. Only thing is I'm close with my family, so while moving to the other side of the country would be nice, seeing them only on holidays would be hard

The biggest thing that helped me was reading rather than direct studying. I especially liked reading anything from teachers about mistakes their students make all the time. It was entertaining and helpful. I'm not super happy with my math, so I don't really have any tips.

As far as where to apply, it depends on what's comfortable for you. If you want to stay close to home, definitely apply for your state's schools. You may also want to consider Arkansas. The first you you do in Little Rock, but the summer and second year you have the option of going out of state and taking your classes remotely. Not sure if any other programs offer anything similar. I picked schools purely on where I could see myself being happy for two years.

[kbash]

@NHxx I interviewed with CSU last week! It's really laid back..so don't worry about it. Everyone was very nice! It was a pretty stress free day, honestly..you have two interviews with program staff or GCs affiliated with the program that are longer, like 45 minutes each. They just asked about stuff from my CV and personal statement mostly. The rest of the day you learn about the program, tour, and have lunch with current students.

I don't really have any tips to share, so hopefully just hearing about it will be helpful enough. Maybe it's just me, but all the programs I've interviewed with so far have been very casual/conversational. I haven't encountered anything too stressful.

[mml004]

What did everyone do for volunteering? I was thinking of doing a crisis call/text hotline. Do programs look at these experiences differently than in-person volunteer work?

[Ultrapeaches]

And that was my last interview!

What the hell am I going to do for 3 weeks while I wait for decision day?

[GCFaith92]

On ‎3‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 10:04 PM, minja134 said:

Chicago for me, how about you?

I'm in south Jersey so i'm literally a 10 minute train ride away from the school :-)

[TK1616]

Has anyone interviewed at Northwestern yet?? Any advice/tips for the interview, I know its a really long day so any information would be so helpful!!

[minja134]

1 hour ago, TK1616 said:

Has anyone interviewed at Northwestern yet?? Any advice/tips for the interview, I know its a really long day so any information would be so helpful!!

I interviewed with them last year (no interview this year), but it was definitely a long day, especially since they had a reception afterwards. They asked a lot of typical interview questions (strengths, weaknesses, experiences, etc.). Each interviewer seemed to have 2-3 specific questions they had to ask that were within a similar theme, and otherwise the conversation just went where you took it. Because of the separate sort of components of the questions you have to be ready to talk about everything on your transcript/personal statement since each interviewer hones in on a different area of experience. For example one interviewer asked specifically about my research, one about my shadowing experience, one about my support system (family, friends, etc.), one about hobbies, etc. So this made it a bit different and also difficult to fall back into a comfort zone if you have a topic you typically like to talk about with each interviewer. There was also a short group activity that consisted of working together to rank what you thought was the most to least important of what you are judged on during the interviews. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this was, as they had two separate people taking notes during the process, so I guess make sure you speak up but not too much? Otherwise just look into the faculty profiles and be prepared to ask them questions and be prepared to talk a lot about yourself. Best of luck!

[Ellaie]

On 4/3/2017 at 8:09 AM, KeepSwimming2017 said:

@Ellaie @bubusaur Have you guys interviewed at USF yet? Mine is this Friday...I'm so nervous!!

I was just there last week.  Don't be nervous!  Everyone there was super nice.  They just did a presentation explaining the program.  Then had 4 interviews each was 25 minutes.  Then there was a campus tour.  Pretty standard format and nothing was scary about it.

[PreGC]

Piggybacking off of all of these interview questions, has anyone been to Johns Hopkins yet that could shed some insight on how the interviews and the day as a whole went?

[Nefelibata]

17 hours ago, mml004 said:

What did everyone do for volunteering? I was thinking of doing a crisis call/text hotline. Do programs look at these experiences differently than in-person volunteer work?

@mml004 If you go back through the pages of this forum, a lot of people gave short backgrounds about themselves/experience. That might be helpful for you to read through.

[bubusaur]

On 4/2/2017 at 10:00 PM, NHxx said:

Group interviews were not as bad as they sound, so don't let interviewing with other applicants phase you/stress you out! I thought it was nice to hear other people's personal experiences and takes on some of the interview questions. and everyone was very friendly! Overall, I felt like interviewing at Utah was very welcoming. Good luck!

If anyone's interviewed at CSU Stan, any advice/tips?

I interviewed there last Friday. It was just a standard interview. You arrive, they have an info session with everyone. Then there are 2 slots of interview, you will have 1 of the 2 slots, each 45-ish minutes. Then lunch with current students. Then 2 slots of interviews where you will have 1 of the 2 again. So overall, 2 interviews each 45 minutes, and 2 slots where you roam around and chat with the other applicants by yourself.

They focus on your resume/CV and personal statement. I had forgotten that they had asked about a personal experience with death or genetic conditions in their personal statement so that sort of threw me off when I was asked about it. My other personal statements had not included that bit. Some people, including me, got some scientific questions where they give you a scenario and want you to think out loud to how the scenario came to be. I was a little thrown off about it, but they seemed understanding that some of us have been out of school for a while so the genetic terminologies may not be fresh in our brain. As long as you can reason it out in your head and think of some possibilities, they seem to accept the answers.

 

On 4/3/2017 at 6:09 AM, KeepSwimming2017 said:

@Ellaie @bubusaur Have you guys interviewed at USF yet? Mine is this Friday...I'm so nervous!!

Mine is this Friday too! I'll see you there!!

 

23 hours ago, mml004 said:

Hi everyone! I am thinking of applying for a genetics counseling program starting in Fall 2018. It seems so far away right now, but I know it's better to get a head's start now! 

My original plan after graduating with a BS was to head off to pharmacy school, but that didn't end up working out. I guess my experience with that sort of rejection has me in a "why bother, I won't get accepted anyways" fog. But I'm hoping for a different outcome with GC. 

I'm prepping to study for the GRE, does anyone have any tips? Standardized tests like this never go well for me.

Also, any tips to decide where to apply for? My state only has 2 schools, but this would give me a reason to move to a warmer climate. Only thing is I'm close with my family, so while moving to the other side of the country would be nice, seeing them only on holidays would be hard

Hi! Welcome! I took my GRE twice. First time I took it, I haphazardly studied about 2 weeks from books, but didn't do much practice questions, and just "YOLO took it". I got average. Then last year I took it again in October with more effort in studying. I highly recommend downloading the Magoosh GRE words app and do the flashcards whenever you're free. There is also an app called Prep4GRE or Ready4GRE. It's free and I cannot thank it enough. I feel like even though I was sort of skeptical on how it would have helped (as it is a little buggy and messy sometimes), it really prepared me for the GRE. It being an app on the phone really encouraged spontaneous studying. So I would do the verbal sections whenever I'm commuting, and leave the math sections for when I can sit down and do them. Although it is an app and is not super detailed in explanation, I think by the time you finish all the little modules in there, you pretty much have a thorough glimpse on the tricky questions on the test. On top of that I bought some prep books, but I had worked through them for my first attempt. By the second attempt I relied mostly on the ready4GRE app and the practice tests to just practice, and focus less on concepts.

For the essay questions, I spent the day before the test just reading over lots of practice essays. Noted some words that I could use to seem smarter and some ways to format the issues to save time on the GRE. I didn't do any practice essays, just went straight for it at the test.

It may seem daunting, but I'm sure if you give it a good month of studying, you can do pretty well. I also discovered I learn better with practice questions instead of focusing on concepts, but that's a personal preference. My scores ended up a lot higher than I expected myself to do. Good luck!!!

 

[KeepSwimming2017]

@Ellaie I feel a lot better about it now - thank you!! Hope it went well!

@bubusaur Awesome! There's 10 of us but I'm sure we'll find each other lol =) 

[NHxx]

@kbash @bubusaur thanks so much for the responses! sounds like it won't be tooo intense of an interview day, so i'm looking forward to it. 

[GCFaith92]

Has anyone interviewed with Jefferson yet? I believe theres like 10 of us that day and im wondering if interviews are individual or group ?

[minja134]

On 3/31/2017 at 9:57 AM, Elisheva said:

@GCFaith92, I'm wondering the same thing... My interview is Tuesday and I haven't gotten any other information other than a confirmation...

How did TJU's interview go? I have mine on Friday.

[GCToBe989]

Is anybody else interviewing at ISU on Monday, 4/10?

[TK1616]

3 hours ago, GCFaith92 said:

Has anyone interviewed with Jefferson yet? I believe theres like 10 of us that day and im wondering if interviews are individual or group ?

I interviewed at Jefferson already! However we only had 5 that day (I think that's because they sent out their invites late so it wasn't possible for people to come on such short notice but I live in the area). The day is basically divided into two parts. One part consists of 3 interviews and the second part consists of an article discussion and a tour. In between the two parts you get a break where you get lunch. I'm not sure if the structure of your day will be different since you have a lot more people but I'm sure it will be similar. Hope this helps!

[minja134]

20 minutes ago, TK1616 said:

I interviewed at Jefferson already! However we only had 5 that day (I think that's because they sent out their invites late so it wasn't possible for people to come on such short notice but I live in the area). The day is basically divided into two parts. One part consists of 3 interviews and the second part consists of an article discussion and a tour. In between the two parts you get a break where you get lunch. I'm not sure if the structure of your day will be different since you have a lot more people but I'm sure it will be similar. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the information! How long was each interview? And how did you like it?!

[TK1616]

29 minutes ago, minja134 said:

Thanks for the information! How long was each interview? And how did you like it?!

I believe each interview was about 25-30 mins!! I liked the program a lot. I really liked the way curriculum is set and they arranged it so that all 6 students are taking the same type of rotation at the same time which I found great as well. Center city, Philadelphia is also an awesome place to live since I am in the city a lot. Good luck on the interview!

[minja134]

4 minutes ago, TK1616 said:

I believe each interview was about 25-30 mins!! I liked the program a lot. I really liked the way curriculum is set and they arranged it so that all 6 students are taking the same type of rotation at the same time which I found great as well. Center city, Philadelphia is also an awesome place to live since I am in the city a lot. Good luck on the interview!

That's a long time compared to a lot of other places! I agree, from their webinar their program seems great. I'm excited to see it in person and also to see Philadelphia since I've never been. I'm going to try to cram a few hours of sightseeing in on Thursday night .

[GCFaith92]

@TK1616 did you feel like the article was a quiz of some sort when discussing it? I only assumed we would have 10 people because on the doodle pole it said there were 29 interviewees so I figured it was about 10 each day :-) I have to prepare some questions for my interviewers! I always feel like I don't have enough because they answer all my questions during the information sessions!

Edited April 5, 2017 by GCFaith92

[TK1616]

19 hours ago, GCFaith92 said:

@TK1616 did you feel like the article was a quiz of some sort when discussing it? I only assumed we would have 10 people because on the doodle pole it said there were 29 interviewees so I figured it was about 10 each day :-) I have to prepare some questions for my interviewers! I always feel like I don't have enough because they answer all my questions during the information sessions!

No it didn't feel like a quiz at all! It was really laid back and you just discuss different aspects of the article. I really wouldn't worry too much, it was an overall low stress day in my opinion