Couch Surfing

Continuing from yesterday, more cost saving strategies:

Where to Stay

If you want to stay in hotels while traveling for interviews and have the means to do so, that’s fantastic.  For most applicants, however, such an endeavor is prohibitive.

--Their Network

Most schools will help you to find a current student with whom to stay on the night preceding your interview.  Some schools widely advertise this opportunity in their interview invitations and confirmations.  However, most schools will help you find housing if you just ask.  The trick is knowing to ask!  If you don’t find information about housing opportunities in the interview materials, I suggest calling the Admissions Office and simply asking.   

Although it may sound awkward to stay in the same room as a complete stranger, this is an incredible “insider” view into the lives of medical students at each institution, and you will find the information you gather by observing and chatting with your host (and often his or her friends) to be extraordinarily beneficial when you begin to decide where to attend.

--Your Network

If you strike out with the Admissions Office, look at your network!  Search Facebook for friends in the city to which you’ll be traveling.  Ask your parents whether they have friends in the neighborhood (you’ll be shocked to find how willing people are to support your endeavor to become a physician).  Finally, consider contacting your alma mater to see whether alums who might be willing to host you attend the school you’ll be visiting.

--Say Thank You

A sincere, handwritten note is a “must.”  Keep blank cards with you so that you can jot down a few brief thoughts before rushing out the door en route to your interview.  If you’re feeling particularly generous, you can never go wrong leaving a small gift card ($5-$10 for Starbucks, Dunkin, etc.) or an item from your home state (a small container of maple syrup if you’re from Vermont, for example).  But regardless, leave a Thank You note!

Full Disclosure: "Couch surfing" the night before your interview is a little risky.  You want a good night of sleep and a shower!

Hidden Secrets

You have spent weeks, if not months, choosing exactly what you want Admissions Committees to know about you by selecting precise language and specific attributes to highlight in your AMCAS and Secondaries. You may have spent less time, however, contemplating what you don’t want Admissions Committees to know about you.

Now go ahead…Google yourself. According to careerbuilder.com, 35 percent of employment recruiters have come across compromising info that caused them not to hire a candidate. Like employment recruiters, Admissions Committees members are also likely to use Google and Facebook to dig up skeletons in your closet. Given that Admissions Committees frequently have medical student members, you are very likely to be searched for at some point during this process.

When you Google, look for text as well as images. Ask friends whose tagged images of you appear on Google to kindly detag you or remove the image; it will take weeks for a Google search to reflect this change. If you cannot bear the thought of deactivating your Facebook account completely (my recommendation for the duration of interview season), at least change your name or buff up your privacy settings.

Additional tips: Sign up for Google alerts, which informs you when your name comes up on a search. Socialmention.com and samepoint.com also allow you to search social networks, which Google may have missed.