Interview 2.0

One initiative the School of Medicine debuted this month that will also help ease the financial burden for medical school applicants is the Virtual Interview Process.

VIP allows students to be interviewed online instead of in-person, giving competitive students who could not travel to Durham an opportunity to apply to Duke. Although Duke decided to introduce this option prior to the economic downturn, Dr. Brenda Armstrong, director of admissions for the School of Medicine, said it should be particularly useful to applicants during the current financial crisis. Applicants often apply to as many as 15 to 20 schools and may spend thousands of dollars just in the application and interview processes, she noted.

"Our biggest concern is that the cost of our application has gone significantly up," Armstrong said. "Given the rise in the cost to travel, it makes it very difficult for students across the board. By the time a student finishes interviewing and applying, they could have easily spent $5,000. Our way to address that was to... provide an alternative way for students to interview."

Currently, 100 applicants have chosen to take part in a virtual interview, she said. Armstrong added that she does not know of any other schools that have a similar program.

Senior Baldeep Pabla said he thinks VIP is a good option, but is unsure whether or not he would participate in a virtual interview for schools he is seriously considering.

"I think there are definitely disadvantages to it, because part of [the interview process] is knowing the school and faculty firsthand," he said. "But if it's just coming down to simple costs as it is for a lot of people with the economy right now, I think it's a good option to have."

But others, like senior Shyam Joshi, said they do not think a virtual interview is equivalent to one conducted in-person.

"[VIP] would help my cost situation out, but the whole point of an interview is to meet someone face-to-face, and having a virtual one kind of defeats the purpose of it," he said.