Interview Questions

Agree with most everything above. Things I can add:

One question I found favorable responses to when I asked it was at places with big reputations: "to what do you attribute the great reputation this institution and your department enjoys". This seemed to flatter some places and the people liked to talk about themselves.

Also, if you are interviewing outside your home region be ready for questions about why you would want to train/live in that city. I ran into a great deal of skepticism on the part of interviewers especially in the midwest and northeast about whether I would like living there. I think you have to convince them you want to come there or they think you are only interviewing for the sake of having backups. You can see lots of references to this bias in the regionalism thread.

Other thing: ethical dilemmas are presented at a few program interviews. Always take the honest and difficult approach (say yes of course I would rat on my fellow resident if he did something wrong and refused to come clean himself).

just want to thank everyone that pitched in a reply to that. Very helpful.

I agree, this has been a very helpful thread, thank you. Does anyone else have have advice as far as what not to do or what not to ask? Did you do or say anything that you got negative feedback on, or got negative vibes?

I don't have anything in particular to not say, but there is one thing to not do. NEVER for a second make the people at a program feel that you are any less than 100% totally interested in going there. (Be ready to back this up). We had a stellar candidate a couple years ago tell some people when asked about his interest level of going to that progam that it was one of his "safety net schools".
Don't be an idiot.
h well:

More do's and dont's

-- Don't lie about research (on your application or on your interviews) -- it will only hurt you. Be honest about your involvement on projects. I was asked about one of the projects I had listed on my app, and I told the guy that I've had minimal involvement on that project but have been following it peripherally and hopefully would be more involved in writing the manuscript in the next few months. He seemed to appreciate the honest reply.

-- always be humble. If you're a strong candidate, do not act like you're God's gift to orthopedics when you talk to applicants, residents or interviewers. I met a couple people like that and I just hope one of those jackassess didn't match into the program i'm going to.

-- If you're interviewing in a different region, YOU WILL be asked whether you want to live in that area and why. Have an answer OTHER THAN "Chicago is a nice city with a great night-life". Also, don't create family members who live there. That didn't go over too well -- it was followed up with "did you stay with them last night? "...

"uhm...no...but the hotel staff across the street felt like family".

:roll smile:

Check out this page. Pretty good sample of questions you will be asked AND questions to ask, which are quite important!
bonegraf.com/interviewquestions.html