Hi all!

Just wanted to share how amazing my UTRGV interview was! Though I think there are better schools for me, the people I interviewed with and the faculty at the school were incredibly welcoming and collaborative! Everyone was so kind and genuine; they really wanted to learn my story and share their own!

I am so grateful to all of you, my fellow applicants, who made me feel like I belonged and could make an impact!

I'm glad you had a good experience interviewing, would you please elaborate on factors that helped you decide on why others schools may be a better fit? It'd be really helpful knowing prior to traveling!

Of course!

To preface, this is just based on other interviews I've had and what I'm looking for in a school, so it may not apply to what you're looking for. The school is amazing on its own, but is relatively new, so still growing in areas as compared to the other Texas programs.

Some of the main factors for me were the student culture (mainly because of a student interviewer), the opportunity for in-house research, and the emphasis on family medicine.

In terms of culture, I noticed that each student I interacted with brought up that the lectures are optional and they sometimes won't attend just because it's easier to study at home. They also really only talked about the food and community events, not the campus dynamic and friendships with classmates. I'm looking for a program where students are excited to go to class and really want to engage with one another because I came from a school where it felt like no one really wanted to be there and weren't very motivated.

Research is a big priority for me because of the specialty I want to go into, but UTRGV did not have much opportunity for in-house research. There were programs outside of the university and they claimed that faculty would support you getting connected, but commuting and coordinating the school schedule with research seems undersupported.

I think UTRGV is great at supporting people with an interest in underserved primary care, which is a field I want to go into, but their program really seems to emphasize family medicine over other primary care fields like pediatrics. It felt like the training served to make you a generalist with incredible training in hispanic and border-culture care, but didn't help much with someone who wants to act more universally or get into a competitive non-primary care specialty.

Again, these are just some of the things I was looking for during the day that I didn't really see, but they love their community and the town feels homey. If you're looking for a small, tight-knit community with amazing underserved and hispanic family medicine opportunities, this might just be the best program around for you. UTRGV is a Jack-of-all-trades school, so doesn't have any one thing that they're perfect or hypercompetitive with, but you get something of everything and nothing felt like it slipped through the cracks.

Hopefully that helps!

Of course!

To preface, this is just based on other interviews I've had and what I'm looking for in a school, so it may not apply to what you're looking for. The school is amazing on its own, but is relatively new, so still growing in areas as compared to the other Texas programs.

Some of the main factors for me were the student culture (mainly because of a student interviewer), the opportunity for in-house research, and the emphasis on family medicine.

In terms of culture, I noticed that each student I interacted with brought up that the lectures are optional and they sometimes won't attend just because it's easier to study at home. They also really only talked about the food and community events, not the campus dynamic and friendships with classmates. I'm looking for a program where students are excited to go to class and really want to engage with one another because I came from a school where it felt like no one really wanted to be there and weren't very motivated.

Research is a big priority for me because of the specialty I want to go into, but UTRGV did not have much opportunity for in-house research. There were programs outside of the university and they claimed that faculty would support you getting connected, but commuting and coordinating the school schedule with research seems undersupported.

I think UTRGV is great at supporting people with an interest in underserved primary care, which is a field I want to go into, but their program really seems to emphasize family medicine over other primary care fields like pediatrics. It felt like the training served to make you a generalist with incredible training in hispanic and border-culture care, but didn't help much with someone who wants to act more universally or get into a competitive non-primary care specialty.

Again, these are just some of the things I was looking for during the day that I didn't really see, but they love their community and the town feels homey. If you're looking for a small, tight-knit community with amazing underserved and hispanic family medicine opportunities, this might just be the best program around for you. UTRGV is a Jack-of-all-trades school, so doesn't have any one thing that they're perfect or hypercompetitive with, but you get something of everything and nothing felt like it slipped through the cracks.

Hopefully that helps!