Fall Trip: The Interview

Scott had an interview at A.T. Still University in Kirksville, Missouri last Friday so we decided to make a weekend trip out of it! We were scheduled to fly out of Salt Lake Thursday morning at 11:00 only to find that our flight through Denver was canceled due to all the snow. After lots of time on the phone with Southwest Airlines, we switched to a flight straight to St. Louis that left later that day. Long story short, when we got to the airport to print our boarding passes, the clerk changed our flights back to the original plan. In the end everything worked out great, but it was a long day.

We landed in Kansas city around 10:00 pm and picked up our rental car (first time ever that we've rented a car on our own!) and drove about three hours to Kirksville. Instead of going to the hotel we planned on staying in, we stopped at the first place we saw. I think we got to bed around 2:30 and got back up at 6:30 to get ready.

The interview started at 8:00 am and it was great! First they talked to us about the history of the school, students, faculty and the town then split everyone up for their interviews. Each interviewee had two, hour long, one-on-one interviews with a staff member as well as a third interview with an admissions member. Scott said that this campus had the most difficult interviews he has encountered so far. While he was off answering questions I was able to meet with a student adviser who gave me all the information I might need in order to move there. I was given lists of jobs, banks, schools (for me as well as any children), daycare, transportation, activities, etc. Their philosophy is that the student will be happy if the spouse/family is happy and right they are!

The end of the interview came with a tour of the campus given by second year students. We got to see the dummies that students practice on, which was really neat. You can see their chest rise and fall with each "breath" and you can hear the heartbeat and check the pulse. The dummies can even talk to you to tell you what's wrong. Technology is absolutely stunning. For the last leg of the tour we walked across campus to the cadaver labs. Scott told me not to worry because everything would be covered, but wrong he was. We walked through while a class of first year students was taking place. Once you get past the whole dead bodies thing, it really isn't half bad! So strange, but very neat.

Once the interview ended we drove to Walmart on the other end of town. To give you an idea of the size of Kirksville, the drive took just over ten minutes. We bought some snacks then started our drive to Nauvoo!