Quote:
Originally Posted by Ubc101
Hey can someone please tell me if there is any ADVANTAGE of doing your interview at Waterloo instead of Calgary? I know you do not get the tour of the school but is that the only factor? I would like to have my interview at Waterloo but Calgary is just much more convenient. Any thoughts?
Also if any had their interview in Calgary can you please share your thoughts. Where it was, how long the process took, how many questions there were, etc... How does taking the interview affect your chances? For example, is there a set number of applicants they can accept from Calgary interviews?
Thanks everyone
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I'm from Calgary and considered doing my interview there, but ultimately decided to make the trip to Waterloo. Aside from the tour of the school, you are able to meet a lot of the faculty and ask the upper-year students questions, which is really great. I got a good feel for the atmosphere of the school and learned about how many amazing events there are to attend every year. I liked seeing the facility - after all, you're going to be spending an exorbitant amount of time in that one building for the next four years. You're just not getting the same impression of the program if you attend an interview in a board room at the Calgary Sheraton instead of in the very building where you will be studying - at least in my opinion.
The interview in Calgary is identical to the interview in Waterloo. Same number of questions. The actual questions themselves were the same in some cases - I did my interview in Waterloo and my roommate did hers in Calgary, and we both had at least one of the same questions. So as far as the interview itself goes, there's no advantage or disadvantage to doing an external - it's more the other aspects of the day that I personally appreciated, and a lot of my fellow interviewees must have agreed, because there were a TON of people from Alberta at my interview day despite there being an external offered in Calgary. That being said, if Calgary would be significantly cheaper/easier, don't rule it out - a lot of my classmates attended external interviews.
I can't say for sure, but I really don't think the school has any kind of "quota" for accepting applicants who interviewed at external sites. It's all about who will make the best optometrist, not who decided to attend an interview closer to home. It's not like they're going to bump out a better candidate who interviewed in Waterloo just so they can add another person who interviewed in Calgary, right?
So I shouldn't think that your interview site will really hurt or help your chances.