does positive feedback from interviewer mean anything?

[g8terboi]

Ok, I guess we've discussed ad nauseum how hard it is to predict how well your interview correlates with an acceptance went based on either your impressions and interviewer feedback. Still, I'm received many "I hope to see you here next year" comments and, likewise, a few interviewers who provide no such positive feedback. Given how many interviewees leave their interviews feeling confident about their performance (at least at the schools I've been to so far), I wonder how often you all have received positive and negative feedback, and how predictive it has been so far for your outcome at the school.

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[g8terboi]

bumpity bump

 

[87138]

Ok, I guess we've discussed ad nauseum how hard it is to predict how well your interview correlates with an acceptance went based on either your impressions and interviewer feedback. Still, I'm received many "I hope to see you here next year" comments and, likewise, a few interviewers who provide no such positive feedback. Given how many interviewees come of interviewers feeling confident about their performance (at least at the schools I've been to so far), I wonder how often you all have received positive and negative feedback, and how predictive it has been so far for your outcome at the school.

I got that exact same "hope to see you here next year" comment, verbatim, as I was leaving my last interview. At first I left thinking "nice, he really liked me" but then realized he probably says that to everyone.

 

[gotmeds?]

I'm not sure what the point of this poll is. I tend to take interviewers at their word. They have no reason to lie to you. But they're not the ones making the decisions. The decisions are made by committee. Also, an interviewer that hopes to see you next year may have a dozen other people he hopes to see next year and may ultimately have to choose who he would like to see more.

I had pretty much every experience on the poll during my application cycle and if I learned anything from going to over a dozen interviews it's that a good interview helps your chances but isn't a guarantee, and a bad a bad interview hurts your chances but won't always sink you. And of course, interviews have a lot more weight at some schools than at others.

 

[drizzt3117]

I at least my experiences have pretty much debunked the general SDN myth that interviews are to sort out the socially inept. Most of the people I've met on interviews have been pretty well-rounded and the type of people that I'd like to have as future classmates.

I imagine it must be pretty difficult for the adcoms to decide between a lot of candidates that are really personable and have lots of good experiences, both health-related and otherwise. While some people obviously interview better than others, I'm not entirely sure the differences are so extreme. You probably have to do pretty bad for an interviewer to give you a poor rating on an interview, and you probably have to do surpassingly well to stand out.

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm not sure what the point of this poll is. I tend to take interviewers at their word. They have no reason to lie to you. But they're not the ones making the decisions. The decisions are made by committee. Also, an interviewer that hopes to see you next year may have a dozen other people he hopes to see next year and may ultimately have to choose who he would like to see more.

Well, I agree with you that no interviewer can unilaterally decide if you are getting in or not, but frequently they are adcom members who get a vote, and can lobby for your interest. But they may have a dozen people they are lobbying for, and may only prevail on, say, a quarter of those. I would suggest however that some interviewers are simply nice to everyone and give everyone a bit of positive hope, whether it is accurate or not.

Additionally, I like to think many fall into the same syndrome that guys often do when they are on dates (because, in fact, the whole application process is very much like dating), where rather than have an awkward silence at the end, you just tell the gal "I'll call you", whether you are actually planning to or not. Does this create unreasonable hope? Probably. Does it happen nonetheless in both dating and interviewing? Sure.

 

[gotmeds?]

Additionally, I like to think many fall into the same syndrome that guys often do when they are on dates (because, in fact, the whole application process is very much like dating), where rather than have an awkward silence at the end, you just tell the gal "I'll call you", whether you are actually planning to or not. Does this create unreasonable hope? Probably. Does it happen nonetheless in both dating and interviewing? Sure.

That's a pretty good analogy. Although hopefully the interviewees have a least some feeling for how the interview went. If your interviewer tells you he hopes to see you next year after you had a totally lukewarm interview (the equivalent of a boring date), you'd have to take it with a grain of salt. Then again, it's not always easy to tell.

 

[Jolie South]

the only 2 interviewers that have said positive things (i.e. that they would recommend me to the committee) are the ones at schools that I have gotten accepted at.

others have said nothing. i think i got a "i'm sure you will have lots of options," but that's about it. i like that they are not giving any false hope. it's better to say "you'll be hearing in x time about a decision."

 

[greg1184]

Well, I agree with you that no interviewer can unilaterally decide if you are getting in or not, but frequently they are adcom members who get a vote, and can lobby for your interest. But they may have a dozen people they are lobbying for, and may only prevail on, say, a quarter of those. I would suggest however that some interviewers are simply nice to everyone and give everyone a bit of positive hope, whether it is accurate or not.

Additionally, I like to think many fall into the same syndrome that guys often do when they are on dates (because, in fact, the whole application process is very much like dating), where rather than have an awkward silence at the end, you just tell the gal "I'll call you", whether you are actually planning to or not. Does this create unreasonable hope? Probably. Does it happen nonetheless in both dating and interviewing? Sure.

Just as long as the interviewer doesn't ask me if I wanted to come to his place.

 

[gotmeds?]

the interviewer has nothing to do with the final decision, he/she only makes a recommendation to the committee

Just some friendly advice, sometimes it's a good idea to hit the "Preview Post" button before you submit your post and see if what you've written actually makes sense.

 

[BeatrixKiddo]

Just some friendly advice, sometimes it's a good idea to hit the "Preview Post" button before you submit your post and see if what you've written actually makes sense.

hey everyone is allowed to post, kay

 

[Law2Doc]

the interviewer has nothing to do with the final decision, he/she only makes a recommendation to the committee

Very frequently interviewers are also members of the adcom. But even if not, the input of interviewers is not insignificant.

 

[drizzt3117]

Well, I agree with you that no interviewer can unilaterally decide if you are getting in or not

Unless you are interviewing at Columbia...