One Good and One Bad Interview

[Muq]

I had a good faculty interview but a pretty bad student interview (stuttered a lot, don't think I answered a few of the questions well, was very apparently nervous) and have been overthinking quite a lot about messing up the very last step in the process. I understand it is a holistic process, but does anyone have any similar stories which turned out in an acceptance (to give me a little hope for the time being), especially within the T20 range?

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[j_diggity]

I'm no expert but from reading the posts about committees' post-interview decision-making, it sounded like student reviewers were typically harsher than the faculty reviews and the committee "revises you upward" accordingly. In addition, a faculty review typically carries more weight than a student review anyway, and your faculty interview was good. Plus lots of people feel they bomb an interview and still wind up with an A. I think you've got a good chance.

 

[Hollow Knight]

It's all part of the puzzle man. Don't stress. You can't do anything to change it now.

If you said you were a crazy racist or something, or a serial killer, yeah your app would be sunk. But one interview with stutters won't sink an otherwise stellar app.

Now if this was an interview at a school like Harvard where every applicant is Nelson Mandela Jr, that's different. But please don't stress.

 

[Goro]

What's done is done, and you can't change the past. So stop obsessing about it and think about the next interviews. And be thankful you actually got two interviews, cuz most people who apply to medical school don't get any.

 

[Holland]

What's done is done, and you can't change the past. So stop obsessing about it and think about the next interviews. And be thankful you actually got two interviews, cuz most people who apply to medical school don't get any.

My interpretation was that he's talking about two interviews at the same school, rather than interviews at two schools

 

[Goro]

My interpretation was that he's talking about two interviews at the same school, rather than interviews at two schools

Ahh, my mistake!

 

[LindaAccepted]

I had a good faculty interview but a pretty bad student interview (stuttered a lot, don't think I answered a few of the questions well, was very apparently nervous) and have been overthinking quite a lot about messing up the very last step in the process. I understand it is a holistic process, but does anyone have any similar stories which turned out in an acceptance (to give me a little hope for the time being), especially within the T20 range?

My experience is that interviewees can be terribly inaccurate in assessing how an interview went.

So as others have advised, you can't change it. Stop obsessing about it other than to think about how you could do better if and when invited to another interview. What could you do to get control of the nervousness that is quite natural in an interview? (Maybe take a deep breath before answering a question or give yourself a few seconds to think about how you want to respond, or trying to speak more slowly so that you are less likely to stutter. Don't be afraid to occasionally ask an interviewer to clarify a question if you aren't sure what they're asking. )