What does it mean if everyone feels good about how they did after an interview on interview day?

[veryborderlineapplicant]

I just had what I would say was my best interview I've ever done and oddly enough it was a MMI (those are usually the hardest for me), but the interviewers for the most part seem really interested in learning about me and my background. They were really attentive and understanding to what I said even though I rambled a bit (I had a lot of points about myself to connect to each question), and I left every single station except one feeling really good about how I did. I also was really able to bring strong passion into every interview station I did.

The thing is everyone I talked to felt good about their interviews thatday, so what does that mean? I hope I actually did well because I really worked hard at improving my interview skills and I found that I was able to counter the difficulties I had interviewing previously and because I didn't practice too much it actually felt new and exciting to me. I have no acceptances and I'm hoping this is the one. Obviously I can't rely on that, but what does it mean if everyone left the interviews feeling good?

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[gyngyn]

Obviously I can't rely on that, but what does it mean if everyone left the interviews feeling good?

It means the school did a good job.

 

[TxC]

Post-interview feelings are not always accurate. Also, we all define "good" somewhat differently.

 

[organdonor]

It means the school did a good job.

Dang I came here to say this exact thing. From your perspective it may be hard to see but the school is trying very hard to impress you in your short time on campus. Their interview process is no good if it turns everyone off and makes them choose other schools!

 

[Goro]

Absolutely nothing.

 

[GomersGoToGround]

It means the school did a good job.

This is probably the best answer, aside from "some people just can't tell", which is not untrue.

Generally, students feel great as a whole when the school made their experiences as comfortable as possible.

 

[jeghaber]

Nothing at all.

I've felt horrible about an MMI while everyone else felt like it went really well or that it wasn't as bad as they had expected. I'm usually not too bad at evaluating my own performance, so I wasn't expecting much. I was later offered a scholarship for which they specifically cited my MMI performance among other factors. Obviously this is only an anecdote and not a very representative one, but it does show that perception and self-evaluation isn't the most accurate metric for these things.

Plus, you have to consider that on interview day (a stressful day spent with a bunch of strangers), people are less likely to come out and talk about exactly how poorly they felt they did no matter how badly it may have gone -- they might say it went okay or that it could have gone better but rarely that they bombed it. There's definitely a response bias/misrepresentation when it comes to interview day.

 

[Shams al Deen]

I actually felt good about one of my MMIs but was rejected. In retrospect, I think some MMI schools (like the one that rejected me) train their interviewers to make you feel like every sentence you utter is perfect, and smile and nod at you. But in reality they giving you like a 2/10. Ice cold.

 

[Tappinfool66]

As everyone's already said, post interview feelings appear to mean nothing. I was wait listed at a school that I thought I had really good interviews at and I was accepted at a school I felt like my interviews went poorly at. Just when I was starting to think that it was the opposite (bad interviews = acceptance) I was also accepted at two schools where I had what I considered to be great interviews. Bottom line: it's basically impossible for us to tell how an interviews goes, let alone if we'll be given an acceptance.

 

[kthxbai]

I don't know if this helps, but I always knew when I messed up. Feeling good after the interview didn't really mean anything to me (although I did have a great MMI that resulted in an acceptance).

 

[ridethecliche]

I don't know if this helps, but I always knew when I messed up. Feeling good after the interview didn't really mean anything to me (although I did have a great MMI that resulted in an acceptance).

You played it way too safe in that MMI though. I too got accepted and I said some of the most outrageous things that the interview trail has ever seen!

To be honest though, I had one iffy interview and never heard back from the school and had one bad one and got rejected.

The best non-MMI interview I've had was this past friday and I'm keeping my fingers way crossed for things to turn out well.