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Own it.

I am not sure how they will know since it is blind unless you bring it up. BUT:

Interviewer: Oh, so I see / you said you were waitlisted last year, why do you think you weren't accepted?
You: That is a great question. To be really honest with you, my gpa probably wasn't where it needed to be, and I know that. After accumulating so many hours, I am sure you know how difficult it is to bring up, but I have spent the last year doing my absolute best to make sure that it was higher this time around. I've spent a lot of time volunteering and interacting with patients too, so I know this what I want to be doing with my life whether that takes one year of gpa repair or more.
 
Bookman said:
Hi guys! I wanted to get some advice on how to answer the question why do you think you weren't accepted last year with an interviewer that is blind to my metrics. I am interviewing at school I was waitlisted at in the previous cycle and I want to be prepared for this question if it's asked. I wasn't able to get feedback from this school but I think I wasn't accepted because of my much lower cumulative GPA than their average and my just okay or not that good interview performance. I guess I don't want my interviewer to be biased about me when I bring up my low gpa? So I am wondering if should bring it up or maybe i'm overthinking this since they did decide to interview me again? My gpa did not improve much for this cycle. I improved my application by adding more clinical and volunteering hours.
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Don't bring up your GPA if it didn't improve. Say "I didn't have a competitive amount of clinical hours, since last cycle, I spent a full year increasing my clinical hours by <x amount>"
 
Sunbodi said:
Don't bring up your GPA if it didn't improve. Say "I didn't have a competitive amount of clinical hours, since last cycle, I spent a full year increasing my clinical hours by <x amount>"
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This^^^^^^^^ when it comes to GPA. As far as anything else goes, since you received an interview you had to be good enough to be admitted (or they wouldn't have wasted a spot interviewing you), so I honestly don't think I'd admit to any shortcomings. If it were me, I'd say that since I'm not on the adcom, I can't possibly know for sure (particularly if I sought out feedback and did not receive it), but I took the extra year as opportunity to improve XYZ.
 
Bookman said:
Hi guys! I wanted to get some advice on how to answer the question why do you think you weren't accepted last year with an interviewer that is blind to my metrics. I am interviewing at school I was waitlisted at in the previous cycle and I want to be prepared for this question if it's asked. I wasn't able to get feedback from this school but I think I wasn't accepted because of my much lower cumulative GPA than their average and my just okay or not that good interview performance. I guess I don't want my interviewer to be biased about me when I bring up my low gpa? So I am wondering if should bring it up or maybe i'm overthinking this since they did decide to interview me again? My gpa did not improve much for this cycle. I improved my application by adding more clinical and volunteering hours.
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As an aside, work on your interview skills.
 
Rogue42 said:
Own it.

I am not sure how they will know since it is blind unless you bring it up. BUT:

Interviewer: Oh, so I see / you said you were waitlisted last year, why do you think you weren't accepted?
You: That is a great question. To be really honest with you, my gpa probably wasn't where it needed to be, and I know that. After accumulating so many hours, I am sure you know how difficult it is to bring up, but I have spent the last year doing my absolute best to make sure that it was higher this time around. I've spent a lot of time volunteering and interacting with patients too, so I know this what I want to be doing with my life whether that takes one year of gpa repair or more.
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I don't recommend this phrase. It implies that the others aren't so good! ...and if one says it more than once, it sounds like pandering.
 
As a medical student and a trainee after graduation you will be asked to assess yourself, your knowledge, your skills and your deficits. Get used to it. Pick whatever you worked on most this year whether it was reflecting on your interview performance and being better prepared this time, or building more community/clinical experience outside of your comfort zone, or whatever.
 
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