Accepted after bombing an interivew

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Sorry, when I felt like I bombed an interview, I was waitlisted or rejected 🙁

When I felt I crushed the interview, I was accepted
 
phranklee said:
Anybody feel like they bombed an interview only to be surprised with an acceptance letter / e-mail / carrier pigeon? Let's hear your story!
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Definitely. The school I was accepted to had two interviews, and I felt like the second interviewer absolutely hated all of my answers. At one point she got a little bit testy with me and I was sure I would be rejected just based on that. Also, my stats were not quite up to par with this school (Top 20), so I was excited just to be there and was really not expecting anything to come from the interview. 5 days later, I was accepted!

Conversely, a friend of mine with higher stats thought that both of his interviews went remarkably well, and was later flat out rejected. I guess you never really know.
 
I didn't do very well at my interview at SLU. My grades are up to par (check mdapps if you like), but man, I had two answers where I was realllllyyyy fumbling around for a decent answer and just felt like I rambled for hours. The result? An acceptance the first possible day (october 16th), so you never really can trust your instincts. I've had around two interviews I thought I KILLED, and the result was one acceptance and one hold. So you never know
 
Don't waste your time worrying about this stuff. I spent a long time worrying about my interview and the answers I gave at one of my top choice schools, but in the end I just wasted a lot of time for no benefit. Your interview is done, and you don't know what they were looking for or how they will evaluate you overall - send your thank you letters and then relax and enjoy the holidays. There is nothing else you can do right now to help your application along.

Merry Christmas!
 
phranklee said:
Anybody feel like they bombed an interview only to be surprised with an acceptance letter / e-mail / carrier pigeon? Let's hear your story!
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Nope. All bombed interviews ended up being wait lists.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
What about bombing just ONE of the interview questions...??
 
I bombed my Drexel interview and just got accepted there pretty recently. All with horrible stats, lackluster ECs (IMO), no shadowing, etc. It can happen.

In regards to 'bombing' an interview, I thought mine went pretty horribly for a few reasons. My interviewer was very callous and had a dry sense of humor, and honestly mocked a lot of my answers. He seemed very uninterested in what I had to say, disagreed with me on a lot of things, accused my work as being a contribution to the falling out of medicine in our country, and flat-out told me that he was unsure of my capabilities of becoming a doctor due to getting a D in an easy class (which I retook under a different professor and got an A).
 
MelissaThompson said:
What about bombing just ONE of the interview questions...??
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Depends if it was the first question and also how important the question is. If you bomb "why medicine?" you can bet on a rejection. If you bomb "what was your favorite class?" you're probably ok.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
MedPR said:
Depends if it was the first question and also how important the question is. If you bomb "why medicine?" you can bet on a rejection. If you bomb "what was your favorite class?" you're probably ok.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
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It was the last question in the interview - "what challenges do you think you will face in medicine?"

I fumbled my answer and said

"To be honest.. I haven't been to medical school" then quickly changed to
"Become a kind and caring physician and to treat each patient like my own family"
 
MelissaThompson said:
It was the last question in the interview - "what challenges do you think you will face in medicine?"

I fumbled my answer and said

"To be honest.. I haven't been to medical school" then quickly changed to
"Become a kind and caring physician and to treat each patient like my own family"
Click to expand...


:scared: That's a pretty standard question.
 
MelissaThompson said:
It was the last question in the interview - "what challenges do you think you will face in medicine?"

I fumbled my answer and said

"To be honest.. I haven't been to medical school" then quickly changed to
"Become a kind and caring physician and to treat each patient like my own family"
Click to expand...

It's a challenge to become kind and caring? Yes I think you're doomed lol.





MelissaThompson said:
Do you think I am doomed then??
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Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
So far, all the interviews I thought I did "just okay" or bombed I ended up getting waitlisted or rejected. The only place I've gotten accepted to is one where I thought I did fairly well at my interview.
 
von Matterhorn said:
In regards to 'bombing' an interview, I thought mine went pretty horribly for a few reasons. My interviewer was very callous and had a dry sense of humor, and honestly mocked a lot of my answers. He seemed very uninterested in what I had to say, disagreed with me on a lot of things, accused my work as being a contribution to the falling out of medicine in our country, and flat-out told me that he was unsure of my capabilities of becoming a doctor due to getting a D in an easy class (which I retook under a different professor and got an A).
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Haha I had a similar experience with my Drexel interview. Haven't received my decision yet though. Unfortunately the interviewer really turned me off about the school.
 
I had an awful interview. About half way through I kicked my foot up, loosened up my collar, figured "Well, this is over". I essentially came up blank when asked why I wanted to go to school X. Came up blank when I was asked to describe myself in 3 words, and ended up only giving 1 answer.

It was almost as bad as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvYvhQvbDz8

Accepted 😛

A couple weeks later I had another interview. Absolutely nailed it. Did better than I ever could have hoped, and was waitlisted the following week.
 
At my MMI, I felt like i crushed some stations, made decent conversation at others, fumbled at a few, and may have rambled at one. We will see.
 
EnergyDrink said:
I had an awful interview. About half way through I kicked my foot up, loosened up my collar, figured "Well, this is over". I essentially came up blank when asked why I wanted to go to school X. Came up blank when I was asked to describe myself in 3 words, and ended up only giving 1 answer.

It was almost as bad as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvYvhQvbDz8

Accepted 😛

A couple weeks later I had another interview. Absolutely nailed it. Did better than I ever could have hoped, and was waitlisted the following week.
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Do you have high-stats though?
 
My worst was when my interviewer said, "you were dealt one of the worst cards I have ever seen someone be dealt and be where you are"

Did I say yeah, I guess so, etc?

No, I said, "Well, ****, I guess I was dealt a ****ty hand. But I guess either I had luck on the flop or I am a great bluffer."

I then went on to talk about one person who made a difference for me, but I never forgot what I said. For three months I regretted cursing. Ended up being accepted.
 
Before my interviews I heard people say they were accepted even when they thought they did poorly and vice versa, but I really have yet to experience that myself yet. I've been accepted where I thought I performed decently well and placed on hold the two times my interviews didn't go well. The one exception was a MMI interview, which I didn't think I did well on and ended up being accepted. I consider myself able to realistically gauge my performance in most circumstances though.
 
BABSstudent said:
My worst was when my interviewer said, "you were dealt one of the worst cards I have ever seen someone be dealt and be where you are"

Did I say yeah, I guess so, etc?

No, I said, "Well, ****, I guess I was dealt a ****ty hand. But I guess either I had luck on the flop or I am a great bluffer."

I then went on to talk about one person who made a difference for me, but I never forgot what I said. For three months I regretted cursing. Ended up being accepted.
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Lol...maybe you came off as candid and humble, which aren't bad things. Definitely doesn't hurt to have a sense of humor or a personality either. Definitely depends on the interviewer's own sense of humor, but I'm glad it worked out well
 
BigBear123 said:
Haha I had a similar experience with my Drexel interview. Haven't received my decision yet though. Unfortunately the interviewer really turned me off about the school.
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Likewise, one of a few reasons why I don't even want to go there now.
 
Wouldn't necessarily say I "bombed" the interview, but I did feel pretty flustered most of the day--lots of little things that just went wrong. One of my interviewers was very late. The other interview I was late to because the guy was in his office with the lights out so I was standing outside his door waiting for him to return. (Oops--glad I finally knocked.) Just felt kind of odd the whole day, but I guess I did better than I thought. 🙂
 
I got accepted to one school where my interviews were less than stellar. I performed horrible in 2 interviews and have not heard anything from those schools(Baylor and Emory). What I thought was my best interview resulted in a waitlist and I also thought I did decently in my one MMI but that also resulted in a waitlist. This might have more to do with the general strength of my application and not my interview though. :shrug:

I am not looking forward to most of my 2013 decisions since I pretty much had one strong and one mediocre interview at all those schools. :laugh:
 
Tots said:
What I thought was my best interview resulted in a waitlist and I also thought I did decently in my one MMI but that also resulted in a waitlist. This might have more to do with the general strength of my application and not my interview though. :shrug:
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Haha I know how you feel! I thought I had my best interview at that school too, and I ended up with a waitlist as well.
 
Tots said:
I got accepted to one school where my interviews were less than stellar. I performed horrible in 2 interviews and have not heard anything from those schools(Baylor and Emory). What I thought was my best interview resulted in a waitlist and I also thought I did decently in my one MMI but that also resulted in a waitlist. This might have more to do with the general strength of my application and not my interview though. :shrug:

I am not looking forward to most of my 2013 decisions since I pretty much had one strong and one mediocre interview at all those schools. :laugh:
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Not to sound rude or anything, but I'm pretty sure you could have taken a dump on your interviewer's desk and they still would have accepted you. In fact, you probably could have gotten THEM to eat a poop hotdog for you to go there. Just saying.
 
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Tots said:
I got accepted to one school where my interviews were less than stellar. I performed horrible in 2 interviews and have not heard anything from those schools(Baylor and Emory). What I thought was my best interview resulted in a waitlist and I also thought I did decently in my one MMI but that also resulted in a waitlist. This might have more to do with the general strength of my application and not my interview though. :shrug:

I am not looking forward to most of my 2013 decisions since I pretty much had one strong and one mediocre interview at all those schools. :laugh:
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I wish I was you... those stats, OMG 😍
 
EnergyDrink said:
I had an awful interview. About half way through I kicked my foot up, loosened up my collar, figured "Well, this is over". I essentially came up blank when asked why I wanted to go to school X. Came up blank when I was asked to describe myself in 3 words, and ended up only giving 1 answer.

It was almost as bad as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvYvhQvbDz8

Accepted 😛

A couple weeks later I had another interview. Absolutely nailed it. Did better than I ever could have hoped, and was waitlisted the following week.
Click to expand...

I am currently pray to God Almighty that my interviews do not end up like the one in the YT video.
 
Haven't had a bad interview yet. 100% acceptance after interview so far.
 
I'd consider myself pretty bad at interviewing, but things have turned out well for me. Surprisingly well even with schools I thought I was performing under average. So don't beat yourself over some small things you said during the interviews, because they might not even notice them.
 
LittleDandelion said:
I'd consider myself pretty bad at interviewing, but things have turned out well for me. Surprisingly well even with schools I thought I was performing under average. So don't beat yourself over some small things you said during the interviews, because they might not even notice them.
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I called my interviewer a bag of male reproductive organs.

Accepted 4 weeks later.
 
I thought both of my interviews went pretty poorly (with some positive moments) and I got accepted anyway. (Both top 20s, my numbers were definitely lower than their average or average at best, I'm an ORM).

So I'd like to think that there's some hope, but I also felt like I bombed an interview question at my most recent interview... we'll see. What's done is done! Just focus on the upcoming interviews 🙂

This might be a stupid question, but at most schools, does the dean of admissions have the final say in who gets admitted and who doesn't? I'm curious because both times, my interviews were with the actual dean of admissions and I felt like if they didn't go well, then I wouldn't have had a chance of getting in at all...does anybody know how this works?

Happy Christmas!
 
All of my traditional interviews have gone really well and I was accepted at each institution where I did a traditional interview.

With MMI though, I was unsure of how I did. Some stations I felt like I did well, others not so much. I was really nervous because the school where I had an MMI interview was a school I was really excited about. Also, the school has about a 27% acceptance rate post-interview, so that was a bit nerve-wracking. In the end -- accepted. 😍
 
So far in my cycle:

4 went well - 3 acceptances, 1 waitlist.
3 went not so well - 2 acceptances, 1 waitlist.

So not quite a pattern. Both waitlists were MMIs on a week when I was really, really sick (I couldn't shake any interviewer's hand), so I really can't judge how I was doing during them.

Of one of the acceptances that resulted from a less than stellar interview, I couldn't really answer several questions about my major flaws, misperceptions of me, etc. etc. Who knows. These things will drive you nuts if you think too much about them!
 
Tots said:
I got accepted to one school where my interviews were less than stellar. I performed horrible in 2 interviews and have not heard anything from those schools(Baylor and Emory). What I thought was my best interview resulted in a waitlist and I also thought I did decently in my one MMI but that also resulted in a waitlist. This might have more to do with the general strength of my application and not my interview though. :shrug:

I am not looking forward to most of my 2013 decisions since I pretty much had one strong and one mediocre interview at all those schools. :laugh:
Click to expand...

I felt the same way about my interviews at this school. I felt pretty flustered during my first interview. During my second interview, the interviewer did almost all of the talking (however, before this interview current students told me that if this wasn't the case, then I was doing it wrong). I was accepted last week. 😍

Honestly, I don't consider myself a good interviewer. So far, the results of my interviews have been pretty good. I think the most important things are being polite and being yourself.
 
I think the most important things are to be positive energetic and enthusiastic. If you keep those 3 your interview will probably go well even if your answers aren't perfect.
 
von Matterhorn said:
I bombed my Drexel interview and just got accepted there pretty recently. All with horrible stats, lackluster ECs (IMO), no shadowing, etc. It can happen.

In regards to 'bombing' an interview, I thought mine went pretty horribly for a few reasons. My interviewer was very callous and had a dry sense of humor, and honestly mocked a lot of my answers. He seemed very uninterested in what I had to say, disagreed with me on a lot of things, accused my work as being a contribution to the falling out of medicine in our country, and flat-out told me that he was unsure of my capabilities of becoming a doctor due to getting a D in an easy class (which I retook under a different professor and got an A).
Click to expand...

This more or less happened to me at my latest interview with my first interviewer. It was borderline antagonistic and I still think about it. I find out the result early next year.

To a larger point, I hope that even if an interviewer does not produce a comfortable environment, that at least they would have the professionalism to give an objective review of the applicant.

Also, its hard to know what an interviewer actually picks up on compared to the 1000s of self-critiquing thoughts running through one's head during an interview. Or at least thats what I tell myself...
 
...But for a positive story. At one school we had a point/counter-point session with another applicant. For the first full minute of my debate I argued for the wrong point....the other applicant interrupted me to stop me from derailing any further.

accepted two weeks later. sometimes the pros outweigh the cons I guess.
 
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I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone else but during one of my interviews, my interviewer LITERALLY FELL ASLEEP for a short period of time (head tilted sideways, eyes fully closed, mouth slightly open & askew, etc.). I decided to talk really loudly to try to wake him up and he sort of jolted awake after about 20 seconds or so after I first noticed him dozing off. Funny thing is, he continued as though nothing happened.

It also didn't help that I had to instigate the conversation about 80% of the time since he refused to ask me anything (I guess he was just expecting me to talk about whatever? 😕). Furthermore, he didn't agree with me on most of the issues that we talked about and he decided to grill me on Tibet for about half of the interview just because I was born in China (Even though I told him that I left when I was in kindergarten, so I have no informed opinion on the subject). Add to that the fact that he arrived about 45 minutes late and his decision to interrupt the interview with multiple phone calls, and I was sure by the end that it was a total waste of time.

Needless to say, I was surprised when I received my acceptance letter.
 
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