Acceptees: Did Interviewers give hints that they were impressed?

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It depends on the person. I've had experiences with enthusiastic interviews that resulted in waitlists, while I've also had stoic interviews that resulted in acceptances.

EDIT: Of course, one of my interviewers did go on and on about how I was "exactly the kind of student this school needs."
 
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Yeah I was waitlisted at a school where the first interviewer said straight up he was giving me the best review of the day. I was accepted to schools where I thought I didn't establish a good rapport with the interviewers. It's a crap shoot.
 
I feel like there's just no telling. 3/4 schools I interviewed at, at least one of my interviewers said something good about me. "You did a really great job. I'm impressed." and "You have a really good application here." (that one was actually on the admissions committee). and then one I literally became best friends with one of my interviewers, and he would say comments like "You would be great here." Waitlisted. Waitlisted. And waitlisted again.

I might be a little bitter. haha
 
It really depends on the interviewer. One interviewer relayed that they were impressed with my application, a few have said post-interview that they hope to "see me again." But some interviewers, like those who participate in MMI, may not say much because they can only speak regarding the prompt.

More than anything, you should go off of how you felt the interview went. I feel like the majority of the time, you know whether or not you bombed it or that it went relatively well.
 
SarahBellum1 said:
I feel like there's just no telling. 3/4 schools I interviewed at, at least one of my interviewers said something good about me. "You did a really great job. I'm impressed." and "You have a really good application here." (that one was actually on the admissions committee). and then one I literally became best friends with one of my interviewers, and he would say comments like "You would be great here." Waitlisted. Waitlisted. And waitlisted again.

I might be a little bitter. haha
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Keep in mind that while your interviews might have gone well, there are other factors at play here (whether they have already accepted applicants very similar to you and feel like you may not help diversify that class, you may be a borderline applicant, one of your letters might not be strong enough, etc). I'm not saying that any of these are true, but you get the idea.
 
MusicJunkie said:
Keep in mind that while your interviews might have gone well, there are other factors at play here (whether they have already accepted applicants very similar to you and feel like you may not help diversify that class, you may be a borderline applicant, one of your letters might not be strong enough, etc). I'm not saying that any of these are true, but you get the idea.
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Oh, yeah of course. I already know where the main weakness was in my app, which I'm sure made me "borderline". But I was just saying that just because your interview went well and you receive positive feedback from the interviewer doesn't necessarily mean anything.
 
One of my interviewers said, "I hope your other interviews go as well as this one did," as I was leaving and I got accepted there. At my other interviews, they concluded with a more, "Well, good luck. Hopefully you'll get in somewhere," vibe, and I got waitlisted at those schools. haha
 
SarahBellum1 said:
Oh, yeah of course. I already know where the main weakness was in my app, which I'm sure made me "borderline". But I was just saying that just because your interview went well and you receive positive feedback from the interviewer doesn't necessarily mean anything.
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I agree. I think it's not so much that positive feedback doesn't mean anything (because chances are they are going to give you a positive eval), but I think that it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be accepted. I really liked LizzyM's "steps" metaphor, where each applicant starts on a particular level and then moves up and down depending on how their interview went.

OP, if you get positive feedback, take that as a "win." But be aware that that in no way guarantees you'll be getting that acceptance call. 😉
 
I generally had a good feel for whether my interviews went great (a few), well (most), or bad (one). I got accepted where I felt they went great. I think most interviewers are easy to read, at least from the handful of schools I went to last year.
 
I think that if the interviewer is good at what he/she does, every applicant should walk out of the door feeling as though the interview went well.
 
My 3 worst interviews in my mind (2 schools with disengaged or bad interviewers, 1 where I felt like I screwed up) ended up being my 3 acceptances. Places where I thought I had really good interviews ended in waitlist. The interviewer report is a small portion of what goes into a decision, so even though an interviewer might give you the highest recommendation, it still might not result in an acceptance based on the overall application. On the other hand, a disengaged interviewer doesn't necessarily hate you, that might just be the way they are and you might be pleasantly surprised when decisions come around! 🙂
 
So far my sense of how my interviews went has been pretty accurate. Accepted where I felt that my interviewers and I engaged and got along well, rejected (and/or 95% sure ill be rejected by March...) where that didn't happen. I think that's in large part coincidence though.
 
Nope, not at all. In fact the opposite - the ones where the interviewers indicated they liked me and wanted me at their school are the one's I'm waitlisted at.

The interviews I've performed the most poorly on are the ones I got accepted to.
 
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Some of mine hinted that they were impressed, and some of mine were like your interviewer. I am currently attending a school at which I had one of each of these types of interviewer.
 
At the school I was accepted at, my faculty interviewer didn't really look at me much and was not very emotive. It was impossible to tell about the med student interviews because it was a group interview with 3 applicants and two med students.

Everyone seemed really impressed at my last interview but I got put on hold.
 
I was lucky enough to get 2 acceptances. At the interview prior to the first acceptance, I felt like the tables were turned. The tone was basically: "You're in. What else can we tell you about our school?" At the second interview, it was just the opposite. Much to my horror, the interviewer told me "not to put all [my] eggs in one basket," translation "you probably won't get accepted here." But I did! I guess some interviewers try to remain neutral whether they're impressed or not.
 
kickster said:
I think that if the interviewer is good at what he/she does, every applicant should walk out of the door feeling as though the interview went well.
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^^this is true.

And it was the case for me. I couldn't tell any discernable difference between the interviews that resulted in waitlists vs. the interview I had that resulted in an acceptance (I did not have any interviews that resulted in outright rejections).

I should say one interview that resulted in a waitlist, did seem worse than a couple others. But I also did not interview twice with the same person...so the whole analysis is kind of "un-controlled" on many levels. Good Luck!
 
Diocletian said:
A week ago, I took my one and only interview for this season and my interviewer didn't seem too impressed the whole time. He was impassionate, unsmiling, and not excited by any of my answers. I thought I did a good job...

Acceptees, do you remember if your interviewer clearly gave you hints that you were a a stellar candidate? Or are all interviewers supposed to act completely neutral no matter what? I hope that's the case.
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from my experiences thus far you can't really tell. I've had interviewers who gave off the impression that they were uninterested but then I later was accepted at that school. For me one of the most peculiar remarks is when an interviewer says something along the lines of, you'll do well at whichever school you end up at. Which is a nice thing to say, but I was never sure whether 'whichever school you end up at' meant any school but ours. in any case, its not worth turning over and over in your head because there is no true way to know how your interview will translate into a rating. no way to know, at least, until you get your decision. but until then, try not to let it get to you.
 
kickster said:
I think that if the interviewer is good at what he/she does, every applicant should walk out of the door feeling as though the interview went well.
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Agreed. Often feeling great after an interview is because the interviewer did a good job of getting you relaxed and asking probing questions in response to things you say. Similarly, a poor feeling after an interview can simply be a poor interviewer who communicates poorly, doesn't have good social skills and tends to (or perhaps deliberately) not show the right cues for the right moments, etc. How they seem to feel during the interview is not a good thing to try to use to gauge your performance because you can easily misinterpret their signals and they can also give off the wrong signals.

mcloaf said:
So far my sense of how my interviews went has been pretty accurate. Accepted where I felt that my interviewers and I engaged and got along well, rejected (and/or 95% sure ill be rejected by March...) where that didn't happen. I think that's in large part coincidence though.
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I think people often make the mistake of thinking that their interview is the determining factor for their application. For example, if someone thinks they did hot in an interview, and then gets accepted, she/he often believes that the interview performance was, indeed, good. It's quite possible that her/his interview performance sucked and merely matriculated because everything else was "good enough."

Similarly, one could have rocked an interview and still not get in. That's just the way it goes, more applicants are interviewed than can be accepted and at many schools, even great interviewers will not guarantee themselves an acceptance. Everything can be in play when decisions are being made.
 
Yeah they can be pretty direct about it. I've had one interviewer tell me she's giving me the highest rating on her feedback form. Others have told me they'll ensure I'm admitted and hope I'll select their school. It's not common though, that was for only a few. I doubt they'd be explicit about how I did if (or when) they didn't think it went well, though. They probably keep that to themselves and only write it in their report.
 
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Only school I went to that had an interviewer talk about what I'd do when I got there was the place I got low-priority wait listed. Go figure.
 
I had two interviewers mention:
"I think you would be a great fit for our school." Or something extremely close to that.

One was a waitlist. The other was recent so no news yet.
 
Nope. All of my acceptances have been from schools that my interviewer(s) seemed disinterested in everything I had to say.

One of my interviewers responded to my thank you email saying he was very impressed by me. I got wait listed there. Another interviewer (different school) lost track of time because our conversation was going so well. Wait listed there also.
 
Yes. I'm not that great an interviewer, but at my only acceptance so far, I performed very well, and one interviewer looked impressed. The other one was kinda meh, but who cares, I got in.
 
i had an interviewer at a UC school who had no questions prepared for me.. told me to ask him questions from the beginning.. (i didnt know what to say). he seemed suspicious of my desire to work with underserved.. looked really distracted.. and cut my interview time by half. the other interviewees that day told me they loooved their interviewers, so i felt bleh..

accepted =D i think no matter how the interviewer acts in front of you.. just be calm and stick to being pleasant, cheerful.. without overdoing the excitement. thats what i did at least..
 
If you think you've received "hints" you were probably a bit overconfident.
 
At one interview this season, the interviewer commented that he could tell I had undergone many interviews and asked, "since you can get in anywhere, why would you come here?"

Another interviewer said he hoped to see next fall and if not, he hoped to see back in his office in four years to interview for a residency spot in his dept.

Needless to say, those were my two favorite interviews.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
It's important to remember that your interviewer is not the ONLY one deciding on whether you become accepted/wait-listed/rejected.


The interviewer usually gives you a score and makes comments to the admission committee, but ultimately it is more than just the interviewer. They usually will vote and argue your whole application not just your interview.

So i think it's pretty hard to tell if positive emotions from your interviewer makes a difference in the decision. IMO
 
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One of my interviewers kept telling me that I was like his ex-wife. The other one told me he liked everyone he had interviewed. And I got accepted!

I guess that guy was on good terms with his ex!
 
It's really hard to tell. I was accepted to the school where I thought I had my worst interview. I got waitlisted at the school where the interviewer praised me the entire time. Don't read too much into it, just another thing you don't need to spend time/energy worrying/thinking about.
 
Narmerguy said:
I would disagree. Some interviewers definitely give hints, wrongly or not.
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True, I just meant in the sense that what your interviewer thinks does not mean someone else on the admissions committee will be impressed.
 
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