Ahhh, Waitlisted, i don't get it

[newdude]

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I got an e-mail from a school i interviewed at saying i got waitlisted. I was expecting to hear from them after christmas, but i'm glad to hear from them before but I got crappy news.

I had a really good interview at that school, one interview, i don't get it. she was cool and i don't get it.
but from what i hear the school's waitlist goes pretty quickly.

i'm suppose to "hear" from another school next week, and i just hope it's good news before christmas.

anyone have any advice regarding interviewing, i don't get it. my stats and extra stuff is cool.

oh what a crappy day.

 

[medhacker]

I got an e-mail from a school i interviewed at saying i got waitlisted. I was expecting to hear from them after christmas, but i'm glad to hear from them before but I got crappy news.

I had a really good interview at that school, one interview, i don't get it. she was cool and i don't get it.
but from what i hear the school's waitlist goes pretty quickly.

i'm suppose to "hear" from another school next week, and i just hope it's good news before christmas.

anyone have any advice regarding interviewing, i don't get it. my stats and extra stuff is cool.

oh what a crappy day.

sorry this bummed you out

aren't you already accepted somewhere else?

 

[chandelantern]

I'm sorry newdude, keep your head up. Once you get to the interview everyone has a good application (or they wouldn't be interviewing you!) I don't know why, but sometimes getting a "good vibe" from an interview has little indication of the final result. Depending on the school it can be fairly subjective. I got accepted to a school where I thought the interview went pretty badly, and still haven't heard from a school that I thought went really well. I hope for the best for you with the news next week!

 

[newdude]

sorry this bummed you out

aren't you already accepted somewhere else?

NO, this is my second time applying.

no i have no acceptences. so far the day was going ****ty like everyday, and this totally bummed me out. oh why did i check my mail.

anyone with acceptences want to talk about what they talked about at their interview.

 

[chandelantern]

NO, this is my second time applying.

no i have no acceptences. so far the day was going ****ty like everyday, and this totally bummed me out. oh why did i check my mail.

anyone with acceptences want to talk about what they talked about at their interview.

Well what kind of questions did they ask you? I answered the questions they asked mostly...is there anything more specific you're asking? I guess before every interview I would find out if it is closed or open file (and how open) so you know how much info your interviewer has on you. Keep the interview in a positive light, but don't come off egotistical (humility is important.) Make sure you know the school and ask appropriate questions to appropriate people (ie, don't ask the clinician interviewing you about the curriculum in the med school because they probably have very little to do with the curriculum...) If you give me some more info on what they asked you I might be able to be less vague! 🙂

 

[BlinkyCat]

Hey newdude, don't be bummed. Everybody gets waitlisted somewhere. Even the best of us, but you can't let that get you down now!!!! If you go into your interview with the attitude you have now, worrying and thinking that "oh man, second time around"..."what if I screw up"..."what if I get rejected again!".."what if that happens everywhere!"..."what if there's no point in going to college"..."will I end up flipping burgers"....

It's a slippery slope....stinkin thinkin is bad news! If you think like that you'll come off unconfident during interview unknowingly and that can really hurt you. Especially when there's a replica of you interviewing the same day but that guy is thinking.." I rock man!".

I go into each interview forcing myself to think "I'm the bomb-diggity".. You should try it and I bet you'll get in. You have great stats. 🙂 😛

 

[lazygunner]

I feel you newdude. I came out of an interview at one of my top choices feeling great. I totally connected with the interviewer and had an extremely relaxed, confident conversation. She even responded to my thank you note telling me how great an applicant I was. Nevertheless, I received my wait-list letter 6 weeks later. It's a crazy process, and you just never know how things are gonna work out. Keep your head up and remember, it's a wait-list not a rejection! Good luck with the rest of the process.

 

[newdude]

I feel you newdude. I came out of an interview at one of my top choices feeling great. I totally connected with the interviewer and had an extremely relaxed, confident conversation. She even responded to my thank you note telling me how great an applicant I was. Nevertheless, I received my wait-list letter 6 weeks later. It's a crazy process, and you just never know how things are gonna work out. Keep your head up and remember, it's a wait-list not a rejection! Good luck with the rest of the process.

i resume this is your first time applying.

well like wrote i am a reapplicant adn got waitlisted last year, so i'm not gonna completely agree on "waitlist not being rejection" but it's pretty damn close.

yeah , it's crazy all right.
that said everyone here is saying places where they had bad interviews they got in adn places where they had good interview they got rejected, well i guess i have some of both so i would wait. right! hahahha

 

[tacrum43]

I had a similar thing happen, where I thought my interview went great (and my interviewers said so too), but then was quickly waitlisted. Who knows? Just show interest in the school and try not to take it personally. Medical schools could have a thousand reasons for waitlisting an applicant, so no use crying over spilt milk you know.

Waitlists do move (some more than others, depending on the school), so don't lose hope yet!

edit: FYI, I am a reapplicant too, and had zero interviews last year.

 

[Future MD]

I got an e-mail from a school i interviewed at saying i got waitlisted. I was expecting to hear from them after christmas, but i'm glad to hear from them before but I got crappy news.

I had a really good interview at that school, one interview, i don't get it. she was cool and i don't get it.
but from what i hear the school's waitlist goes pretty quickly.

i'm suppose to "hear" from another school next week, and i just hope it's good news before christmas.

anyone have any advice regarding interviewing, i don't get it. my stats and extra stuff is cool.

oh what a crappy day.

What school? 😎

 

[BasesofHumanity]

I got an e-mail from a school i interviewed at saying i got waitlisted. I was expecting to hear from them after christmas, but i'm glad to hear from them before but I got crappy news.

I had a really good interview at that school, one interview, i don't get it. she was cool and i don't get it.
but from what i hear the school's waitlist goes pretty quickly.

i'm suppose to "hear" from another school next week, and i just hope it's good news before christmas.

anyone have any advice regarding interviewing, i don't get it. my stats and extra stuff is cool.

oh what a crappy day.

Hi, I am exactly where you are. Second time applicant. First time did not get any interviews and now, I have five. Gone to four already and have had two waitlists and one rejection and one wait. So, I know exactly how you feel and when I got my waitlist letters and then the one rejection (post interview) I went into a depression. My interviews, with the exception of the last one, were all very good and interviewrs e-mailed me back saying things like, I'll do everything to get you here and you are a strong applicant. I totally feel your pain right now and I know it hurts, but what else can we do? We must keep going forward. It's true that waitlist is close to rejection, but its also close to acceptance. Keep hope alive. ...till we both get in.

 

[gary5]

You can interview well and still be waitlisted. They may accept just 50% of interviewees, which emphasizes why you must really perform at interviews. Schedule a mock interview with your advisor and request feedback.

 

[Labslave]

I think the hardest thing to juggle in interviews is maintaining the sharp edge of your "scripted" answers while also being human and spontaneous for the more interactive portions of the interview. If you lose your sharp edge in favor of being more personable, it'll seem as if you're not prepared in comparison to other applicants. Meanwhile, having about every answer rehearsed leads to a stiff interview experience.

I've found that my best interviews were ones in which I seemed to have a nice balance between these two modes and the transitions between the two were really smooth. The only thing I can recommend is practice.

 

[TKTDart]

I think the hardest thing to juggle in interviews is maintaining the sharp edge of your "scripted" answers while also being human and spontaneous for the more interactive portions of the interview. If you lose your sharp edge in favor of being more personable, it'll seem as if you're not prepared in comparison to other applicants. Meanwhile, having about every answer rehearsed leads to a stiff interview experience.

I've found that my best interviews were ones in which I seemed to have a nice balance between these two modes and the transitions between the two were really smooth. The only thing I can recommend is practice.

One thing I also wanted to point out is that in some cases, when a school decides to interview you they already decided your "likely" category and the interview only confirms or improves your position.

I do a lot of interviewing for both my undergraduate school and my company so if you'd like some feedback for general things that you might be able to improve on, feel free to PM me. I might say that we could do a mock phone interview so I can at least gauge your tone and what not. Granted it is still a step behind a real face-to-face interview but at least that's a starting point.

I agree with some of the other postings that scheduling a mock interview is a great idea because there may be little things like your posture, your facial expressions, and the use of your hands that can tick an interviewer off.

Good luck.

 

[ND2005]

NO, this is my second time applying.

no i have no acceptences. so far the day was going ****ty like everyday, and this totally bummed me out. oh why did i check my mail.

anyone with acceptences want to talk about what they talked about at their interview.

So far I've hit the jackpot with my interviewers. My first interviewer asked me what specialties I was considering, and I talked for a minute or two about recently developing an interest in oncology. My interviewer then tells me that he was a practicing oncologist for 20 years before getting into administration.

Then my second interview, I talked about my girlfriend, who is a teacher. My interviewer's wife is a teacher. Then I talked about working with developmentally delayed children and my interest in psychology-- my interviewer is a psychiatrist who works with ******ed adults.



In the interviews, aside from being lucky and getting two really nice interviewers, I've just tried to be myself -- sounds corny, I know, but it's something easy to lose sight of when you are trying to make a favorable impression. I've tried to think in advance about possible responses to various questions, but I haven't scripted anything because I want to sound spontaneous and not over-prepared.

One random thing that someone told me a bit ago was that an interviewer will forgive ignorance, but not arrogance -- so try not to overstep yourself and start talking like an expert when you really aren't. Don't be afraid to ask your interviewer to clarify something or ask him for more information about an area of medicine/program that the school has/whatever.

Also, as a senior in college I took an introduction to counseling techniques course for my psych major, and I think that has really helped me in the interview process, b/c we spent a lot of time working on active listening and different body language cues that help the other person feel that you are engaged/interested. I know that the roles are flipped from counseling (b/c I'm being interviewed and not interviewing), but most of the principles still stand.

 

[medhacker]

Also, as a senior in college I took an introduction to counseling techniques course for my psych major, and I think that has really helped me in the interview process, b/c we spent a lot of time working on active listening and different body language cues that help the other person feel that you are engaged/interested. I know that the roles are flipped from counseling (b/c I'm being interviewed and not interviewing), but most of the principles still stand.

Dude, I have an interview coming. What are those good cues you are telling us about...? thanks

 

[ND2005]

Dude, I have an interview coming. What are those good cues you are telling us about...? thanks

Some of it varies from person to person. We did a LOT of role-play, and got feedback from the professor and our peers. This is the sort of thing where mock-interviews or videoing yourself really helps -- you get the same sort of feedback from that that we got in our class.

There are pretty obvious basic ones that most people just know by second nature or common sense (lean forward, don't slouch, don't fidget, etc), but you'd be surprised to find out that you have a couple of bad habits you don't even realize (I know that I shouldn't have anything in my hands -- I'll fidget with or twirl a pen, and that I sometimes look "too casual" in my posture even when wearing a suit).

I don't think there is any miracle cue that will help you out -- what you need to do is see yourself and let others see you in the inerview setting, and be self-aware of any bad or good habits that you have. Then practice a few more times and try to consciously avoid the bad habits. After some repetition, the good habits will feel more natural, and you'll be able to avoid the bad ones more easily (though I still don't let myself hold a pen unless I'm actively writing something).

One important thing that you can work on is the pacing of your speech. Most of us when excited get really quick with our speech -- maintaining a consistent and slightly more deliberate pace of speech conveys thoughtfulness, whereas overly quick speech conveys nervousness.

 

[Law2Doc]

Some of it varies from person to person. We did a LOT of role-play...

Kinky. But I'm not sure how dressing up like a pizza delivery guy or a french maid helped your interview skills.

 

[thegenius]

NO, this is my second time applying.

no i have no acceptences. so far the day was going ****ty like everyday, and this totally bummed me out. oh why did i check my mail.

anyone with acceptences want to talk about what they talked about at their interview.

newdude, I know how you feel. I have come out of all my interivews (except one) thinking that I strengthened my candidacy, not kept it the same or weakened it. I've been waitlisted 4 places and got into one so far.

There are no real strategies for interviews that differ from what everybody else writes on here. Interviews do differ whether they are open/closed, but frankly I don't modify any part of my interview strategies based on that knowledge.

I could say things like prepare well, get to know the school, be ready with your own questions, but I'm sure you do that. Everybody does that to a certain extent. But sometimes interivews don't lend themselves to asking a lot of questions, or they transpire differently than you imagined. So preparing doesn't necessarily translate into success or comfort.

I think that you have to find out how the school uses interviews in their evaluation of their candidates. Some schools use the interview as another metric in your overall application (I think Michigan is kind of like this) and other schools rely more heavily on the interview experience (like Northwestern). At NU, everybody who interviews is an admissible candidate. So they do use the interview to find candidates who they think will best fit their curriculum. I talked to Dr. Brown (the dean of admissions) and she said that the interview means a lot to Northwestern and can often make or break a candidate. My feeling at Michigan is that the interview there is not as important...great candidates on paper will have a hard time eliminating themselves from consideration. Pretty good candidates and average candidates need to do more in the interview to bump themselves up. So in my opinion (and I have no basis for this re: UM admissions policies), there is a stratisfied interview group. At Northwestern I get the idea that candidates, to a greater extent, are all competing for the NU spots from the same level.

The point of this is that you have no control over how schools evaluate your interview. So the only thing I try to do is perform really well in my interviews and hope for the best. I got waitlisted at Albany and I thought I excelled at that interview.

Hope this helps.