Bad idea to fly in at 11pm the night before my interview?

[Mrd7889]

Any thoughts on this?

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[IWillMakeIt1]

I wouldnt do it. You need some good rest the night before your interview.

 

[jtd2081]

If you have to do that then do it, but if you can get in earlier I would think it would be better for you.

 

[VincentAdultman]

You leave yourself at the mercy of randomness if you get the latest flight you can. Traffic, delays, cancellation, security, getting lost in the way to the hotel etc. Not to mention that you want to be as well rested as you can for one of the most important days of your life.

If it's avoidable that's one thing. If you can get an earlier flight, if just go for it.

 

[DameJulie]

I wouldn't do it; I would rather re-schedule my interview at a later date when I can get there earlier.

Like the above posts, what happens if your flight got cancelled or delayed? Even a 1-hour delay could make your plane land the next day (same day as your interview). Assuming your interview starts in the morning, you won't likely to have a good night of rest/sleep.

 

[Goro]

Any thoughts on this?

I sure as hell wouldn't do it for a Faculty job interview....why should you for a med school interview?

 

[Mad Jack]

You can do it, but it's a bad idea.

 

[DBC03]

I've flown a lot and I have been delayed or cancelled more often than not. I wouldn't risk it - just because of the chance of not actually getting in at all.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Not worth the risk. The stress of travel will be compounded with last minute travel and delays affecting your sleep and perhaps even making the interview at all. And, since you're getting in so late, this stress will now carry over to the next morning most likely. Bad idea.

 

[AnotherLawyer]

For my first interview I figured I'd fly after work Thursday for the Friday interview. I got a direct flight figuring that would minimize complications and the drive time was about eight hours so in the worst case I could always drive.

I show up to the airport three hours early and as I pull into the parking lot I get a text that there's a two hour delay. Hmm should I just drive? No, even with the delay I'll get in early enough to get a good night's sleep.

As I get through security I get the text for an additional three hour delay. Now I'm worried. I find another flight, this one with a connection, but it is full. There's room for three standby passengers. I'm number four. By some miracle number three doesn't show up when called so I get on the flight.

As I board the plane with a huge feeling of relief, I'm told all the overhead storage is full. I have to check my bad, i.e. my suit, and this is a connecting flight. I spend the whole flight wondering whether I'll be able to find a suit at a Walmart, the only thing that will be open when I arrive.

After the first leg, my second flight was also delayed. When I arrived my bag was pt there. By some miracle it showed up shortly thereafter on another flight.

This was the most stressful experience in recent memory. I will never do it again. Drive if possible. If not, fly out a day early.

 

[Raryn]

I sure as hell wouldn't do it for a Faculty job interview....why should you for a med school interview?

When you are interviewing for a faculty position, typically the institution is flying you out. You also have a fair bit of flexibility with taking days off. And even if the institution isn't flying you out, you're presumably an established professional with a source of income.

Students often have less flexibility (especially if it's during the school year, which med school interviews are), and *certainly* have less money. And I've never heard of an MD school paying to fly you out (and very few residency programs that do the same). There's any number of reasons why someone might fly in late the night before.

That said, I'd avoid it if possible. If you fly in at 11, by the time you deplane and get out of the airport it might be 1130, and it might be past midnight by the time you actually get to where you're sleeping and get to bed. Interviews tend to start early in the morning as well. You want to be well-rested for the day.

 

[Goro]

When you are interviewing for a faculty position, typically the institution is flying you out. You also have a fair bit of flexibility with taking days off. And even if the institution isn't flying you out, you're presumably an established professional with a source of income.

Students often have less flexibility (especially if it's during the school year, which med school interviews are), and *certainly* have less money. And I've never heard of an MD school paying to fly you out (and very few residency programs that do the same). There's any number of reasons why someone might fly in late the night before.

That said, I'd avoid it if possible. If you fly in at 11, by the time you deplane and get out of the airport it might be 1130, and it might be past midnight by the time you actually get to where you're sleeping and get to bed. Interviews tend to start early in the morning as well. You want to be well-rested for the day.

You make a very good point about student finances, and I hadn't thought about that, but you miss my point entirely.

What I meant was that I wouldn't fly into any sort of career-deciding event that would leave me at my less than optimum the next day.

 

[joeception]

For all my interviews even on a budget I gave myself a travel day. I found an early flight the day before to have time to walk around the campus and the surrounding area the day before to get a feel and relax some of the nerves. A late flight has many risks the biggest one you being exhausted.

 

[Asagiri]

I recently did this. I decided to fly out after work. My flight got delayed at night. It landed at around 1am and my shuttle got me to my hotel by 2am. To get back home, I had a flight that ended up deplaning just in time to let me get a train back home from the airport. It was difficult, and it was stressful, but I have very limited days off at work and I work full time.

That being said, it was also very affordable and I ended up feeling very good about my interview. Would I recommend it? Absolutely not. There is a lot that can go wrong and working on such little sleep for an interview can be very stressful. Luckily, the school did a great job with making us feel comfortable and easing our anxieties.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

I wouldn't do it. I've seen students with flight times 24 hours before an interview and still only make it within minutes to the interview due to delays, cancelations and reroutings. Twice I've seen a student get rerouted to an airport more than 100 miles away from intended destination and have to rent a car and drive the rest of the way.

I know that you probably don't have the luxury of flying more than a day in advance, but this is just to show you how even flying a day in advance has some risks.