Chances at interview stage

[charik]

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I have seen the general attitude that all you have to do at the interview is not blow it, show them that you're a normal person, etc. and you're in.

But i know for USC they interview 550 and accept 160, and some other school i looked at was about the same numbers.. can 400 of 550 applicants invited to interview really be that out of it that the 160 normal applicants will get in no problem? How many of the people interviewed do you think they decide to reject right off the bat? In my mind it seems like the process is so selective that by the time they get to the interviews they would have a hell of a time choosing their acceptees... I'd only guess maybe 50 people would be out of it enough to give the school an easy choice of rejection.

 

[jlee9531]

well...for the schools that interview a lot and accept only a little....

your status is a bit more uncertain....

if a person with comparable ECs with higher numbers had a good interview...and a person with similar ECs and lower numbers had a good interview....i guess they would choose to side with the higher numbered applicant....(more comprehensive i guess...when you have so many to pick from....)

im sure there are some people that just dont have a normal interview but definitely impress them by just clicking with the interviewer....they prolly have a great chance of getting in right away...but there are prolly not too many of these....

but yeah. who knows how they select when they get down to it. but trust me man.....there are some people that are just so socially out of it they have no clue.....i met one on my interview path and he had no idea he was such an ass and that he was being rude and that none of us or the med students that met him liked him. having a normal interview probably isnt as easy as we all think sometimes.... but whatevs.... these are just my random thoughts.

 

[MErc44]

nothing is promised.

 

[Sean2tall]

Most schools accept easily double what the matriculating class will be, since chances are a large portion will have other offers and go elsewhere. So according to the odds you could say you have a pretty nice chance after interviewing. But then there's the random luck that comes into play and none of us can explain that 😉

Sean

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by Sean2tall
Most schools accept easily double what the matriculating class will be, since chances are a large portion will have other offers and go elsewhere. So according to the odds you could say you have a pretty nice chance after interviewing. But then there's the random luck that comes into play and none of us can explain that 😉

Sean

word to your moms

sean is right...usc's(so cal?) class is around 160. They actually accept more than that because it is inevitable that people will turn their acceptances down. Sean is right, many classes accept twice their class size. When I applied last year I think USC accepted about half of the people it interviewed. They also waitlist a lot of people and if you push to get in their waitlist has quite a bit of movement. So getting an interview usually puts one in a very good position. Is not 160/500, its more like (250-300)/500.

 

[J33]

The online version of US News has all of these numbers in detail. It shows how many students are interviewed, accepted, and matriculate, so you can easily get the fraction of students accepted off the site (it costs like $10). If you don't have this, it is a good rule of thumb that most schools accept about 40-50% of interviewees. Almost every school I've interviewed at falls in this range. The interview is definitely not a guaranteed acceptance, even if it goes well.

 

[asama527]

Here are some helpful stats:
If you're a resident, USC interviews 355 and accepts 243 (68.4% chance of acceptance)

If you're a non-resident, USC interviews 96 and accepts 55 (57.2% chance of acceptance)

There are actual ACCEPTANCES, not the number of people who will matriculate.

 

[asama527]

to follow up on J33's comment, having a BAD interviews, a.k.a. UWSOM, does not guarantee a rejection either. most 1st year med students at UWSOM said they had miserable interviews.

 

[mlw03]

i know this is vague and probably not too helpful, but i really think the importance of the interview depends on the school. my impression is that for middle tier and lower schools, the interview is more of a formality and unless you're psycho, it can't hurt or help you very much and they simply revert to the paper application stuff. at the higher ranked schools i think the interview matters more.

let me explain my thinking. at state schools there is a wide range of applicants - some very good and some not so. if you're very good you'd have to truly be a jacka$$ at your interview for it to matter, so you have a big edge over your lesser in-state candidates. at the big-dog schools though most every applicant interviewed is gonna be pretty solid (> 3.5, > 32), so there's less differentiating the candidate on paper and the interviews become more important.

just my thoughts based on my and my friends' experiences with the FL schools.