Communication class to improve interview skills?

[donutzebra]

I applied during the 2017-2018 cycle, currently have no acceptances, and am preparing to reapply in the 2019-2020 cycle (skipping 2018-2019). My application itself has plenty of room for improvement, but I received six interview invites (5 waitlists and 1 rejection), so I'm pretty sure I need to improve my interview skills as well.

I was looking up public speaking and communication classes, and I found that my local community college offers a "Communication Fundamentals" class that involves gaining an understanding of oral communication and the responsibilities of the speaker and listener and developing skills in effective listening, organizing and supporting ideas, preparing and presenting speeches, evaluating speeches, and informative and persuasive speaking. In general, the instructor got great reviews on RateMyProfessor from students who took this class saying it helped a lot with improving their public speaking skills. Even if I do get accepted off one of my waitlists, I still have a feeling this class would be useful for me in medical school and beyond.

I've never taken a communication class before, so I was wondering if anyone has found these types of classes to be helpful in improving interview skills, or if there is a much better way to improve my interview skills.

I also realized that if I took this class and had to reapply, I'd have to include it on my AMCAS transcript for the 2019-2020 cycle, which might be kind of annoying. I don't want to make myself look like I'm trying to pad my GPA with an easy class or anything, as my GPA was definitely not the issue this cycle.

Thanks for your help!

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[tiramisucheese]

It sounds like that communication class will be very helpful for general public speaking occasions. However, I don't think it will really be that relevant to interviews as the skills are a bit different. If you want to get better at public speaking, take the class. If you want to get better at interviews, have a TON of mock interviews with many different people.

 

[Dagrimsta1]

It sounds like that communication class will be very helpful for general public speaking occasions. However, I don't think it will really be that relevant to interviews as the skills are a bit different. If you want to get better at public speaking, take the class. If you want to get better at interviews, have a TON of mock interviews with many different people.

+1
Experience>class>doing nothing

 

[Neosgift]

Record yourself! That helped me in speech class when I had nobody to go over my speech with. Just a simple Walgreens or Walmart tape recorder. I never really learned my speech I just sorta went off my head with the notes I had from doing the research. Got an A.

But to my point if you record yourself and play it back. You'll learn ways you could improve yourself. I would even suggest video recording. Look at your posture and the way you look. It might help.

 

[donutzebra]

Thanks for all of your help! I think I'm going to pass on that communication class for now and work on improving my interview skills in other ways such as those you all mentioned.

 

[curbsideconsult]

Everyone has given great advice and you should definitely follow it. I just want to add a couple more things:

• Call the school you rejected you and ask if you can get feedback on your interview if you haven't already done so.
• When you do more practice interviews, practice with people who are HYPER critical and who'll point out anything from "your breath smells bad" to "you sound like a douche."
• If you end up getting in somewhere off the waitlist, you still need to work on your interviewing/interacting with human beings skills. Why? you may ask. A large part of medical education is clinical exams with standardized patients. These people give you your actual grades and if they don't feel a connection with you, you will fail (legit people have failed because the SPs did not think the student was empathetic enough even though the student did everything technically right).

 

[donutzebra]

Everyone has given great advice and you should definitely follow it. I just want to add a couple more things:

• Call the school you rejected you and ask if you can get feedback on your interview if you haven't already done so.
• When you do more practice interviews, practice with people who are HYPER critical and who'll point out anything from "your breath smells bad" to "you sound like a douche."
• If you end up getting in somewhere off the waitlist, you still need to work on your interviewing/interacting with human beings skills. Why? you may ask. A large part of medical education is clinical exams with standardized patients. These people give you your actual grades and if they don't feel a connection with you, you will fail (legit people have failed because the SPs did not think the student was empathetic enough even though the student did everything technically right).

Thanks for your advice! I emailed my interviewer, admissions, and, over a week later, even the dean of admissions at the school that rejected me, but I didn't get a response from anyone. I'll try calling some time soon. I really thought my interview there went great and that I clicked with my interviewer but you never know I guess. And yeah, I'm definitely going to work on improving my social skills no matter what happens.

 

[shapley]

I had a communications minor in college, but I hadn't taken my comm classes till my senior year. I'd have to say some of those were the best classes I've had that I still think about and carry with me today. They were however super easy though so I was really able to focus on my own professional development in these classes and network properly.

I recommend it, but everyone in this thread has given you great advice!