Does a first wave interview carry any weight?

[GoToHolmes]

I got a first wave interview and I was wondering if that meant they are really interested in me. Are all Pre-December interviews weighted the same?

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[sierra1303]

I've heard mixed responses on this. Some say yes, some say no. Interested to see what others say!

 

[Hi Just Lurking]

I received a first round interview. I do not think it matters. Spreading out your offers is what defines rolling admission. IMO all pre-december interviews are the same.

 

[Nachatta]

From my experience it doesn't make a difference (gotten accepted within a few days for dec interviews, gotten waitlisted from a lot of pre-dec interviews). In any case, I wouldn't worry about it and just prepare well.

A first wave interview won't help you if you don't interview well anyways

 

[princeafrica]

Control what you can. Do your best on your interview to make a great impression. Just like reading applications, after the first 30+ interviews, some interviewers have seen it all, get bored, and tired and as the cycle goes on so interviewing later may mean they are internally comparing you to someone they interviewed earlier in the cycle. I think getting an earlier interview gives you an advantage as the interviewer is just getting started but I don't think it is a significant advantage.

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

Depends on the school

 

[doc toothache]

Early interviews can easily be construed as being advantageous. By the time the adcoms get together to decide on the selections, there is a chance they may not remember much about the earlier interviewees.

 

[flash9625]

Early interviews can easily be construed as being advantageous. By the time the adcoms get together to decide on the selections, there is a chance they may not remember much about the earlier interviewees.

Any tips for a first round interviewee then? Be memorable, I guess?

 

[mrdeez]

At my school it carries weight and at one of my interviews during my application cycle, the dean straight up said so to our faces.

He explained it like creating a basketball team. If you have to create a dream team, and you have to select 20 out of 1000 submissions to interview first, who do you invite? His answer was you invite the best ones. The ones that are most likely to make the team. You invite the (suspected) elite athletes so you can fill the spots on your basketball team with superstars.

Sure there might be good athletes that aren’t in the initial 20 that you suspect to be elite, but the interview process is not random. It is tiered based on how likely they are to be awesome. Most likely is invited first, least likely is invited later, and so on. Obviously they hope everyone is awesome so they have a big selection of elite applicants, but that’s not how it works so they structure it accordingly.

I had the first interview at my school, there were 10 people there instead of the usual amount (30) like in the later interviews. 8 of us are currently at the school and the other two turned them down to go elsewhere. The acceptance and enrollment rates for people who interviewed later in the cycle was no where close to this.

This might not be the case at every school but I’m just stating my experience. Also, different schools have different values. One school may think you are a superstar and another school will think you’re a knuckle dragging inbred. It’s their loss but they’re allowed to have that opinion.

Also, schools 100% make a decision about you within a week or two after your interview. The adcom does not wait until December to compare notes about 200+ people they interviewed over a 4 month span. They meet after your interview, accept deny or waitlist, then let you know in December.

 

[MLC45]

In my 3rd cycle I was in the first interview group. Almost everyone in that group were repeat interviewers and those who were first timers had pretty good applications. Almost everyone in that group got accepted. Not every school is the same, but in my class the interview order seemed to make a difference.

 

[VladiAVB]

At my school it carries weight and at one of my interviews during my application cycle, the dean straight up said so to our faces.

He explained it like creating a basketball team. If you have to create a dream team, and you have to select 20 out of 1000 submissions to interview first, who do you invite? His answer was you invite the best ones. The ones that are most likely to make the team. You invite the (suspected) elite athletes so you can fill the spots on your basketball team with superstars.

Sure there might be good athletes that aren’t in the initial 20 that you suspect to be elite, but the interview process is not random. It is tiered based on how likely they are to be awesome. Most likely is invited first, least likely is invited later, and so on. Obviously they hope everyone is awesome so they have a big selection of elite applicants, but that’s not how it works so they structure it accordingly.

I had the first interview at my school, there were 10 people there instead of the usual amount (30) like in the later interviews. 8 of us are currently at the school and the other two turned them down to go elsewhere. The acceptance and enrollment rates for people who interviewed later in the cycle was no where close to this.

This might not be the case at every school but I’m just stating my experience. Also, different schools have different values. One school may think you are a superstar and another school will think you’re a knuckle dragging inbred. It’s their loss but they’re allowed to have that opinion.

Also, schools 100% make a decision about you within a week or two after your interview. The adcom does not wait until December to compare notes about 200+ people they interviewed over a 4 month span. They meet after your interview, accept deny or waitlist, then let you know in December.

What schools are you talking about here?

 

[VladiAVB]

In my 3rd cycle I was in the first interview group. Almost everyone in that group were repeat interviewers and those who were first timers had pretty good applications. Almost everyone in that group got accepted. Not every school is the same, but in my class the interview order seemed to make a difference.

What school are you talking about here?

 

[ESPN907]

If you ain’t first, you’re last

 

[doc toothache]

A good interviewer (dean) makes the interviewee feel like he/she is the best candidate to appear since the school’s first class. One can hardly draw a definitive conclusion from anecdotal evidence.

 

[Like_Groceries]

LOL yall acting like if you're the first person interview/accepted to "X" school, that makes you better than other people who interview later on. Whether you're the first person to interview or the last person to interview- both candidates can be accepted and excel in dental school. What matters is getting accepted into school, and getting through (hopefully w/ low debt). It's called "rolling admissions" for a reason lmao

 

[mrdeez]

LOL yall acting like if you're the first person interview/accepted to "X" school, that makes you better than other people who interview later on. Whether you're the first person to interview or the last person to interview- both candidates can be accepted and excel in dental school. What matters is getting accepted into school, and getting through (hopefully w/ low debt). It's called "rolling admissions" for a reason lmao

 

[MLC45]

What school are you talking about here?

It was OU for the 2022 cycle. I'm not saying it happens that way every year (because I don't know), it just seemed to happen that year.

 

[Like_Groceries]

...

 

[Life of Pablo]

Early interviews can easily be construed as being advantageous. By the time the adcoms get together to decide on the selections, there is a chance they may not remember much about the earlier interviewees.

Or they decide shortly after the interviews and not 3 months later.......

 

[doc toothache]

Or they decide shortly after the interviews and not 3 months later.......

Either way, early interviews do not translate into automatic acceptance.

 

[AppalachianDentalBoy]

Or they decide shortly after the interviews and not 3 months later.......

I know this is the case for the Texas schools. It’s either the day after or one week after the interview depending on the schools.

 

[GoToHolmes]

Just had another question. Is it the date that they send you the interview that matters rather than the date of the interview itself? I just got an interview today but the interview dates are all in early December. People who got their interviews a little earlier than I did have interview dates in September, October, November... Bad sign or is it all good because I got called before December 1st?

 

[Like_Groceries]

Just had another question. Is it the date that they send you the interview that matters rather than the date of the interview itself? I just got an interview today but the interview dates are all in early December. People who got their interviews a little earlier than I did have interview dates in September, October, November... Bad sign or is it all good because I got called before December 1st?

You can get accepted all the way up until summer. December is early when looking at this through that perspective. Getting the interview in general is a good sign.

 

[DocStranger]

Early interview = more spots available.....

Think about it this way, if a school interviewed a bunch of students early on and those students performed very well in their interviews, those spots will be taken up. Of course demographics play a role as well as gender and what not. Ultimately though, the longer you wait for an interview.....the less spots there are available as adcoms make decisions on acceptance/declined/waitlist within a week to 2 weeks after your interview.

Also....adcoms don’t sit and wait 3 months to make a decision on someone.......

 

[doc toothache]

An oldie, but that's all we gets.

Acceptances with Pre and Post Dec. Interviews 2009

Those who have not received acceptances as of Dec 1 will continue to wonder what their chances are for acceptances if the interviews are scheduled after the magic date. The information was obtained from www.predents.com and it shows acceptances as a function of month of interview. The majority...

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[DocStranger]

Also to compare this situation, it also relies heavily on the school. For example, MWU-IL accepts half their class size when acceptance day comes around while UDM accepts around 1.5x the amount of students their class can hold (200+ students accepted for a total of 144 seats). Every school has their own strategy of ensuring they have a full class when orientation starts.

 

[ESPN907]

Someone once justified himself in applying late by showing me a graph (not sure on the source) showing majority of those accepted had applied late. I having applied right away, proceeded to interview earlier, more often, and get more acceptances than he did in spite of his higher stats...lesson learned? Who knows, but all I can advise is to apply as early as possible in the cycle...