Doing multiple interviews in one trip

[thebillsfan]

I know people do this, but how? Do they space interviews with one free day in between or do they do back-to-back interviews? Does it have to be in the same city then? Do people regularly fly to city A on Monday night, interview at School A on Tuesday, then fly to city B Tuesday night and interview at school B on Wednesday and fly home Wednesday night? Is that kind of thing common? I'd like to interview at 12 schools or so, but I can't make 12 diff trips throughout the semester (as I'm sure many people cannot)

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[Suncrusher]

I have no idea how people do that. Some schools are not very flexible about their interview dates and don't give you very many choices. It seems like it would nearly impossible to work out 2 tours + interviews in the same city to take place in the same week but not on the same days...

Hopefully someone has tips on how to make this work. It's just too expensive

 

[Asyouwereatrio]

In this cases, what is an appropriate way to tell the adcom?

"Dear ______ Office of Admissions,

My name is ______ and I wanted to inform you that I would be in the area interviewing at _________. (HOw do you ask for an interview without coming across as stuck up/pretentious?---I was thinking "I was wondering if you would be able to schedule a potential interview during that same time period since I will be in the area and live in _______")

 

[bobsmith]

I know people do this, but how? Do they space interviews with one free day in between or do they do back-to-back interviews? Does it have to be in the same city then? Do people regularly fly to city A on Monday night, interview at School A on Tuesday, then fly to city B Tuesday night and interview at school B on Wednesday and fly home Wednesday night? Is that kind of thing common? I'd like to interview at 12 schools or so, but I can't make 12 diff trips throughout the semester (as I'm sure many people cannot)

Yep, I'm from California and did this multiple times during the last application cycle (including one trip where I interviewed at 3 schools in 3 different cities in 3 days -- that was fun). Going from the west coast --> east coast in particular can be brutal because you pretty much have to lose a day to traveling because of the time difference.

Some tips (some that are more obvious than others):
-I scheduled my interviews at non-rolling schools later, knowing that it wouldn't hurt me and hoping that I could get lucky and schedule another east coast interview with it later

-Don't hesitate to call and ask schools to see if they can accommodate you at a different date (yes, even if you've already scheduled a date). Some schools are more open to this than others, but it really doesn't hurt to ask (as long as you're nice about it and the school doesn't explicitly forbid this on their site).

-If you're scheduling online, sometimes schools will limit the dates you can choose and won't make the later dates available. I think it's worth calling to see if any future ones are available if you need one.

-Be proactive about "in-the-area" emails. My opinion is that the further you're traveling, the more broad "in-the-area" can be. Again, some schools are more receptive to this than others, but I don't think it hurts you (again, as long as you're nice about it)

-Keep an eye on the school specific threads to get a sense of where in the invitation process they are (is the school giving invites to people who were 'complete' two weeks ago? a month ago?). For example, if I had an invite to school X, but got the sense that my "time" was coming up soon at school Y, I would wait a few more days before scheduling my interview at school X to see if I heard back from school Y first. You could also schedule an interview at school X but hold off on buying plane tickets

-Kayak.com multi-city flight search is your friend

-For travel between a lot of the big cities on the east coast, look into taking a train or a bus instead of flying.

 

[IHeartSleep]

This is what I did:

Redeye from City A to City B
Interview on same day (DO NOT DO THIS!!! Even if it's cheaper!)
Weekend in City B
Interview in City B
Interview in City B, fly to City C
Interview in City c, fly back to City A

Very difficult to organize, but the whole thing (flight, food, gifts for hosts, cheap sightseeing, ground transportation) was ~$700. Worth it? Hell yea.

Tips:
-Find the ONE school that has interviews on only one day of the week (like only Tues, only Wed, only Fri)
-Attempt to schedule all other schools in the region around that
-Start planning 2 months in advance. Many schools do not set up their interview schedules that far in advance, so by asking for a particular date far into the future, you are likely to get it. Ask NICELY!
-Try for the airport shuttles--it's less stressful if they can just deliver you directly to your destination. In most cases it's about $20 one-way.
-For transportation within large cities, use buses/subways/trains.
-Plan EVERYTHING. Type out and print out an itinerary, including all phone numbers for the shuttles, hosts, admissions office, friends (so that in case your cell phone is out of battery, you can call from a payphone), which buses/subways to take, which airline, the confirmation number/flight #...print out maps for yourself so you don't depend on strangers. Keep this all in a folder that is with you at ALL times.
-Check Kayak/Orbitz/Priceline daily (even hourly if you're <1 month away from flying)
-This is just a general tip, but if you fly Southwest, there are always good deals to be found on Craigslist. I scored a one-way for $75.

 

[ButImLETired]

Yep, I'm from California and did this multiple times during the last application cycle (including one trip where I interviewed at 3 schools in 3 different cities in 3 days -- that was fun). Going from the west coast --> east coast in particular can be brutal because you pretty much have to lose a day to traveling because of the time difference.

Some tips (some that are more obvious than others):
-I scheduled my interviews at non-rolling schools later, knowing that it wouldn't hurt me and hoping that I could get lucky and schedule another east coast interview with it later

-Don't hesitate to call and ask schools to see if they can accommodate you at a different date (yes, even if you've already scheduled a date). Some schools are more open to this than others, but it really doesn't hurt to ask (as long as you're nice about it and the school doesn't explicitly forbid this on their site).

-If you're scheduling online, sometimes schools will limit the dates you can choose and won't make the later dates available. I think it's worth calling to see if any future ones are available if you need one.

-Be proactive about "in-the-area" emails. My opinion is that the further you're traveling, the more broad "in-the-area" can be. Again, some schools are more receptive to this than others, but I don't think it hurts you (again, as long as you're nice about it)

-Keep an eye on the school specific threads to get a sense of where in the invitation process they are (is the school giving invites to people who were 'complete' two weeks ago? a month ago?). For example, if I had an invite to school X, but got the sense that my "time" was coming up soon at school Y, I would wait a few more days before scheduling my interview at school X to see if I heard back from school Y first. You could also schedule an interview at school X but hold off on buying plane tickets

-Kayak.com multi-city flight search is your friend

-For travel between a lot of the big cities on the east coast, look into taking a train or a bus instead of flying.

Great post . I too was coming from Cali and did this a lot.

To the person above who wrote a fake "in the area" note: I wouldn't say the name of the other med school where you're interviewing. My in the area notes were basically like "Dear ----, my name is ---- and I am an applicant for the MD class of xxxx. I am currently trying to schedule an interview in your area and since I am coming from California, was wondering if there would be a way to schedule any other interviews in -------- for the same time period" or something (don't quote me, I'm sure you can come up with something better than that).

I too did 3 schools in 3 days (and in 2 cities I had to fly between) and it was absolutely brutal. By the third interview I could barely stand up straight. If you can avoid that kind of marathon, do!

 

[IHeartSleep]

To the person above who wrote a fake "in the area" note: I wouldn't say the name of the other med school where you're interviewing. My in the area notes were basically like "Dear ----, my name is ---- and I am an applicant for the MD class of xxxx. I am currently trying to schedule an interview in your area and since I am coming from California, was wondering if there would be a way to schedule any other interviews in -------- for the same time period" or something (don't quote me, I'm sure you can come up with something better than that).

Well, I'll clarify, as it wasn't "fake" emails to schools: What happened to me is that I happened to get a bunch of interviews from the same region in a short period of time, and told each one exactly what you wrote. I didn't mention the names of any school in any email....that's stupid.

School 1 offered only Tues interviews I think. Then I searched SDN and read their emails, and found out School 2 could be on MTWRF, School 3 was MTWRF and School 4 was Wed only. I scheduled the Tues/Wed interview online together and figured that's the best I could do. Then figured that I'd email the other two schools each with a couple of options just to see if I might be able to schedule in those too, and since they were MTWRF schools and that I was two months ahead, I got my choice of dates. I'm happy with the way it worked out though, as I got a nice weekend to explore and sightsee.

Basically, try to schedule your strict interview days together, then see if you can work the more flexible interviews in. Not guaranteed to work.

 

[amakhosidlo]

I managed to squeeze three interviews into one trip so I only had to take one week off work. My schedule was:

Day 1: Fly into city A.
Day 2: Interview #1 in the AM, fly out to City B in the evening (More expensive on most carriers EXCEPT Southwest )
Day 3: Travel day (If you didn't manage that flight out the evening after your interview)
Day 4: Interview #2. Again, arrange transportation same day if you can.
Day 5: Interview #3 in the AM, fly home

One way to save money, if your schools are in the same relative area, is to just rent a super cheap (I got mine for $25/day) Hyundai-type rental and just drive everywhere. Most chains don't charge you for mileage anymore, and most rentals are pretty good on gas. Wayyy cheaper than taking puddle-jumpers between your stops. I crisscrossed PA twice for what it would've cost for a one-way flight from one city to another. It also saves you TONS on airport shuttles/taxis to your interview, and best of all it allows you to actually get out into the area surrounding each school and see what it's really like

Also, if you can, try to case out the school's location the day before your interview to make sure you know exactly where you're going the next day and how long it takes (taking traffic into account) to get there from your hotel.

Oh, and I think I still have my in-the-area email I sent to schools that got responses that allowed me to knock out multiple interviews in one trip. PM me if you want it.

 

[anfleisch]

Much harder to do in practice. I don't see how it is possible really. Unless you are a great applicant which schools would value to quickly facilitate your interview date. Besides, most interviews take most of the day.

 

[moxche]

When is it best to send one of these "I'm in the area" emails?

 

[amakhosidlo]

When is it best to send one of these "I'm in the area" emails?

As...soon as you get an invite from a school in the area.