easy interviews?

[rajneel1]

hey guys,
i always heard the horror stories of tough interviews with mean people where they ask you ethical questions, health policy questions, specific questions about your major, current events, etc. BUT i never had any of these! did i just get lucky? every interview i had (11) were with nice people and were very conversational. my interviewers wanted to get to know me and gave me the benefit of the doubt....i really felt like they were each advocating for me. weird! i didn't even have to read up on anything. did anyone else have an easy interview season?

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[vkrn]

I don't believe that I can predict the quality or outcome of an interview based on whether it seemed difficult or not.

I've had seemingly positive interviews where I ultimately was waitlisted. I've had an EXTREMELY difficult interview (1.5 hrs. of nasty grilling) where I was also waitlisted in the end.

I feel that I'm being smug when I assume I can predict an interview based on my perceptions. I don't take anything for granted in this process.

 

[Jamier2]

I only interviewed at 2 schools (both state, total of 4 interviewers) and all of 'em were very laid back and quite enjoyable.

I got accepted at both, but I was afraid to expect it. Didn't want to jinx myself.

 

[rajneel1]

i meant easy interviews....not relation of interview to possible acceptance!

 

[gobears]

I think there's a correlation between being a strong applicant and having easy interviews. If you're a strong applicant, the interviewer will often try to sell the school to you... no worries, just conversation. If you're a weak applicant, you'll have to sell yourself to the interviewer. That's when interviews get scary. You'll be asked about particular grades, MCAT scores, and many other probing questions.

Strong applicants get asked, "Why do you want to go to this school?"

Weak applicants get asked, "Why should this school accept you?"

Of course there will be exceptions, but this is the trend I've observed over the past year. Just my opinion.

 

[Original]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by rajneel1:
• did anyone else have an easy interview season?•••••I did. They were a fresh cool breeze . I got into 3 of the 4 places I interviewed, and the 4th will mail out its decisions in a month.

 

[none]

The vast majority of interviews are really nice and happy. A bad interview can make a person not want to go to the school, definitely. No one remembers the nice ones though. They remember the horrendous ones. That's why you get the bias.

 

[jmejia1]

I had similiar experiences like rajneel1. Though they weren't necessarily a walk in the park, they definetly weren't the torture chambers I expected. I've interviewed at five schools for a total of 10 interviews, and only one of those ten was slightly abrasive probing into my ECs with a microscope and asking detailed questions as if to see the validity of them. The other nine interviews were with nice people, not hardcore ethics, mind games, or managed care questions.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Had a few tough ones..but majority were laid back very easy.

Probably 60% were easy as cake.
10% grilled the hell out of me
30% asked a few toughies in the middle of an easy one.

 

[Jessica]

All of my UC interviews were VERY laid back. One of my interviewers even took me to check on a couple of patients with him, let me listen to their lung sounds and check out their ECGs (with the patient's permission of course.) Out of 4 interviews (8 interviewers) only one of them asked me an ethical question, and one grilled me a little bit, but the rest were very conversational (not what I was expecting!! I had my self all anxious and worked up for nothing!)

 

[Coalboy]

All of mine were pretty easy (8 schools), except one, where the first interviewer was extremely positive, and the second one grilled me for an hour and a half. I haven't heard back from that school yet--it was only a couple of weeks ago.