Although interviews are extremely important, it's also true that they aren't the most consistent experience you will encounter in the whole med school application process. You may be putting your best foot forward, but if you and your interviewer don't "click", chances of you getting accepted are much lower. It's ironic how such an crucial part of the process can be so random. This also is the reason why you should apply to as many schools as possible (within reason) because the more interviews you get, the greater the chance that you will get a great interviewer experience.
Yes, it does suck when interviewers just go through your app point by point - but it is your responsibility at that point to salvage what you can by trying to discuss things about yourself apart from your application. This is why you must be ready for questions like "What else do you want to talk about?", "Tell me something about yourself", "Do you have any questions for me?", so that you can just bring those subjects up if the interview gets stagnant. Also, don't worry about "cold", "confrontational", or "aggressive" interviewers. That's just the role they play (sometimes
)to see how you respond under that kind of pressure. You may feel like crap after the interview, but if you kept your cool and got your points in, you did great. In fact, some have said that interviews where you were grilled by the interviewer help your application much more than interviews where you're all smiles and just carry a typical friendly conversation with your interviewer since you can learn a lot more about an applicant (i.e. things he/she might not say unless pressured to) in the former type of interview, whereas the latter type doesn't really reveal anything deep about an applicant, other than his/her ability to conduct small talk.
A personal illustration of how random interviews can be -
I went to Cornell for undergrad, and as you may or may not know, Cornell Med interviews ANY and all Cornell undergrads who apply, kind of a favor to Cornellians. It's funny how they describe the process as one of "getting experience with interviews", leaving me with the impression that they didn't plan on accepting any of us, only interviewing us as a courtesy. However, 10-15% of the class does come from Cornell so something has to be going on. I realized it when I went for my own interview. They basically rent a Greyhound and bus 40 of us a week to NYC for one 30 minute interview (non-Cornell applicants get two). We were basically treated like cattle and most interviews lasted only 15-20 minutes, like the interviewers had something more important to do at that moment. I was told that the committee didn't look at the applications again until a month or so after this barrage of Cornell students were finished with (about 250 in total). My point is that it is difficult to make a lasting impression in these kinds of situations and who the adcom ends up selection will be based, to no small degree, on chance (i.e. the really stellar students will be noticed, but even the reasonably strong applicants have a hard time differentiating themselves from others). I also found offensive the notion that minority students got minority interviewers. It was supposed to make us "comfortable", but in the end, it just conjures up notions of segregation and the idea that minorities aren't "good enough" for caucasian interviewers. Columbia does this as well.
My point after all this rambling? Interviews are important, so be prepared for them. On the other hand, also be prepared for good and bad interview(s/ers) based on something totally out of your control. Also, your perception of whether an interview went well or poorly does not always reflect the adcom's view of that interview. I've gotten rejected by schools where I thought I had the best interview, and accepted to schools where I thought I had totally bombed the interview and was expecting a rejection. Finally, due to the random nature of interviews, apply to numerous schools and expect to be denied right off the bat by schools you thought you could get into and to be granted an interview from your "dream schools". It happens more often than you think.
