Group interviews vs. Mono-y-mono

[firstcitizen]

I've been looking at school profiles and noticed that several schools have one group interview that lasts 30 minutes. I've had faculty/student interviews, but have no idea of what a group interview entails.

Does the interviewer lead the group with questions and the answer is up for grabs? Are we debating with the other applicants on issues the the interviewer throws out? Or...are we supposed to take turns and then respond to each other?​

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[piyi]

Are you sure they don't mean a group of interviewers that interview just one student? That's what we had at usn, and I think that would be called a group interview. Actually, I like the idea of an interview between a group of students and one faculty, or even several faculty; I would hope it would be more of a group discussion than a debate though. I think that would be a great way of demonstrating interpersonal skills without feeling like you're being put on the spot.

 

[omnione]

"group interviews" can mean either two things:

1. Multiple interviewers interviewing one candidate
2. Multiple candidates interviewed by one or more interviewers

In general, I think of number 2 when asked about group interviews as I tend to consider multiple interviewers as one unit of the adcom who are all directing the same interview to me alone. When two interviewers interview just one candidate at one time, they are really splitting questions that one could ask alone so the purpose of having multiple interviewers just become a means to have other opinions about your interview performance. I don't know about other accepted students, but I've noticed that I never had two interviewers of the same gender. Also, two of my schools where I interviewed had a student as an interviewer. So, I don't consider scenario #2 to be a true group interview as it really is a "mano-a-mano" interview but you are doing two of them at the same time.

Personally, I prefer the interviews where it's just the interviewers and myself. Interviews can be the tipping point for one's admission and I don't like the idea of fighting for air time against other candidates who are more experienced at speaking over other people from years of yapping on the phone or something.

 

[nerv12345]

so interviews depend upon the school? one-on-one vs you-against-them?

what's the most common format?

 

[omnione]

so interviews depend upon the school? one-on-one vs you-against-them?

what's the most common format?

When you mean "you-against-them", are you talking about you against multiple interviewers or multiple applicants?

Skimming the SDN Interview Feedback section while considering my own experiences, the most common interview is one applicant versus multiple interviewers with the common number of interviewers being two.

 

[redrose0786]

I had a group interview at Touro. There were 4 applicants and 2 faculty interviewing. They ask you a question and then everyone had to answer it. They are looking to see if you can work in a group environment. for example do you listen to people when they are talking? do you take up all the time and don't give other people a chance? Are you always trying to answer first? Its more relaxing than a individual interview (I have never had an interview with just one faculty. In individual interview it was alway 1 faculty, 1 pharmacy student and one applicant) because they are not focusing on you the whole time but even when the group interview is an hour long just the introductions and the first question "why pharmacy" takes up most of the time and there is not much time for interviewers to get to know you.