how do you know if you blew it :(

[dood]

i know getting interviews is a big deal. ive had a couple and have a couple more so far. gotten one rejection and still waiting on the other for the word.

my question to you all is how do you know if you actually "blew" the interview? i mean i dont know why i was rejected the first time around BUT i also feel that i didnt change that much at the next interview (actually feel i did worse)....but, see, i dont know why i feel that way?

i maybe wasnt as clear as i wanted to be on some questions, but not soooo bad.

i mean what can you possibly do or say that could ruin your chances?

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[LoF27]

I really think interview success is only 50% what you say; 40% is how you say it and how you present/carry yourself. The last 10% is how well you click with your interviewer on a personal level.

Lastly, remember you could have an awesome interview but if your numbers aren't stellar enough you might not make it through.

I would contact the dean of admissions and ask for feedback. Ask what you were lacking as an applicant that caused them to deny you admission. They may not answer, but if they do, you might find it useful in future interviews. Good luck = )

 

[deerhunter]

The main purpose of an interview is to put a face on the name. Some schools "score" how well people interviewed, but if you demonstrated that you've given the career a lot of thought, that your serious about it, and you have a good personality, then I don't think you have to worry about the interview. You can only learn so much about a person in a half hour, and nobody who has bad gpa/dat, and low EC's, but rocked their interview gets in. I interviewed at three schools before Dec. 1; my first two went OK, but my third one was awesome. I am waitlisted at the third and got into the first two.

 

[deerhunter]

I would contact the dean of admissions and ask for feedback.

I concurr

 

[pmantz]

It never goes as well as you think or as bad.

I had two interviews one where I was so nervous forgot my dress shoes at home, and wanted to cry on the 4 hr drive home.
The other I was still really nervous and instead of studering I talked fast told some jokes and thought it went awsome.

Which one was succesful, the one where I could barely communicate.

 

[rals]

Which one was succesful, the one where I could barely communicate.

which one was that? the no dress shoes one?

 

[lovechild404]

this is a very difficult question to answer.

i think we begin to second-guess our answers and over-analyze interviews once they have passed. specifically, i think this occurs once we have not heard from our top choice schools. we think we did everything wrong.

after some thought and months of analyzing my interview at my top choice school, i feel that i was a bit too informal for THAT school. The school seems to select more mature, "boring" applicants. i think my "peppyness" and jokes, as professionally appropriate as they were, did not channel the attitude the school wanted. my nerves got the best of me that day!

i wish that schools would send us a letter/email telling us why we didn't get accepted post-interview. it would be very constructive.

eh. the past is long gone....and it's their loss anyways

 

[djeffreyt]

I really think interview success is only 50% what you say; 40% is how you say it and how you present/carry yourself. The last 10% is how well you click with your interviewer on a personal level.

Those seem like fairly random % to associate with various aspects of the interview.

I don't think you can worry that much about it. I always reminded myself that it was a person who interviewed me who had all sorts of history, bias, personal agendas, etc. that would affect how they perceived me in the interview. Some of the above posters are right. For the most part, when you get the interview, you've proven the necessary numbers and on-paper readiness for the school. Now they just need to put a face to the name and understand your personality and fit for the school. Unfortunately, you can't control how people will perceive that you "fit in" at the school cause you don't really know what the interviewer thinks is the "right" student. You can pretty much just be yourself and hope that it works out, but it's hard to blame yourself for not living up to some person's, possibly, arbitrary interpretation of what makes a good student at their school.

Another method would be to work your ass off to learn what the majority of students that get accepted are like, train yourself to appear this way, and stress yourself out to keep up a working facade throughout the day.

I mean, I personally felt my best interview was at UNLV, but they were the only school I didn't get accepted to that I interviewed at. Of course there are state of residency issues to contend with when trying to get accepted to an out-of-state public school, but I thought I was in.

 

[pmantz]

which one was that? the no dress shoes one?

Yup, tennis shoes....

 

[Dental Dork 09]

Years ago when I applied I blew my first interview.

I got a rejection letter a week letter and I knew exactly why. I tried hard to give them an answer they wanted to hear instead of being myself. In the process of doing that, I think I really made myself look like a total tool. Man, there were some questions I totally could not answer about my research and instead of saying "I'm not sure, but I will look into and email you when I get back home", I went off and made some ascertains that apparently were very wrong and they knew because one of the doc's interviewing me was doing similar stuff.

Oh well, I learned before my other interviews and got into other schools.