How does a school decide who to reject after interviews?

[Tadeo]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Admission Committee Members (or anyone who knows),

I have had a few interviews and have found that most of my fellow candidates are qualified and very competitive. Most feel that the interviews have gone really well. From my perspective everyone should get in, however there is a limited number of seats at each school. How does an admission committee decide whom to reject after the interview? On what do they base their rejection?

Any insight on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tadeo

 

[drizzt3117]

They look at the combination of your stats/ECs and your performance on the interview. I know that seems obvious but...

 

[BigRedPremed]

Admission Committee Members (or anyone who knows),

I have had a few interviews and have found that most of my fellow candidates are qualified and very competitive. Most feel that the interviews have gone really well. From my perspective everyone should get in, however there is a limited number of seats at each school. How does an admission committee decide whom to reject after the interview? On what do they base their rejection?

Any insight on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tadeo

Not all candidates are equal just because they got an interview. So while everyone you met had the EC's, stats, and LOR's to get an interview, some of them don't have the EC's, stats, and LOR's to get an acceptance unless they rock their interview. In other words, the more amazing applicants have more of a margin for error at their interview than the marginal candidates.

 

[Tadeo]

They look at the combination of your stats/ECs and your performance on the interview. I know that seems obvious but...

If a large portion of the acceptance is based off of your stats/EC's, then why do some schools interview up to ten times the number of students that matriculate? Wouldn't they already know before your interview that they will not accept you based on the stats/EC's?

 

[drizzt3117]

If a large portion of the acceptance is based off of your stats/EC's, then why do some schools interview up to ten times the number of students that matriculate? Wouldn't they already know before your interview that they will not accept you based on the stats/EC's?

Not necessarily for a number of reasons. First of all, ECs aren't all created equal, and it's not unknown for people to embellish their ECs. Much of this can be fleshed out in interviews. Secondly, just because a school accepts you doesn't mean you'll matriculate. Schools need to have a reserve amount of people that may or may not receive acceptances depending on how the candidates they really want decide to do. Finally, is the somewhat nebulous concept of fit, which is difficult to determine without an interview. An interview sometimes may be the only way to determine whether a student fits a school's culture.

 

[drizzt3117]

I thought medical schools don't consider stats anymore during or after the interview. They just accept/reject you based on your interview from there.

That's absolutely untrue. The vast majority of schools will look at the entire applicant, with only a few exceptions.

 

[Tadeo]

I thought medical schools don't consider stats anymore during or after the interview. They just accept/reject you based on your interview from there.

If this is the case (which it is at some schools), then how do they decide who to accept and reject? Most people with whom I have spoken have felt that their interviews went really well. Does it depend on how the interviewer is feeling that day?

 

[Tadeo]

I had a friend suggest that maybe, just maybe medical schools are in league with the struggling airlines. All of the interview trips help boost second quarter profits.

 

[etf]

That's absolutely untrue. The vast majority of schools will look at the entire applicant, with only a few exceptions.

for real. my personal opinion is that in any interview batch, the schools already know who they are going to reject, and the onus is on those marginalized applicants to really step up and blow away their more competitive counterparts.

 

[jebus]

How does a school decide who to reject after interviews?

I imagine it's similar to how you reject a girl/boyfriend after a date:
you go on the date. You take notes during the date about what the other person does, what s/he says, how s/acts, etc.
when you go home or perhaps the next morning you break out your list of criteria including maturity, interest in being a significant other, ability to communicate, motivation for being a significant other, other esoteric criteria such as how well you fit (chemistry) and you rate the prospective significant other. You write down any comments that you think are important.
At an undetermined period in the future - it could be the next day, it could be weeks from then - you discuss it with your friends. Other people will have input, too. But everyone dredges up all they find (they may look you up on facebook or google or some people may have heard rumors about you from others or they may know your friends - we can call these recommendations or evaluations if you want - and others may look at your past performance to indicate your worthiness as a significant other - grades, education, what your hobbies and interests are, current jobs and what your ambition is to climb the corporate ladder, how much you want out of a relationship, how far a relationship with you can actually go, etc.). Some people may think that some parts of this equation are more important (chemistry, or your past performance in the case of gold diggers) while others may want someone who may not be perfect but it pretty well rounded and is just you know, an all around decent person.
and then as a committee you all decide how much you think you should take this person as a boy/girlfriend.
sound familiar? i knew it would!

 

[secants]

How exactly do you guys define a successful interview? Is it just getting along with the interviewer or are there more variables involved?

 

[plauto]

While it is true that many people leave their interview feeling they've done well, the interviewers are trained to leave you feeling well about yourself.
At my interviews I've seen a lot of well qualified applicants (at UPenn and JMC most people were from Harvard, Yale, Brown, and CA schools). I am from a small NJ state school. I could definitely tell who was real and who was not, who was mature and who was not ( I took several years off after undergrad), who was a jerk and who was not, who was humane and so on. I believe these are important factors adcoms look for (at least I hope so! 😀). And they are trained to do so.

 

[klooless]

At Penn, the entire post-interview application is read AGAIN from beginning to end my 3 additional committee members who attempt to reach a general consensus. If need be, applications can be re-reviewed even again after that.

There is no pre-interview consensus at our institution as to who will be accepted/rejected. Furthermore, it is rare that "marginal" candidates will be invited and put in the unfun position to attempt to outshine others judged to be "better" at baseline. There are far too many excellent applicants in the pool to make such unnecessary.


Good luck to all of you!

 

[Tadeo]

At Penn, the entire post-interview application is read AGAIN from beginning to end my 3 additional committee members who attempt to reach a general consensus. If need be, applications can be re-reviewed even again after that.

There is no pre-interview consensus at our institution as to who will be accepted/rejected. Furthermore, it is rare that "marginal" candidates will be invited and put in the unfun position to attempt to outshine others judged to be "better" at baseline. There are far too many excellent applicants in the pool to make such unnecessary.


Good luck to all of you!

Klooless,

In the MSAR (08-09) it says that for the entering class of 06 (U Penn) 844 people were interviewed while only 151 matriculated (I know that more were accepted). How does an admissions committee decide whom to reject? The 844 people must have been qualified in order to receive an interview. Do a lot of people really mess up during the interview?

Thanks for your insight,
Tadeo

 

[Tadeo]

Klooless,

The same MSAR says that at Penn State 926 people were interviewed while only 152 matriculated.

Tadeo

 

[klooless]

Klooless,

The same MSAR says that at Penn State 926 people were interviewed while only 152 matriculated.

Tadeo

Penn refers to the University of Pennsylvania. Penn State is known as Penn State. Regardless, I'm missing your point. Please feel free to explain.

 

[Nooblet]

well to give some insight, i interviewed this past tuesday at a school and my interviewer told me that him and the other adcomm members joke that they could take the profiles of all the interviewees, toss them up in the air and pick a class based on where the pieces of papers landed and that if they did so the class probably wouldnt be any better/worse/different than it will be. thats a straight up quote!

but i am under the impression that interviews play a smaller role USUALLY (not always) and that the entire profile of the applicant is reviewed...in other words, all is NOT even at the interview stage and that marginals have to blow them away to get in

 

[klooless]

Klooless,

In the MSAR (08-09) it says that for the entering class of 06 (U Penn) 844 people were interviewed while only 151 matriculated (I know that more were accepted). How does an admissions committee decide whom to reject? The 844 people must have been qualified in order to receive an interview. Do a lot of people really mess up during the interview?

Thanks for your insight,
Tadeo

Many applicants are judged by their interviewers to not "fit" with the culture of the institution. The 844 were definitely qualified for the most part (it is astounding how fabulous many applications read on paper), but interpersonal skills are not universal, and motivation for medicine is crucial, and unfortunately not universal either.

There were more than 151 who were accepted (some withdrew, and waitlists were put in motion).

Whom to reject is not so straight forward. Our applicants are rated on a point system by interviewers. These rating (along with the general feedback from interviewers) helps adcom members get a sense of the applicant in person, and this information is combined with all other portions of the application to come up with yet another rating. It often comes down to the 200 or so folks who ultimately received the highest ratings when averaged over the multiple adcom members assigned to a given applicant.

 

[medguy83]

The adcom's decision making process regarding acceptances/rejections/waitlists is a bit mysterious. I've heard of people with great stats who felt they rocked their interviews being put on waitlists while others with similar numbers and interviews that felt more like interrogations being given outright acceptances. You never know. Sometimes it just comes down to sheer luck or divine providence. In my opinion, I think the adcoms already have you pretty well ranked before you even go into the interview. The interview is just one extra bit of info that they can use to gauge your competitiveness. If you were low on their list to begin with and you had an average interview you'll most likely be put on the waiting list. However, there are on average more than enough stellar applicants to fill all the seats every year. Just what goes into the thought process regarding hundreds of very competent, promising people I'll never know. You've just got to stick with the process, and hope for that eventual acceptance.

 

[IHeartNerds]

Klooless,

The same MSAR says that at Penn State 926 people were interviewed while only 152 matriculated.

Tadeo

oh NO YOU DIDN'T

Penn = ivy
Penn State = good at football

This is a pet peeve of many Penn students who struggled through high school with no friends to get into an awesome school only to have people confuse it with a place where reading skills may in fact be optional.

 

[Phoenix.]

Several schools I have been at talk about how they use your interview as well as other aspects of your application to give you a number. For instance, at Tulane, it's on a scale of 1-10. I'm not sure how much of that is attributed to the interview exactly, but if after the interview they add up your numbers (from both interview and application) and you end up with 1-5, you get rejected. If your number is 6-10 you're either accepted or put on the waitlist, and applicants are generally taken off the waitlist according to who has the higher number, and which applicants will create a diverse student body (not just ethnicity). That's how Tulane does it, but at several other schools I recall them mentioning a similar process of having different aspects of your application and interview turned into a number, which would determine your outcome. Obviously different schools do this different ways, and some weigh the interview more or less heavily, or don't use a "number" at all. The point is to just put your best foot forward and hope it does the trick.

 

[lacrossefiend73]

oh NO YOU DIDN'T

Penn = ivy
Penn State = good at football

This is a pet peeve of many Penn students who struggled through high school with no friends to get into an awesome school only to have people confuse it with a place where reading skills may in fact be optional.

haha I really don't think Tadeo meant that they were the same school... They were just putting out some numbers from schools they probably applied to. No cat fights necessary.

 

[drizzt3117]

At some schools a huge percentage of interviewees are accepted (75-80%) while at some schools a relatively low amount are (25-35%).

This means that at the schools that accept a lot of interviewees, much of the decision is made prior to the interview, so if you are a good fit, you'll likely be admitted.

At the schools that accept 25-35%, less of a decision is made prior to the interview, and afterwards, they review the entire application including the interview transcript. It's likely the interview makes a bigger difference than at the school in the first example, but it's not necessarily clear how much they take it into account relative to the stats of the applicants. It likely depends on the school.

 

[LizzyM]

Many schools have to make offers to far more applicants in order to matriculate a class. So, they may interview N and make offers to 20-40% of N, place 40-70% on the waitlist and reject a small proportion (10-20%). In my experience, rejection usually comes for odd or off-putting behavior during the interview day (this includes inmodest dress and rudeness to the office staff), an unpleasant attitude, cluelessness or disinterest.

 

[nick_carraway]

Many schools have to make offers to far more applicants in order to matriculate a class. So, they may interview N and make offers to 20-40% of N, place 40-70% on the waitlist and reject a small proportion (10-20%). In my experience, rejection usually comes for odd or off-putting behavior during the interview day (this includes inmodest dress and rudeness to the office staff), an unpleasant attitude, cluelessness or disinterest.

That's reassuring! But I still don't want to be on a waitlist 🙂

 

[SiR99]

An Adcom at a top 5 Med school has told me that if anyone gets an interview, then they are all very qualified and could do well at the school. So the admission basically came down to the interview and nothing else is considered.

This kind of sucks but its what they said.

I doubt other schools are like this, a top 5 schools will only invite the best students who apply where as other schools may have a larger diversity to choose from.

Also interviewers are not going to make it seems like they dont like you or think the interview is going bad, they will most likely smile and be polite. So you may feel you did well, but actually did not.

 

[Revenant]

oh NO YOU DIDN'T

Penn = ivy
Penn State = good at football

This is a pet peeve of many Penn students who struggled through high school with no friends to get into an awesome school only to have people confuse it with a place where reading skills may in fact be optional.

Weak. 👎

Have friends that go to both. Know graduates from both. They're both good schools. Just because something isn't IVY doesn't mean it isn't a fine institution.

 

[letitgo]

Weak. 👎

Have friends that go to both. Know graduates from both. They're both good schools. Just because something isn't IVY doesn't mean it isn't a fine institution.

Yeah, seriously. What a horrible thing to say about Penn Staters. My whole family went to Penn State, and I went to an Ivy League school, but that hardly makes me "better" than them. Congrats to IHeartNerds on getting into such a great med school, but you don't have to tear others down in the process.

 

[Jsmooth]

yeah wtf....makes me question the student body at upenn then if that's what they think all the time..boooooo

 

[Picklesali]

I imagine it's similar to how you reject a girl/boyfriend after a date:
you go on the date. You take notes during the date about what the other person does, what s/he says, how s/acts, etc.
when you go home or perhaps the next morning you break out your list of criteria including maturity, interest in being a significant other, ability to communicate, motivation for being a significant other, other esoteric criteria such as how well you fit (chemistry) and you rate the prospective significant other. You write down any comments that you think are important.
At an undetermined period in the future - it could be the next day, it could be weeks from then - you discuss it with your friends. Other people will have input, too. But everyone dredges up all they find (they may look you up on facebook or google or some people may have heard rumors about you from others or they may know your friends - we can call these recommendations or evaluations if you want - and others may look at your past performance to indicate your worthiness as a significant other - grades, education, what your hobbies and interests are, current jobs and what your ambition is to climb the corporate ladder, how much you want out of a relationship, how far a relationship with you can actually go, etc.). Some people may think that some parts of this equation are more important (chemistry, or your past performance in the case of gold diggers) while others may want someone who may not be perfect but it pretty well rounded and is just you know, an all around decent person.
and then as a committee you all decide how much you think you should take this person as a boy/girlfriend.
sound familiar? i knew it would!

But what if I go on a date WITH a committee member?

**wink wink**
😉

 

[etf]

Weak. 👎

Have friends that go to both. Know graduates from both. They're both good schools. Just because something isn't IVY doesn't mean it isn't a fine institution.

relax. when you pay upwards of $40k a year for a school, you are paying for the name. and quite frankly, penn isn't a name that's worth $40k a year.