How many interviews is it normal to have at this point in the cycle?

[lalalapartay012]

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[nabilesmail]

I think this holds true for a typical applicant who submitted early and has 3 interviews before the new year.

However, I think if you get an interview invite after 3-4 months ++ of review, then your chances are inherently lower because it took them multiple reviews before they finally decided to invite you. Its not that late interviews are bad, it is late interviews are bad if you were complete relatively early

 

[NCKSD]

These threads are so useless. There are no rules on how many interviews an applicant should have. Whether you get accepted or rejected post interview largely depends on your interview skills. If you're a bad interviewer, then of course 5-8 waitlists is possible, but what happens to other people doesn't affect your application cycle at all, so who cares.

 

[ES2]

These threads are so useless. There are no rules on how many interviews an applicant should have. Whether you get accepted or rejected post interview largely depends on your interview skills. If you're a bad interviewer, then of course 5-8 waitlists is possible, but what happens to other people doesn't affect your application cycle at all, so who cares.

These threads are useless, but acceptance is more complicated than simply having good interview skills. The general consensus on SDN seems to place applicants on a ladder, with the most desirable applicants (high mcat, gpa, ECs) on the top. The most desirable applicants can still bomb an interview and be accepted, while a less desirable applicant can "ace" an interview and still be wait-listed.

Going back to OP's question, interview invites is very subjective to the applicants profile, if their stats are on par with the school's, and an accumulation of everything else (race, ethnicity, secondary responses and personal statement).

Therefore, you might have II's for 6-7 top tier schools because of a very unique area in your application, but still end up with waitlists and rejections even though you interview well.

 

[lalalapartay012]

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[mcloaf]

Yes, what happens to other people doesn't affect my application (well kinda... technically it does because we're competing for the same spots, but that's besides the point), but I'm talking averages here. Nothing is 100%, so I'm talking about the general.

In any case, given that people who do have 5-8 interviews end up with waitlists and rejections, if someone had that many waitlists, then generally given the odds, an applicant should be accepted? With the assumption that they don't continuously say something disagreeable at every interview.

Sort of hard to say. Some schools treat the waitlist as a de facto rejection while others draw from it heavily, and the number they take will of course change every year. Also depends on whether the applicant is making an effort to express continuing interest in these schools.

 

[ZuluHotel]

Yes, what happens to other people doesn't affect my application (well kinda... technically it does because we're competing for the same spots, but that's besides the point), but I'm talking averages here. Nothing is 100%, so I'm talking about the general.

In any case, given that people who do have 5-8 interviews end up with waitlists and rejections, if someone had that many waitlists, then generally given the odds, an applicant should be accepted? With the assumption that they don't continuously say something disagreeable at every interview.

It's gonna come down to the strength of your application relative to the schools to which you applied, your interview ability, and a lot of other factors that are specific to you and your application. But since you asked about in general, a crude way to figure your odds at acceptance is the formula 1-(2/3)^n where n is the number of interview invites you have. This assumes that each school accepts 1/3 of interviewed candidates, which is pretty common. You can adjust it to the numbers for your schools though.

so if you ignore all those important individual factors and just look at straight odds for a candidate who is average at every school he or she applied to, you'd get a curve like this.

 

[nemo123]

It also depends on how many schools you've applied to and whether they're also within your LizzyM score range.

 

[wiloghby]

13.

No matter what anyone says, the answer is 13. It is normal to have 13 interviews on November 13th each cycle. If you don't have 13 interviews by now, you need to start sending a flood of e-mail updates -- preferably 2-3 per week per school.

Now, maybe you're saying "I didn't even apply to 13 schools." All I can say is good luck.

Seriously though, the post by ES2 was spot on.

 

[inycepoo]

13.

No matter what anyone says, the answer is 13. It is normal to have 13 interviews on November 13th each cycle. If you don't have 13 interviews by now, you need to start sending a flood of e-mail updates -- preferably 2-3 per week per school.

Now, maybe you're saying "I didn't even apply to 13 schools." All I can say is good luck.

Seriously though, the post by ES2 was spot on.

Totally disagree, but I see where you are coming from. The exact number now for November 14th to expect is actually 9. Nothing but. Why? Because that's the number of times the average applicant has wiped his ass throughout the week so far.

 

[Anicetus]

I'm just wondering about this question because there is such a large discrepancy between those who are getting many II (like 10+), while there are some with only 1-2. How many would be average?

And I think I read somewhere before that if you get 3 interviews, then your chances of getting into one of them and into medical school is high. What do you all think? Does this still hold true or are the "horror stories" of 5-8 waitlists after interviews really reality?

*trying not to panic/freak out at this point*

How many interviews is it normal to have?

Well normally people just get rejected, so zero.

 

[Jennyfishy]

lol, there's no way you can get an "across the board" solid answer for this question. There's too many factors to consider, including whether they applied to all reach schools (like me ), too many OOS unfriendly schools, not enough schools, schools that are far too below their stat averages, URM, date of submission...etc.

On SDN, it'll give you the false impression that everyone should be holding multiple acceptances + have at least five interviews. Keep in mind that most people who don't post are likely the people who get WL or rejected at multiple schools .