How much weightage does Interview performance hold for acceptance

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rx001

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Trying to understand the probability of getting an acceptance based on my stats, ECS etc. Can anyone give out rough estimates for the weightages to gpa, mcat, ecs,LORs interview performance to name the major ones. I am pretty sure some level of quantification and ranking will be done, before giving out a acceptance. There should some rough thumb rule created by the each of the admissions committees.

For example taking mcat into consideration our mcat score could be part of one of the ranges 10-25, 25-50, 50-75 or 75-90 percentile ranges. For example if we are part of 10-25 percentile range I guess we are supposed to have great ecs and great interview performance. what are great ecs. If we are part of 75-90 percentile range we probably could be part of the gang with weaker ecs than normal. Ecs are hard to quantify what are great ecs and what are weak ecs and what are normal ecs.

Can anyboy elaborate this.
 
rx001 said:
Trying to understand the probability of getting an acceptance based on my stats, ECS etc. Can anyone give out rough estimates for the weightages to gpa, mcat, ecs,LORs interview performance to name the major ones.
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What's the purpose of knowing these weights? Would your answers differ depending on whether the weight was 20% vs 50%? A poor interview performance will sink even the best applicants on paper. However, the stronger your application, the more slack that is given for your interview performance. Not much more can be said beyond this given the variability between schools. Instead of worrying about these meaningless weights, focus on answering each question genuinely and to the best of your ability. Just my thoughts
 
rx001 said:
Trying to understand the probability of getting an acceptance based on my stats, ECS etc. Can anyone give out rough estimates for the weightages to gpa, mcat, ecs,LORs interview performance to name the major ones. I am pretty sure some level of quantification and ranking will be done, before giving out a acceptance. There should some rough thumb rule created by the each of the admissions committees.

For example taking mcat into consideration our mcat score could be part of one of the ranges 10-25, 25-50, 50-75 or 75-90 percentile ranges. For example if we are part of 10-25 percentile range I guess we are supposed to have great ecs and great interview performance. what are great ecs. If we are part of 75-90 percentile range we probably could be part of the gang with weaker ecs than normal. Ecs are hard to quantify what are great ecs and what are weak ecs and what are normal ecs.

Can anyboy elaborate this.
Click to expand...

I don’t think anyone has the answer to your question. It adds a lot of stress, but this isn’t an exact science.

My simplified perspective:
MCAT/GPA opens the door
Everything else gets you through the door
 
rx001 said:
Trying to understand the probability of getting an acceptance based on my stats, ECS etc. Can anyone give out rough estimates for the weightages to gpa, mcat, ecs,LORs interview performance to name the major ones. I am pretty sure some level of quantification and ranking will be done, before giving out a acceptance. There should some rough thumb rule created by the each of the admissions committees.

For example taking mcat into consideration our mcat score could be part of one of the ranges 10-25, 25-50, 50-75 or 75-90 percentile ranges. For example if we are part of 10-25 percentile range I guess we are supposed to have great ecs and great interview performance. what are great ecs. If we are part of 75-90 percentile range we probably could be part of the gang with weaker ecs than normal. Ecs are hard to quantify what are great ecs and what are weak ecs and what are normal ecs.

Can anyboy elaborate this.
Click to expand...
Getting accepted is 100% on you.

You're engaging in a fool's errand, because perfect stats can't salvage a poor interview performance
 
A really bad moment on interview day can outweigh everything else. I've seen it happen but quite rarely (1 in 1000) that someone comes in and speaks to the lowest level staff members in a condescending way or otherwise acts in a boorish manner and it is brought to the attention of the Dean of Admissions. Once that behavior is brought to the attention of the adcom, nothing else matters. From the moment you stop foot on campus until you leave, be as kind and respectful as you know how.

You should do your best regardless of how many points you think this is worth. It isn't like you already have the "A" locked up and can let this assignment worth 2% of the grade just slide.

Adcoms are looking at interviews to confirm what they already believe they know about an applicant from what they've read, or find that they are even more impressed, or that the applicant was not as good in person as "on paper". In the end, it is not a continuous variable, like a point score, but a categorical variable: admit, waitlist, decline.

If you are being interviewed you are very likely to have been put in the "admit" box -- otherwise the school wouldn't be wasting its time interviewing you (if your family includes a VIP, then you might be an exception to this rule). Whether you remain in the admit box when the group of interviewed applicants have to be reclassified with half or less remaining in the "admit" box, depends on a mix of application and interview. This is where my analogy of the staircase comes in. If your application puts you at the top of the staircase, you could have a blah interview, drop 2 steps and still get admitted because you were very strong on paper and did "well enough" on the interview. Someone with a weaker application, lower on the staircase, could have an interview that was good but not good enough to move them up the staircase and end up being waitlisted because while everyone interviewed is good enough on paper to be admitted, in the end, the school doesn't have room for everyone interviewed and some will have to be waitlisted.
 
Sunbodi said:
What is a good interview like? Everyone's answers while interviewing sounded the same to me
Click to expand...
Good interview: The cold faced actor in your MMI role playing scenario his holding back cracking a smile.

Good interview: The dead faced unenthusiastic physician sits up higher in her chair and leans forward to very enthusiasticly talk about her specialty.

Good interview: right when you sit down, the faculty says “Well, I already know everything I need after reading your profile. What are your questions for me?”

Good interview: The entire conversation involves the interviewer taking what you said and turning it into a “our school can do that for you” kind of moment.




These are all experiences I have had and I am only guessing they are good because they sound like they are good. We all know “interviewers are terribly judges of their own performance” so I will not know for certain that they actually are good interview scenarios. But they sound good on paper lol
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Good interview: The cold faced actor in your MMI role playing scenario his holding back cracking a smile.

Good interview: The dead faced unenthusiastic physician sits up higher in her chair and leans forward to very enthusiasticly talk about her specialty.

Good interview: right when you sit down, the faculty says “Well, I already know everything I need after reading your profile. What are your questions for me?”

Good interview: The entire conversation involves the interviewer taking what you said and turning it into a “our school can do that for you” kind of moment.




These are all experiences I have had and I am only guessing they are good because they sound like they are good. We all know “interviewers are terribly judges of their own performance” so I will not know for certain that they actually are good interview scenarios. But they sound good on paper lol
Click to expand...
Welp. Looks like it's over for me.
 
Sunbodi said:
Welp. Looks like it's over for me.
Click to expand...
My anecdata does not a rule make lol I am sure you are 100% OK.

Basically, did you talk enough to get your story out but not too much to just go on and on? Did they seem interested or at least pay attention to what you were saying? Were there and smiles or laughs or maintained eye contact? These could all potentially be indications of an interview gone well.
 
rx001 said:
Trying to understand the probability of getting an acceptance based on my stats, ECS etc. Can anyone give out rough estimates for the weightages to gpa, mcat, ecs,LORs interview performance to name the major ones. I am pretty sure some level of quantification and ranking will be done, before giving out a acceptance. There should some rough thumb rule created by the each of the admissions committees.

For example taking mcat into consideration our mcat score could be part of one of the ranges 10-25, 25-50, 50-75 or 75-90 percentile ranges. For example if we are part of 10-25 percentile range I guess we are supposed to have great ecs and great interview performance. what are great ecs. If we are part of 75-90 percentile range we probably could be part of the gang with weaker ecs than normal. Ecs are hard to quantify what are great ecs and what are weak ecs and what are normal ecs.

Can anyboy elaborate this.
Click to expand...
Each school has its own metric and its own weightage system. A few include odd factors, like whether you attended HS in that state or which county you grew up in. Some put you on a level playing field by the time you are offered an interview. Others incorporate an interview score along with every other scored factor that has been assigned. As these "formula's" can change from year to year, they aren't generally made public.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Good interview: The cold faced actor in your MMI role playing scenario his holding back cracking a smile.

Good interview: The dead faced unenthusiastic physician sits up higher in her chair and leans forward to very enthusiasticly talk about her specialty.

Good interview: right when you sit down, the faculty says “Well, I already know everything I need after reading your profile. What are your questions for me?”

Good interview: The entire conversation involves the interviewer taking what you said and turning it into a “our school can do that for you” kind of moment.




These are all experiences I have had and I am only guessing they are good because they sound like they are good. We all know “interviewers are terribly judges of their own performance” so I will not know for certain that they actually are good interview scenarios. But they sound good on paper lol
Click to expand...

I recall a pre-med writing an interview story about getting bitten by the dean. That was an epic interview. Wish I had marked that as a favorite.

(It may or may not have been fictional...)
 
RangerBob said:
I recall a pre-med writing an interview story about getting bitten by the dean. That was an epic interview. Wish I had marked that as a favorite.

(It may or may not have been fictional...)
Click to expand...
Can we know which dean this was? Hahaha
 
marathonermedicinegal said:
I’ve seen applicants with absolutely stellar apps/stats/ECs who have poor interviews. They do not get accepted.
Also over-rehearsing your interview is a kiss of death too. Nothing is more annoying than hearing phrases like “social determinants of health” ten times in one interview.
Click to expand...
Just from interviewing others, I find it's difficult to define the line between someone being eloquent and informed vs rehearsed. Definitely hearing a buzzword like that 10x is odd though.
 
Literally just talked to @Goro about this yesterday. Check out one of his posts about how the admission process works from the perspective of the faculty.
forums.studentdoctor.net

Interviews: the View From Behind the Curtain

I just answered a PM and my correspondent, who just had an interview asked " ...I saw what looked like a grading rubric... is it possible that you are literally evaluated on paper? But have you heard of such a thing? Also what's with the note taking? Like what gets written down exactly?" With...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net
 
rx001 said:
Trying to understand the probability of getting an acceptance based on my stats, ECS etc. Can anyone give out rough estimates for the weightages to gpa, mcat, ecs,LORs interview performance to name the major ones. I am pretty sure some level of quantification and ranking will be done, before giving out a acceptance. There should some rough thumb rule created by the each of the admissions committees.

For example taking mcat into consideration our mcat score could be part of one of the ranges 10-25, 25-50, 50-75 or 75-90 percentile ranges. For example if we are part of 10-25 percentile range I guess we are supposed to have great ecs and great interview performance. what are great ecs. If we are part of 75-90 percentile range we probably could be part of the gang with weaker ecs than normal. Ecs are hard to quantify what are great ecs and what are weak ecs and what are normal ecs.

Can anyboy elaborate this.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that interviews are treated more like pass/fail. It's almost impossible to compare candidates on interviews, since the test and re-test validity doesn't exist and there's a lot of variability in how each interviewer approaches the process. It would be inherently unfair if it's scored. I know this for a fact from a friend of mine who's a med school interviewer at one of the t10's. So if you fail the interview, you are out no matter what your stats are. If you pass, you are in the pile of candidates who all passed it. Then your interview doesn't matter anymore. They at this stage rank everyone based on stats and pick a certain percentage of people in each quartile. So short answer is there's really no weight. It's a gate keeping mechanism.
 
Sunbodi said:
What is a good interview like? Everyone's answers while interviewing sounded the same to me
Click to expand...

I took the SDN mantra of “You’re a bad assessor of your own interview” to heart. Every time someone asked how my interviews went, I told them “I don’t know - they’ll tell me.”
 
Your academics/apps get you to interview.. once you get to interview stage, interview counts a lot more.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Good interview: The cold faced actor in your MMI role playing scenario his holding back cracking a smile.

Good interview: The dead faced unenthusiastic physician sits up higher in her chair and leans forward to very enthusiasticly talk about her specialty.

Good interview: right when you sit down, the faculty says “Well, I already know everything I need after reading your profile. What are your questions for me?”

Good interview: The entire conversation involves the interviewer taking what you said and turning it into a “our school can do that for you” kind of moment.




These are all experiences I have had and I am only guessing they are good because they sound like they are good. We all know “interviewers are terribly judges of their own performance” so I will not know for certain that they actually are good interview scenarios. But they sound good on paper lol
Click to expand...

You are a God
 
imbesrs said:
I think that some schools do in fact score the interview in a non P/F manner
Click to expand...

Of course, everyone is different. Just from my limited experiences, it looks like most top 20 schools don't score.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
And only a third of interviewees receive a pass? I very much doubt that.
Click to expand...

No, a lot of them receive pass, but then they pick people according to their stats again. So for example, they have half of the people (250) who pass the interview, then they rank them based on stats and other stuff. Then they give A, WL, and R accordingly. the other half who didn't pass get rejected.
 
When I say stats, I really mean the MCAT. at this point your GPA is totally moot because they are all clustered around 3.85. No matter who you pick, the final distribution of the GPA will be the same. But you can't say the same about the MCAT, because of its bell curve. So the school has to do a lot of engineering to get that band they want.
 
OxenFoxen said:
She said those that pass are then evaluated against one another based on stats/ECs/etc... sounds plausible to me.
Click to expand...
Missed the secondary review part. Yah, I suppose that could work. I know different schools use different things. One of my schools was strictly an MMI and they use a “multi factored sliding scale” where they judge “delivery” criteria (whatever that means) on a scale of 1 to 10 in 5 different categories. Each category must be at least above a 4 to pass a given MMI station, then if all categories are above 4 then they are averaged. Then all 8 MMI stations are added up, with the lowest one being dropped...Very confusing and time consuming but seems highly subjective.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Missed the secondary review part. Yah, I suppose that could work. I know different schools use different things. One of my schools was strictly an MMI and they use a “multi factored sliding scale” where they judge “delivery” criteria (whatever that means) on a scale of 1 to 10 in 5 different categories. Each category must be at least above a 4 to pass a given MMI station, then if all categories are above 4 then they are averaged. Then all 8 MMI stations are added up, with the lowest one being dropped...Very confusing and time consuming but seems highly subjective.
Click to expand...

Yeah...wonder how different the results would be if they just randomly drew names out of a hat...
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Missed the secondary review part. Yah, I suppose that could work. I know different schools use different things. One of my schools was strictly an MMI and they use a “multi factored sliding scale” where they judge “delivery” criteria (whatever that means) on a scale of 1 to 10 in 5 different categories. Each category must be at least above a 4 to pass a given MMI station, then if all categories are above 4 then they are averaged. Then all 8 MMI stations are added up, with the lowest one being dropped...Very confusing and time consuming but seems highly subjective.
Click to expand...

duke?? Ugh.. I just don't like this kind of testing. No reliability.
 
notsobabydoc said:
man, I would love to read that story.
Click to expand...
RangerBob said:
I can’t find the one you’re referencing, but there were zombies in the one I recall
Click to expand...
forums.studentdoctor.net

What's the worst possible mistake you can make at an interview?

I was wondering what's the worst possible mistake you can make at an interview... Share your feedback. Is it: - blanking out at a question. - not answering a question. - patronizing the interviewer. - something else. Best, texan2414
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net
 
cj_cregg said:
Most of these are signs of a good interviewer rather than a good interview. In addition to evaluating candidates, it's the interviewer's job to sell the school, be prepared for the interview by reading the applicants' files, and be pleasant to the applicants, regardless of the applicant's performance. Similarly, the inverse of these things does not necessarily indicate a bad interview.
Click to expand...
Agreed, not reading too much into it until a few weeks from now! If anything, those examples describe what makes an interviewee feel more comfortable.
 
Thanks you all for the replies. In summary Can I say
1. Bad to Very bad interview could be detrimental to the application
2. Mostly it is pass/FAIL.
3. Once the Pass happens in the interview Majority of the criteria for the acceptance would be MCAT/GPA scores.
 
rx001 said:
Thanks you all for the replies. In summary Can I say
1. Bad to Very bad interview could be detrimental to the application
2. Mostly it is pass/FAIL.
3. Once the Pass happens in the interview Majority of the criteria for the acceptance would be MCAT/GPA scores.
Click to expand...
1. Bad and very bad interviews will be detrimental to the application
2. The outcomes from an interview are not binary
3. The entire application is taken into account to determine who gets accepted, waitlisted, or rejected. GPA and MCAT are among the components looked at
 
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