How Time Consuming is the Interviewing Process?

[Str8Baller]

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I plan on applying to medical schools this summer/early fall, and interviewing at schools throughout the first semester. Assuming a normal amount of interviews, what exactly is the time commitment? Obviously this is contingent on the proximity of the med schools to your undergrad, but, for example, is it normal for one to sacrifice 5 or so weekends of their first semester for interviews? More? Less?


Thanks

 

[EnergyDrink]

I plan on applying to medical schools this summer/early fall, and interviewing at schools throughout the first semester. Assuming a normal amount of interviews, what exactly is the time commitment? Obviously this is contingent on the proximity of the med schools to your undergrad, but, for example, is it normal for one to sacrifice 5 or so weekends of their first semester for interviews? More? Less?


Thanks

After you apply, there isn't much more to do but wait and interview. I spent about 10 hours preparing for my first interview. Each school after that was about 2 hours at most. Read about the school, what questions they ask, and what they pride themselves on.

After that, the rest of my time was spent checking my status. About mid-October, I stopped caring and checking my status.

 

[def1]

It depends how many interviews you get. I had 5 interviews which all took place either on thursday or fridays. So I took 5 weekends off to go interview. You really only need 2 days off though; the day you fly to your interview and the day of the interview which could also be the day you fly back. I liked to explore the cities I went to interview at though so I took the whole weekend off.

I would talk to your professors at the beginning of classes to make sure they know you might have to take time off of classes for interviews.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I plan on applying to medical schools this summer/early fall, and interviewing at schools throughout the first semester. Assuming a normal amount of interviews, what exactly is the time commitment? Obviously this is contingent on the proximity of the med schools to your undergrad, but, for example, is it normal for one to sacrifice 5 or so weekends of their first semester for interviews? More? Less?


Thanks

None of my interviews were on weekends.

 

[Goobs]

Mine were predominantly on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday, which would mean you miss at least two days of class for each interview 🙁


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[NickNaylor]

During the semester I did my interviews, I missed about 20 days of class total for ~10 interviews. However, nearly all of my interviews required flights, and I drove two hours to my "home" airport. So at the least I missed 1.5-2 days of class for each interview. I was able to drive to a couple and missed only one day, but those were balanced by a couple of trips that were longer than necessary to see friends or hang out.

Sent from my SGH-M919

 

[SilverCat]

I went on 13 interviews, and most were in the middle of the week- mainly Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I fought tooth and nail for the few Monday/ Friday interviews, but most schools didn't have these days available. I generally missed two - three days of class for each, but I drove to all of my interviews to reduce costs.

I would plan on a light semester of classes if I were you (I did this, and it eased the stress of missed classes immensely).

 

[iceman55]

Yeah dude, no weekend interviews and you could possibly be interviewing up until march (second semester) depending on how strong of an applicant you are and how early your complete with all secondaries.

 

[Ismet]

Zero weekend interviews, and most of them were in the middle of the week, so I usually had to take at least 3 days off from school for travel and the interview day itself. That was not a very good semester for my neuro classes. 🙁 If you have any small classes (like <30 people), it's nice to let the professor know that you expect to be traveling for med school interviews that semester. Make a schedule for all your exams so you don't accidentally schedule an interview on or near an exam day, because that is even harder to make up than just missing lectures.

 

[5lippy]

I went on 14 interviews. Took a ridiculously easy courseload. I only showed up for exams for 2 of my classes. The other 2 were really easy and were large-lecture-style, so attendance wasn't an issue. I was absent for pretty much the whole semester.