How to know if an interview went well?

[907914]

Overall, I feel confident in my performance. I know there were 2 or 3 answers that were kinda “meh” and will work to improve next to round, but my overall reflection of the day is a very positive vibe.

How did you feel after your interviews? Did ‘feeling good about it’ usually yield better results for you? I know it is a waiting game at this point, just don’t wanna think back to those few ‘meh’ answers and let them bog down my feeling of the day.

In reference to the poll, feel free to share your own thoughts as well, please!

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[DrRiker]

I don't think you'll find much solace from this poll. I had many interviews. Some went well, some not so much. Got acceptances and rejections from both groups.

 

[and 99 others]

My thoughts on this are that this is the exact type of unanswerable question that makes the already difficult application cycle borderline unbearable.

 

[Moko]

Just answer each question to the best of your abilities. Don't put too much stock in the interviewers' feedback.

I almost always end the interview on a positive note, and will tell my interviewees that I hope they will consider matriculating here. Some of these people I end up not recommending. I do this to avoid psyching an applicant out before their next interview, and to avoid giving a poor impression of the school in the off chance that they end up getting accepted due to the strength of their other interviews and overall application.

A couple faculty interviewers at my school are known to be rather stoic / intense, and I suspect that most interviewees with them leave their interview feeling dejected rather than hopeful. Still, strong recommendations routinely come from these interviewers.

Ultimately, the only thing that will objectively tell you how you did is the school's decision. Acceptance = your performance was good enough. Waitlist = your performance wasn't good enough. Rejection = your performance was bad.

 

[Goro]

Overall, I feel confident in my performance. I know there were 2 or 3 answers that were kinda “meh” and will work to improve next to round, but my overall reflection of the day is a very positive vibe.

How did you feel after your interviews? Did ‘feeling good about it’ usually yield better results for you? I know it is a waiting game at this point, just don’t wanna think back to those few ‘meh’ answers and let them bog down my feeling of the day.

In reference to the poll, feel free to share your own thoughts as well, please!

Most people are terrible judges of their own interview performance.

Also, do not place much faith in interviewer's comments to you. We're trained to be polite and encouraging. No interviewer in the world is going to tell you that you were terrible.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

I thought interviews have less weightage in the decision making. They hurt more than help towards getting an acceptance i.e. as long as you don't look odd you are OK and decisions are based more on gpa/mcat/ECs/essays etc..

 

[Dr panda]

If you got an acceptance, then the interview went well.

 

[capriccio]

I experienced all four of these options during my interview season lmao. You just don't know, at the end of the day.

 

[ChymeofPassion]

I'll update this on October 15th.

 

[Cornfed101]

I thought interviews have less weightage in the decision making. They hurt more than help towards getting an acceptance i.e. as long as you don't look odd you are OK and decisions are based more on gpa/mcat/ECs/essays etc..

Negative, here is straight from the AAMC

The importance of undergraduate GPAs and MCAT scores, relative to other criteria, decreases as more information is gathered. Admissions officers are better able to balance data about academic metrics when they are placed in the context of applicants’ experiences and attributes. For example, in moving from interview invitations to acceptance offers, a third more admissions officers rated other criteria just as or more important than undergraduate GPAs and MCAT scores; that is, 60% of admissions officers rated other criteria just as or more important in inviting applicants to interview, whereas 80% rated other criteria just as or more important in making acceptance offers. Placing applicants’ MCAT scores in the context of all the applicants’ information during the admissions process enables medical schools to meet their missions and goals and not overlook students who would make valuable contributions.

 

[RJ McReady]

Unless you’re the Homer Stryker School of Medicine at Western Michigan University, in which case you base 80% of your acceptances on how people perform during your completely unnecessary phone interview...

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Unless you’re the Homer Stryker School of Medicine at Western Michigan University, in which case you base 80% of your acceptances on how people perform during your completely unnecessary phone interview...

80%?

 

[Goro]

I thought interviews have less weightage in the decision making. They hurt more than help towards getting an acceptance i.e. as long as you don't look odd you are OK and decisions are based more on gpa/mcat/ECs/essays etc..

You thought wrong. Interviews will make or break a candidate.

 

[907914]

Unless you’re the Homer Stryker School of Medicine at Western Michigan University, in which case you base 80% of your acceptances on how people perform during your completely unnecessary phone interview...

Guess I have that to look forward to tomorrow...?

 

[calipremed5768]

It’s impossible to know unless you really really mess up. Most interviewers want to be professional and say things like “well it was great getting to know more about you.” These type of gestures/comments are usually done out courtesy rather than evaluation

 

[Angus Avagadro]

How to know if an interview went well? You won't.

 

[KnightDoc]

You thought wrong. Interviews will make or break a candidate.

Ooops! Looks like someone is going to have to tell Junior all the expert advice he's been getting from dad is wrong, and he's going to have to develop a personality in addition to being an academic stud in order to survive the process. Maybe get him a SDN membership for his birthday.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Ooops! Looks like someone is going to have to tell Junior all the expert advice he's been getting from dad is wrong, and he's going to have to develop a personality in addition to being an academic stud in order to survive the process. Maybe get him a SDN membership for his birthday.

@KnightDoc - Looks like you love to go after me and my son for whatever self gratification your need but that's OK and I still will wish you luck in your pursuit. As per my son he was 2/2 with medical school interviews and chose not to take take them so I am not worried about him when he applies. The interview weightage statement is what I heard from others and seeking opinion of experts like @Goro and since I value their opinion I didn't comment further. Again I am learning the process to help my son and other kids I know but I am not driving the process for anyone. If you are stuck with a dad trying to help a son little bit so be it, doesn't bother me at all. Again, I wish you all the luck.

 

[KnightDoc]

@KnightDoc - Looks like you love to go after me and my son for whatever self gratification your need but that's OK and I still will wish you luck in your pursuit. As per my son he was 2/2 with medical school interviews and chose not to take take them so I am not worried about him when he applies. The interview weightage statement is what I heard from others and seeking opinion of experts like @Goro and since I value their opinion I didn't comment further. Again I am learning the process to help my son and other kids I know but I am not driving the process for anyone. If you are stuck with a dad trying to help a son little bit so be it, doesn't bother me at all. Again, I wish you all the luck.

Please do not take my comments personally. I was just taking an opportunity to tease you a bit, and honestly meant no harm. As you know from the other thread, many (including me) believe you are doing your son more harm than good by actively participating here as his alter-ego while he is off doing more "important" things, and it turns out, at least in this instance, you had no idea what you were talking about in drawing from your BS/MD experience.

I know you are not inclined to listen, so I will not give you any more advice after this, but your experience as the resident expert dad on College Confidential, when dealing with lots of other overbearing parents of 16-17 year olds applying to college, is just not going to wear well in a forum with mostly 20-somethings applying to professional school.

The expert advice you already received from @Goro and others with direct, first-hand adcom experience is that you should not be on here (maybe lurking if you insist, but not actively participating with the real pre-meds), and you have chosen to ignore it. The odds are high, based on the experience shared by those who know, that while your kid is undoubtedly talented academically, when the time comes, all of your nurturing is going to cause your kid to be exposed as immature as compared to most other candidates the adcoms are going to meet, and that is not going to be a good thing.

I promise to not tease you any longer. For the record, I have never "gone after" your son, since he has never posted on here, and quite frankly, I have no idea how I would be able to do anything different from him if my dad insisted on being as involved as you are, including being here actively participating in a student-doctor forum, while he is neither a doctor nor a student, in order obtain sufficient knowledge to personally curate a list of schools for me to apply to as the next step in mapping out my life, so I can be free to be a passive participant in it.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Please do not take my comments personally. I was just taking an opportunity to tease you a bit, and honestly meant no harm. As you know from the other thread, many (including me) believe you are doing your son more harm than good by actively participating here as his alter-ego while he is off doing more "important" things, and it turns out, at least in this instance, you had no idea what you were talking about in drawing from your BS/MD experience.

I know you are not inclined to listen, so I will not give you any more advice after this, but your experience as the resident expert dad on College Confidential, when dealing with lots of other overbearing parents of 16-17 year olds applying to college, is just not going to wear well in a forum with mostly 20-somethings applying to professional school.

The expert advice you already received from @Goro and others with direct, first-hand adcom experience is that you should not be on here (maybe lurking if you insist, but not actively participating with the real pre-meds), and you have chosen to ignore it. The odds are high, based on the experience shared by those who know, is that while your kid is undoubtedly talented academically, when the time comes, all of your nurturing is going to cause your kid to be exposed as immature as compared to most other candidates the adcoms are going to meet, and that is not going to be a good thing.

I promise to not tease you any longer. For the record, I have never "gone after" your son, since he has never posted on here, and quite frankly, I have no idea how I would be able to do anything different from him if my dad were here actively participating in a student-doctor forum, while he is neither a doctor nor a student, in order obtain sufficient knowledge to personally curate a list of schools for me to apply to as the next step in mapping out my life, so I can be free to be a passive participant in it.

If you meant the comments as a tease then it's my fault to take them seriously. We had this discussion on other thread and I thought it was settled.

From the day one I have identified myself as a dad when asking questions and no adcoms or faculty said anything about it until folks like you brought it up on the other thread. I could have simply not mentioned that I am a dad and avoid all these discussions but I am not a pretender.

As per to the specific comment about interview importance, if I know everything I need to know about medical school admissions, I won't be wasting my time on SDN asking questions or going thru the threads. Does that make sense to you? I know kids who thought they are good interviewers, had good ECs but didn't get acceptance and the reason they gave me is low MCAT score.

I may sound arrogant, but I will assure that any adcom who meets my son will never think him as an immature kid damaged by an overbearing dad. Again, what I am doing is help him with few things he asked me check out He is not a passive participant and he seeks info from his seniors and friends who are medical students at T10 schools and compares with what I find. May be the system we have in place is hard for most to understand.

As per me preparing a school list as a non doctor parent how is it different from paid consultants who are not doctors?

Anyway, I won't comment further on this topic but I will update you at the end of his cycle if you are still active on SDN.

 

[premeddestiny]

How you feel doesn't really dictate what the eventual result of that interview will be. The first interview I did I felt like I could do better, but that one turned out to be an acceptance. Three other interviews afterwards all ended in a rejection regardless of whether I felt good or bad about the interviews.

 

[NickNaylor]

A competent interviewer will not make it clear as to whether the interview is going well or not. I don't think there are any clear "signs" to indicate if an interview went well or went poorly. Even if it went well, that doesn't necessarily translate into a "positive outcome" because there are many other things that play a role in the ultimate decision to accept, hold, or reject an applicant.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

A competent interviewer will not make it clear as to whether the interview is going well or not. I don't think there are any clear "signs" to indicate if an interview went well or went poorly. Even if it went well, that doesn't necessarily translate into a "positive outcome" because there are many other things that play a role in the ultimate decision to accept, hold, or reject an applicant.

This seems to contradict

You thought wrong. Interviews will make or break a candidate.

 

[907914]

This seems to contradict

I think it is like...Your application is 75% and the interview is the last 25%. However, if you score less than 15% on the interview then the whole thing is discarded. If you do score higher, the interview is reviewed in the context of the whole application and your “score” is compared. That is my guess

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

I think it is like...Your application is 75% and the interview is the last 25%. However, if you score less than 15% on the interview then the whole thing is discarded. If you do score higher, the interview is reviewed in the context of the whole application and your “score” is compared. That is my guess

That was my guess/thinking but my new SDN friend thought he finally got me for saying that

 

[Cornfed101]

I think it is like...Your application is 75% and the interview is the last 25%. However, if you score less than 15% on the interview then the whole thing is discarded. If you do score higher, the interview is reviewed in the context of the whole application and your “score” is compared. That is my guess

My understanding was that once you get to the interview then the interview itself becomes much more important, but I would be interested to know if there are rough estimates for "how" important it is versus the rest of the application. I would wager higher than 25%. @Goro @NickNaylor ?

Mostly asking because I think my interview skills are better than my application skills and I want the interview to be weighted more

 

[NickNaylor]

This seems to contradict

Interviews are important, no doubt about it. But there are two issues: first, "how important" they are varies from school to school. Second, I think interviews as necessary but not sufficient for acceptance. A horrible interview performance will likely sink your chances at a school. By "horrible" I mean objectively bizarre or inappropriate things being said or done during an interview day. I don't mean "horrible" in the typical neurotic sense seen on SDN (including in this thread). However, an at-least-average interview is almost certainly necessary for acceptance, but that in and of itself is not sufficient. There are plenty of people who interview well who aren't accepted. There are also people who don't interview particularly well that are still accepted - likely because there are other things in their application that make them more appearing applicants.

All of this is beside the point, though, because it's not really related to the OP's question.

 

[Goro]

A competent interviewer will not make it clear as to whether the interview is going well or not. I don't think there are any clear "signs" to indicate if an interview went well or went poorly. Even if it went well, that doesn't necessarily translate into a "positive outcome" because there are many other things that play a role in the ultimate decision to accept, hold, or reject an applicant.

This seems to contradict

What Nick is saying that even if an interviewer loves you, s/he might be overruled by the Admissions committee. This has happened many times at my school. The reverse is also true. A poor interview score might be salvaged if the candidate looks good on paper and the interviewer is a known hard-ass.

I think it is like...Your application is 75% and the interview is the last 25%. However, if you score less than 15% on the interview then the whole thing is discarded. If you do score higher, the interview is reviewed in the context of the whole application and your “score” is compared. That is my guess

Trying to calculate stuff like this is a fool's errand.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Thanks for the clarifications. My initial response was " I thought interviews have less weightage in the decision making. They hurt more than help towards getting an acceptance i.e. as long as you don't look odd you are OK and decisions are based more on gpa/mcat/ECs/essays etc..". It's a general statement based on what I heard and expecting responses from adcoms and faculty.

 

[907914]

Trying to calculate stuff like this is a fool's errand.

Yes, I understand. Sorry, not intending to 'calculate' anything. Just trying to describe @LizzyM's staircase model (my brain always defaults to numbers even though this process inherently is NOT numbers driven). Because the paper application and the interview flesh out two different things (academics and aptitude versus 'are you personable' and a number of other things).

 

[907914]

Also, I see the either dishonesty or sampling bias here on SDN.

Out of 16 people, not a single person felt bad and got a rejection? Yes, this was a fruitless poll lol Oh well, the ensuing conversation has certainly helped me realize I should just go with the flow.

 

[ThrowawayShmoaway]

Also, I see the either dishonesty or sampling bias here on SDN.

Out of 16 people, not a single person felt bad and got a rejection? Yes, this was a fruitless poll lol Oh well, the ensuing conversation has certainly helped me realize I should just go with the flow.

Technically, the poll setup is flawed: it should allow for multiple answers. For example, I had two interviews; for one, I knew I did well, and I was eventually accepted, for the second, I knew I completely bombed it, and I was eventually rejected.

 

[907914]

Technically, the poll setup is flawed: it should allow for multiple answers. For example, I had two interviews; for one, I knew I did well, and I was eventually accepted, for the second, I knew I completely bombed it, and I was eventually rejected.

Aye, this be true. The poll now allows multiple.

 

[ciestar]

Also, I see the either dishonesty or sampling bias here on SDN.

Out of 16 people, not a single person felt bad and got a rejection? Yes, this was a fruitless poll lol Oh well, the ensuing conversation has certainly helped me realize I should just go with the flow.

My very first interview I did feel bad. I did not connect with my interviewer at all. Got that R.

 

[LizzyM]

Let's look at this from the adcom's perspective.

They interview x applicants. They cannot admit 100% of the interviewed candidates. Some are going to be waitlisted and some may be rejected. How do they categorize the applicants after all the data has been accumulated?

First off, you should not have been invited for interview if you were not "good enough" on paper. The exception might be a case where someone said, "Looks good on paper but I'm a bit concerned about xyz. We should ask about this in the interview and if the answer is satisfactory, then my concern will be allayed."

So we have all these "look good on paper" people who we still need to categorize into admit/waitlist/decline. How would you do it?

What Nick is saying that even if an interviewer loves you, s/he might be overruled by the Admissions committee. This has happened many times at my school. The reverse is also true. A poor interview score might be salvaged if the candidate looks good on paper and the interviewer is a known hard-ass.

That would be me.

 

[bioboy23]

A couple years ago I read on SDN of an applicant who was extended an offer of admission during their interview day. I would say that is a good indicator.

edit: however, this is SDN, so I'm not sure if it was real or not.

 

[907914]

A couple years ago I read on SDN of an applicant who was extended an offer of admission during their interview day. I would say that is a good indicator.

I had the dean of admissions basically tell me "If I could give the admissions committee a class of only veterans then they would would be ecstatic" and a faculty member tell me that my picture should be next to the word 'teamwork' in the dictionary....so maybe those are positives? lol

Edit: As others have said, you can never trust the positive remarks of interviewers.

 

[Moko]

I had the dean of admissions basically tell me "If I could give the admissions committee a class of only veterans then they would would be ecstatic" and a faculty member tell me that my picture should be next to the word 'teamwork' in the dictionary....so maybe those are positives? lol

Those things are positives, though how someone accepts the praise is also important

 

[Moko]

One wrong way:

 

[907914]

One wrong way:
View attachment 276172

Literally just "Oh, well thank you! I greatly appreciate that" and moving on to talking about leadership experiences or what I learned in the military...

 

[907914]

Wow! You had an excellent day at Chicago. You must be feeling just fine.

It felt good! I goofed and said I am better with sympathy and compassion than empathy...but that was my only goof that I can tell so we will see!

 

[bioboy23]

Not unheard of but pretty rare nowadays

That's crazy. You've got to nail that interview for them to extend an offer without even meeting over you post-interview at the adcom meeting.

 

[Osteosaur]

i answered 'yes' to all choices.

impossible to tell.

 

[deleted972488]

It felt good! I goofed and said I am better with sympathy and compassion than empathy...but that was my only goof that I can tell so we will see!

That doesn’t really seem like a goof to me. I’d say most, if not all, people are better at sympathy than empathy.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

It's impossible to tell. As an applicant, interviews I thought weren't my hottest resulted in acceptance. And then there were some interviews I thought I rocked, waitlist if not rejection.

Now as an interviewer, its easier for me to tell how good a student is I'm interviewing, but it is dramatically different than what I had thought as an applicant.

 

[Cornfed101]

I had the dean of admissions basically tell me "If I could give the admissions committee a class of only veterans then they would would be ecstatic" and a faculty member tell me that my picture should be next to the word 'teamwork' in the dictionary....so maybe those are positives? lol

Edit: As others have said, you can never trust the positive remarks of interviewers.

Maybe the dean should work for USUHS

 

[907914]

Maybe the dean should work for USUHS

I actually think only like 40% of the USUHS class is prior service.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

i interviewed with an older gentleman who seemed quite chill- it was only about 20 minutes and at the end he said "well I can't think of anything negative to say about you to the admissions committee" so i have a feeling it went well. still overthinking and overanalyzing my first interview at that school tho- can good feedback from one interview cancel out a potentially mediocre one?

Would the gentleman have told you there was something negative about you he was going to tell the admissions committee? We dont want anyone leaving with a negative impression about our school. I always try to end the interview on a positive note. I hope all went well and you are accepted. Good luck and best wishes

 

[deleted987519]

Think about it guys...every day you make small talk with some people, smile, and think to yourself "Boy, I hope I never have to talk to that person again."

 

[907914]

Think about it guys...every day you make small talk with some people, smile, and think to yourself "Boy, I hope I never have to talk to that person again."

This just seems untrue. I know I personally have long multi-hour conversations with randos on the plane or public transit, many end in business cards or the like.