General Admissions & OTCAS Interview process for out of state applicants

[therapist2be]

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Sorry this is my first time applying to graduate school and I'm getting everything in place to apply this upcoming application cycle. I have a lot of out of state schools on my list and I'm just wondering about how I will handle the interviews if I get any. Did you have to travel to go to the interview, did they accommodate you and conduct the interview on the phone or via Skype? How did that work for you if your an out of state applicant and wasn't able to travel for interviews?

TIA!


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[Asramr]

How many schools are you applying to and how far are they? Honestly, do not waste your time and money applying to schools if you cannot make it for the interview. The admissions committee want to get to know you as an applicant. You maybe great on paper but are horrible in communicating. They also want to know your critical thinking skills. This is hard to do this over the phone. You would also have to make travel arrangements yourself.

 

[RUNNING_OT]

How many schools are you applying to?
During the previous application cycle I applied to about 5 out of state schools and got interviews for 3. Luckily for me, they weren't on the same weekend. They were all a week apart from each other during the first half of February. Also, my job was very understanding and worked with my schedule in order for me to attend all these interviews. If there is a conflict, some programs do allow you to change your date. Many programs would rather meet you in person and get to know you. What many programs are incorporating now too are a group activity or group interview section to see how you collaborate with others.


Good luck!

 

[therapist2be]

I'm still compiling my list of schools but I will probably apply to a total of 8 with four or five being out of state. It makes sense what y'all are saying I was just wondering because I've read where people have applied to schools across the country from them and I was wondering how they managed that. Perhaps those schools did not conduct interviews.


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[Asramr]

I also applied to some colleges across the country. All programs require an interview. I took time off to work before applying. I graduated in 2014 and decided to apply this year. Just to make enough money for the application process and grad school.

 

[therapist2be]

I also applied to some colleges across the country. All programs require an interview. I took time off to work before applying. I graduated in 2014 and decided to apply this year. Just to make enough money for the application process and grad school.

Actually it's not true that all programs require an interview. I've browsed through some programs that explicitly said they don't hold interviews (Washington University among others) and some schools on my list say nothing of an interview so I will call them to confirm. However a lot of them do mention an interview in their admissions process but quite a few of them don't.

 

[wannabeOT2]

Sorry this is my first time applying to graduate school and I'm getting everything in place to apply this upcoming application cycle. I have a lot of out of state schools on my list and I'm just wondering about how I will handle the interviews if I get any. Did you have to travel to go to the interview, did they accommodate you and conduct the interview on the phone or via Skype? How did that work for you if your an out of state applicant and wasn't able to travel for interviews?

TIA!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

I'm from Hawaii so this was an issue for me as well. I was invited to 3 interviews. Two of them allowed me to do the interview over Skype. The other one, I needed to fly up there to the school to interview. They do not accommodate you at all lol. You have to pay for everything (flight/hotel/transportation) on your own. I'm not sure if other schools may try to accommodate but the school that I needed to fly up to did not. I declined the interview for that school (Touro University) because of the high expenses to travel. I was only going to fly up there if I didn't get accepted or interviews for any other program. Some other schools that I applied for did NOT conduct interviews. It was solely off of your application and stats.

 

[wannabeOT2]

I also applied to some colleges across the country. All programs require an interview. I took time off to work before applying. I graduated in 2014 and decided to apply this year. Just to make enough money for the application process and grad school.

No not all programs require an interview. Two of the programs I was accepted to did not require me to interview.