Interview Scheduling Q for 2010 Applicants

[DrDrummer]

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This is a question for those people working jobs during their application cycle:

Did you all have any trouble scheduling work and interviews? If I'm lucky enough to get interviews, I'm hoping to schedule them around days that I have off or on Fridays so that I can travel on Thursday nights then back on the weekends... I teach, and though I've accrued enough sick and personal leave days that I should be fine in terms of contractual obligations, I don't want to leave my students with a substitute any more than is necessary.

The upside is that I have a bunch of random weekdays off. What I'm hoping is that if I get invited to interviews, I'd be able to convince the schools to change my interview date to that day, and that if I'm in the same city as other schools I applied to, maybe they'll show me some love if I e-mail them and explain the situation. Did anybody have luck scheduling concurrent interviews when you were in a city with more than one of the schools you applied to?

 

[vc7777]

This is a question for those people working jobs during their application cycle:

Did you all have any trouble scheduling work and interviews? If I'm lucky enough to get interviews, I'm hoping to schedule them around days that I have off or on Fridays so that I can travel on Thursday nights then back on the weekends... I teach, and though I've accrued enough sick and personal leave days that I should be fine in terms of contractual obligations, I don't want to leave my students with a substitute any more than is necessary.

The upside is that I have a bunch of random weekdays off. What I'm hoping is that if I get invited to interviews, I'd be able to convince the schools to change my interview date to that day, and that if I'm in the same city as other schools I applied to, maybe they'll show me some love if I e-mail them and explain the situation. Did anybody have luck scheduling concurrent interviews when you were in a city with more than one of the schools you applied to?

You will likely have to compromise and use some of those personal leave days.

Often, you are given the option to schedule an interview and not just assigned a date. Depending on the school, you may find there are plenty of interview spots available if you are extended an interview early in the season. Obviously, if they invite you the week before the last interview day you will have no choice!

However, before choosing a later interview vs. and early one soley because it is more convenient for your work schedule, figure out the admissions process of that particular school. Some schools are rolling or semi-rolling admissions, and you should fully understand the consequences of choosing dates.

Typically, when scheduling the interviews the office administrators at the schools are more 'sympathetic' (there's that word again ) to non-traditional students' full-time work schedules.

 

[peripherin]

I think I was able to schedule 6 out of my 8 interviews on either Monday or Friday, so it's definitely doable.

 

[Tabono]

I am currently living in Japan because my husband is stationed there. If I get an interview will I be able to pick a date or group my interviews around the same time? Thanks

 

[vc7777]

That is a difficult and unlikely situation, in my opinion. Most people's I know received only one or two interviews per week or even month. Sometimes you will get a bunch within a couple of days, but often not. That is, invitations to interview 'trickle' in.


I have a friend who flew in for one interview and politely called another school and explained that he was very far away, and the second school decided to do a preliminary interview while he was in town.

EDIT: I looked back at my MDapps, and my first interview invite was on 8/7/2009, and my last was 2/3/2010 - so literally 6 months.