interview timing

[jsorrell]

I have a question about the timming of Texas interviews. I submitted my application (and secondaries) at the first of June. I had one interview at UTMB at the begginning of September, and heard nothing from any other school until about two weeks ago, when I interviewed at UT Houston. So, my question is, does this mean that UTMB is more interested in me and thus I have a better chance at acceptance there? Do they interview according to some ranking system, or is it purely random and therefore means nothing that I heard from UT Houston so late in the game? Keep in mind that both schools have been sitting on my application the same amount of time. Any feedback would be great.

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[Socceroo4ever]

Just as curious as you are, actually. I do know that medical schools in England in particular give interviews to everyone. That's just standard. I don't know if some schools here in the US might do the same.... Other than that, there may be an initial ranking system. My advice would be to contact the university directly and ask what their procedure is. I'm not sure how well they'll receive that request. Doesn't ever hurt to try, especially if you keep yourself anonymous.

Best of luck!

Jason

 

[kimberlicox]

Originally posted by jsorrell:
I have a question about the timming of Texas interviews. I submitted my application (and secondaries) at the first of June. I had one interview at UTMB at the begginning of September, and heard nothing from any other school until about two weeks ago, when I interviewed at UT Houston. So, my question is, does this mean that UTMB is more interested in me and thus I have a better chance at acceptance there? Do they interview according to some ranking system, or is it purely random and therefore means nothing that I heard from UT Houston so late in the game? Keep in mind that both schools have been sitting on my application the same amount of time. Any feedback would be great.

You'll kill yourself trying to figure these things out! You cannot compare the application practices between universities. Some schools use "Rolling Admissions" and review applications as they come in, offer interviews as they review apps and offer acceptances/rejections by that same scheme. Others wait until the deadline for apps, review all apps at that time and then make decisions. Still others will stratify applications based on initial criteria (often state residency, gpa and MCAT), review those most interesting/likely to obtain admission first, and then work their way down the pile. There are probably *infinite* numbers of ways to work through the applications.

So, IMHO it would be difficult from this standpoint to assume that UTMB "likes you more" than UT Houston (although having been to both, I would be flattered if UTMB were more interested). I agree with the other poster that you might be well served by contacting the admissions office at both, asking about the process of application review and the status of your application.

As for UK schools, it was my understanding that only "shortlisted" candidates were interviewed, ie, those that made the cut given their A-level results (basically GPA). On a related note, the Australian schools just recently instituted an interview process, having formerly relied solely on gpa and entrance exam scores. THis has caused some amount of furor as the "best" students aren't necessarily getting in after being seen in interview. You can lead a student to honors in Biochem, but a personality apparently takes a bit more work!