% interviewed/% accepted

From what I heard, Columbia and BU will interview as many people as possible.

In fact, I personally never heard of anyone who, even with a gpa <3.0 and dat < 19 , had not been invited for an interview at Columbia and BU.

 

I agree with BU, they are very aggressive. I thought NYU would be like this and obviously they don't even have it together even this late in the cycle. I don't know about Columbia. Well we'll see they are currently reviewing my application so let's see if you are right, but my ave is higher than your prediction.

I think most private schools try to interview as much as possible, but resources (interviewers) and how fast the seats fill up determine how many people to interview.

DesiDentist

 

i dont know stats from all the schools you listed, but i found the following on the official websites (these pertain to the incoming class of 2002):

CASE:
applicants: 1580
interviewed: 275
seats: 70

COLUMBIA:
applicants: 1192
interviewed: 265
seats: 75

TUFTS:
app: 2120
int: 526
seats: 154

note: the numbers this year are supposed to be up from last year, thus there will be more applicants and subsequently more interviews granted.

 

You can't just look at the number that are interviewed and compare it to the number of seats available to establish the percent that are accepted. Most applicants apply to several schools and I'm sure many of them get accepted to more than one school. Tufts interviewed 539 applicants for this years incoming class for 154 seats. Thus around 28% of those that interviewed attended Tufts but the approximate percent of those accepted that interviewed was 80%.
Also, there may be more applicants this year but I'm no sure that will translate into more interviews being granted. I would guess that it would mean there are more people competing for the same number of interviews and thus make it slightly harder for one to get an interview. Just my personal opinion.
Take care.
EcoRI

 

obviously, schools (ie columbia) dont ONLY accept 75 students to EXACTLY fill the number of seats, however, the actual number of acceptances given is unknown and therefore i didnt mention those speculated numbers.

i am assuming they give roughly double the amount of seats. that is, columbia in this example would possibly give 150 acceptances and assume that only ~75 of those people will actually attend in 2003. this personal estimate may be too high or low, i dont know, it is only a personal estimate. if i get accepted to 5 schools, i will have to reject 4 of them. i am assuming that there will be many others like me as well. i think that many people (not all) will get accepted to at least 2 schools, if any, and therefore will be forced to turn down one.

i know that last year, university of florida gave approx 30% more acceptances than seats for med school (ie 130 acceptances for 100 seats). 40% declined and they were forced to accept students they previously rejected at the last minute to fill their class. i think that schools (med and dental) will learn from that mistake and offer more acceptances this year, giving our incoming class of 2003 a POSSIBLE advantage. but this is all speculation.

in any case, getting an interview is definately a good sign. your chances have increased from ~ 1/10 to ~ 1/3 or ~1/2. you should also keep in mind that when you interview MIGHT also make a difference. i think that people who interview early might have better chances of getting accepted than those who interview late december. i hope this is not the case, since i personally have a couple of interviews scheduled in december.

 

Actually, they only interview ~20% of their total applicant pool. That leaves out A LOT of people who don't get interviews.

Rumors about schools interviewing the majority of applicants are never true. That's right... never! Some schools will large applicant pools will interview a greater number of TOTAL applicants, but the proportion among schools of applicants to interviews is always between 20-35%, regardless of what friends or others might say. All of these stats can be easily verified from released data for past years.

It seems as though Case interviews nearly everybody (my undergrad calls it "Just in Case Western"), however they only interviewed 17% of their applicants last year. A decent number, but a far cry from "everybody"!

 

Acceptances also go out in waves which adds even another impediment when trying to use the simple % accepted vs % interviewed ratio as a predictor of ones chances for acceptance at a particular school if interviewed. For example, as jtremend stated, the accepted/interviewed ratio would be more meaningful in regards to schools at which you interview prior to Dec 1.

 

Groundhog,

do you know if the University of Washington accepts more than they have seats for? I know the UW will accept a maximum of 55 students, they interview 150 but I was just wondering how many they will actually accept. Thanks.

DesiDentist

 

Maybe the '20%" that you mentioned is for the interviewed applicants that were "seriously considered" for admissions.

Dental schools commonly say that they are eager to offer as many interviews as possible.

Also, there are people that go to an interview but only to hear that their gpa/DAT is too low ( or some other deficiencies) and that they should strengthen their application for following year.

It's just like a company interview, where if there are some interview slots unfilled, they would be willing to 'interview' the job seekers that didn't make the cut on paper. Now, of course, these job seekers won't get the job but it is a way for both the recruiters and applicants to know each other and how the field is evolving. Dental schools are not any different.

 

Schools do not extend interviews to those who they aren't seriously considering! The 20% I am speaking of are those who are interviewed, plain and simple! Exactly 20% of Columbias applicants received interview invitations.

Who goes to an interview only to hear that their application is weak?! This subject may come up in an interview, but only in a certain context. This context is probably something such as "To be honest with you, your stats are a bit low compared to our past matriculants, but we feel that your overall application differs from the majority of our applicants, and that is why we invited you for an interview..." etc.

It's just like a company interview, where if there are some interview slots unfilled, they would be willing to 'interview' the job seekers that didn't make the cut on paper[B/]

So you are saying that they will interview just because they have free time? No way! If you get an interview, you are SERIOUSLY being considered for admissions. There just isn't any way around that! Now, if a school receives far less applicants then they had estimtated, they might lower their standards for that application cycle, but those who are invitied for interviews are still the cream of the crop of that application pool.

But still, I'm not sure where you are going with the above comment, because those who "didn't make the cut on paper" are still included as those being offered interviews!

 

I found this thread and decided to bump it up.

Anyone have any info on the Texas schools?

I've heard that if you receive an interview to any of the Texas schools, your *numerical* chances become 50/50

However, I do not know the validity of that comment. Just kind of a "heard it through the grapevine" deal

 

Good thread. The number is exactly what I heard in Columbia interview. I believe schools DO decline some interviewee after their interviews and look for new coming applicants to fill the spots instead of calling the ones they declined.
At least, as I know about USC, they don't reject you or accept you after interview. Everyone is in the waiting list. There is a standard line. They would accept the people above this line and wait new coming interviewees whose states are above this line. Though, for people who might get interview early, they would be kept in the waiting list forever to 2008 and would never hear from them.

Any comment?

 

Gavin

Just out of curiosity. What do you think is the more difficult feat.

Turning an AADSAS application into an interview or
Turnig an interview into an acceptance.

Most may think that it is more difficult to get accepted however, judging by the stats it seems more difficult to get an interview.

 

Good question!! I'm interested too.

 

Turning an application into an interview is far more difficult, based strictly on numbers and percentages.

Of course, if you are a deadbeat personality then your interview will really stink and turning that into admissions will be more difficult.

But by and large, once you've made it to the interview, you'll have 33%-50% chance of getting accepted. That is, most schools take 1 out of every 2 or 3 interviewees for acceptance.

This is compared to the range of numbers for which applicants get interviews, which is usually 1 out of 10 or so.