Interviewer seemed disinterested -- should I worry?

[SpanishMusical]

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Warning -- neuroticism ahead.

I recently interviewed at one of my top schools, and we had two interviews. The first one (closed-file) I felt went really well, while the second one I'm feeling a bit more nervous on. The interviewer only read part of my application before we started, so there was a lot of rehashing what I had done, and the interview felt a little ... awkward(?) at times, although not unbearably so (think some pauses, conversational threads that died out). The interviewer essentially told me that the admissions committee wanted her to assess me on three dimensions, so she told me what they were, and then had me talk about each one of them. Looking back, I probably could have sold myself better, especially because I didn't discuss my fit with the school too much. This was done in about 30 minutes, and the next 25 were basically filled with my questions about the school (much more than in other interviews). My stats are pretty competitive (>520, >3.9) and I think I mesh well with the school's mission, but I'm afraid this less-than-stellar interview will somehow hurt me?

I'll be sending an update letter a bit closer to the decision deadline to outline why I'm so interested in the school.

Am I justified to feel this way, or do I need to take a chill pill? @LizzyM @gonnif

 

[Moko]

Am I justified to feel this way, or do I need to take a chill pill?

"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

Two observations:
- We tend to be poor judges of our performance.
- Nothing you do at this time will positively change the outcome of your application. So take a deep breath and plan to do your best for the next school. Good luck

 

[Goro]

Warning -- neuroticism ahead.

I recently interviewed at one of my top schools, and we had two interviews. The first one (closed-file) I felt went really well, while the second one I'm feeling a bit more nervous on. The interviewer only read part of my application before we started, so there was a lot of rehashing what I had done, and the interview felt a little ... awkward(?) at times, although not unbearably so (think some pauses, conversational threads that died out). The interviewer essentially told me that the admissions committee wanted her to assess me on three dimensions, so she told me what they were, and then had me talk about each one of them. Looking back, I probably could have sold myself better, especially because I didn't discuss my fit with the school too much. This was done in about 30 minutes, and the next 25 were basically filled with my questions about the school (much more than in other interviews). My stats are pretty competitive (>520, >3.9) and I think I mesh well with the school's mission, but I'm afraid this less-than-stellar interview will somehow hurt me?

I'll be sending an update letter a bit closer to the decision deadline to outline why I'm so interested in the school.

Am I justified to feel this way, or do I need to take a chill pill? @LizzyM @gonnif

No, you need two of these:

 

[KnightDoc]

"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

Two observations:
- We tend to be poor judges of our performance.
- Nothing you do at this time will positively change the outcome of your application. So take a deep breath and plan to do your best for the next school. Good luck

This^^^^. If the interview didn't go well, it might just be that the interviewer sucks at interviewing or wasn't into it for reasons that had nothing to do with you. Or, maybe you just didn't click with her.

Just like interviews aren't the only thing standing between a relatively weak candidate and an A, they also don't usually single handedly destroy an otherwise very strong candidate. In either case, it's natural to stress over something like this, but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it now, so you have to put it out of your mind, hope for the best and focus on future interviews that you can actually control.

 

[MyOdyssey]

Disinterested or uninterested?

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Disinterested or uninterested?

In today's usage, disinterested most often means "not biased," whereas uninterested simply means "not interested." Interestingly, when these words were first introduced their meanings were the reverse, with disinterested originally meaning "lacking interest," and uninterested meaning "unbiased.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Go have the beer