Is this a normal interview feeling?

[mdmd112]

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but basically when interviewing recently at a school that was not necessarily my first choice, I felt uncomfortable when asked "why this school" by my interviewer. I have a decent answer prepared consisting of research/community service programs offered by the school, and I would still be very happy to go to this school if it was the only one I got into, but I just feel disingenuous about the whole thing. How do people approach interviews at schools that are not their first choice? Do you treat every interview as if this is the best school for you? I've gotten weird vibes from some of my interviewers since they were like "oh you're very smart you're gonna have so many acceptances" and then they were trying to tell me all the reasons why their school was great. I'm just worried that the schools at the top of my list are gonna reject me and then the other schools I applied to will also reject or waitlist me thinking that I got into one of my other schools. Is this a legitimate concern to have?

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[907914]

but I just feel disingenuous about the whole thing.

This is every applicant at every interview that isn’t in their top 3. At one of my schools, I know they liked me more than I liked them. Fake it till you make it, you want the MD. Where you get it only matters if you have options and most will not.

Do you treat every interview as if this is the best school for you?

I don’t treat them all like the best school. Honest about telling them the positives, genuinely curious about the negatives. You don’t have to act like they are the best school - you just have to act like they are a school you would attend.

 

[Moko]

I don’t treat them all like the best school. Honest about telling them the positives, genuinely curious about the negatives. You don’t have to act like they are the best school - you just have to act like they are a school you would attend.

I completely agree with this. You spent the time and money specifically completing this school's secondary application. So talk about the reasons that prompted you to apply to that school in the first place, instead of the other hundred medical schools in the US.

(Adcoms recognize that almost all applicants will accept a full ride from the Big 4 in a heartbeat. No one is foolish enough to believe that they are an applicant's absolute top choice)

 

[deleted987519]

(Adcoms recognize that almost all applicants will accept a full ride from the Big 4 in a heartbeat. No one is foolish enough to believe that they are an applicant's absolute top choice)

Who are the Big 4?

 

[JoaoMoutinho]

Who are the Big 4?

Harvard school of medicine
Yale school of medicine
MIT school of medicine
Princeton college of osteopathic medicine

 

[ChymeofPassion]

This is definitely a normal feeling. I just interviewed at my far away top choice (T5 school) and it was so much easier to be really passionate in that specific answer during the interview. Maybe I'm just a bad actor for other schools though.