Is this an awful or excellent sign for an interview?

[Sonya]

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I had my interview today at an excellent (top 10, and for many reasons my dream medschool forever). This guy asked me hardly anything (okay, something, but not much). He was polite and all, but he just kept on talking and talking. He kept saying how the school was so great. Then he went on to lecture me about how I should choose my medical school.

It TOTALLY was NOT conversational. It felt like an awful monologue (with HIM not me talking).... Unfortunately, the more he talked the less I felt proper to interject either. It seem like I'd have to either blatantly interrupt or totally change the topic to say anything I'd care to.

I tried to tell them I really wanted to come there. But, obviously he didn't get that (or he thought I was stuffing the standard answer at him). He said at the end he didn't know whether I wanted to attend. So, I told him again. I told him my number one reason, that everyone was nice, and happy at that school, besides it's being excellent.

He said my rec letters were superb. He said my academics were superb (so they don't mind my MCAT scores.. yeah!) 🙂, even though their typical score has got to be above 38....

And, he was my only interview.
I sooo feel like going to that office and asking for another interview. But, it doesn't feel like a typical thing to do at this school.
Well, they will close the office at 5, and i'm leaving tonight.

So, i'm going to talk to one of my professors (since I went to undergrad here). He asked me to come tell how the interview went.

Oh well, i'll just write to the dean later with my thank you note at the very least telling them I like the school and all.

Suggestions? How would interpret it if an interview went like this.

And, this interviewer had been at the school for ages, and on the admission commitee for ages.

Sonya

 

[jlee9531]

sounds like Wash U 😉

but anyways...i dont know about this....

anytime where i dont get to be actively participating in the interview i cant really call a success...

but at least he was talking about why you should go to the school instead of telling you why you wont get in.

and as long as you made your point at the end of the interview of why you want to go there and made it convincing and somewhat passionately it can turn out ok....

but who knows....roll the dice...

good luck tho...

 

[exmike]

An admissions officer at Georgetown noted that people that requested a second interview invariably did worse on the second one.

We, as applicants, do not have the information or knowledge to judge whether or not our interviews were good or bad in the eyes of the interviewer. I'd say to just let it go.

 

[jonny_little]

What was your mcat? I heard that if it's under a 34 you are 99 percent likely to just get the waitlist.

 

[hale-bopp]

So, I had an interview sort of like this... The guy seemed like he was just trying to sell the school to me, I spoke very little. But at the end he said, "I know that after an interview, applicants want to know their chances at that school. I can't tell you what your chances are here, but I am sure that you will have choices to make when you are considering a med school." (sort of similar to what your interviewer told you)
I did get in there (but it is my state school, no big reach)

In my case, I think the guy just liked hearing himself talk, and was more than happy with the way things were going. I really hate interviews where they don''t ask you anything substantive, though. I feel like then they can't really support you in front of the committee if anyone has doubts.

Good luck!

 

[Sonya]

oh yeah, and another interviewee spread the rumour (he's not confident about it) that all WashU gradsuates/students are interviewed.

I think he's trying to see how much I would interject in such a situation. (That's all I can dream up). That seems like the only thing they can be looking for.

I wasn't relaxed. But, then, i'm usually not relaxed with them sitting in their big chairs and huge desks and fancy white coats. I really wish interviewers would not where their white coats.

 

[Sonya]

Originally posted by indo
32!?!?! what do you mean "they don't mind my mcat score"?
Great...now I have to retake the mcat since a 32 is apparently a low score. j/k...i don't feel very special for getting a 32 but it is the 90th percentile.

sounds like you are money at that school.

As I said, most WashU students i've talked to have above a 38...
Well, yeah, they have "averages" of 36. But, those are probably weighed down by a few students. My friend is a resident who graduated from WashU, and said his classmates all had like 40 to 42s. and the fourth year medical student I talked to said that his class had an average of around 39 (only b/c I asked them, they weren't hung hung up about talking about it).

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by indo
wow! Isn't the average accepted mcat for WashU about 33 or 10-11 in each section?

No, WashU's average is closer to 36-37. Its weird.

 

[Kashue]

Originally posted by Sonya
I had my interview today at an excellent (top 10, and for many reasons my dream medschool forever). This guy asked me hardly anything (okay, something, but not much). He was polite and all, but he just kept on talking and talking. He kept saying how the school was so great. Then he went on to lecture me about how I should choose my medical school.

It TOTALLY was NOT conversational. It felt like an awful monologue (with HIM not me talking).... Unfortunately, the more he talked the less I felt proper to interject either. It seem like I'd have to either blatantly interrupt or totally change the topic to say anything I'd care to.

I tried to tell them I really wanted to come there. But, obviously he didn't get that (or he thought I was stuffing the standard answer at him). He said at the end he didn't know whether I wanted to attend. So, I told him again. I told him my number one reason, that everyone was nice, and happy at that school, besides it's being excellent.

He said my rec letters were superb. He said my academics were superb (so they don't mind my MCAT scores.. yeah!) 🙂, even though their typical score has got to be above 38....

And, he was my only interview.
I sooo feel like going to that office and asking for another interview. But, it doesn't feel like a typical thing to do at this school.
Well, they will close the office at 5, and i'm leaving tonight.

So, i'm going to talk to one of my professors (since I went to undergrad here). He asked me to come tell how the interview went.

Oh well, i'll just write to the dean later with my thank you note at the very least telling them I like the school and all.

Suggestions? How would interpret it if an interview went like this.

And, this interviewer had been at the school for ages, and on the admission commitee for ages.

Sonya

One of my interviews went like that at my top choice actually. However, it ended with him saying "Ill see what I can do" and he gave me his card. I still haven't heard from the school yet but I only interviewed about a week ago.

 

[Gleevec]

According to US News 2004, WashU has a 12.2 MCAT section average, meaning a 36.6 MCAT total average.

 

[BananaSplit]

Originally posted by snoopygirl
Here is info I found published by Wash U. It details MCAT averages for all Med Schools.

http://www.washington.edu/students/ugrad/advising/gpamcat.pdf

Hope this helps.

This is the website for University of Washington (also a great school). Wash U.'s website is ww.wustl.edu

 

[DrBodacious]

It sounds to me like you're in! No seriously, if you have excellent LORs from WashU faculty and a great GPA from WashU and an good MCAT... They probably just wanted to interview you for technicalities sake. Don't worry, in the unlikely scenario that this guy was playing a trick and seeing if you could successfully steal the conversation from him, you can't feel bad about not being able to. I got 5 SDNbucks that say you got in. Anyone want to take my bet?

 

[moops]

Originally posted by Sonya
oh yeah, and another interviewee spread the rumour (he's not confident about it) that all WashU gradsuates/students are interviewed.

I think he's trying to see how much I would interject in such a situation. (That's all I can dream up). That seems like the only thing they can be looking for.

I wasn't relaxed. But, then, i'm usually not relaxed with them sitting in their big chairs and huge desks and fancy white coats. I really wish interviewers would not where their white coats.

i am pretty sure that is true- provided you don't have glaringly low scores (way below 30 or way below 3.5) but otherwise they DO interview about everyone- there was an article about that last year in the wash u news

 

[bagnbb]

Hello Sonya,

I also interviewed at Washington University today. It was kinda wierd that all of us were Wash U undergrads. I interviewed with Dean Ross. He is an absolutely great guy. He was very nice and the interview seemed to go really well. I have very similiar stats to yours, so if you want I will try to keep you updated on my status (Although they mentioned that it may be months before we hear anything back on our application status).

Anyway, I really just wanted to say Hello.


Bruce

 

[calebho501]

Maybe he wants to see if you're a good listener. Patients tend to ramble on and on about details that probably don't matter (I volunteer as an interpreter in the hospital so sometimes I just have to beg the patient to pause and let me interpret).

Another probability is that the interviewer felt that he would give you a positive rating anyway, so he may as well use the time to sell the school (Vandy sorta does that to all the interviewees as well)

 

[rackd8ball]

i've had interviews like that, and they worry me too, but i think you can conclude one of the following:

-the person just likes yapping away. in that case, they can probably tell enough about you to write something up. they'll also probably defer more to the written appl to rate your application.

-think back on what you actually said. did you cover things inadvertently? i had one interview where i thought we talked about nothing, but looking back, he got a lot out of me

-if your application on paper is already stellar, then perhaps they already want you! they definitely go into interviews with a preconceived notion of you, if the interview is open file. in these cases, interviews are for adcom members to answer the unanswered questions, to get a sense of who you are, and to see in person whether or not they'd want you as a future doctor...

hope that helps, and remember that it doesn't matter what you thought about the interview. and more importantly, what you think has no correlation to what they thought!

 

[woolie]

For what it's worth, your comments made me think of this. When I first graduated ugrad and was interviewing for different jobs, I found that I was having alot of interviews where people would just kind of look me over, as some really simple questions and then pretty quickly show me the door. At the time I was really offended and wondered if I had done something or was a horrible candidate or whatever.

Finally someone in HR clued me in, he said that when he sees a really great candidate that he just knows is really qualified, then he spends LESS time with them than if they are more iffy and he has serious doubts. (Remember, this was the business world, but still...) If a candidate was iffy, then he would spend time asking them probing, serious questions - the kind that I had been expecting, actually. But he said he did that because he was not sure they were going to cut it.

I can't speak for your interviewer (who really can?) but that might be something to add to your process of trying to understand why he behaved the way he did.

 

[gschl1234]

Originally posted by indo
wow! Isn't the average accepted mcat for WashU about 33 or 10-11 in each section?

I think it's usually about a 37 or higher. Somone on another thread called them "MCAT ******." I don't know anything about the school though so I'm not sure that ugly title is warrented. Maybe they just happen to admit people with very high scores without really trying to do so or maybe they have some kind of point system weighted in favor of MCAT over other aspects. Check the stats in US News and World Report or in MSAR.