Official 2015-2016: Oh no, I don't have a single Interview Invite thread!

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The thing with me is that I really haven't had any bad interview experiences. There was one guy that was pretty aggressive and asked me how I could prove that I wanted to be a doctor if I had done so much research, but I suspect that was just a "stress" interview. The rest of them have really just been conversational, and honestly fairly enjoyable. I don't know why they've all resulted in waitlists so far--I generally like talking to people.
 
Whyamionhere said:
I'm sick of getting SO EMBARRASSED when I have to tell people I got rejected after my interview and am gonna reapply next year. Seriously nO ONE gets how hard this is until they actually do it. It's easy to feel like a great, qualified individual until you apply for med school. Damn.
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Definitely feel the same way. I definitely tried to keep my interviews low-key, but most people know I was applying to medical school, so I told them about it when they inquired and they usually DO ask. I had an interview to Jefferson, which is my top choice and was placed on the high-priority wait-list a few weeks ago. I've repeatedly had to tell this to various people who have asked me about how it went and it's so embarrassing and annoying because I feel like **** when I tell them. Despite that, I still have high hopes for medical school even though it's late in the game. I sent an update to Jefferson on Monday, plan to send in a letter of recommendation to them on the upcoming Tuesday, and I'm planning to send 3-4 more updates basically every week in April. I'm not giving up until they outright reject me. I also have another interview at SUNY Downstate on April 4th, so I'm going to give it my all and prepare for the interview as much as possible. This has been a hard, long journey of self-doubt. I've had to pick myself up so many times, but honestly I'm not going to give up now. This is difficult, but you can do it - don't feel down on yourself and keep improving your application so when another window of opportunity opens, you can grab it and run.
 
22 schools applied...19 rejections ...3 wait lists...guess I'm done this cycle...GL to everyone else!!


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bananafish94 said:
Well, I wrote that before I had any interviews at all, and I thought there was something blatantly offensive about my application. Like my essays were god awful, or a professor secretly flamed me in a letter of recommendation, or something like that. Now that I've had four interview invites, I don't there's anything wrong with my essay per se...I just think that there's not really a compelling reason for somebody to accept me. Yeah, I have a good GPA and an average MCAT, and I've done the things that people are supposed to do in order to get into medical school, but there's really nothing that would make somebody say, "Wow, we should definitely accept this guy." I think my application reads more like, "Yeah, this guy is basically fine and he'd probably be a decent student, so let's just interview him in case the great people decline our acceptances."
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This is so me too :/
 
LuluLovesMe said:
I feel like nothing has changed about my app since I applied. How am I supposed to apply again this coming cycle if I need to? 🙁
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Have you gotten any feedback from medical schools? I would start there and try to get advice on what areas your app is perchance lacking. Then I would try to see if you've filled the basic requirements: volunteering, clinical exposure, MCAT, grades, etc. Is there some area you can improve? I think the biggest misconception in this process is that you need to do activities for months and have to accrue hundreds of hours. You can do things in the next two months and talk about why it impacted you on your primary and send updates constantly about new things you're exploring. There's always changes you can make!
 
Last edited:
Another quarter in the books, finished my last 2 finals (ecology which was awful, and biochem). Now time to start prepping my app for new cycle. Crazy how long the process is, I feel like I've been stressed for 10 months - oh wait...


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To those who are in the waitlist, when should we expect to hear back ? Im guessing its not any time before April 30th cuz thats when the schools know how many ppl are def attending. Am I right ? 😕
Hope we all hear good news ! I am remaining positive in fact I think whoever is in the waitlist should be happy cuz there is a good chance they will get in. :luck::xf:
 
Em4234 said:
To those who are in the waitlist, when should we expect to hear back ? Im guessing its not any time before April 30th cuz thats when the schools know how many ppl are def attending. Am I right ? 😕
Hope we all hear good news ! I am remaining positive in fact I think whoever is in the waitlist should be happy cuz there is a good chance they will get in. :luck::xf:
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I think it depends on the school! For my waitlisted school I don't think it'll be before April 30th cause they're a rather new school and they can only accept their class size, no more. Maybe if other schools haven't accepted many and still have more to accept, they'll go to the waitlist early? Who knows though haha
 
DocHopeful1 said:
Actually this year, the deadline would be on May 2 since April 30 is a Saturday right?
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You're right, the guidelines do say next business day, but I still have specific instructions from schools that say April 30th... I would go with the last business day before, April 29th, instead. No reason to mess around with deadlines!
 
Ok, so I just need some clarification and advice on this. So apparently, once you get an interview, medical schools have already considered that you are qualified GPA and MCAT wise. And I have been told many times that I shouldn't worry about my numbers anymore if I get an interview.

But it seems to be that after an interview, clearly many people are qualified and a good fit in regards to personality traits captured during an interview. Hence, is it true that scores are still the deciding factor at the end of the day post-interview no matter how good your interview went?

I am wondering because I think my grades are pretty average (MCAT: 30- 10/10/10, GPA: 3.6;3.5 with basically a 4.0 after freshman year), however I have received 3 interviews already (have another one coming up), which have all gone pretty well in my opinion but have resulted in them all being wait lists. I am currently one year post-grad in my gap year.

My premed advisor told me that if I were to reapply again next year, I shouldn't retake my MCATs and just try again- but my problem with that is that I will be doing the same thing as this year- working as a scribe trainer. So how will I stand out if my grades remain the same and my application remains largely unchanged? Is my problem my grades? But then again if my problem were grades how did I get 4 interview invites?

Really unsure what to do if I were to reapply because obviously the time to invest in restudying and retaking the new MCAT would have me quitting my current job where I actually have a leadership role. On top of that, I don't know how well I can do given the amount of time I have between now and the next cycle as well as being one year out of school having forgotten a lot of the material. Thanks in advance for any feedback!
 
Dr.DeadPool said:
Ok, so I just need some clarification and advice on this. So apparently, once you get an interview, medical schools have already considered that you are qualified GPA and MCAT wise. And I have been told many times that I shouldn't worry about my numbers anymore if I get an interview.

But it seems to be that after an interview, clearly many people are qualified and a good fit in regards to personality traits captured during an interview. Hence, is it true that scores are still the deciding factor at the end of the day post-interview no matter how good your interview went?

I am wondering because I think my grades are pretty average (MCAT: 30- 10/10/10, GPA: 3.6;3.5 with basically a 4.0 after freshman year), however I have received 3 interviews already (have another one coming up), which have all gone pretty well in my opinion but have resulted in them all being wait lists. I am currently one year post-grad in my gap year.

My premed advisor told me that if I were to reapply again next year, I shouldn't retake my MCATs and just try again- but my problem with that is that I will be doing the same thing as this year- working as a scribe trainer. So how will I stand out if my grades remain the same and my application remains largely unchanged? Is my problem my grades? But then again if my problem were grades how did I get 4 interview invites?

Really unsure what to do if I were to reapply because obviously the time to invest in restudying and retaking the new MCAT would have me quitting my current job where I actually have a leadership role. On top of that, I don't know how well I can do given the amount of time I have between now and the next cycle as well as being one year out of school having forgotten a lot of the material. Thanks in advance for any feedback!
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LizzyM had an analogy about scores at interviews, that basically everyone is on a staircase. You got invited, but you may be a few steps down from someone with better numbers/EC's. But if you rock the interview, you can definitely jump up a few spots over someone with those better numbers who maybe had an average showing at interview day. 3 waitlists might indicate some (maybe just minor) flaw in your interview skills. Or it may not even mean you're a bad interviewer at all, since your numbers, while not bad, do not stand out either.

For reapplying, it's not a good approach to tackle another cycle without showing that you have improved/changed aspects of your application. If you think you could swing a retake on the MCAT and improve, then I would put in a vote for that. A 30 is solid, but with apps getting more competitive every year, you'll want that up in the 32/33 range at least. You could sign up for a June MCAT, which gives you 3 months, and this would not be too late for that cycle.
 
Dr.DeadPool said:
Ok, so I just need some clarification and advice on this. So apparently, once you get an interview, medical schools have already considered that you are qualified GPA and MCAT wise. And I have been told many times that I shouldn't worry about my numbers anymore if I get an interview.

But it seems to be that after an interview, clearly many people are qualified and a good fit in regards to personality traits captured during an interview. Hence, is it true that scores are still the deciding factor at the end of the day post-interview no matter how good your interview went?

I am wondering because I think my grades are pretty average (MCAT: 30- 10/10/10, GPA: 3.6;3.5 with basically a 4.0 after freshman year), however I have received 3 interviews already (have another one coming up), which have all gone pretty well in my opinion but have resulted in them all being wait lists. I am currently one year post-grad in my gap year.

My premed advisor told me that if I were to reapply again next year, I shouldn't retake my MCATs and just try again- but my problem with that is that I will be doing the same thing as this year- working as a scribe trainer. So how will I stand out if my grades remain the same and my application remains largely unchanged? Is my problem my grades? But then again if my problem were grades how did I get 4 interview invites?

Really unsure what to do if I were to reapply because obviously the time to invest in restudying and retaking the new MCAT would have me quitting my current job where I actually have a leadership role. On top of that, I don't know how well I can do given the amount of time I have between now and the next cycle as well as being one year out of school having forgotten a lot of the material. Thanks in advance for any feedback!
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I have seen others on here claim that when they asked the adcoms post-interview why they were not accepted that they were told their scores were too low. My experience with my one interview so far was great. I have exactly the same numbers as you. When I went to the interview, the dean specifically emphasized to the group that if we were invited that the adcoms think we are academically capable. Our faculty interviewers were given everything but our numbers, which made me significantly more relaxed for the interview. I do have to add that I have a PhD and I am not sure if that affected them looking past my numbers.
As Okazaki said, there might be a minor flaw in interview skills. Have you practiced in front of anyone? If I was not accepted this cycle, I was going to re-take my 30 MCAT, but I would only suggest it for you if you think you can score at least 3-4 points higher. If you got 4 interviews, you have a pretty solid app. This is a tough spot. I hope your next interview goes well or there is some movement on the waitlists.
 
So you're saying quit my current job and retake it? But my issue with that is that there's no guarantee I'll do better, especially with the new MCAT format with extra material. I studied 2 months for the old MCAT with material still fresh in my mind the summer after my junior year of college.

Clearly I am not a genius if I only got a 30 the first time around, so I'm not too sure the benefits outweigh the costs in retaking it right now. I would basically have to relearn everything including new material (biochem, psych, sociology) and practice the new MCAT format in just a 3 month time frame having been 1 year out of school. Thoughts?
 
Dr.DeadPool said:
So you're saying quit my current job and retake it? But my issue with that is that there's no guarantee I'll do better, especially with the new MCAT format with extra material. I studied 2 months for the old MCAT with material still fresh in my mind the summer after my junior year of college.

Clearly I am not a genius if I only got a 30 the first time around, so I'm not too sure the benefits outweigh the costs in retaking it right now. I would basically have to relearn everything including new material (biochem, psych, sociology) and practice the new MCAT format in just a 3 month time frame having been 1 year out of school. Thoughts?
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I don't think you should retake it. If you got four interviews, you're doing something right with your application. My only caveat is, as time passes, whether adcoms will increasingly disregard the old MCAT. That being said, the new MCAT is a beast and it's not easy to "just go take it." And as you say, it's no guarantee that you could do significantly better. Your grades and scores earned you those four interviews. I had four interviews and neither grades nor MCAT EVER came up. Ever. Which leads me to believe that, at that point in time, they cared about who I was as a person.

Did you submit your app the day AMCAS opened? If not, consider doing do this time. Maybe that could help you get ahead of the pack. Also, as @trini818 said, practice your interview skills with someone. Maybe there's just a little something that's off during your interview. I hope you get in off a waitlist. Surely you will!
 
Dr.DeadPool said:
So you're saying quit my current job and retake it? But my issue with that is that there's no guarantee I'll do better, especially with the new MCAT format with extra material. I studied 2 months for the old MCAT with material still fresh in my mind the summer after my junior year of college.

Clearly I am not a genius if I only got a 30 the first time around, so I'm not too sure the benefits outweigh the costs in retaking it right now. I would basically have to relearn everything including new material (biochem, psych, sociology) and practice the new MCAT format in just a 3 month time frame having been 1 year out of school. Thoughts?
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You could always apply DO the second time around. You'd be a very good candidate for those schools.

With regards to retaking, I think if you hit MCAT studying hard for 3 months, you could do it. You will be learning new material, so I know that will make things more difficult, but the psych and sociology stuff is not terribly complex at all. It's mostly memorizing.
 
Just to paint a clearer picture in regards to my interview skills: After seeking for advice about my app in general, I have been told by peers, professors, and doctors that I am very personable and interviewing shouldn't be my issue in not gaining admission. My approach is to be genuine and a cheerful person overall who really knows my motivations and app inside and out. My past 3 interviews have been conversational and I have an MMI interview coming up.

My primary was complete in July and finished all of my secondaries around August.

EDIT: Yeah, I will definitely be doing DO and Caribbean the next cycle. I just wanted to give MD 2 shots before I went to DO this cycle.
 
Dr.DeadPool said:
Just to paint a clearer picture in regards to my interview skills: After seeking for advice about my app in general, I have been told by peers, professors, and doctors that I am very personable and interviewing shouldn't be my issue in not gaining admission. My approach is to be genuine and a cheerful person overall who really knows my motivations and app inside and out. My past 3 interviews have been conversational and I have an MMI interview coming up.

My primary was complete in July and finished all of my secondaries around August.

EDIT: Yeah, I will definitely be doing DO and Caribbean the next cycle. I just wanted to give MD 2 shots before I went to DO this cycle.
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I think that the upcoming MMI could be a great opportunity for you. Since the "conversational" interviews haven't worked out (doesn't mean you did anything wrong, just that those interviews can be kind of bland!), you have a different format that could allow you to distinguish yourself. And if you're a lighthearted person who has a chill demeanor, this is essential to an MMI (seriously, having a sense of humor and being able to stay cool). :headphone:
 
Just hoping this MMI isn't too late in the cycle for an acceptance vs. just interviewing for a wait list spot.
 
Buffalo just rejected me. The one school I thought would connect with me. I am crushed beyond belief.
 
Don't retake MCAT at a 30 and after getting interviews. The reality is that in general (I can go find the data if you really want) but most people's scores don't really change, and you risk having it go down which would be much worse than just applying with a 30. Unless something is much different then how you took it last time it's not worth the risk


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So back in November, I ran into an acquaintance who is also applying to medical school. I had not received any interviews at this point. He asked me where I had interviewed so far, and for some reason I said that I had an interview at Rosalind Franklin that weekend. Later that day, I ran into another person who wished me good luck on my interview at Rosalind Franklin. So the lie was established, and I kept repeating it as if it were real for the next few months. At one point, I myself actually began to believe that I had interviewed at Rosalind Franklin. And then, I actually got an interview there! By this logic, if I keep telling people that I got accepted at Rosalind Franklin, will it actually happen?
 
bananafish94 said:
So back in November, I ran into an acquaintance who is also applying to medical school. I had not received any interviews at this point. He asked me where I had interviewed so far, and for some reason I said that I had an interview at Rosalind Franklin that weekend. Later that day, I ran into another person who wished me good luck on my interview at Rosalind Franklin. So the lie was established, and I kept repeating it as if it were real for the next few months. At one point, I myself actually began to believe that I had interviewed at Rosalind Franklin. And then, I actually got an interview there! By this logic, if I keep telling people that I got accepted at Rosalind Franklin, will it actually happen?
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I guess I should have been lying about a few schools along the way lol. Maybe, like you said, if I keep saying I got accepted to some schools, it will happen....
 
bananafish94 said:
So back in November, I ran into an acquaintance who is also applying to medical school. I had not received any interviews at this point. He asked me where I had interviewed so far, and for some reason I said that I had an interview at Rosalind Franklin that weekend. Later that day, I ran into another person who wished me good luck on my interview at Rosalind Franklin. So the lie was established, and I kept repeating it as if it were real for the next few months. At one point, I myself actually began to believe that I had interviewed at Rosalind Franklin. And then, I actually got an interview there! By this logic, if I keep telling people that I got accepted at Rosalind Franklin, will it actually happen?
Click to expand...

This is like when I white lie about being sick to get out of something to avoid being rude- I always get the illness I said I had!
 
bananafish94 said:
So back in November, I ran into an acquaintance who is also applying to medical school. I had not received any interviews at this point. He asked me where I had interviewed so far, and for some reason I said that I had an interview at Rosalind Franklin that weekend. Later that day, I ran into another person who wished me good luck on my interview at Rosalind Franklin. So the lie was established, and I kept repeating it as if it were real for the next few months. At one point, I myself actually began to believe that I had interviewed at Rosalind Franklin. And then, I actually got an interview there! By this logic, if I keep telling people that I got accepted at Rosalind Franklin, will it actually happen?
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LMFAO! Congrats 🙂 I actually did that with SUNY Downstate in November when an acquaintance asked me if I had any interviews yet and I was like... I have one in New York at SUNY Downstate. Lol I got an interview at Downstate a few weeks ago. HAHAHA it works 😉
 
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