Open/Closed?

[Sano0503]

Hi All,

I was wondering if any one here knew what schools have a closed file interview and what difference does it make if the interview is closed or open file. Also, if any one has been interviewed as closed file or open file, can you please share what it's like and what kind of questions did you get? Thanks a lot!!

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[hfpepperbean47]

Mine was open, at least partially. The lady that interviewed me had a file, and I noticed that my application and essays were in there. None of my transcripts nor letters were in the file, just my application and essays and something she continually wrote notes on. She actually referred to them a couple of times during my interview...before we got to talking about baseball, horse racing, and how much I reminded her of her son. I got his synopsized life story. LoL. He's an OD, so maybe that helped my case=)

I was in the interview for 1.5hours, everybody else was gone by the time I got out to have my exit interview with the Admissions counselor. I thought it was very pleasant and laid back - but of course a little nerve-racking in the beginning. That comes from the uncertainty.

Just go and have fun with it, go in there with no reservations and you will be fine. Its more about being yourself than it is selling yourself. You do have to do a little bit of selling since it is a relatively short amount of face to face time (and it counts for something), but over-doing it would probably hurt more than help. Hope this helps at least a little bit!

 

[hfpepperbean47]

Oh, I interviewed at PCO.

 

[IDoctor]

you may want to check out SDN's interview feedback section and pull up the optometry section. In there you'll find all the schools, stress levels, open/closed file interview, costs of travel, types of questions, etc. A very good source to take advantage of.

As for the open/closed advantages. I think that I found having an open interview to be quite beneficial. I had a low overall GPA so it was a good chance to discuss and explain exactly what I think happened and how I can compensate to succeed in optometry school. Also, I had alot of optometric work, internships, and leadership work listed in my file. This gave me the chance to show them that I was truly interested in the material and knew what I was getting myself into.

in regard to pepperbean's post, I had a female interviewer at PCO that was not a science teacher but rather their public relations person, and it was completely closed file as opposed to open file interview. I felt it wasnt very benificial having closed because I would have to bring up things that were in my file in the first place. She did however bring up her kids developing myopia, and we started discussing some research papers that I had been reading on slowing the progression of myopia in children. Overall I think my interview at PCO was the most relaxed and easy to speak with.