Post 15 Interviews Thoughts/Advice

[smr]

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Now that this whole process is likely over (for me at least) I wanted to share my thoughts. The experience was in some ways similar to what other people here have described but I also think there are some common sentiments on this forum that are not really that accurate. Also, I know 15 may seem like a pointless amount of interviews, but the invites came in a strange order and I did turn down some, but these I felt I had to attend.


BIGGEST piece of advice for future applicants is to do your research on school stats (GPA/MCAT) and make sure you apply to schools that are below, at and above your application's competitiveness.

I received virtually zero interviews from the places I thought were "safety" schools. As others have mentioned before, it is easy for even a very competitive applicant to end up with zero acceptances if you don't apply to the right array of schools.

BIGGEST misconception (IMO) is that interview performance is a major factor in who gives you an acceptance. Obviously plenty of people will disagree, but this is my honest opinion after going on many interviews and seeing the end results. OF COURSE I am assuming you don't absolutely bomb an interview, but I would say excluding those situations, in general your application is both what will get you an interview and an acceptance. I believe the influence interviews have on your chances of being accepted is overstated here.

I really kept track of how interviews went throughout the process and I honestly can't say I felt there was any correlation whatsoever between having an especially good interview experience and getting an acceptance. I don't think it's really a "yours to lose" situation. I believe schools probably weed out a few particularly anti social applicants with this process, but otherwise it's just a numbers game.

Below are my impressions of each school (mostly just useless observations that I wanted to share). A general statement is that I didn't really see any obvious connection between a school's reputation and my impression of the place. Perhaps my expectations were a little too high at a few places because of their status, but even still I have to say that at many of the "Top 20" schools, I would've never guessed their ranking based on my impression of them.

 

[NotASerialKiller]

BIGGEST misconception (IMO) is that interview performance is a major factor in who gives you an acceptance. Obviously plenty of people will disagree, but this is my honest opinion after going on many interviews and seeing the end results. OF COURSE I am assuming you don't absolutely bomb an interview, but I would say excluding those situations, in general your application is both what will get you an interview and an acceptance. I believe the influence interviews have on your chances of being accepted is overstated here.

It's odd that instead of concluding that interviewees are terrible at assessing how they performed (which is well established), you decided that instead your acceptances/rejections indicate that interview performance doesn't matter much.

And just to be clear I'm not saying this to attack you, I'm saying it because I really hope no one reads this and thinks "Oh well I guess I just have to not come off as a maniac and that's all that matters, no need to prepare" because you'd be doing a huge disservice to anyone who buys that.

 

[theonlytycrane]

In what way were the people phony at pritzker? (Not attending there or anything, just wondering haha).

For me, my one student interviewer was pretty bad. I asked her how m1 went and she said she failed a class, didn't do well in research during the summer, and was stressed for step 1. Then she was super awkward during the interview.

Also, for one of my interviews my doctor interviewer seemed to belittle and mock me. Then I received an acceptance. So I had similar weird experiences to you.


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[boogiecousins94]

Tufts University School of Medicine
Boston was as awful as people say, but the school was nice. Nothing really stood out, but the students seemed particularly nice. The student interview here was probably my only bad interview experience, just felt really awkward. Despite this they were one of the first to give me an acceptance.

I live in Boston, how is it awful? I'm just curious, maybe Chinatown where Tufts is isn't as nice and I know where BU Med isn't as nice as Longwood but Boston is one of the nicer cities in my opinion

 

[smr]

It's odd that instead of concluding that interviewees are terrible at assessing how they performed (which is well established), you decided that instead your acceptances/rejections indicate that interview performance doesn't matter much.

And just to be clear I'm not saying this to attack you, I'm saying it because I really hope no one reads this and thinks "Oh well I guess I just have to not come off as a maniac and that's all that matters, no need to prepare" because you'd be doing a huge disservice to anyone who buys that.

If anyone reads this and concludes that they do not need to "prepare" for interviews, they would be exactly correct in my personal opinion. I've stated from the very beginning that this is all my opinion, as is most of what you read here. But I did just go through the whole experience and by most metrics had tremendous success, so my opinions are not baseless. The main point I made was that the importance of interviews is greatly overstated and I would stand by that 100% from my experiences. It is infinitely more important to apply to the right schools with the right stats. I have yet to be officially rejected from any school I interviewed at, so it's not like I'm speaking out of spite.

 

[smr]

I live in Boston, how is it awful? I'm just curious, maybe Chinatown where Tufts is isn't as nice and I know where BU Med isn't as nice as Longwood but Boston is one of the nicer cities in my opinion

I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it's extremely expensive and busy. People from Boston have a reputation of having an attitude and being rude, and the people I met were exactly like that. But of course you will find the same in most major cities.

 

[all things possible]

Chill a little before you start school 🙂

 

[smr]

In what way were the people phony at pritzker? (Not attending there or anything, just wondering haha).

For me, my one student interviewer was pretty bad. I asked her how m1 went and she said she failed a class, didn't do well in research during the summer, and was stressed for step 1. Then she was super awkward during the interview.

Also, for one of my interviews my doctor interviewer seemed to belittle and mock me. Then I received an acceptance. So I had similar weird experiences to you.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Really? That's interesting, not sure whats going on there. The admissions people were great, but that was about it.

The way they acted and talked was incredibly calculated and again just so phony, like about literally everything, which maybe I can understand in some circumstances, but not when you're just hanging out with other interviewees.