I hear a lot about how the purpose of your primary application is to get you an interview invite. But, once you have that invite... are all interviewing applicants then on the same level? So post interview, are admission committees deciding based on interview performance, or is the primary application still playing a role as well? Thanks!
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Post Interview Deciding Factors?
Started by Mike97
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No, it’s generally a component of an overall adcom score. In many cases, the whole admissions committee hasn’t even seen your file pre-interview. After the interview, a member will present the entire file in front of the committee and they vote.
Interview score
Basically, if one of your interviewers says no, it's over for you.
At my school, successful applicants will almost always have the full backing of all of their interviewers. If even a single interviewer did not like an applicant, that applicant will most likely be rejected. The main exception to this rule is if the interviewer is known to be very stingy with their praise (but even then, the applicant will still need at least a neutral or faintly positive impression).
Like why bother with interview, if a solid no doesn’t really mean no?! Interviewers are gatekeepers. Sorry to say that top schools probably have much tighter gatekeeping. Not sure how things play out at lower tier schools. I assume it should be similar.
Yes’es are the bare minimum. Interview feedback only moves the needle to A if it’s amazingly positive. No one is strong if one of the interviewers doesn’t like you. Be it 4.0 and 528 with 6 first author pubs. Mind you that you are applying to a people business, if a fellow physician doesn’t like you when you are putting on your best act, there’s a real problem. We are trained to be trusted and liked by our patients. You don’t have to be that brilliant to be a good doctor, but you definitely have to be likable.
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As you know, there are three possible outcomes after an interview: acceptance, waitlist, and rejection. So not being rejected does not necessarily mean being accepted 😉, but this may just be a matter of semantics.
It is possible to get accepted if someone has an excellent application on paper with the full backing of all but one interviewer, assuming this interviewer is known to be hard to please. But even then, the applicant will still need at least a neutral or faintly positive impression from them. This is an example of the ladder analogy.
However, a negative review/impression from any interviewer will most likely lead to a rejection, though there are instances where it has led to a waitlist instead. I would be surprised if these waitlisted applicants were eventually accepted, but do not know for certain as I do not follow their outcomes.
That’s how it works where I am. At the end of the interview, we fill out a survey and basically the question is do you recommend the interviewee for admission if so why. If we don’t like them, we don’t have to say why at all. So I really like to see how the interviewee can connect with a stranger, i.e. me in 30 mins and whether that person makes me feel comfortable. I really don’t care how impressive their application is. I just want to have a human connection. Tbh, when people make it to the interview stage at my school, they are all impressive on paper.
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On this point, some people act so robotic and/or like they are being scrutinized on the level of the cell during the pre-interview stuff. Like I can't imagine these people during actual interviews lmao. I swear every single interview day has that one kid who has to ask the 'most' questions...when you think you are finally free someone asks "So when you say pass fail, do you mean pass fail, or like, PASS fail?"
Those kids would get a solid no from me. It’s one thing to be specific and it’s a totally different thing to be obnoxious and smart-assy. If you have to be a smart ass at one of your most important days in your life, then you have to learn how to be mature first before applying for this job.
Or those superficial applicants who, in front of everyone, say to the admissions Dean/staff "I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all your time and for hosting us," thinking that gets them brownie points and noticed, when its just super cringey.
edit: even though my experience was broadly stated, I feel that they may not have wanted me to even discuss this much of the interview process for privacy sake. So I decided to just get rid of what I said.
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How bad is blanking on one question that you weren’t prepared for but probably should have?
I'm just an interviewee like you are, but my impression is that we are our own worst critics, and that the answer to your question is different for everyone, depending on the entirety of the interview.
It's highly unlikely that any single moment in a 30-60 minute interaction is determinative, and that everything is viewed in context. If the rest of your interview was good, and the interviewer is not hyper-critical, a one-off brain freeze would almost certainly be overlooked.
OTOH, if the entire interview was bleh, then appearing unprepared for a standard question would probably be seen as consistent with the rest of your performance. JMHO. I do the same exact thing you are doing post-II. It's easy for me to say and hard for me to do, but you really need to forget it and move on, because it's done and there are no do-overs.
Really depends upon the question.
Blanking on "Why Medicine" would surely be lethal, no?
Are you an applicant or a student adcom? I thought you were an applicant, but I'm a little confused why you are evaluating applicants.
I am a student adcom.
Ah, gotcha. So you attend a top med school rn, or you went to a top undergrad (or both)? I realize I may have misunderstood some of your past posts.
I can’t remember the exact wording but it was something along the lines of “how will you contribute racial equity and anti racism in our community?” I stuttered and pause a bit but I did manage to get an answer in. The interviewer asked this right after I was asked about what I thought some of the biggest problems in healthcare, which I mostly focused on cost, but he could just be going down a list of questions. Interviewer was a PoC too.
I am currently at a t5 and went to a top Ivy for undergrad.
My answer was mostly about reporting/calling out racism and making sure everyone feels welcome. I think the rest of the interview went well. This is one of two separate interviews but he’s the one that will present me to the rest of the committee. Idk I hope that was good enough.
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It was more me starting to talk about racial disparities in health care, panicking, then somewhat abruptly switching to what I typed in my last post. Maybe I didn’t do that bad but these next 4 weeks where I wait for a decision are going to be dreadful to get though.
I have seen a few students I didn't feel were ready or a good fit show up for class next fall, despite my negative recommendation. So it is not the complete kiss of death at my school.
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Great to hear! We don't get many student adcoms on here, especially ones as active as you. Nice to hear your thoughts!
We have shades of gray in rating applicant interviews. If one person says "no way!" (only about 1-3% of all interviews per year) then it is likely to be "game over" for that applicant but many others don't get admitted (but often waitlisted); sometimes it is because two or more of the interviewers were lukewarm.
While criteria and admissions processes vary, when you’re interviewed, you’re capable. They see that according to your numbers and your work load (extra curricular). A lot of it is finding who has interpersonal skills they are looking for. While essays are a good start.. there is nothing like an interview to figure that out. So yes.. you’re on a level playing field for interview day. But.. if it’s later in the cycle, and they have fewer spots left, you better bet they will be looking at your numbers again. That’s been my experience with working with admissions committees as a student.
Again, however, numerical weaknesses can be overcome by killer interviews.
It totally depends on the committee and how they consider interviewer feedback. It also depends on how clear the feedback is and the interview format.
If you have a multiple assessment format like an MMI, the sampling from multiple observers will mitigate this issue. So you have to really negatively impress more than one person there. If you happen to interview with someone on the committee with a lot of clout and the person goes to bat for you very strongly, it often can help. You just never know.
also it’s pretty important to know (and somewhat obvious) that the interview flow and perception of your interview skills is in large part dictated by the strength of your application. Maybe it’s unconscious, but an interviewer who reads your file and is impressed will make it easy for you whereas one who is questioning why the interview was extended will make it difficult.
I’ve been getting grilled at interviews this cycle whereas my past cycle they were walks in the park. Not sure if it has to do with remote vs. in person but I doubt it.
I’ve been getting grilled at interviews this cycle whereas my past cycle they were walks in the park. Not sure if it has to do with remote vs. in person but I doubt it.
This is so true. At one of my schools, the interviewer literally began with "I can totally see why you are applying to this school, and your application is a perfect fit. Just curious, can you describe this one mostly irrelevant detail in your app? It was kind of unique so I wanted to learn more about it." That was the entire interview. It lasted about 10 minutes. I walked out of it thinking I probably failed, but in retrospect I think it may be a good sign. He just felt no need to ask me about the rest of my app.
The unfortunate part is, this detail was such a small part of my app, considering I had done many more significant things and this event also took place over 4 years ago, that I didn't really remember it in great detail. I did ultimately answer his question to his satisfaction (seemingly), but there was a lot of hesitation and stammering on my part. Oh well, too late now.
Super school-specific question. You may reach out and ask them. I’d call if possible. Probably not considered unless its brought to the committee’s attention because of some extraordinary accomplishment or clarifying a major concern.
Letter of intent, impactful If viewed by committee. Letter of interest, much less.
What’s the question?
what is your name? Rejected.
Tell me about a non-academic experience you had that made you second guess medicine. More understandable.
Nothing happens. The decision has already been made.
I'd love to hear feedback on whether people who actually have received thank you letters here think they are a good idea. And I know it's been discussed from an outside perspective, but this thread has a few people who have stated they have acted in some official capacity in the process and their overall thoughts seem to vary not only among themselves but also in comparison to what those outside perspective threads have focused on.
My research advisor and I talked at length about this, as both of us were raised in a very strict military/southern way so ma'am, sir, and thank you come out of our mouths orders of magnitude more than the average person around us. Despite this, he despises thank you letters in all their forms. Courtesies abound, but they are supposed to be genuine or else they have the opposite effect. And what is genuine about 1,000 thank you emails from virtual applicants no one in the committee has ever met and shook hands with?
And even beyond this, to your point, by the time someone might read any of these things their decision has already been made. Now, I'm basing that on the statement you and others have made here, as I certainly have no first-hand knowledge, but it all seems quite cut and dry. And yet, in those out-side perspective threads the prevailing opinion is to always send thank you letters and to send letters of intent every month after your interview. I see it preached here, reddit, twitch, and on pretty much every pre-med guide website and youtube channel.
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you send thank you notes to cover your @ss and also to reiterate how much you want to attend that school lol.
Some schools will tell you not to send them. Proceed at your own peril if you choose to send them anyway.
If a school signals at interview that the school wants you to be in touch with updates, etc or goes out of its way to give you the email addresses of the people who interviewed you, then you could certainly send a thank you message by email with 12 hours of the interview. Even then, it could be too late as some faculty will write up their interview notes and submit them within 10 minutes of speaking to you!
They've never influenced me one way or another. Once, in an effort not to be influenced, I voted "waitlist" on someone I'd have chosen to waitlist if he hadn't sent a thank you note, despite being very impressed by the quality of the stationery he used.
If a school signals at interview that the school wants you to be in touch with updates, etc or goes out of its way to give you the email addresses of the people who interviewed you, then you could certainly send a thank you message by email with 12 hours of the interview. Even then, it could be too late as some faculty will write up their interview notes and submit them within 10 minutes of speaking to you!
They've never influenced me one way or another. Once, in an effort not to be influenced, I voted "waitlist" on someone I'd have chosen to waitlist if he hadn't sent a thank you note, despite being very impressed by the quality of the stationery he used.
Send them if your mama taught you to be polite, but in no way are they going to affect your chances of acceptance, unless the school told you not to send.
Idk, I think a lot of this is school specific. To be more accurate, not sending thank you notes can really hurt, but sending them will almost never help.
I was literally told 5 times at one of my interviews to send thank you notes. The school had an upload portal to document our thank you notes, and one of my interviewers jokingly said anyone forgetting to send a thank you note is an auto-reject.
