post interview rejections

[jdandturk]

how do post interview rejections work ? Specifically how does an adcom go from you being interesting enough to interview to deciding that under no circumstances do they want you in their school. Any insights?

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[dragonfly99]

In general you have to not take the rejections too personally. Now,if you interviewed at 10 places and didn't get in to any of them, there might be a problem with how you are interviewing. But getting rejected from multiple schools is kind of par for the course, unfortunately. They basically have more applicants than they can take. My experience (bear in mind it's been 7 years since I interviewed) was that they tend to interview at least 3-4x more than will fit in their entering class. They take about 1/3, wait list about 1/3, and reject about 1/3. Then later a few of the accepted will decline the offer, and some of the wait listers will get in. Some schools only reject a few and leave many more on the hold/wait list...but that might be meaner because those low on the wait list seldom ever get in. It might be kinder to just let some go, so that at least they know where they stand.

At the interview stage a lot of times they are just dealing with apples vs. apples, and why they take one student vs. reject another honestly becomes kind of random.

Another thing that can sink you during an interview is if they think they determine that you aren't a good fit for the school. For example, if it's the U. of Missouri and they think you aren't going to do rural primary care, you're probably hosed. If you go to Washington U and don't say you want to do research, you probably won't get in.

 

[Chemist0157]

In general you have to not take the rejections too personally. Now,if you interviewed at 10 places and didn't get in to any of them, there might be a problem with how you are interviewing. But getting rejected from multiple schools is kind of par for the course, unfortunately. They basically have more applicants than they can take. My experience (bear in mind it's been 7 years since I interviewed) was that they tend to interview at least 3-4x more than will fit in their entering class. They take about 1/3, wait list about 1/3, and reject about 1/3. Then later a few of the accepted will decline the offer, and some of the wait listers will get in. Some schools only reject a few and leave many more on the hold/wait list...but that might be meaner because those low on the wait list seldom ever get in. It might be kinder to just let some go, so that at least they know where they stand.

At the interview stage a lot of times they are just dealing with apples vs. apples, and why they take one student vs. reject another honestly becomes kind of random.

Another thing that can sink you during an interview is if they think they determine that you aren't a good fit for the school. For example, if it's the U. of Missouri and they think you aren't going to do rural primary care, you're probably hosed. If you go to Washington U and don't say you want to do research, you probably won't get in.

I agree. Also, a bad interview can tank an application. Someone may look good on paper, but if that applicant can't show some understanding/defends his application/have a normal conversation, they could be toast. There is a degree of randomness for sure, but I think it's the interview that makes/breaks alot of people.

 

[URHere]

Many schools make their admissions decisions by using a point system. This means that after you are interviewed, your interview performance, your essays, your GPA, your MCAT score, etc will each count for a certain number of points depending on how good they are. Once all of the points are assigned, the school will make a decision on you.

In general, a very high overall score will warrant an acceptance, a very low score will warrant a rejection, and those in the middle are placed on hold or waitlisted. The cutoffs usually depend on the scores of the students who were accepted during the previous cycle.

You need to remember that schools interview many more students than they can possibly accept, and a waitlist of several hundred people just isn't good for anyone. Therefore, schools cut the applicants at the bottom loose after an interview.

I'm not saying that this is true of all schools, but at many, if your interview, your stats, etc. don't add up to enough points...you get the axe.

 

[vargant]

I was rejected post interview at FSU. I even talked with my second interviewer after my rejection who was surprised over my rejection. She reported that she scored me highly in the interview. I believe the decision ultimately came down to the committee after the interview, and saw me as a likely candidate for not following in their mission statement: to increase primary care physicians in the state of Florida with an emphasis on geriatrics, rural, and underprivileged populations. In my primary application, I talked about how I originally wanted to go into neuroscience, and saw neurology as a related field and decided to gain some volunteer experiences. I even talked about neuroscience research in my EC. I believe that my original "intent" for going into medicine "axed" me for FSU matriculation.

 

[majahops]

I feel like this is what must have happened to me at Georgetown. I got invited for the very first day of interviews, then got the axe the very first day they rejected people post-interview.

Many schools make their admissions decisions by using a point system. This means that after you are interviewed, your interview performance, your essays, your GPA, your MCAT score, etc will each count for a certain number of points depending on how good they are. Once all of the points are assigned, the school will make a decision on you.

In general, a very high overall score will warrant an acceptance, a very low score will warrant a rejection, and those in the middle are placed on hold or waitlisted. The cutoffs usually depend on the scores of the students who were accepted during the previous cycle.

You need to remember that schools interview many more students than they can possibly accept, and a waitlist of several hundred people just isn't good for anyone. Therefore, schools cut the applicants at the bottom loose after an interview.

I'm not saying that this is true of all schools, but at many, if your interview, your stats, etc. don't add up to enough points...you get the axe.

 

[jdandturk]

I was rejected post interview at FSU. I even talked with my second interviewer after my rejection who was surprised over my rejection. She reported that she scored me highly in the interview. I believe the decision ultimately came down to the committee after the interview, and saw me as a likely candidate for not following in their mission statement: to increase primary care physicians in the state of Florida with an emphasis on geriatrics, rural, and underprivileged populations. In my primary application, I talked about how I originally wanted to go into neuroscience, and saw neurology as a related field and decided to gain some volunteer experiences. I even talked about neuroscience research in my EC. I believe that my original "intent" for going into medicine "axed" me for FSU matriculation.

that is another thing that pisses me off. Many med schools claim to be interested in primary care, while at the same time bragging about the competetive residencies that their grads match into. Make up your mind people.

 

[Law2Doc]

how do post interview rejections work ? Specifically how does an adcom go from you being interesting enough to interview to deciding that under no circumstances do they want you in their school. Any insights?

Simple. As mentioned, schools may interview three times as many people as they are going to accept. Thus if your interview is not better than 2/3 of the folks you saw on the interview day, you probably didn't keep yourself above the cut line. The interview is weighted very heavily at most schools, and should be viewed as something that can make or break you. There are folks you interviewed against who used the interview to vault over you. Practice, and you can do the same over someone else next time.