bbas said:
Do adcoms evaluate prospective students differently pre and post interview? In other words, does GPA/MCAT becomes less important (EC's becoming more important) after the interview since everyone who was given an interview is academically qualified?
Yes, they are evaluated differently post-interview because the information from the interviewers factors into the post-interview decision.
Let's say that applicants get rated on a scale of 0-3 based on the application alone:
3= Very strong applicants, above the average in every way when compared to current students at this school
2= equal to the average student currently at the school
1= less than the average for current students but interesting background
0= less than average and nothing stands out on the application.
The 0s don't get interviews unless their great-granddaddy was the founder of the medical college. Some of the 1,2,3 applicants get interviews and how that gets decided
😕 It is really hard to decide on the small proportion of applicants who can actually be accomodated on interview days (maybe only 10-20% of all applicants).
The interview adds a second layer of information.
Great interview = 1 point
Average interview = 0 points
Poor interview = -1 point
Really scary interview = -3 points.
If there is more than one interviewer, average their interview points, or if you want the interview to count for 2/3s of the score, sum the points of the interview score.
Add the interview points to the paper application points. The best scores get offers.
Now where this gets tricky, is when you ask a dozen different adcom members to read the same application and the same interviewer notes and assign an overall score. Then you take the average of all these scores. No one person can make or break your chances of getting in.
So someone with an average application who impresses the interviewers can end up above someone who had a very application on paper but who interviewed poorly. Between two applicants who both did "average" on the interivew, the one with the better application on paper will have a better overall score.
Now some schools may go on interview alone but I suspect that most use a blend of application & interview. This example is for illustrative purposed and no assumptions about the techniques used at a given school should be presumed based on this example.
