Question about admission and interviews

[ranson]

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Say that a medical school has decided on the applicants that are going to interview. At this point, is the only consideration for admission based solely on the interview

or

does the admission committee still look the applicants' GPA/MCAT scores and the rest of the application in deciding?

 

[rhesuspieces]

This is an age old discussion. The whole "all is equal after the interview" thing is a myth. It depends on the school, but the interview is just a small part of everything the adcom considers when deciding whether to accept an applicant. Some schools value the interview more than others.

If you manage to get an interview, your GPA and MCAT probably won't be grounds for rejection. It's entirely likely that you'll still be passed over in favor of an applicant with better numbers and/or better EC's.

Long story short, you can have the most stellar interview in the history of all med school interviews, and then still get rejected because your application wasn't quite as good as others.

 

[Astarael]

The short answer is that everything matters. It kinda depends upon the school's preferences though how they weight each part of the application.

Edit: Looks like rhesuspieces got there before I did with a much better answer.👍

 

[nogolfinsnow]

This is an age old discussion. The whole "all is equal after the interview" thing is a myth. It depends on the school, but the interview is just a small part of everything the adcom considers when deciding whether to accept an applicant. Some schools value the interview more than others.

If you manage to get an interview, your GPA and MCAT probably won't be grounds for rejection. It's entirely likely that you'll still be passed over in favor of an applicant with better numbers and/or better EC's.

Long story short, you can have the most stellar interview in the history of all med school interviews, and then still get rejected because your application wasn't quite as good as others.

I don't think this is entirely true, at least not at every school. I've had some experience with an admissions committee, and once people receive an interview, their performance will be the largest factor determining their admission. Academic performance is still taken into account, but it's much, much more important in the screening process. Once you're through that, academic performance is about 10% of the decision to accept/waitlist/reject. I'm sure this varies school to school, but never discount the importance of interviewing well.

 

[Barcu]

Say that a medical school has decided on the applicants that are going to interview. At this point, is the only consideration for admission based solely on the interview

or

does the admission committee still look the applicants' GPA/MCAT scores and the rest of the application in deciding?

Bolded the correct answer or ya.

Schools weigh the interview differently. But it is safe to say that a good interview is no guarantee of anything.

 

[ucsfstudents]

The school will still look at the whole application, because you are still being compared to other applicants. It helps when you have a good interview because oftentimes they will advocate for you if they really like you. The reverse of that is true. In some schools, if a student interviewer doesn't like you, the chances of you getting an acceptance goes down significantly.

 

[Minaman]

As others have said, the interview process doesn't exactly erase everything before it. However, no school would interview you if you weren't a major consideration for acceptance. For the applying students purposes, you should think of the application as a way to get the interview and the interview the way to get in. This may not always be the case in every school, but if you have that mindset, you are more likely to put focus where it is due and give yourself the best chance.

Also make no mistake, if you were good enough to get interviewed, if you give the worlds best interview and everyone that meets you at the school is impressed by you, you are getting in. Doesn't matter what school it is, if they liked you enough to give you an interview and you impress everyone you meet...you are done. That is why I think it is best the have the mindset I described above.

 

[rhesuspieces]

Also make no mistake, if you were good enough to get interviewed, if you give the worlds best interview and everyone that meets you at the school is impressed by you, you are getting in. Doesn't matter what school it is, if they liked you enough to give you an interview and you impress everyone you meet...you are done. That is why I think it is best the have the mindset I described above.

That's just not the case, though. Often the person who interviews you isn't even on the adcom; he/she simply fills out a form and passes it on. If your interviewer thinks you're God's gift to mankind, awesome, +1 for you...but the people actually making the decisions have never met you, and therefore the awesomeness of your interview is only a tiny fraction of the big picture.

There are plenty of applicants here, myself included, who have had absolutely fantastic interviews and have gotten waitlisted or rejected.

That being said, there are many schools where a stellar interview will guarantee you an acceptance. It's just not that way with every school.

 

[addo]

There are plenty of applicants here, myself included, who have had absolutely fantastic interviews and have gotten waitlisted or rejected.

That being said, there are many schools where a stellar interview will guarantee you an acceptance. It's just not that way with every school.

+1, and im not saying I had the best 2 interviews in the history of med school interviews, but they were pretty damn good. I also think I made a good impression on the rest of the staff, and I got waitlisted 😕.

Id say most of the time, the interview is only a part of the equation post-interview.

 

[Docindhouse]

+1, and im not saying I had the best 2 interviews in the history of med school interviews, but they were pretty damn good. I also think I made a good impression on the rest of the staff, and I got waitlisted 😕.

Id say most of the time, the interview is only a part of the equation post-interview.

Agreed. Remember most final decisions are made by a committe vote. The interviewer is just one person in the equation who can say good things about you. But think about it, if there happens to be so many good interviewees and recommendations, there has to be some way to trim the fat. Which means...going back to GPA, MCAT, EC's etc.

 

[Naquadria]

It also depends on the school. For instance one of the places I interviewed told us that if we had gotten this far our gpa and MCAT now meant very little. They were confident we could academically handle med school and now they were interested if we were the right fit for their school. They said what was important was our essays LORs and interview from that point on. A different place I interviewed at said the exact opposite.

 

[Tippyboat]

It also depends on the school. For instance one of the places I interviewed told us that if we had gotten this far our gpa and MCAT now meant very little. They were confident we could academically handle med school and now they were interested if we were the right fit for their school. They said what was important was our essays LORs and interview from that point on. A different place I interviewed at said the exact opposite.

Yes. At all of my interviews, they came right out and told us exactly how it will proceed from that point on. If you still can't answer this question after an interview, maybe they use a very ambiguous or hard-to-explain process that you couldn't categorize into one of the two in the OP anyway.

 

[Naquadria]

Ironically a school where I had the WORST interview but was super stats oriented (I am qualified but not a 4.0 type) was the one where I ended up getting in. So sometimes it helps to have the interview count for less. My interviewer insulted my work ethic, academic competence and my father's choice of profession... It was all I could do to remain polite. Still not sure how I got in. No complaints though 🙂

 

[Astarael]

Ironically a school where I had the WORST interview but was super stats oriented (I am qualified but not a 4.0 type) was the one where I ended up getting in. So sometimes it helps to have the interview count for less. My interviewer insulted my work ethic, academic competence and my father's choice of profession... It was all I could do to remain polite. Still not sure how I got in. No complaints though 🙂

That sounds like a stress interview. Some schools have their interviewers conduct stressful interviews just to see how people will react. The fact that you remained polite was probably exactly what they were looking for.