question about student-led interviews

Started by drbrandiux
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drbrandiux

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For those of you who had two interviews (one led by a student and the other one led by a staff), how much does the student-led interview influence whether you get get an admissions letter to the program? Is this interview solely to calm the applicant before going into the staff-led interview or does it actually count in their decisions?
 
drbrandiux said:
For those of you who had two interviews (one led by a student and the other one led by a staff), how much does the student-led interview influence whether you get get an admissions letter to the program? Is this interview solely to calm the applicant before going into the staff-led interview or does it actually count in their decisions?
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Mostly they are there so you can ask questions and stay calm before and after your interview.
 
The input from a “peer” may or may not influence an acceptance, but you can bet on a negative impact if he/she is treated with contempt.
 
It really depends on the school. At mine, there are students on the admissions team which means their vote on an applicant counts just as much as the faculty on the committee.

However, student interviewers are usually on your side and just want to gauge if they can see you being one of their classmates.
 
Anecdotal obviously, but at Ohio State you sit down at 4 different tables a few minutes at a time, 2 with students and 2 with Professors. I felt like my interaction at the first student table was really weird and awkward and definitely felt like the student interviewer was the source, they made it difficult to carry on a normal conversation and just weren't easy to interact with, unlike the vast majority of pretty much everyone else on the interview circuit. (I fully admit that I performed poorly in a couple of my other interviews and they felt completely different from this one.) I thought that things went really well with the other student table and with the professors, but wasn't accepted. I still suspect that the first one had some negative notes which tanked me. Take it with a grain of salt, but if they're allowing students to be a part of the actual interview, they're definitely going to take their impressions into account.
 
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