Recency Bias for Interviews?

[msm154]

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This is more of a theoretical question/discussion than anything, but I would be interested to hear from adcom/students that are involved with interviews.

Lets say a school meets at the end of the month to go over admission decisions. Would an interviewee that interviewed closer to the end of the month be at an "advantage" since that encounter is fresher in the interviewer's mind compared to some they saw earlier in the month? Now of course if the interview went poorly, I am not sure if this train of thought would still apply since those interactions might stand out more.

I understand that there are notes that the interviewer must often upload and rubrics to fill out, but beyond that, I just feel like if I was interviewing candidates I would be able to talk more at length about the ones I saw a week ago compared to three weeks ago. Any thoughts?

 

[gyngyn]

Would an interviewee that interviewed closer to the end of the month be at an "advantage" since that encounter is fresher in the interviewer's mind compared to some they saw earlier in the month?

There is no such temporal effect, as the committee uses notes from interviews. They do not rely on the interviewer's memory. In fact, the actual interviewer need not be present.

 

[Goro]

There is no such temporal effect, as the committee uses notes from interviews. They do not rely on the interviewer's memory. In fact, the actual interviewer need not be present.

Ditto 1000x

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Some of us meet right after interviews are done. Others have 2 days to submit their interview evaluations. In some MMI/SJT platforms/processes, evaluators get reminders at an annoying frequency until we get their answers.

 

[Tryhj11]

This is more of a theoretical question/discussion than anything, but I would be interested to hear from adcom/students that are involved with interviews.

Lets say a school meets at the end of the month to go over admission decisions. Would an interviewee that interviewed closer to the end of the month be at an "advantage" since that encounter is fresher in the interviewer's mind compared to some they saw earlier in the month? Now of course if the interview went poorly, I am not sure if this train of thought would still apply since those interactions might stand out more.

I understand that there are notes that the interviewer must often upload and rubrics to fill out, but beyond that, I just feel like if I was interviewing candidates I would be able to talk more at length about the ones I saw a week ago compared to three weeks ago. Any thoughts?

As noted above, the interviewers are not necessarily on the admissions committee. They provide notes to adcom members who ultimately make a decision. Interviewers make their notes the day of, or the day after an interview (usually) so their decisions are not affected by any primacy/recency bias.

The lack of transparency in the med school application process really makes people think/say the weirdest things. Not your fault...

 

[msm154]

Thank you all for the responses and clarification! It was not a scenario I was worried about but more so just a thought that popped into my head so glad to hear some other viewpoints.