Short interviews, good or bad?

[sundevil1]

I just got back from an interview where most people say each interview takes about 1 hour or a little longer. My interviewer was almost thirty minutes late and my interview was only then a half hour long. Are short interviews a good or bad sign? He may have had somewhere to go, he only let me ask two question and immediately went into the nice to meet you ending. He may just have been really busy and could have had somewhere else he needed to be but do I have a fair shot if my interview was only half the normal length. thanks in advance.

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[nebula7]

I don't think it's necessarily bad that it was short; that might have been all the time that person needed to get to know you. The same thing happened to me at an interview last yr, and the person who took the least amount of time (~20 min)gave me an almost perfect score. It was the other interviewer that rated me low (didn't get in, consequently). BUT the dean of the school told me to let him know if I felt rushed in my next interview, and he would take care of it. If you don't feel good about it, maybe you could talk to someone at the school to find out if you were given a fair shot.Good luck!

 

[alice]

i wouldn't worry about length - unless you felt the interview went poorly. if you were unsatisfied, definitely contact the school! if you think you'll get rejected because of a bad interview, what do you have to lose. some schools (einstein, eg) really encourage this. others probably don't allow it, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

but don't do this based purely on length. a friend of the family does interviewing and he said that he usually knows within the first 5-10 minutes how he feels about a candidate. quality, not quantity. if your interview went well enough, your bugging them could shed a bad light on your app.

 

[E'01]

One of my interviews lasted 8-10 minutes.... terribly upsetting. How can such a monumental decision be partly based on knowing me for 8 minutes?? I take more time that that just picking what outfit to wear in the mornings!

Alice, one of my interviewers told me the same thing- that he can tell after 5 minutes. Hmm maybe I just really really really impressed the above guy and so he felt that was all the time he needed with me! I wish

 

[sundevil1]

Thanks for all of the info and responses. I don't know if it went good or bad. He said a few things at the end which made me feel I did good, but I've heard it before and been waitlisted so I don't use it as any sort of indicator. I guess we'll see how it went when I hear back from the school.

 

[irongirl]

I wouldn't worry about the length. My very first interview, which was at Tulane, didn't last more than 10 minutes. My second one there didn't last more than 20 minutes. Two weeks later I had an acceptance letter from them. I was sure they hated me until that letter showed up in my mailbox. So, no worries, hope for the best.

 

[westsidespartan]

I have the same worries about my interview at Iowa. Although they only schedule 25 minutes per person, mine was only ~15 minutes. I hope it wasn't detrimental, because I REALLY liked it there.

 

[jase133]

when i interviewed last year, my short interview ended up as a rejection letter

 

[westsidespartan]

Originally posted by jase133:
•when i interviewed last year, my short interview ended up as a rejection letter•••

Where was that?

 

[Dr. Kermit]

I was in and out of my Temple interview in 15 minutes. I was accepted exactly a month later. Good luck.

 

[PunkRockDoc]

Don't worry too much about it. I had an interview that lasted 15 min, and I got accepted. Other people's interviews at the same school were about an hour, but with different interviewers. Other people who interviewed with the same guy had short interview's also.

Don't hesitate to contact the school and ask questions. Better yet, contact your interviewer and ask him some more questions, or ask if there is someone he can refer you to for more information.

Good luck!

 

[idiot]

Okay, so what about a really long interview? My first interview at the first school I interviewed at lasted 2 hours! We were told they would take about .5 hr; I missed lunch completely.

 

[E'01]

I had one interview that went over an hour...oh well at the end he told me, "where else are you applying". After he finished guessing all the schools I had applied to, he told me there was no way I would accept their school if they were to take me. Then after telling him I was thinking of surgery (he had also though about doing that, but opted for PhD instead) we chit-chatted on that. 5 minutes later, he told me "this school is focused on pimary care and we make sure we do that with heavy admission screening"...he just had to repeat that TWO more times to me. That interview was like 10 weeks ago - and I've heard nothing. I am convinced that interview length means nothing.

 

[idiot]

I might add that after a total of 15 individual interviews at 7 schools, the interview I mentioned above ranks as my personal worst. I agree, length isn't very important.

 

[mma]

I think it is difficult to gauge how good/bad an interview is based on the length of time said interview took. It depends on a whole slew of factors.

1. The phenomenon of the "psycho" pile. The "psycho" pile is a pile of candidates that adcoms set aside for acceptance unless at their interviews they appear to be immature, rude, uncouth or otherwise inappropriate. These "psycho" pile interviews run differently and can be very, very short, as once it is established that the "psycho" candidate is acceptable, the "psycho" candidate is accepted. At Tufts the Dean of Admissions discussed this a little--he said that some interviews just have a weird feel about them, questions seems a little off-topic, etc., and that often this means that the interviewer already knows where the candidate falls...

2. Personality connection. Say you discover that your interviewer spent six months of his/her life living in what you consider to be the most wonderful place in the world. You will have plenty to discuss with said interviewer, which may end up making the interview very, very long. This is good because, well, you have connected with the interviewer. But although a personal connection such as this makes things easier, is not necessary. Furthermore, real personal connections can only develop when the interviewer has enough time to just sit around and chat.

3. The busy doctor. Most times, I would say, interviews that are short are so because the interviewer is busy. They may be seeing patients, they may be running late after dropping their kids off at school. Life tends to get in the way of tasks, you know?

So, what I would say is, don't stress about short interviews. Chances are that the interviewer's time got eaten up by something else. (I personally hate short interviews--I feel there is no substantial amount of time to, I guess, let the interviewer know who I am. This is why schools that schedule 1/2 hour interview sessions make me nuts. Conversations should flow as they flow, you know?) The fact that the interviewer can only give you 10 minutes is not your fault or any reflection of inadequacy on your behalf (unless you walk in insulting the guy or picking your nose or something--that's not good ).

And, remember, 10 minutes with an interview is better than none. That's 10 whole minutes to show the interviewer just how awesome you really are!

Good luck with interviews, everybody!

mma

 

[jase133]

my short interview = rejection was at canadian med schools. i think in canada there is this thought that longer is better. it is probably different in the states

 

[aqua]

my first interview was VERY short--the interviewer hadn't read my file, was late, and spent the whole time leafing through it and asking questions about where i lived, went to school, etc.--nothing very interesting--and then shooed me out in about 10 minutes!! it was pretty awkward, and he acknowledged that....and then i got in 10 days later. my temple interview was short, too, and resulted in thumbs up---so i wouldn't worry about length as long as the content was pretty positive/neutral. complaining could be interpreted badly by the school...good luck, though!

 

[E'01]

aqua - sounds like one of my interview experiences! Congrats on the acceptance You've given me hope

 

[UCLA2000]

It's not the length of the interview....it's the motion of the discussion
..had to go there..sorry

Ok that being said, during my interview at Tulane my interviewer and I clicked. The whole interview was around 15 min long, and after the first 10 minutes he told me that he was going to recommend that they accept me immediately. I literally had my interviewer laughing his a$$ off during the entire interview, and we barely talked about medicine.

Think about the last time you met someone at a party...you were able to size them up pretty quickly. Within 5 minutes you knew whether or not you ever wanted to see this person again, and you knew what you wanted to relationship with the person to be. It's the same thing with interviews. The interviewers are able to size you up in the same fashion.