Time Commitment for Interviewing

[dougmd]

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Hey nontrads,

Quick intro: I'm 27 and finishing my prereqs while I work as a medical assistant in a clinic at my state university. I am planning on applying this summer and interviewing in the fall. My #1 choice is the local university as it is very well regarded. But I plan to apply broadly as I know my stats are reasonable but not exceptional.

My question is this... I work 9-5 M-F. I will have a fair number of vacation days stockpiled by this fall, although with the way my clinic runs, it's not always trivial to take time off. I am curious, what are the realistic time demands of being on the med school interview trail?

I imagine I'll apply to 10-20 schools and hope to get interviews at 5-10. A few Q's:
- Do med school interviews ever happen on the weekend?
- How long is a typical interview trip? Have you had any success lining up multiple interviews in the same trip?
- How far in advance did you find out your interview dates?
- Is there ever any flexibility in choosing your date or is it typically pretty firm?

I guess that's it unless you have any other advice... Thanks for the help!

 

[canjosh]

1) Never had any on the weekend, but always at the end of the week. Thursday or Friday for me.

2) If it's out of town, you will probably arrive the evening before and then leave in the afternoon after the day is over. Some schools have social events in the evenings that are optional.

3) Usually 2-4 weeks notice, variable.

4) Usually there is flexibility, except at the end of the interview season (obviously).

 

[NTF]

Interviews are usually a whole or at least a 1/2 day affair as they usually have a bunch of presentations (fin aid, school intro, meeting current med students, etc) and a tour.

But if you get offered interviews from schools that are close to each other you can give them a "I'm going to be in town such and such a date, can I reschedule my interview the day after/before?" call. Most schools will try to accommodate you if then can. They understand that airfare etc can get steep for students.
I've even heard people getting an interview decision out of schools that way saying, "I applied to your school. I'm interviewing at school X. Is there a possibility of an interview decision? Because I'd love to interview at your school while I'm in town."

As far as weekend interviews, I've never heard of a school doing them. Admissions offices are just that - offices - so they have typical M-F work weeks, ie no weekends.

But as far as dilemmas go, having trouble scheduling interviews because you have too many is one I'm sure you'll be happy to have.

Best of luck.

 

[MiniMoo]

I've heard of 1 or 2 schools conducting weekend interviews, but this is extremely rare. My interviews have all been from M-F.

For all of my interviews that were out of state, I flew in the evening before and flew out after my interview day was completed. Each interview pretty much took up 2 days, although if the interview fell on a Monday, it would only be 1 day of work or class that I was missing since I would fly in on Sunday. I had 12 interviews and only had success with lining 1 up with another one in the same state. This is because schools all go at a different pace with reviewing applications. I got one interview in NY in the month of October only to get 2 more interviews to NY in December. The schools do try to accommodate you when they can, but unfortunately sometimes this just isn't possible. But definitely notify schools if you are going to be in the area. It can't hurt. It can only help, and they understand the need to save money and travel time.

All of my interviews were scheduled at least 3 weeks in advance. I would say 4-6 weeks is typical, with some schools giving shorter 2-3 week notices. But if you need to push back an interview date, it isn't typically a problem if you notify them ahead of time.

Dates are flexible. Some schools assign you a date and if it doesn't work for you, you just call them back to reschedule. Other schools give you a few dates to choose from. But keep in mind that many schools are rolling, so the sooner you interview, the better your chances of acceptance.