Timeline for interviewing

[ticktock5051]

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Hey all,

I was hoping I could get some insight into how the interview process works for med schools. I graduated college last year and now work full time. Since I'm a new employee I don't have many vacation days and am worried about being able to take time off to make interviews.

Can you guys explain the timing of these? Do they happen on weekends? Weekdays? A mix? I know that some schools will sometimes have three days every month where each day dozens of students come for interviews and a tour. Can you just enlighten me into how to plan for this?

Thanks!

 

[miamiheatfan]

It is scattered to be honest, I finished my secondaries between mid-July and mid-August, and sometimes I received interview invites in september for October, I received an invite in November for December, and I even received a interview invite in February more than 6 months after submitting my secondary.

Most interviews are during the week, I noticed Friday is a popular day in particular, but that is school dependent. There really isn’t a way to plan in my opinion. If you get all of your secondaries done in July, you will likely get interview invites for September-November. The best way is to finish your secondaries early, if you’re lucky and you get multiple II’s at the same time, you can try to plan them in a 3 week period or something. But interviewing is very tiring and you do not want to have back to back to back interviews for example.

 

[ticktock5051]

Thanks for the feedback. What are II's by the way? Is that different than a secondary application?

[QUOTE=" if you’re lucky and you get multiple II’s at the same time, you can try to plan them in a 3 week period or something. But interviewing is very tiring and you do not want to have back to back to back interviews for example.[/QUOTE]

 

[gyngyn]

Thanks for the feedback. What are II's by the way? Is that different than a secondary application?

Interview Invitations.

 

[Inventor of Post-Its]

None of mine were offered on weekends, all weekdays - but I could always schedule them for a Monday so I only had to take one day off work. I was also usually only able to schedule them for a month or more in advance, so being able to request days off sufficiently in advance shouldn't be a problem. I had a research job which was pretty flexible, so your experience may vary, but so many people work while applying to medical school that I can't imagine it being a huge problem.

 

[eternelle]

I only had one interview on a Saturday, but I still had to miss work on Friday to fly out. Most are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. For most people, Monday interviews are the best because then you only have to miss work on Monday. Friday interviews are ok if you live fairly close to the school, but otherwise you might have to miss Thursday and Friday.

Some schools allow you to choose your interview day, while others assign you an interview day (although they tend to be understanding if you need to reschedule). In my experience, the schools that assign you an interview day give you very short notice (less than 2 weeks, etc.) If you feel comfortable with it, tell your boss that you are applying to medical school this year and you may have to miss days or reschedule to interview. Some bosses are actually pretty great.

This process is extremely variably and hard to predict. If you are lucky, you will get accepted to your top choice in October and you won't have to miss that many days of work. If you are like me, you will miss about two weeks of work between September and February, and you will get accepted in April. Plan for the worst.

 

[gracekelly530]

Hey all,

I was hoping I could get some insight into how the interview process works for med schools. I graduated college last year and now work full time. Since I'm a new employee I don't have many vacation days and am worried about being able to take time off to make interviews.

Can you guys explain the timing of these? Do they happen on weekends? Weekdays? A mix? I know that some schools will sometimes have three days every month where each day dozens of students come for interviews and a tour. Can you just enlighten me into how to plan for this?

Thanks!

I was in a similar situation in that I had limited days off and my boss was not flexible in letting me go whenever. For the schools I applied to, none offered II's on the weekend. Many had policies of only interviewing Tu-Th, which was a huge pain because I had to travel about 5 hours each way for all of them, which meant multiple days off.

Have you told your boss you're applying to med school? Do you have an option to work from home so that traveling doesn't automatically require an extra day off? Is taking unpaid time off, if necessary, and option?

I saved up vacation days starting in January for my fall interviews. Don't plan on taking any "true" vacation days until you've received your first acceptance. My boss knew I was applying but it was not a work environment where med school apps were common. My back up plan was to take unpaid time off for interviews if I ran out of PTO. I was extremely lucky and got a December acceptance, which allowed me to cancel some interviews and not need to take unpaid time off. My only advice is save those days early and often, try to group interviews together so that you minimize travel days, and take as many half days (rather than full days) as possible. Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me.