This is just what DS heard from another premed, so it is purely anecdotal. That premed said he heard about this from an adcom. This adcom said if he is required to sit there and hear another interviewee talking non-stop about his research, he really can not tolerate it anymore. This is because he has heard so much about research as an interviewer every week. He would rather talk about something else.</p>
<p>Another topic that becomes dull very quickly these days, according to that premed, is global health (which was a very good topic to talk about just a couple of years ago.) This is because so many interviewees are talking about this now.</p>
<p>Honestly, most interviewers, especially if they’re MD’s, aren’t going to give a crap about your research. If you have publications and presentations, they’ll assume you are a standout researcher. If you have no pubs, then they’ll assume you are like the other 90% of premeds. A nephrologist interviewing you is not going to care about the research you did on some esoteric gene in transgenic mice.</p>
<p>I have been having a very similar experience during my interviews. Academics have barely been discussed, and that includes my research. The topics of conversation have been my essays, my hobbies and my non medical life interests. Some schools have asked the typical ethical questions, the “why” medicine and “why” us. Nothing out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>More than ever, I am convinced the schools have a pre-interview decision (acceptance or not) about the candidates. With the interview, they want to make sure you are articulate, able to hold a conversation, respect authority by presenting yourself professionally, and are essentially “normal”.</p>
<p>That’s kinda sad, as the adcom should be able to direct the topics of discussion at the interview lol.</p>
<p>I tend to not ask about interviewees’ research unless its something that sounds interesting to me (which is not often haha). And acadmics are pretty much never brought up - all of that is stuff we know already. I’ve stared at your AMCAS for long enough thank you - I want to talk to you about other things to make sure you understand what you’re getting into and actually want to do it and have actually thought about issues relevant to your future profession. And since I was a philosophy major, I love to ask ethical questions, just to see how people think. A bit of advice in case you do get an ethical question - come up with a reasonable position, and then defend it! Don’t flip-flop at the first sign of a challenge.</p>
<p>DS once told us that in many humanity classes, just like you said, it is all about “coming up with a reasonable position, and then defend it.” The quality of your argument is what counts. It is not easy to come up with a good argument in front of the professor who has been doing this for life and has heard many many excellent arguments in the past. (BTW, One of DS’s close friends is a philosophy major.)</p>
<p>Change the topic:
I learned from somewhere (on CC or SDN) that, after March 15 (or some date close to this date), if a school has admitted you, that school can find out from amcas which other schools you have been admitted into.</p>
<p>What if a school wait-lists you by that date? (I learned from last year’s thread that some school seems to wait-list a lot more of applicants than other schools do.) Can this school still look up all the other schools you have been admitted to? If they are allowed to do that, will they hand-pick those applicants who they think may have a higher probability to go there based on the info?</p>
<p>Some schools seem to announce their admittance as late as they could, for whatever reason it may be. Why is that? There are some very good reasons: they want to interview as many applicants as they can, and they do not want to be “unfair” to the applicants who happen to apply late. I just wonder if there is any other reason for a school to choose to do this.</p>
<p>I can understand why some schools want to announce their admittances early (similar to the reason why some colleges choose to have EA in college application.) But the late-admission thing is beyond my understanding.</p>
<p>Well, some interviewers are not shy about asking you directly which schools you have been interviewed at or have been admitted into, or even ask you why you would like to apply to these other schools in the first place, and what your impression about these other schools when you interviewed there. they really “probe” you.</p>
<p>I think the date is actually May 15, after which schools can find out what other acceptances you are holding. This is of course to make sure you are not holding multiple acceptances after May 15 (which you are not supposed to). Even if it’s March 15th, it still won’t matter since the vast majority of med schools finish their regular-admissions season before March 15th. Any admits after march 15 will be from the waitlist. I don’t think schools can find out if you are simply on their waitlist.</p>
<p>There are reasons to have early and late admissions. If you are one of the late-admitters (which are mostly top med schools), you can take a look at all of the applicants before making the final decision as to who to admit. This ensures that only the most worthy applicants are admitted. The risk for the school is that if your yield is especially high or low one year, you won’t have much time to adjust.</p>
<p>Most med schools admit throughout the entire application season. Based on the % of admits who choose to reserve a spot, they can tailor their admissions practices on an ongoing basis in order to meet their target class size. However, most of these schools tend to run out of spots early so they won’t necessarily be able to offer acceptances to great applicants late and may lose those applicants.</p>
<p>“More than ever, I am convinced the schools have a pre-interview decision (acceptance or not) about the candidates”
-Agree. As long as one is not complete antisocial hermit, it should be OK. I felt the same duing D’s round of interviews for combined bs/md prorams 4 years ago.</p>
<p>I was wondering if people who have previously gone through this process can comment on what they would do for students placed on continued lists/watlists, etc. </p>
<p>I know it’s often school dependent but would you agree that it is better to err on the side of overly contacting rather than silence? I figure a combination of update letters and letters of interest is ideal? Any advice for those who previously went through the application process is appreciated.</p>
<p>jma, I am not qualified or experienced enough to give you any suggestion. But I heard that for SOME medical schools, almost 40 percents of its class are from the waitlist. That is, unlike college admission, the waitlist is more heavily relied on to build its class.</p>
<p>I wonder whether this rumor is true. If this is true, an analogy for a student who is admitted to a school via the wait list is like buying a coach class ticket to take the same flight: he just boards the plane somewhat later than a passenger who buys a first class ticket and is on board earlier.</p>
<p>If this rumor is true, do we know which medical school makes more extensive use of its wait list?</p>
<p>jma,
I imagine that it depends if you have other acceptances. D. has few acceptances while she was WL’d at another school and yet one other is keeping her “under review”. Since she has acceptances, she is not planning to do anything about last two. She is also still going to interviews. It might be different from school to school. While one might give you credit for expressing more interest, another one might treat it as lack of patience. It is so personal, you need to go with your gut feeling on this one.</p>
<p>Maybe NCG can provide more insight into this, but my assumption has always been that highly desirable medical schools like Harvard and JHU don’t dip far into their waitlist, while lesser known schools like Medical College of Georgia must go much further into the list to fill the class.</p>
<p>While I assume Shades is right, in general medical schools use their waitlists VERY extensively. On the other hand, they also put a TON of kids on the waitlist in the first place (generally everybody who interviews is placed on the waitlist if not accepted).</p>
<p>Medical schools are very small organizations and medical students are unbelievably expensive. That means they have to hit their targets pretty precisely but also have a hard time making predictions with a small “sample” size. So the waitlist game becomes very important.</p>
<p>I think use of the waitlist varies greatly from year to year. In general, schools try to be conservative and admit as few students through regular decision as possible and then just round out their class with the waitlist. But, there are times when a med school underestimates even via regular decision and end up overenrolling (and not use the waitlist at all) as University of Michigan SOM did a few years ago.</p>
<p>Mizzou’s admissions director told us that about 40% of the class comes from the waitlist. Mizzou admits 104 M1s (need that particular number for the curriculum) and places 104 on the waitlist. </p>
<p>A reliable Mayo source (he’s the chief resident there) told me that 30-40% of the class comes from the waitlist, which roughly jives with the numbers quoted to me from the admissions office (that about 75 acceptances are offered to fill a class of 50).</p>
<p>Both schools do not officially place students on the waitlist until March when they have offered enough acceptances to theoretically fill the class. Between interview and March, an applicant is reevaluated at each [meeting of the adcom]. If other schools work like this too, perhaps that’s another benefit to interviewing early–the chance to be evaluated numerous times.</p>
<p>Since both schools are small, they place a huge emphasis on building the class with a wide range of individuals. To achieve this, they avoid ranking applicants on the waitlist in favor of selecting an applicant similar to the one who turned down the acceptance to fill the open spot.</p>
<p>Just my experience so far. No idea how/if that helps any of you!</p>
<p>Thanks- definitely helps. Although the situations I am referring to are more along the line of continued review rather than being placed on a waitlist that isn’t looked at till late after the regulation period of the game ends.</p>
From the 2009-2010 thread, I learned (if I remember it correctly) that this school put almost everybody into WL last year. DS decided against applying there because of this “rumor.”</p>
<p>DS heard some conflicting information about the location of this school. Some said it is good, but some said it is not so good. I am talking about the surrounding area, not about the quality of the school.</p>
<p>^D. has applied because it met her criteria being within 5 hour drive from home. That’s how she choose all of her schools. This criteria seems to be working for her. She did not mention anything about area, medical students are living in apartments on campus from what I understand.</p>
<p>The caliber of this set of interviewees was remarkable. To think that I would be considered in the ranks with the rest of them is quite flattering. They have done some very impressive things. I must admit, it was intimidating at the beginning–but after getting to know some of them, it’s clear that they’re “normal” college kids too, and I could really see myself going to school with them next year.</p>
<p>Any ideas for dealing with intimidating situations like these?</p>
<p>Panel interviews are a strange thing, but Northwestern clearly knows what they’re doing. Overall, I think it went quite well, and I can’t think of anything that stands out as “boy, I wish I would have done that differently.” Good luck to everyone else!</p>
<p>Glad the Northwestern interview went well, kristin! The fact that you are interviewing with all those impressive kids means that YOU are one of them. There is no need for you to feel intimidated. I am heading to my Stanford Multiple Mini Interviews this week end, so I will see what that is all about. To be honest, I am only going because it is “Stanford” and I have never been to the west coast. I think I am pretty set on Hopkins at this point, but it is kind of fun to be able to travel some to new places… (as long as my good ol’ parents keep paying for it… I owe them big!)</p>
I owe them big!)</p>