While I am procrastinating studying for my last OChem medterm (uuuggghh).
My sister got accepted to medical school without an interview, presumably because she worked in the lab of someone on the admissions committee for a couple years. However, I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone else.
So I’m curious: Do folks ever get accepted to medical school without an interview if they are unknown to an adcom? Has it happened to anyone here?
Thanks,
Erica
I’ve never heard of anyone accepted to an American medical school without an interview. This doesn’t mean that it’s never happened, but I certainly have never heard of it. Over the years, I’ve applied to quite a few schools and all require the interview – both allopathic and osteopathic.
I can’t imagine it. I think of the first rule of personnel: First hire no … um… jerks. I would think the same way when filling my med school classes, and I don’t know how you’d do that without an interview.
In a few cases, pre-meds from protected post-bac programs or other programs associated with the school can be accepted without interview, essentially because someone is already vouching for the person in question. This is very rare and should be more so.
best regards
joe
Although I guess it is hypothetically possible, I have never heard a legit claim nor do I think it should be a permissible route to acceptance. There is so much about med school & becoming a physician that are intangible & unmeasureable on paper, I fear such a system would be a disaster.
KCOM, my alma mater, has one of those protected alliances w/ Truman State Univ - but they still have to undergo the interviewing process, albeit in a different context than with standard applicants. Anecdotally, I also agree w/ Joe Wright that such programs should become less common. Yes, I have limited experience w/ them, but what I saw definitely was undewhelming. Folks admitted after only 3 years of Ugrad, even though only 1 year younger, appeared significantly less mature & therefore less capable of coping w/ the rigorous academics & level of stress assoc w/ med school. During my tenure, I think KCOM was taking 4 to 6/class year. It seemed that a large number of them had to take punitive 5th-years (essentially extending the first 2 years into 3 for getting into grade problems) & several of them eventually lfunked out. For my class year, there were 2 that had 5th-yeared into my class & 4 new ones admitted. None of the ones who 5th-yeared into my class made it & 2 of the 4 that started with me also flunked out. OTOH, the two that did make it were very sharp, did very well in school, have gone on to secure competitive residencies & are doing quite well in them.
In my mind, the ones who make it were sufficiently strong that they would have made no matter what their point of entry was. Sadly, the ones who did not make it did not appear to succumb to their academic inabilities, but more to an incapacity to handle the environment, stresses & make the mature (sometimes much tougher) choices.
Of course, that is purely my opinion - for what it is worth.
This gibes with my experience hiring personnel. I’ve learned to drag out interviews as long as possible. Around the second hour, people let down their hair and their real personalities come out. You can really get a better sense of what makes them tick. We had one guy interviewing for a technical spot, and towards the end of the interview I brought up the “naive users”–people who, say, can never remember how to change their password.
This is always a great opportunity for people to talk about how they tactfully cope with “naive users”–if they write special instructions for them, the point at which they just smile and do it for them–I learn a lot about people’s interpersonal skills this way. This one genius said, and I quote, "Yeah, some people are just a
es".
Impressions in an interview aren't always this black and white, but I always learn something critical, and I can't imagine making an important decision like med school admissions without that information.