by Bhageerathi Ganesan
Ahhh, interviews: the bogeyman of college admissions. By now, I’m sure many of you are familiar with alumni interviews. What I’m offering you, however, is insight into some other interview styles that you may encounter.
Shall we begin?
To start, let’s establish what an alumni interview is and how it works. An alumni interview:
- Is with, of course, an alum of the school
- Is chiefly intended to be a conversation. The alum will try to learn about you by a) asking you about what you and/or b) asking you about your opinions on a subject you mentioned in the conversation. This isn’t to judge you as a person or your views, but rather to see if you can take a nuanced position on a topic that interests you. One of my alumnus interviewers asked me, for example, since I was interested in public health, my thoughts on the biggest public health issue facing us and how I, as an undergraduate, would get involved in trying to find solutions to that problem.
- Is chiefly meant to gauge you and the impact you will have in that school, on your peers, your prospective department, and in advancing the school as a whole.
An elite program/major interview, however, differs on point 3: the purpose of this interview is to determine whether or not you are suitable for the program with respect to its mission and defining goals. The two most common types of interviews you will run into here are the panel interview and the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) - premeds, take note of the MMI, as it is done in all Canadian medical schools and is increasing in popularity in US med schools, BS/MD programs, and undergraduate interview-only majors.
Here are some tips to ensure you ace these types of interviews:
- Be presentable. First impressions do matter. Business formal = NOT optional.
- Be informed. These types of interviews do evaluate your knowledge of the domain you hope to study, so ensure that you have a basic understanding of the subject. Likewise, don’t be afraid to say that you don’t know the answer to something and that you will have to look into it; interviewers will appreciate the fact that you are willing to accept that you don’t know it all.
- Be coherent. I’m against scripting practiced answers, but when preparing, jot down notes and organize them into a sequence; that way, when you speak, your interviewer will be able to understand your thinking. This will also avert any “word salad” situations. And always, feel free to pause for a few seconds before launching into the topic.
- For panel interviews: Always be prepared with questions for the panel, and consider what each panel member does in the school as well. This is often how research connections are made! Capitalize on this, taking note of the panel members’ names, professions/domains, and chief areas of interest. This way, you can find their contact information later on to contact them about assistantships or shadowing opportunities
- For the MMI: Ethical and medical-related questions are always common and vital. A plethora of resources to prepare for this are available across the internet, particularly on College Confidential threads for BS/MD applicants. USE THEM.
- And lastly: Be genuine. The interviewer needs to see the fire in you, i.e. your desire to be a part of this program, a passionate love for the subject, and a willingness to share your knowledge and passion with the rest of your cohort. Often, it is your passion that will make you succeed in the interview, as it shows that you know you belong in that program. As a funny Tamil song once said, “Even a crow can become a peacock” (i.e. the best crow can outshine even a peacock by its efforts).
- Oh, and thank you notes: NOT OPTIONAL.
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