Five Interviews

[pa2b2019]

I have attended five interviews so far and received four waitlist decisions and one rejection. Is this a bad sign? Would anyone else like to share their experiences with interviews so far (good or bad)?  

[pa2b2019]

The "what if" scenario is killing me. This process has been very stressful for me but I see so many that have been accepted to a few programs so far. 

[hmtpnw]

With this many interviews you must look good on paper, but to have no acceptances at this point something in your interview skills may be lacking.

What did you do to prepare for interviews? 

[pa2b2019]

I thought that might be the case as well so I recently purchased How to "ACE" the physician assistant school interview book. Prior to the book I researched questions online and practiced mock interviews with others. 

[otterpop]

Where all have you applied? Could it be that all of the programs are just very competitive? 

[hmtpnw]

41 minutes ago, pa2b2019 said:

I thought that might be the case as well so I recently purchased How to "ACE" the physician assistant school interview book. Prior to the book I researched questions online and practiced mock interviews with others. 

I think the biggest piece is getting valuable feedback and critiques on responses. If you’re just practicing with other applicants you won’t necessarily get that. 

I think the book is a good start. It may give you a better idea of how to formulate responses. 

Does your university offer mock interviews? If not maybe it’s worthwhile to utilize a paid service? Just a few things to consider. 

[Ollivander]

1 hour ago, hmtpnw said:

With this many interviews you must look good on paper, but to have no acceptances at this point something in your interview skills may be lacking.

What did you do to prepare for interviews? 

I think it depends. Some schools interview ~200 students for 25-40 spots. If it were a larger class size of 70-100 I would agree with you, but let's say a handful of the schools consist of ~30 students per class. Just because you look good enough to qualify for the interview, you could ace the interview and still get waitlisted because you're competing again 199 other people for one of 30 spots. The statistics on paper could have been the reason for the waitlist, not the interview. It's really difficult to say what the issue is until you really break each school down.

[hmtpnw]

19 minutes ago, Ollivander said:

I think it depends. Some schools interview ~200 students for 25-40 spots. If it were a larger class size of 70-100 I would agree with you, but let's say a handful of the schools consist of ~30 students per class. Just because you look good enough to qualify for the interview, you could ace the interview and still get waitlisted because you're competing again 199 other people for one of 30 spots. The statistics on paper could have been the reason for the waitlist, not the interview. It's really difficult to say what the issue is until you really break each school down.

I think that this is true when you’re looking at an individual interview. But if you’re waitlisted/rejected for every program you have interviewed at, it seems to me that there is a trend there. I would think that it’s more likely to be related to interview skills and not stats.

[Lizli1]

Wow five interview is awesome! You obviously look great on paper! Hopefully one of those waitlists will turn into an acceptance! Your waitlists are likely due to your interview skills as you obviously have the stats to get into Pa school based on the number of interviews you were offered. Not sure if you've tried a mock interview but I know this helped me and was worth the money! I have attended three interviews at this point with two acceptances and one waitlist. I have a couple more interviews still to go. I prepared by reading "How to ACE the Physician Assistant school interview", I did a mock interview with a PA and studied up on each schools mission and made sure I had solid answers for why I wanted to go to whichever school it was.  Once you make it to the interview they just want to see your personality and make sure you are a good fit for their program... also make sure you know yourself, what you bring to a cohort, and your application inside and out! 

[nycpas2019]

i've had 2 interviews so far and waitlisted at them both, and have 2 more interviews to go (so far) and been just trying not to let my nerves get to me leading up to these because for my first interview at least I was so stressed and think I let that get to me.  I too have been stressing about this wondering if this is a bad thing and if i'm missing something.  Getting an interview in the first place is such a big feat in this PA school application process so I wouldn't doubt yourself at all.  Clearly if there was a red flag about you as a future PA they wouldn't even consider you as someone they would want on their waitlist.  I have heard many stories of people getting off of the waitlist so there is definitely still hope for you.  I think confidence and personality is what makes applicants shine during an interview, and while it's hard not to compare yourself and let your nerves get to you on that interview day, you need to show that after all these years of hard work leading you up to that day this is what you were meant to do and let them see that!