Chances of Getting Accepted After Interview

[Barty]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here...

Anyone know what sort of chances you have of getting an offer after interview?

I had my interview yesterday and I already know people with offers from there.

Looks pretty cool there though.

[2009?]

Hii there

How do you feel your interview went?

I found these stats on the Bristol website... they were for entry in 2007 so 2 years ago but i suppose it can't change that much from year to year-

HOME
fee-payers Applications Interviews Offers Places available
A100 2700 720 379 216

[Barty]

Ah cool so I suppose it's roughly 50% then.

I think it went alright, but I was right at the end of the day which was a bit annoying because I went on the morning tour so ended up having to wait for about 5 hours..

How long did it take you to get your offer?

[2009?]

Yeah, I'm not sure where I read it but i read somwhere that they give offers to one third of interviewees quickly, then one third are put on a waiting list within a few weeks for further consideration and the rest are rejected within a few weeks.

Sounds pretty similar to my experience at Bristol, I was at 3:50 so i had ages to wait after the tour which i found quite pointless. What did you think about it?

It took 6 days I think and I found out through track, then a letter came a few days later. It was the most nerve-wracking time of my life between seeing the email notification coming up on MSN and actually logging into track.

[jlapping]

Interesting offers-to-places ratio, though I'd be interested to see a link to the original source for those numbers.

So you're a uni. You evaluate a ton of UCAS forms. You separate wheat from chaff, then invite the wheat, then interview them, then reply with offers.

But no, because you know that some will drop out of your interview when their first choices accept them, or when they get an unconditional offer from SomeUni and can't resist the temptation of accepting so they can hit the bar knowing they're medics and start the liver abuse early. Your interview period might run like this: decide what questions to ask this particular candidate; interview; argue for a week or so; make offers; repeat. So you probably invite the candidates you really like (on the basis of their UCAS forms) first, in the hope that they'll drop other interviews having passed yours. (Of course, you don't want students to know that their interview date reveals how keen you are on them, so on your website you suggest that all interview slots are equal.) Interview slots have times on them, so you can't allocate them in the EasyJet style, overbooking some flights in the hope that predicted latecomers are indeed late. So, instead, knowing the patterns from years gone by, you don't reveal interview dates until near the time. Some will confirm. Those already holding offers from PopularUni will never reply. Two weeks or so before the session, you check how full the day is, and send out another invitation to fill the holes.

You could of course fill the odd slot with a replacement if the original candidate calls to cancel, but this is likely the exception rather than the rule, because honestly, as a candidate what's in it for you to take the time to cancel your interview at OtherUni when you know you're into BestUni unconditionally?

And it's not quite as simple as sorting wheat from chaff, because you need some chaff set aside for when all the wheat accept their offers from FavoriteUni. So you have to make the wheat/chaff decision based on numbers, not quality.

I was there Weds 14th, and I think I overheard them say they'd lost quite a few candidates because Oxbridge had sent out (a large chunk of) their decisions on the Monday. Oxbridge's offers-to-places ratio is probably not far off 1:1.

These are moot points, though, really. Even if I'm right with any of this speculation, as a candidate your only worthwhile strategy is to do the best you can at your interview, whenever it may fall. Kinda like how tit-for-tat always wins the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma.

-- jlapping, who thinks she probably messed her Bristol interview up. It's not over til the fat lady sings, of course, but I think I heard her warming up during my interview. But y'never know; perhaps the unis are so keen to avoid dropouts that any graduate counts as a proven finisher gets an offer.

[2009?]

In what way are the numbers interesting? or do you just like looking at numbers?

the link to where i got them from is here... Bristol University - Medicine - Undergraduate Applications

You need to scroll down to departmental admissions statement and then download the document. The stats are on page 8.

[jlapping]

Cheers for the link - musta read the admissions statement before and missed those stats.

Before seeing the number of offers I'd just naively looked at interviews-to-places (about 3:1) instead of the more meaningful interviews-to-offers (about 2:1). And it's all a waste of time anyway, because we can but click on Track every day as we wait to see what hand fate deals us. So no, not actually that interesting at all, sorry.

[uppypuppy384]

Ive just got an interview from bristol for the 30th of jan.... i think it will be the most nerve racking interview so far seeing as Liverpools interview was quite laid back!!.... Can anyone give me a bit of insight into what the interview will be like and what sort of questions will be coming my way.... good luck to anyone still waiting to hear...

[2009?]

Don't worry.. i was expecting it to be really hard aswell but it was just a chat really and there were only two on the panel so less than at some places....the interview was all the obvious things you'd expect to be asked!

[2009?]

When i say it was like a chat i meant they cut me off after quite short answers instead of expecting me to give really long answers... the way i said it in my last post was as if i had just come in for a cup of tea and biscuits.