Why Does Ur Medschool Not Interview Its Applicants? Is This Right??

[norbury]

Hi Guys!!
I Am A 4th Yr London Student Who Is Writing An Article For The Student Bmj On The Use Of Interviews To Select Applicants For The Mbbs Courses. Your Medschool Is One Of The Few That Gives Offers To The Majority Of Its Applicants Without Interview.

What Do You Think Of This? Do U Believe That It Is Right To Select Applicants Without Interviews? What Are The Advantages Of Such A Selection Procedure? Why Do U Think It Works?

I Want All Ur Opinions-and Please Please Give Ur Name And Yr Of Study, As I Would Like To Quote U In My Article- If U Wish To Remain Anonymous, Please Indicate This As It Is Not A Problem

Many Thanks

Hamed

[Fuchsia]

Hasn't there been a study showing that in the end, when comparing universities which selected by interview and ones which didn't, there is no difference between teh quality (I don't know how they measured this, but presumably something like number of firsts obtained, or something similar) of the medical students produced?

Interviews are notoriously unreliable, anyway. Everyone must know shy people who are kind, loving, giving and all that jazz and would make fantastic doctors, but crumble into nervousness on being questioned aggressively, and conversely we all know people who can bull**** their way past any selection board but have No Heart OR Soul.

I doubt you'll want to use that piece of unsupported opinion, but if you do I'll remain anonymous please

[Girl*]

I agree with fuchsia, interviews can easily be 'faked' so personally i dont think its a major deal or disadvantage that applicants arent interviewed at edinburgh. would also like to claim anonymousy.

fuchsia: this is a really random question but is fuchsia ur real name? its so unique and pretty. lol.

[norbury]

Hi Fuchsia- What Studies Are These?? Where Can I Get Them From?????????????? This Will Be Decisive For My Article!!!!

Thanks So Much

[kute_kukkie]

Even though I have an offer from Edinburgh, I think that ideally it would be better to interview potential medics. Just having a good personal statement and straight As does not mean that someone will make a good doctor. I think that not interviewing leads to students that would make excellent doctors being rejected due to for example not having the opportunity to gain as much work experience or not having outstanding grades.

On the other hand as fushsia and girl* said, candidates can be coached into giving 'perfect' answers so interviews in that respect may be pointless. I know that at Nottingham they test for the ability to cope under pressure and so will ask questions that candidates cannot possibly prepare for. Maybe that sort of system would prevent candidates that have been coached from getting a place they don't deserve... I don't think that a personal statement and confidential reference alone can provide a way in which universities can assess whether applicants have ALL the necessary qualities needed to become a doctor, therefore I believe that interviews are needed to assess what a student cannot put across on paper (eg. communication skills, the ability to make decisions and open-mindedness).

Laura O' Sullivan, year 13

[procrastinator]

I'm not sure why Edinburgh doesn't interview. I've heard there's plans to change this in future, so I guess the admissions people think there's a problem with the current situation at any rate.

I got a place at Edinburgh without interview. I also got offers from Nottingham, Leeds and Newcastle after interviews. In my case it didn't make much difference, it just made applying that bit less stressful.

There are some slightly strange people on my course though and you do sometimes find yourself wondering if they'd have made it through an admissions interview...

[Fuchsia]

Fuchsia isn't my real name, alas. I swiped it from Gormenghast

I have no idea where the studies were published (so pretty unsubstantiated evidence from me). Try the student BMJ or just the BMJ in general as they tend to have information on this type of thing.

Interviews are notoriously unreliable. You cannot possibly judge if someone 'will be a good doctor' just from an interview. I agree that personal statement isn't good enough on its own - however neither is interview and both can prove inaccurate. Use both together by all means, but as both are pretty inaccurate, I doubt it will actually improve the 'accuracy', if you like, of finding 'suitable' applicants. How do you know how much weighting to give to one over the other? Maybe someone's been coached in their personal statement...but then again what if they've been coached in their interview?

Obviously anecdotal evidence is pretty useless, however just to be annoying I will give an example; two friends of mine, whom I have known well for about 7 years (and I would say 7 years of knowing someone beats a 15 minute interview just by a little); one is very caring, kind, intelligent, brilliant in her academic work, loads of outside interests blah blah blah - would make excellent doctor - however, she is very patient and gentle and when challenged doesn't enjoying arguing. So in an interview situation, when challenged, she prefers to keep quiet - she's just that kind of shy, gentle person. The other friend - not academically anything special, but has the gift of the gab and can blab her way through anything. Second friend is accepted to medical school X, first friend not, on basis of interview. Fair? No. But that's how life is. Interviews are no more accurate than anything else but everyone seems to think that in 15 minutes they can peer to the depths of someone's personality and dredge out all their potential. Not so.