alxdude Posted March 27, 2012 Report Share Posted March 27, 2012 I just had this thought about the MMI format interview. Secrecy and non-disclosure seem to be an important part of maintaining the effectiveness of the MMI interview. Those people who have already interviewed at a medical school that uses the MMI have an advantage in that they know about aspects of this confidential interview style that other people don't have access to, namely exact format and questions from previous years. This seems to me to be an unavoidable feature of the MMI interview that biases the process in favour of repeat applicants. Clearly, favouring repeat applicants puts first-time applicants a disadvantage, at least to some extent. This in itself is not necessarily bad since everybody has a chance to become a repeat applicant. However, to me this seems to present a conflict of interest. Favouring repeat applicants increases the average number of times a person has to apply to get it. This in turn increases the number of applicants a university will get per year. In my opinion, this has many negative effects. First of all, it takes a toll on people to get rejected and reapply a year later. Secondly, intuition (which can be wrong of course) would dictate that this would on average decrease the number of years that a graduate of that med school would have to practice medicine, since they are getting in at a slightly older age. Thirdly, and this is where the conflict comes in, it earns the med school more money in application fees from rejected applicants. I'm not sure where I'm going with this but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Agree? Disagree? Think it's important? Irrelevant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jojoluvsu2 Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think anyone going through any interview process (panel or MMI) for a second time has an advantage over someone doing one for the first time. However, anyone with access to Google can find 1000s of examples of MMI questions, so the format shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has done any amount of prep work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrogirl Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 Some schools have released previously used MMI questions, so technically every applicant has access to previous questions without even having to do anything unethical to get them. So while the exact questions that a school is going to use each year are a secret, there's actually a lot of information (and a lot of published research) about what the MMI is. I don't know that I would say that the process favors repeat applicants, but it certainly does encourage repeat applications. I don't think that's so much because of the MMI, though, it's more just because there is about an order of magnitude more qualified applicants than there are spots in med school in this country, and that's not about to change anytime soon. Even if you dramatically increased the number of med school spots, the supply of applicants would always exceed the demand. And a lot of people actually do get in on their first try, too. The average age of people starting med school is still under 25, so even though some of us "older" people get in (I wasn't even a repeat applicant and I was still 28 when I started), I don't think that it makes a huge difference. I don't plan to retire when I'm 65. What would I do with myself? And I don't think med schools are making any kind of a profit on application fees when you look at all of the work that goes into processing applications and running interviews (and that's true for applying to undergrad and grad school too). Interesting thought, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outlaw Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 I don't think it's much of an advantage. Obviously the repeat applicants didn't sell themselves well enough for an offer of admission. There were many others who made a better impression and were deemed as better prospects for medical school. Perhaps repeat applicants are at a disadvantage due to a (relative) lack of overall interview skill. First time applicants can run a number of mock interviews to pin-point where their weaknesses are and how they can improve. The only thing that may be worth anything is overall interview experience which is easily obtainable without doing an MMI. There isn't a lot you can do to prepare for the MMI as far as answering specific questions. All you can really do is reflect on your personal experiences and work on communicating your way of thinking in a personable manner. Of course this is all just my opinion. It would be interesting to see some statistics on first time interviewers vs. repeat interviewers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 Statistically, one needs to apply 2.7 to receive an acceptance so repeat interviewing is a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asta Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 Statistically, one needs to apply 2.7 to receive an acceptance so repeat interviewing is a good thing. I've been wondering about the statistic. Like, does it mean that someone needs to apply to one school 2.7 times, or apply 1 cycle to 2.7 schools? Or a few schools for 2.7 cycles. I feel like some information is missing from this number (please, show your units). F_d that's not solely directed at you, I wonder this every time I hear that 2.7 figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiga gal Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 your query would make an excellent MMI question.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keinjuan Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 As astrogirl mentioned, I don't think school makes any money off of application process. For instance, I paid $75 to apply to UA as an IP student. Honestly, it would cost much more to bring in the interviewers. I don't know for sure if or how much they get paid. What I do know is that, in pharmacy school, when I (4th year pharmer) go be a standardized patient for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd years, I do get hefty honorarium. (almost equivalent to pharmacist's wage). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holiday1001 Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 aren't the med interviews run by volunteer meds students/faculty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrogirl Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 aren't the med interviews run by volunteer meds students/faculty? At most schools I think they are, but there are still a lot of expenses involved in the application process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dy727 Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 Asta. That means mean # of application cycles people apply I think. U have to realize that schools that use the MMI have to pay McMaster. I think most of our application fee goes into the admin ppl (sorting out applications, checking arrival of douments, sending emails out, arranging interview dates and events, recruiting volunteers for the interview etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.