Dunster House resident Aparagita Ramakrishnan '95, who is going through business recruiting, says "One company flew me out and gave me ten interviews back to back." She missed almost a week of school.

Pre-meds, on the other hand, only receive two interviews per school on average, said Khoshbin. Applicants usually talk to both admissions officers and medical students during each visit.

While med school students may only have a couple of interviews per school, they generally have to pay travel costs as well.

It is not uncommon for a pre-med student to apply to 15 to 20 medical schools, so interviewing can become an expensive enterprise, even though airlines offer some discounts for medical school applicants.

Ed R. Renwick, pre-law tutor at Quincy House, cites high travel costs as a reason why law schools don't interview their applicants.

"The process of interviewing is inherently biased toward the wealthy," says Renwick. "The reason for this is that it is expensive to fly to all the cities where the law schools are."

Renwick also says studies with regards to interviewing for jobs show little correlation between success in the workplace and impression in interviewing.

Even so, interviews remain an integral part of the medical school admissions process. In the end, Khoshbin suggests that Harvard students just be themselves.

"I have to tell the kids to be themselves because Harvard students are very unique," he says.