[srs] Harrowing interview experience
This was at a school doing in-person interviews this cycle. I’m currently on the john with the runs as I’m writing this
This is not a troll post, I don't know what happened but somehow everything that could go wrong did go wrong. This is a school with a historically very high post-II acceptance rate and the only interview I have as of now and I'm so scared that I messed everything up and am looking for what I can do to remedy the situation.
Basically, the school's interview was just one one-on-one interview. I walked into the interviewing room and was greeted by a pretty young blonde woman in scrubs, couldn't have been more than 35 years old. For some reason when I saw her the first 2 words that came to my brain to describe her were "hot nurse." Idiotically, when we had introduced ourselves to each other, I tried to make small talk to get on her good side so I absent-mindedly said "I didn't know they'd have nurses here to conduct interviews!" I immediately realized my mistake when she scoffed and kind of rolled her eyes at me and told me she was actually the chief resident for the school's department of neurological surgery. I felt my face turn red and spent a good 30 seconds trying to stammer an excuse for my stupid comment but kept stuttering before she audibly shushed me and insisted we just carry on with the interview.
Honestly, I felt like the interview was going okay but I was still thinking so hard about how I messed up my first impression. Eventually, however, she asked me to describe someone I viewed as a role model and why. Of course, being a long time fanatic of comedy and someone who dabbles in stand-up comedy, I wanted to mention one of my idols, Larry David, and explain how I believe he revolutionized televised comedy and therefore touched many people such as myself with the happiness through humor he was able to bring to peoples' lives. However, instead, my brain, still distracted from my nurse comment earlier said something along the lines of "I'm personally a big fan of Larry Nassar because I feel like he was able to touch a lot of people throughout his long and illustrious career." I saw the interviewer's eyes widen as the words left my mouth and immediately realized where I messed up. Unfortunately, if I was already nervous, this pushed me over the edge and I tried to backtrack and was trying to sputter out what I had initially intended to say but the interviewer just waved her hand and said "okay, that's enough." I'm sure my face was beet red when this was going down.
The rest of the interview was uneventful, despite the fact that my brain was running through the past 2 episodes that had occurred during the interview and I struggled to provide meaningful answers. I was more concerned with thinking about how I could make it up to the interviewer. I figured the best way would be to call her at some point after the interview when I was more composed so I could articulate how sorry I was and how the comments I made were purely because of nerves on this crucial interview and nothing else. So at the end of the interviewer, after shaking her hand I said, "Hey, sorry, can I please get your phone number?" She exhaled quite loudly and again rolled her eyes and said, "Um, I don't think that's appropriate. Please go back to room _____" and then I realized how what I said had come across. I shamefully left the room and went back to the rest of the interviewees who were waiting to interview as they eagerly asked "how did your interview go?" to which I replied "I guess it went okay..."
Anyway, now that all is said and done, I'm asking for advice of what I should do now to maximize my chances of getting accepted at this school. I was thinking about sending an email to the admissions committee to explain and then asking for the email or phone number of the interviewer so I can apologize. Do you guys think this is a good idea or should I just write off the school as a rejection? I'm hesitant to do that at this point because it's my only interview so far but I'm afraid it might be beyond the point of no return. Thanks for any and all input.