The final step of the process of applying to medical school is the Medical school interviews. Apart from being the final step, they are also one of the most challenging. Your chances of acceptance can be completely ruined, as a result of a bad interview, regardless of your high MCAT score. There are medical school interview questions that are common and there’s how to answer them.
You are bound to face a number of medical school interview questions that may seem challenging, and if you’re not properly prepared for them, you will flunk right before the admissions committee.
One advantage of preparing for your medical school interview is that, it gives you an edge. More like, it places you miles ahead.
It is important that before going out for your interview, you must have practiced a list of possible questions you would be asked.
In this article are a list of questions you’re likely to come accross during your medical school interviews.
Most common questions asked during Medical school interview
Below are a list of questions the interview committee of medical schools might pose to anyone deciding to pursue a course in medicine. These questions can be from ethical questions, societal questions, ambition questions and even questions to test your motives of deciding to study medicine.
1. What excites you about medicine in general?
2. What do you know about the current trends in our nation’s healthcare system?
3. What do you believe to be some of the most pressing health issues today? Why?
4. Why did you choose your undergraduate major?
5. How have you tried to achieve breadth in your undergraduate curriculum?
6. How has your undergraduate research experience, if any, better prepared you for a medical career?
7. How have the jobs, volunteer opportunities, or extracurricular experiences that you have had better prepared you for the responsibilities of being a physician?
8. How do you envision using your medical education?
9. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
10. What travels have you taken and what exposure to other cultures have you had?
11. Thinking of examples from your recent past, how would you assess your empathy and compassion?
12. As a pre-med, what skills have you learned to help manage your time and relieve stress?
13. If you could be granted three wishes for making the world/society/ your community a better place, what would they be and why (or, If you were given a million dollars to achieve three goals, what would you work on and why)?
14. What do you do for fun?
15. What is “success” in your opinion? After 20 years as a physician, what kind of “success” would you hope to have achieved? Please explain
16. What qualities do you look for in a physician? Can you provide an example of a physician who embodies any of these ideals? How do they do this?
17. What kind of experiences have you had working with sick people? Have these experiences taught you anything that you didn’t know beforehand?
18. What do you feel are the social responsibilities of a physician?
19. Do you have any family members or role models who are physicians?
20. What family members, friends, or other individuals have been influential in your decision to pursue a medical career?
21. If you could invite four people from the past to dinner, who would they be, and why would you invite them? What would you talk about?
22. Does your academic record reflect any major challenges? If so, what are they and why did they occur?
23. What do you feel are the negative or restrictive aspects of medicine from a professional standpoint?
24. If you had to choose between clinical and academic medicine as a profession, which would you pick? What do you feel you might lose by being forced to choose?
25. What do you consider an important/the most important social problem facing the United States today and why?
26. What do you think national health insurance affects physicians, patients, and society?
27. In what manner and to what degree do you stay in touch with current events?
28. What books, films, or other media come to mind as having been particularly important to your sciences/non-sciences education?
29. Pick any specific medical school to which you are applying, and tell the interviewer about it. What makes this school particularly desirable to you?
30. Is there anything else we have not covered that you feel the interviewer should know about you or your interest in becoming a doctor?
31. Can you think of any examples in our society when healthcare is a right? When is it a privilege? When is it not clear?
32. Are you aware of any current controversies in the area of medical ethics? List and discuss some of these.
33. Have you personally encountered any moral dilemmas to date? Of what nature?
34. How do you feel about euthanasia or medically assisted suicide?
35. What different feelings and issues might you experience with a terminally ill patient, as opposed to other patients?
36. If you are a minority candidate, how do you feel your background uniquely prepares you to be, and will influence your role as, a physician?
37. If you are a woman, how has your gender impacted your decision to pursue a medical career?
38. If you are not a minority, how might you best meet the needs of a multiethnic, multicultural patient population?
39. What general and specific skills would you hope an ideal medical school experience would give you? How might your ideal school achieve that result?
40. Discuss your decision to pursue medicine. When did you decide to become an MD, and why?
41. Why did you decide to choose medicine and not some other field where you can help others, such as nursing, physical therapy, pharmacology, psychology, education, or social work?
42. How have you tested your motivation to become an MD? Please explain.
43. What kind of medical schools are you applying to, and why?
44. What will you do if you are not accepted to medical school this year? Have you an alternative career plan?
45. How would you feel about treating a patient who has tested positive for HIV?
46. What are some of the ethical issues that our society considers in regard to teenage pregnancy?
47. Assume there are limited resources available and you must make decisions in a major emergency with a wide assortment of patients from all ages, backgrounds, and degree of injury. 48. Assume also that there is no “right answer” to this question, only considered and unconsidered responses. Who would you direct to receive the treatment first and why.
49. If you are economically disadvantaged or have limited financial means, how has this adversity shaped you?
50. To what extent do you feel that you owe a debt to your fellow man? To what extent do you owe a debt to those less fortunate than yourself? Please explain.
51. What special qualities do you feel you possess that set you apart from other medical school candidates? What makes you unique or different as a medical school candidate?
How to answer medical school interview questions
Knowing the questions to expect during your interview is important, but what is more important is the way you approach these questions. Because a wrong answer will make your knowledge of the question useless.
So, it is not enough to know which questions to expect, but how to answer this questions is even more important. Below are ways you can approach questions during your interview.
1. Tell Me About Yourself
As simple as this question may sound, it is very broad. This question usually opens most interviews.
When answering this question, have it at the back of your mind that the interview has gone through your personal statement, extracurriculars and your coursework. Don’t make the mistake of answering this question by telling them about your credentials, they’ve seen that already.
Here, the interviewers want to know your person; Who are you? Why do you want to be a doctor? What drives you? What’s your favorite hobby? Why are you a good fit for this program in particular? Run the interviewers through all these, no matter how intimidated you feel.
It is important to prepare for this question, even before your interview.
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2. Why Are You Applying to Medical School?
Most applicants usually have similar answers to this question, so it is important for you to think outside the box. Be unique. In answering this question, use a personal experience from your past to catch your interviewer’s attention.
Practice your response before your interview so that you can keep it brief.
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3. Why Do You Want to Attend This Medical School?
Here, your knowledge of the program is tested. You should have a knowledge of the school’s values and offerings.
It is important that you research about every school you’re applying to. Because here, the interviewer is looking for details about why you’re attracted to the school and why you believe it’s a good fit for you specifically.
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4. What Specialty Are You Interested in?
This question is dangerous than it seems, so you have to be careful while answering.
Here, make sure that you clearly demonstrate curiosity and an interest in all fields. And if you have any special interest in a specific specialty, do we to mention it.
5. Where Do You See Yourself in 10 Years?
Be honest and thoughtful while answering this question. But as much as you want to be honest, avoid sounding overly ambitious. Give an answer that sounds realistic. If for instance you see yourself as a pediatrician in the next 10 years, explain why pursuing that goal is exactly where you hope to be in ten years.
Prepare for this question in advance, and the appropriate answers for it.
These are some key questions you’ll definitely face in medical school interview and approaching them this way will give you an edge.
Questions to ask the interviewer
Though the interview is meant for pre- meds, you also can chip in questions for your interviewers. You must however be as polite as possible. And you must make your question look like a question of enquiry. Some of the questions you can ask are
1. What are you most proud of about this medical school?
2. Is there anything you would change about this medical school?
3. Are there any research requirements or structured research mentoring programs?
4. Why did you decide to become an interviewer?
5. What are this medical school’s greatest strengths?
6. Are there any new additions planned for this medical school in the near future?
7. How do the students here do in The Match?