They wanted to have their cake and eat it too, as in move to MMIs but still ask you a bunch of personal "traditional interview" style questions. It was really hard to answer them, I hope they don't do the same thing again!
For what it's worth, OHSU's questions have always been on the challenging side. They are one of the few schools that tries to base the bulk of an admissions decision on "intangibles", and that means that they weight interviews, LORs, and essays very heavily (when I applied, they said these things made up 80% of our admissions scores.)
I know OHSU says 3 from teachers, in addition to "carefully select[ing] a well-chosen group of letters that speak to significant experiences in the areas of academics, health care experiences/physician shadowing and extracurricular accomplishments." Any ideas on *how many* this means? How many is too many? I can think of maybe a dozen people that would be happy to write me a character recommendation, but that seems like clearly too many.
I am a little confused about their letter stuff also. I've been told that OHSU expects a letter from each of the 3 "most significant" activities you listed in AMCAS, which to me says they want a minimum of 6 letters. Which sounds a little ridiculous, since a lot of schools won't accept more than 5.
I don't know if there is a set answer to this, but I would give the following advice:
1) Try to find multi-purpose letters if at all possible. Did you take a class with someone you also TAed for? Is there a faculty member who taught one of your classes and served as a research mentor? How about faculty members who were academic advisors, or contact people for a student group/hobby? This is a way to create some overlap between faculty letters and "significant experience" letters - it is also likely to create a much stronger letter because the person knows you from more than one setting.
2) You aren't just looking for a character recommendation. You ideally want someone who has objective experience with your work-ethic, response to stress, innate intelligence, communication skills, etc. Make a list of people who fit that bill, and then narrow down from there.
3) For what it's worth, I had 5 letters when I applied (two from research advisors, one from an organic chemistry professor I TAed for, one from a neuroscience professor who was also my academic advisor, and one from a theatre professor who employed me as a stage manager for 2 years)
I know other people who applied (and got in) with a similar number of letters. Personally, I think that 5-6 letters is just fine. More than that is probably overkill if you want faculty members to thoroughly read all of your letters without getting annoyed.