Applicants. What are the worst/most shocking questions interviewers have asked?

[MedStudent2301]

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Haha, do people have favorite insects? I think my favorite insect is any insect that is not in my house.

rosy maple moth

 

[deleted804295]

rosy maple moth

Moths are supreme beings 😍

 

[u_raptor]

These are really great questions that I wish happened at more interviews. completely agree that it would be stressful

Looking back it was my fav interview, just a hot seat in the moment lol

 

[Goro]

S'pose I'll say something else then lol
There are principles that I care about, and there are battles I don't care to fight.

One is always wise to know which hill you want to die on. I face the same dilemmas as a faculty member in dealing with Deans and Committee Chairs

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Death’s head moth, anyone?

 

[Kardio]

When I tell people at work I am going to medical school they ask if I am going to be an optometrist or an ophthalmologist (as if those are the only options lol)... so I guess you could also include ODs in "medical school"

It only gets better - I found one DO poster in the Radiology forums joke about being confused for “an X-Ray tech in a chiropractor’s office.”

 

[Cornfed101]

It only gets better - I found one DO poster in the Radiology forums joke about being confused for “an X-Ray tech in a chiropractor’s office.”

haha and then he offered to give them a ride in his Tesla? Joke's on them!

 

[LizzyM]

I know that this has happened to other people, but my interviewer asked how many other interviews I had. I reluctantly said 4 and then he made me tell him which schools exactly I've interviewed at. He then wrote the names of the schools on his piece of paper and asked me how many acceptances I have. I didn't know whether it was better to be truthful or to fudge my numbers a little bit. 🙁

This would piss me off... and I'm an interviewer! I would turn it around and ask, "how will this information be used to determine whether I'm admitted here?"

Those questions should be out of bounds!

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

assuming all other species will go instinct and you have the ability to save some, which would you choose and why...

 

[Aktak]

This would piss me off... and I'm an interviewer! I would turn it around and ask, "how will this information be used to determine whether I'm admitted here?"

Those questions should be out of bounds!

And then we’d get rejected.... 🙁

 

[deleted804295]

assuming all other species will go instinct and you have the ability to save some, which would you choose and why...

Bees, humans, flowers, horse.

Bees to pollinate flowers which are responsible from anything from corn to beans.

Humans because I'm a human- duh.

Horse to carry stuff and provide transportation and provide food during times of scarcity.

 

[Kardio]

Horse to carry stuff and provide transportation and provide food during times of scarcity.

““

 

[LizzyM]

And then we’d get rejected.... 🙁

Rejecting someone for answering (or not answering) where they've interviewed and where they've been admitted is like asking if you are a witch. If you say "yes" you should be burned at the stake. If you say "no" clearly you are a lying witch and should be burned at the stake unless you drown first (witches float, everyone else drowns when thrown in a well).

If you have no other interviews or offers, clearly you are not a desirable candidate unless the school really wants to fill a seat in which case they can be sure you'll say yes. Ergo you are good for the waitlist. If you have other offers, you don't need this school's offer and they can reject you without feeling bad about it. Again, I'd like to know how they are using that information. I hope someone who doesn't really care whether or not they get admitted at a specific school will challenge an interviewer who asks this asinine question.

 

[deleted972488]

Rejecting someone for answering (or not answering) where they've interviewed and where they've been admitted is like asking if you are a witch. If you say "yes" you should be burned at the stake. If you say "no" clearly you are a lying witch and should be burned at the stake unless you drown first (witches float, everyone else drowns when thrown in a well).

If you have no other interviews or offers, clearly you are not a desirable candidate unless the school really wants to fill a seat in which case they can be sure you'll say yes. Ergo you are good for the waitlist. If you have other offers, you don't need this school's offer and they can reject you without feeling bad about it. Again, I'd like to know how they are using that information. I hope someone who doesn't really care whether or not they get admitted at a specific school will challenge an interviewer who asks this asinine question.

Could it be possible that they’re just trying to make conversation? I don’t think it’s too unusual to ask someone how their cycle is going. I agree that the information shouldn’t be held against them one way or the other. I understand why the question might be a little uncomfortable, but I think it’d be best to just answer it and move on.

 

[deleted804295]

Rejecting someone for answering (or not answering) where they've interviewed and where they've been admitted is like asking if you are a witch. If you say "yes" you should be burned at the stake. If you say "no" clearly you are a lying witch and should be burned at the stake unless you drown first (witches float, everyone else drowns when thrown in a well).

If you have no other interviews or offers, clearly you are not a desirable candidate unless the school really wants to fill a seat in which case they can be sure you'll say yes. Ergo you are good for the waitlist. If you have other offers, you don't need this school's offer and they can reject you without feeling bad about it. Again, I'd like to know how they are using that information. I hope someone who doesn't really care whether or not they get admitted at a specific school will challenge an interviewer who asks this asinine question.

Hopefully an SDNer tries this out before dropping interviews.

With my luck at frequently getting nasty subtly racist interviewers it would've been a fun experiment to say the least.

 

[LizzyM]

Could it be possible that they’re just trying to make conversation? I don’t think it’s too unusual to ask someone how their cycle is going. I agree that the information shouldn’t be held against them one way or the other. I understand why the question might be a little uncomfortable, but I think it’d be best to just answer it and move on.

Can you imagine asking a college senior during an interview for a full-time corporate job how their job hunt is going and if they've had any other interviews and if they have any job offers yet? It is not a way for an interviewer to make conversation and it biases the interviewer, even if only subconsciously. Anyone who asks this question should be reported to the admissions office just as if they'd ask, "why is a pretty girl like you applying to medical school?"

 

[deleted972488]

Anyone who asks this question should be reported to the admissions office just as if they'd ask, "why is a pretty girl like you applying to medical school?"

I agree that questions about interviews should probably not be asked, but the example you gave here is objectively much worse for obvious reasons.

 

[Kardio]

Here’s what this questions tells the interviewer:

1. How desirable I am as an applicant, as decided by other schools
2. How likely I am to matriculate if accepted (e.g., how vulnerable I am)

(1) I’m fine with being judged - but why does school ‘A’ need the opinion of school ‘B’?

(2) Totally reasonable to try and figure this out, but I think there are ways to do it without the drawback of (1) and without highlighting the (likely) power differential between me and the school (60% of MD apps get Rs, much of the accepted 40% got only 1 interview)

 

[Goro]

Could it be possible that they’re just trying to make conversation? I don’t think it’s too unusual to ask someone how their cycle is going. I agree that the information shouldn’t be held against them one way or the other. I understand why the question might be a little uncomfortable, but I think it’d be best to just answer it and move on.

I suspect the interviewer is simply trying to gauge the competition, or the school itself is excessively needy. I don't think the question is as malignant as does my learned colleague LizzyM, but it's definitely a question I do not ask, nor do my Adcom colleagues.

 

[achooachooachoo]

I recently got asked at a DO interview about how many MD schools and DO schools I had applied to this year and of those which one was my top choice. She made sure to write the answer down. It felt incredibly intrusive

 

[yogglo]

This would piss me off... and I'm an interviewer! I would turn it around and ask, "how will this information be used to determine whether I'm admitted here?"

Those questions should be out of bounds!

I’ve been asked this at three separate interviews and it’s always horrible answering...

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Can you imagine asking a college senior during an interview for a full-time corporate job how their job hunt is going and if they've had any other interviews and if they have any job offers yet? It is not a way for an interviewer to make conversation and it biases the interviewer, even if only subconsciously. Anyone who asks this question should be reported to the admissions office just as if they'd ask, "why is a pretty girl like you applying to medical school?"

Yeah I mean isn’t it a match violation to ask about residency interviews? Not sure why it should be okay here.

 

[caterwaiter]

I’ve been asked this at three separate interviews and it’s always horrible answering...

Yeah I mean isn’t it a match violation to ask about residency interviews? Not sure why it should be okay here.

This doesn't just apply to this scenario, but at what point do we decide that certain things that happen during the application process could use a change? Do we have any kind of agency to make that happen?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

This doesn't just apply to this scenario, but at what point do we decide that certain things that happen during the application process could use a change? Do we have any kind of agency to make that happen?

I mean all we can really do is report those interviewers but not much else. A lot of people probably would not anyway out of fear of getting associated with being difficult or something.

 

[MedStudent2301]

“Why our school?”

-something something collaborative atmosphere

“Oh so you think competition is a bad thing?”

Oh boy I have used the collaborative atmosphere before as part of an answer and if I got that I would have been horrified

 

[deleted987519]

“Why our school?”

-something something collaborative atmosphere

“Oh so you think competition is a bad thing?”

Speaking of, anyone notice how every school has a "collegial and collaborative" student body 🙄

 

[Goro]

I recently got asked at a DO interview about how many MD schools and DO schools I had applied to this year and of those which one was my top choice. She made sure to write the answer down. It felt incredibly intrusive

I do hate questions like that. It's just an invite to lie.

They reason they're asking is to gauge their competition over you. And a DO school asking that is looking for a DO schools to be the #1 choice.

 

[LizzyM]

I recently got asked at a DO interview about how many MD schools and DO schools I had applied to this year and of those which one was my top choice. She made sure to write the answer down. It felt incredibly intrusive

Doesn't that make you wish you applied to at least one massive reach school so you could say "Well, Harvard (Stanford, Hopkins), is my top choice but they haven't interviewed me yet."

Want to really mess with them? Say Princeton Medical School is your top choice. When they tell you that Princeton doesn't have a medical school, just gaslight them and tell them that they must not have heard the latest news.

 

[theKingLT]

“Why our school?”

-something something collaborative atmosphere

“Oh so you think competition is a bad thing?”

I mean collaboration and competition are not antonyms so it's kind of a silly response on the interviewer's part. Many of the best, sports teams in the world are extremely internally competitive while being extremely collaborative and well, a team =)

 

[tessellations]

I got asked recently by a med student interviewer some version of, "What is one thing your parents did well growing up, and one thing they did poorly?"

I also got asked how my parents divorce affected me after mentioning that they were divorced while telling him about myself.

It was a much more personal interview than I expected it would be.

 

[Cornfed101]

I got asked recently by a med student interviewer some version of, "What is one thing your parents did well growing up, and one thing they did poorly?"

I also got asked how my parents divorce affected me after mentioning that they were divorced while telling him about myself.

It was a much more personal interview than I expected it would be.

Not sure what the first one accomplishes.. the second is fair game since you brought it up. I would probably ask that if I were interviewing someone. It’s a good adversity question IMO

 

[Kirby Smart]

Not sure what the first one accomplishes..

They wanted to gauge what kind of parent he/she will be to his/her future patients

 

[anonymous123454321]

What does silence mean to you

 

[deleted688779]

Not shocking but I get pretty annoyed when interviewers ask why I chose my undergrad or what other undergrads did I get accepted to. I don’t go to an Ivy or some obscure liberal arts college or clown school. Nearly every single one of my interviewers asked this.

Like, bruh, it’s my state school and it was cheap and it was near home. What did you expect? I think we’re supposed to have a much more interesting conversation than this. And why the heck does it matter what other schools did I get into 8+ years ago?

 

[tessellations]

Not sure what the first one accomplishes.. the second is fair game since you brought it up. I would probably ask that if I were interviewing someone. It’s a good adversity question IMO

Divorce was def fair game, but yeah the parent one was a bit whack for me.

 

[mwsapphire]

Divorce was def fair game, but yeah the parent one was a bit whack for me.

That can be a seriously upsetting question for some people. Jesus christ. Like what if someone was abused by one/both parents?

 

[FutureSurgical]

A certain parent wasn't in the picture growing up at all and I didn't know the contact info. My family didn't have that as well. So I left that blank. One interviewer made me explain for about 5 minutes that I did not, in fact, have that parent in my life. And how much I contacted him/her (or lack thereof.) It didn't bother me whatsoever because I'm a pretty upfront and honest person. But dang it seemed like a pretty big deal lol

 

[CaptainWEMT]

Not shocking but I get pretty annoyed when interviewers ask why I chose my undergrad or what other undergrads did I get accepted to. I don’t go to an Ivy or some obscure liberal arts college or clown school. Nearly every single one of my interviewers asked this.

I go to a small but rigorous health sciences school in upstate NY. I have been asked to explain why my school has a second campus, and I have been asked about why I chose such a small school.