How personal did your interview get? / Awkward questions?

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echoecho

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What's the most personal question(s) you were asked during an interview? I had an uncomfortable experience and am wondering if it is the norm. I was asked about things in my personal life that I did not feel were necessary. (ie mental health, my intimate relationships) It's not like I brought them up or that there was a red flag on my transcript/personal statement.
 
echoecho said:
What's the most personal question(s) you were asked during an interview? I had an uncomfortable experience and am wondering if it is the norm. I was asked about things in my personal life that I did not feel were necessary. (ie mental health, my intimate relationships) It's not like I brought them up or that there was a red flag on my transcript/personal statement.
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Any chance that there might have been something in a LOR?

Was your interivew in a red state? Was there anything in your essays or experience section that might offend a very socially/religously/politically conservative person (if you catch my drift)?

Were you engaged in group activities in college or mostly on your own? (goes to mental health)
 
echoecho said:
What's the most personal question(s) you were asked during an interview? I had an uncomfortable experience and am wondering if it is the norm. I was asked about things in my personal life that I did not feel were necessary. (ie mental health, my intimate relationships) It's not like I brought them up or that there was a red flag on my transcript/personal statement.
Click to expand...

Did you say anything like "an illness/relationship issue affected my perfermence in school?"
 
In my PS I briefly stated that I had family problems my sophomore year of high school. The interviewer asked if my parents were divorced, and that's what kind of started the whole thing.
Later on the interviewer asked me directly if I had an eating disorder. He said it half-jokingly but kept pressing me. WTF! I am pretty scrawny but the question was completely out of left field and totally inappropriate IMO.
 
echoecho said:
In my PS I briefly stated that I had family problems my sophomore year of high school. The interviewer asked if my parents were divorced, and that's what kind of started the whole thing.
Later on the interviewer asked me directly if I had an eating disorder. He said it half-jokingly but kept pressing me. WTF! I am pretty scrawny but the question was completely out of left field and totally inappropriate IMO.
Click to expand...

Questions about mental health (and eating disorders are a psychiatric issue) shouldn't be asked. Period, full stop. For anyone facing this in the future, I'd suggest saying with great sincerity, "would you like me to release my medical records to you for inclusion in my application?" That might make the interviewer realize that questions about medical history are inappropriate but someone who asks about an applicant's weight may be too big an idiot to even get the hint.
 
echoecho said:
In my PS I briefly stated that I had family problems my sophomore year of high school. The interviewer asked if my parents were divorced, and that's what kind of started the whole thing.
Later on the interviewer asked me directly if I had an eating disorder. He said it half-jokingly but kept pressing me. WTF! I am pretty scrawny but the question was completely out of left field and totally inappropriate IMO.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you opened the door and he went through it!!
 
One of my interviewers at UT Southwestern asked me why my family moved from California to Texas. I told him it was a family issue, and he still pressed for an answer; so I told him it was because my dad cheated on my mom and they decided to leave the whole situation and move on elsewhere. He also asked if my mom cooked any dishes using coconut milk - curry specifically. I told him I don't really do well with coconut milk. He pressed further and asked why. I told him because it gives me diarrhea. I thought it was pretty funny because I'm just that kind of person. If you ask, I'll tell you. lol
 
craming said:
One of my interviewers at UT Southwestern asked me why my family moved from California to Texas. I told him it was a family issue, and he still pressed for an answer; so I told him it was because my dad cheated on my mom and they decided to leave the whole situation and move on elsewhere. He also asked if my mom cooked any dishes using coconut milk - curry specifically. I told him I don't really do well with coconut milk. He pressed further and asked why. I told him because it gives me diarrhea. I thought it was pretty funny because I'm just that kind of person. If you ask, I'll tell you. lol
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Wow, I would've edited that...."my parents were having relationship issues and needed a change of scenery" or something like that.

And for the diarrhea thing, some things we keep to ourselves (for the sake of the other person) :laugh:
 
LizzyM said:
Questions about mental health (and eating disorders are a psychiatric issue) shouldn't be asked. Period, full stop. For anyone facing this in the future, I'd suggest saying with great sincerity, "would you like me to release my medical records to you for inclusion in my application?" That might make the interviewer realize that questions about medical history are inappropriate but someone who asks about an applicant's weight may be too big an idiot to even get the hint.
Click to expand...

This is an answer I would love to give if I were in that situation; unfortunately for me I would never want to do anything to ruffle the feathers of an interviewer...they're supposed to sell you to the admissions committee right? I think I would roll with the punches and then complain later through the proper channels. I sincerely hope none of this happens to me....I have one more interview left at utsw 🙁
 
I dont ask about details of health issues. But I will ask how it affected them/what they've learned from the experience (if they mention it in their personal statement).
 
kevster2001 said:
I dont ask about details of health issues. But I will ask how it affected them/what they've learned from the experience (if they mention it in their personal statement).
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That's totally different from asking someone who is thin if they have an eating disorder.

If it is in the essay, it is a different ballgame but probing for a prior diagnosis of mental illness based on someone's appearance is inappropriate.
 
I had one particularly tough interviewer (who had already run me through the gamut of difficult ethical questions) press a little about a family situation that was somewhat uncomfortable, but I guess in retrospect I kind of invited the questioning. I became visibly flustered such that he decided to move on to another subject; regardless, I got the acceptance! 😳

I spoke to a current student at one upper tier school who said she had broken down and cried because she was so flustered in the interview, but she's in! Just goes to show you, even if you get thrown off a little bit it doesn't mean your chances are down the drain!
 
tradgirl said:
I spoke to a current student at one upper tier school who said she had broken down and cried because she was so flustered in the interview, but she's in! Just goes to show you, even if you get thrown off a little bit it doesn't mean your chances are down the drain!
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I had a male friend who got flustered and cried... he didn't get in.
 
In my PS, I mentioned the death of a family member (unrelated to medicine, just in passing almost). My interviewer kept pressing on "how did she die?" She felt awkward after I simply said "Suicide."

Another interviewer asked me if I had any genetic disorders? Nothing in my application even remotely suggested I have anything to do with genetics...? I responded with "No. Do you?"
 
I was asked about the toughest time in my life so I was honest and talked about when my grandfather died. I felt like a mood-killer when I was describing it. But my interviewer was cool about it and we had a pretty meaningful conversation about it. I got accepted there, so the story ends well.
 
He asked about my favorite book, which for me had to do with the existence or nonexistence of God. We then talked about whether it was possible for humans to ever either definitely prove or definitely disprove the existence of God. My interviewer seemed like he enjoying talking about this topic.

I got in.

If I could do it again, I would discuss a different book. I guess I have the tendency to sometimes respond to a question by saying the first thing that pops into my mind.
 
.
 
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A few of my interviewers have asked me what i do on my free time. That is the only personal question that I have been asked.
 
Questions of a personal nature are not at all uncommon, nor are they "illegal" as one might expect like in job interviews. They are posed mainly to see how you react to an awkward situation (think: patient of opposite sex suddenly makes inappropriate comment). Can you deflect and steer the conversation away, or do you engage in the inappropriate conversation and potentially create an even bigger problem?

I've been asked point blank if I thought the fact that I was female and older would make me less able to finish med school - would my biological clock get the best of me, basically. I was also asked to cite a non-work, non-clinical experience that was challenging and difficult for me on a personal level. I was also asked about my spiritual beliefs as regards to how they may or may not influence my ability and/or willingness to recommend and perform certain procedures. I could see how some people may find those questions "over the line."
 
One interviewer asked me to tell him about my family, and I told him I have a twin brother. He asked me where he goes to school, what he is studying, etc. I told him that my brother is autistic, and he responded by saying, oh, so he is basically a vegetable then? Or what is he like developmentally?

I am very comfortable talking about my brother, but the ignorant way he asked this question threw me off and really bothered me. I did keep my cool- educated him about autism spectrum disorders, how my family situation has shaped me as a person, etc. He continued to ask about this for an hour and 15 minutes- the interview was supposed to be 30 minutes long.

Still haven't heard back so who knows.
 
LRAccord624 said:
One interviewer asked me to tell him about my family, and I told him I have a twin brother. He asked me where he goes to school, what he is studying, etc. I told him that my brother is autistic, and he responded by saying, oh, so he is basically a vegetable then? Or what is he like developmentally?

I am very comfortable talking about my brother, but the ignorant way he asked this question threw me off and really bothered me. I did keep my cool- educated him about autism spectrum disorders, how my family situation has shaped me as a person, etc. He continued to ask about this for an hour and 15 minutes- the interview was supposed to be 30 minutes long.

Still haven't heard back so who knows.
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That's really insensitive, I'm sorry to hear that. All of the interviewers I've encountered are either current medical professionals, retired, or medical students, all of whom should know at least a bit about autism. If nothing else, they should know enough to be respectful in their choice of words. 🙁
 
echoecho said:
In my PS I briefly stated that I had family problems my sophomore year of high school. The interviewer asked if my parents were divorced, and that's what kind of started the whole thing.
Later on the interviewer asked me directly if I had an eating disorder. He said it half-jokingly but kept pressing me. WTF! I am pretty scrawny but the question was completely out of left field and totally inappropriate IMO.
Click to expand...

That's why I believe there should be no excuses or negativities in the personal statement. Keep the ps positive and illustrate your strong points, not why I didn't have a 4.0 my ...... Semester/year or why I didn't pursue medicine since birth.
 
vasca said:
Being an obedient drone isn't a good thing in my opinion. Medicine is a field where you can't go by the books all of the time (like you can't lose time finding out if every unconscious patient bleeding to death that just showed up in the ER is religiously against recieving blood transfusions; you do your job and explain things later after stating you saved that patient's life). If some guy who you will never have to relate to again once you get accepted is asking really out of the mark questions that are borderline offensive, tell them the questions are offtopic and focus on something else.. like you gpa. And this is coming from a person that gets asked ALL of the time by docs if have an eating disorder myself. Seriously. 🙄

I got awkward questions done in my med school interview, guess writing how killing cats because people thought they transmitted the black plague isn't relevant to why you want to be a doctor, but I took the questions amusingly, answered something stupid and got accepted with no probs.
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Are you a medical student in Mexico ?!
 
I once got asked if I had ever used illegal drugs. It came about b/c it can be seen from my app that I finished HS in an "untraditional" way. I was actually a drop-out and came back later to finish through distance education. I also took some undergrad. level classes, which of course show up on my application and it looks really random b/c I have a few classes from a college on the other side of the Country then where all my other credits are from.

My interviewer seemed genuinely impressed with my ability to turn my life around and he seemed really in to it, which was good b/c I was worried about how some people would take that. Then the conversation stopped with that question... My face must have turned a million shades of red b/c he immediately took the question back. He said he wasn't even allowed to ask that question, he was just curious. He was like 80 years old and he said he was just curious about what kids do these days when they "rebel". Needless to say I was OK with him taking the question back and somehow I managed to bounce back and turn the conversation around.

Sometimes I do think he was just testing me to see how I would react to an awkward situation. I think I rolled with the punches pretty well, but yeah, certainly did NOT expect that question! 😱
 
echoecho said:
Later on the interviewer asked me directly if I had an eating disorder. He said it half-jokingly but kept pressing me. WTF! I am pretty scrawny but the question was completely out of left field and totally inappropriate IMO.
Click to expand...

I think this is enormously offensive. After all, if an overweight person was asked if they stuff their face with junk food constantly, you can bet there would be an uproar about it. This is no different.
 
Why are people so ashamed of themselves? Is it that hard to talk about your problems? I'm down to talk about anything, so long as I feel I'm in a safe environment. Some questions might catch me off guard, but even if I was asked about my experiences with sex toys, I wouldn't walk away with any feelings of resentment.
 
One of my interviewers went to a rival high school of mine, so that was kind of fun. Then we talked about chicks, man. Not the normal interview I don't think.
 
daisy44 said:
I think this is enormously offensive. After all, if an overweight person was asked if they stuff their face with junk food constantly, you can bet there would be an uproar about it. This is no different.
Click to expand...

We're going into a field where eating, along with many other human activities, will impact how we treat our patients. I seriously don't get why so many people have such a short trigger when it comes to these things. In the next four years we're going to have to learn to ask those questions in a tactful way, so in the interest of seeing how an interviewee fields awkward questions, I think that one is fine. It's a fair question if you ask me.

As for my weirdest question, my interviewer asked what I'd miss most about California if I came to their school, and then pressed me on whether or not I'd miss the nightlife in Los Angeles. I told him that as long as they have libraries that stay open late, then my nightlife wouldn't change that much.
 
Malayna said:
We're going into a field where eating, along with many other human activities, will impact how we treat our patients. I seriously don't get why so many people have such a short trigger when it comes to these things. In the next four years we're going to have to learn to ask those questions in a tactful way, so in the interest of seeing how an interviewee fields awkward questions, I think that one is fine. It's a fair question if you ask me.

As for my weirdest question, my interviewer asked what I'd miss most about California if I came to their school, and then pressed me on whether or not I'd miss the nightlife in Los Angeles. I told him that as long as they have libraries that stay open late, then my nightlife wouldn't change that much.
Click to expand...


By definition, eating disorders are psychiatric conditions. Asking someone's medical history, or the psychiatric subset of the medical history, is OK in the context of a clinical encounter but it is inappropriate in an admissions interview. That is to say, it shouldn't be information on which a decision is made to offer or deny admission. In clinical encounters we ask if a patient is sexually active, using safer sex practices etc but I sure as hell would not ask those questions of an applicant to see how they field an awkward question!

Asking about California and the nightlife is a way of determining whether you are disposed to matricuate if offered admission. Some schools want to improve their yield by selecting applicants who are likely to accept the offer of admission. Or it is a probe intended to identify areas that should be "talked up" in trying to sell the interviewer's school.
 
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Malayna said:
As for my weirdest question, my interviewer asked what I'd miss most about California if I came to their school, and then pressed me on whether or not I'd miss the nightlife in Los Angeles. I told him that as long as they have libraries that stay open late, then my nightlife wouldn't change that much.
Click to expand...

clever.
 
daisy44 said:
I think this is enormously offensive. After all, if an overweight person was asked if they stuff their face with junk food constantly, you can bet there would be an uproar about it. This is no different.
Click to expand...

Speaking of just that, did anyone see on CNN the college in Pennsylvania that won't let students with over a 30 or 35 BMI graduate until they can pass a gym class designed to get them to loose weight? Soon to be a very hot topic I'm sure.

Guess schools/people are just pushing boundaries in all directions these days.
 
LRAccord624 said:
One interviewer asked me to tell him about my family, and I told him I have a twin brother. He asked me where he goes to school, what he is studying, etc. I told him that my brother is autistic, and he responded by saying, oh, so he is basically a vegetable then? Or what is he like developmentally?

I am very comfortable talking about my brother, but the ignorant way he asked this question threw me off and really bothered me. I did keep my cool- educated him about autism spectrum disorders, how my family situation has shaped me as a person, etc. He continued to ask about this for an hour and 15 minutes- the interview was supposed to be 30 minutes long.

Still haven't heard back so who knows.
Click to expand...

oy. that sucks. but since you kept your cool, i bet you came off pretty awesome as a result of this. i'm sure the experience has made you a more interesting person with a unique perspective... i bet the interviewer latched onto that topic because he was learning a lot about you as you spoke about it.

FWIW, i've had a couple of interviewers ask me really inappropriate questions. i won't post the exact content here. i'm too much of a wuss to stand up for myself; i pretty much just answer in as straightforward and vague a way as possible. i left those interviews really annoyed, though.
 
I had an interviewer at a Midwest school ask me what it was like being an ethnic minority. He meant no offense, but also seemed more interested out of personal curiosity than as an attempt to delve into some unique past experiences relevant to my interest in medicine. He then proceeded to tell me about his non-white friends. That was interesting.
 
johncalvin said:
In my PS, I mentioned the death of a family member (unrelated to medicine, just in passing almost). My interviewer kept pressing on "how did she die?" She felt awkward after I simply said "Suicide."

Another interviewer asked me if I had any genetic disorders? Nothing in my application even remotely suggested I have anything to do with genetics...? I responded with "No. Do you?"
Click to expand...

:laugh:
 
LizzyM said:
Questions about mental health (and eating disorders are a psychiatric issue) shouldn't be asked. Period, full stop. For anyone facing this in the future, I'd suggest saying with great sincerity, "would you like me to release my medical records to you for inclusion in my application?" That might make the interviewer realize that questions about medical history are inappropriate but someone who asks about an applicant's weight may be too big an idiot to even get the hint.
Click to expand...

I do not suggest anyone do the above. You don't want to antagonize your interviewer. This will hurt you BIG time.

1) Questions about your personal situation are off limits unless you openly bring this up.

2) Questions about your health (mental or otherwise) are also out of bounds.

Try to make jokes out of these questions. For example, for the eating do question, say, "well actually I love pasta. I have a great metabolism."

If you feel someone has really crossed a line, you can CONFIDENTIALLY let the admissions office know. They want to be aware of this stuff. Usually, people who ask illegal questions have no clue what they are doing (FYI)....

Keep your cool. Don't give sarcastic responses.
 
johncalvin said:
In my PS, I mentioned the death of a family member (unrelated to medicine, just in passing almost). My interviewer kept pressing on "how did she die?" She felt awkward after I simply said "Suicide."

Another interviewer asked me if I had any genetic disorders? Nothing in my application even remotely suggested I have anything to do with genetics...? I responded with "No. Do you?"
Click to expand...
FTW! Yess! lol :laugh:
 
:laugh:
LizzyM said:
Any chance that there might have been something in a LOR?

Was your interivew in a red state? Was there anything in your essays or experience section that might offend a very socially/religously/politically conservative person (if you catch my drift)?

Were you engaged in group activities in college or mostly on your own? (goes to mental health)
Click to expand...

LMAO
 
damn that's crzy....my interviewing experience thus far has been quite anti-climatic.
 
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