I am going to steal and adapt the questions from the
thread that you posted.
Q1. Why Medicine?
A1: Your answer needs to be honest. As gulible as pre-meds think adcoms are, the more honest you are, the more genuine you are going to be percieved. At the same time, here are some things to consider.
1) Help people - Do not use this genericly. Unless you are a sociopath, you want to help people. Be specific. What makes you want to help people? What kind of people do you want to help? Are there things that make you well suited to help those people? What experiences have driven you to help them?
2) Life long learning - You can study medicine all day, every day, or operate for 12 hours every day for decades and still be learning at the end of your career. There are always new advances in knowledge and technology that mandate even the most learned physician keep up.
3) Problem solving - No where will you find a higher concentration of difficult problems to be solved. They run from the micro-oriented, solving medical problems in the context of social/financial constructs to the macro-oriented how do we administer effective health care in our hospital, the state, country or world.
4) Being a professional, the master and commander - As a physician, you will be responsible for the health and lives of your patients. It is not a responsibility to be taken lightly. It is a point of pride to be able to take that responsibilty and shoulder it. You can not replace the feeling of administering good, effective medical care. There is a satisfaction that can not be compared.
Q2: Why should I choose you over another applicant if both of you are equal in credentials?
A2: This is where your ECs are important. I would translate this question into, "Please brag about your non-academic skill sets." Talk about what skills you have that will make you a good doctor. For me, it was leadership, superior communicator, problem solving, critical analysis, technological knowhow, etc. I could support those from multiple angles with my ECs that demonstrated proficiency. Do not say that you are a nice person or that you are easy to work with or talk about your academics. Those are a minimum for medical school. Plenty of people have good grades and aren't total *******s. What makes you special?
Q3: Why our school?
A3: Access to research, access to clinics/VA experiences, good city/community, weather, word of mouth, etc. I was asked by an interviewer at Hopkins if I would go to Hopkins over HMS considering that my father went to HMS. I told them that my father always told me that at Brigham the best residents came from Hopkins and that that meant more to me than any other recommendation.
Q5: What specialty do you want to pursue after graduation?
A5: If you have a particular interest, talk about it. It is perfectly fine to say, I don't know yet. It is best to explain your interests with shadowing experience. Do not say you want to be a cardiologist because you did cardiology research. If you haven't seen cardiologists on a day to day basis, you don't know what it is like to be one.
Q6: If you cut the wrong artery in surgery, do you tell the patient?
A6: This checks your integrity and tells them that you will tell the patient as the truth dictates.
Q7: How do you handle stress?
A7: Everyone has their own answers for this. A good rule of thumb is to always have a good example to illustrate why what you do works. Does not matter what your methods are. For me it has always been taking things one step at a time and plugging away until I get through whatever it is.
Q9: What are your strengths?
A9: Do NOT mention academics. Your grades and MCAT speak for themselves. What do you bring to the table that others don't. What will you add to a medical school class? Schools are looking for diversity. Not just of the classic race, sex, etc. But also backgrounds and skillsets.
Q10: What are your weaknesses?
A10: Being a perfectionist is not a weakness. You are side stepping the question and at best, ou will be laughed at behind closed doors. It isn't really a negative, but it doesn't help you. You need something to talk about here. We all have weaknesses, what are yours and more importantly how have you worked to improve them. Medical school, residency and being a physician is stressful. Your weaknesses will come to the forefront at some point. The question is really, will you be capable of recognizing them and dealing with them. If you give some bs answer about being a perfectionist, you don't demonstrate the capacity for self improvement.
Q11: What will you if you do not get accepted?
A11: I told schools that I would go to law school. I also told people my dream job was supreme court justice. Nobody cared. What matters is that you have a plan and can demonstrate that you think ahead. What is your contingency? People will ask this differently by asking what would you do if you couldn't do medicine. Do not get caught unprepared and assume you can just say, "figure out why I didn't get in the first time and fix it."
Q13: Why is the grade in that class is low?
A13: Explain, do not make excuses. If you don't have a good explanation, explain what you learned about why you got a bad grade and how you have since fixed it. Have concrete examples from other classes.
Q15: What questions do you have for me or for our school?
A15: a. How big is your class?
b. How are the first two years?
c. How well do the students do on National Boards examinations?
d. What is the drop out rate?
e. How do you like it here?
f. How is the city? Cost of living?
I will add some of my own questions a little later.
