An interview can turn the tide for or against you. It gives the school a sense of how you will interact with patients, i.e. your potential bedside manner. If you make a good connection with your interviewer, they will often fight to get you into their incoming class.
So how do you connect with someone you’ve never met before? How do you make them feel heard? Try this: Imagine you are a doctor, and the interviewers are patients coming to you for help. Your job is to listen closely, put them at ease, and share your thoughts based on what they are asking. Your job is not to give a speech, but rather to participate in a back and forth exchange of ideas. If your interviewers feels like they are being heard, they will imagine a patient would feel the same way. And that is ultimately what the interview is for — to find out how you behave with someone who needs you to listen.
So, here is your chance to practice. Below are some common medical school interview questions and a strategy to help you handle each one.
Examples of 11 common medical school interview questions
- “Tell me about yourself.”
- “What do you like to do for fun?”
- “How should we pay for health care in the U.S.?”
- “Why do you want to come here?”
- “Tell me about that grade in biochemistry.”
- “Why not become a scientist, teacher, or nurse?”
- “What are your strengths?”
- “Tell me about a challenge and how you overcame it.”
- “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
- “Tell me about a time when you were on a team.”
- “What if an elderly woman’s family asks you to keep a diagnosis of terminal cancer from her?”
A deeper look at the common medical school interview questions
Look at each questions and write down a few ways you would answer it.1. “Tell me about yourself.” (The open-ended question)
This question is all about organization. You may be tempted to start at the beginning of your life and say, “I was born in … grew up in … went to school at…and then my family moved to…” Clearly, this answer will take quite a while to get to anything relevant. Interviewees who start this way often realize they are talking too much and stop before they get to anything important. To be more effective, your answer should have a theme. Some examples:
- I have always liked taking things apart. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve taken things apart and tried to figure out how they work.
- I love teaching and sharing ideas with others. I learn most when I’m listening to someone else asking me questions, because it makes me think more about what I know.
- I enjoy being active and eating healthy. This keeps me balanced and gives me a common area of interest with others who are interested in health. Being healthy involves so many areas of life.
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2. “What do you like to do for fun?” (The let’s be friends question)
This question sometimes stumps applicants, who feel they haven’t done anything fun since they started studying for the MCAT and writing essays a year ago! Try thinking of something that makes you sound like a normal person, such as walking the family dog, cooking for friends, talking to your grandparents on the phone, painting, reading, playing board games, or going camping, hiking, rock-climbing, etc. Whatever it is, smile while you talk about it, which shows that you know how to enjoy something. They don’t want students who are so high strung they can’t slow down and enjoy life.
3. “How should we pay for health care in the U.S.?” (The big picture question)
Ah, the interrogation that stumped me as an interviewee. I went around in circles and finally dug myself into a pit of bad ideas. I thought about that interview many times, and eventually realized there was no right answer. After all, politicians and policy makers can’t figure it out, so how should you, a humble pre-med student, know the correct answer? The key is to show that you know a something about the debate, and have some ideas on how to approach it. Acknowledge that it is a difficult problem with many complex factors, then discuss a few of the pros and cons of one solution. Try not to come across as a know it all. Sometimes the best thing you can say is, “I wish I knew the answer.”
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4. “Why do you want to come here?” (The “why us” question)
Schools are forever asking, “does this applicant really want to be here?” If you have high stats and options in your home state, they may suspect you aren’t serious about their school, and they may be right. However, imagine it’s the only school you get accepted to. Would you want to go there? If so, figure out what is special and unique about their curriculum, then convince them you belong there. Don’t rattle off a list of things like a brochure. Pick one or two programs that genuinely interest you, and tell them why you would participate. In the end, you just might be lucky enough to go there.
5. “Tell me about that grade in biochemistry.” (The explain yourself question)
You got a C- in your sophomore year, and are hoping the rest of your record will overshadow it. Then your worst nightmare happens. An interviewer asks you to explain that class and why you got that grade. The story you have been telling yourself is that your professor barely spoke English, you were sick with mono, and your home team was in the World Series. Studying just wasn’t going to happen. But of course, you can’t say any of that! So how do you take responsibility and show them that you’ve learned from it, without making excuses or blaming others?
The answer is to discuss your learning style and studying technique. Explain that before this course, you studied a certain way, but this grade was a turning point. You realized that you needed a new approach, and you incorporated your visual/auditory/kinesthetic learning style. You tried new study styles until you found a technique that worked for you. Most doctors have struggled with a class at some point, and everyone likes to think our success is due to our hard work and perseverance (which on some level, is true). Remind them of their own challenges and individual learning style, and they will tend to believe you.
Dr. Suzi Schweikert has served on the UCSD School of Medicine’s admissions committee, and has mentored students in healthcare programs for over 20 years. She holds a BA in English Lit from UCLA, an MD from UCSD, and an MPH from SDSU. Want Suzi to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch with Dr. Suzi Schweikert.
Related Resources:
• The Ultimate Guide to Medical School Interview Success, a free guide
• The Importance of Maintaining Your Composure in Med School Interviews
• “Fools Rush In”: An Important Lesson for Your Med School Interview
This article was originally posted on blog.accepted.com.
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