"Tell Me About Yourself"

[Bretzel]

How would you approach the interview question "tell me about yourself?" My premed advisor had an interview with me before writing my committee letter and told me that I interview great, but I need a better response to this question because I did not sell myself enough. How do you do that without sounding too conceded or arrogant or etc....?

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[jsr52]

I would probably go with this

hometown, major, 3 things you love to do. 3 Strengths.

Instead of saying I'm extremely responsible, compassionate, energetic, w/e it may be..... say "People have told me I'm x, y, z" That way you can say whatever you want and it can't come off as arrogant if other people have commented on it.

 

[LikeClockWork]

I pretty much gave a sentence or two each for where I was born/raised, what my high school years were like, why I chose my undergrad, what I majored in and why, what ECs I did and why, what I've been doing since graduating, and why I chose to apply to this particular med school. I'm usually trying to give them enough broad information that they can pick one or two to pursue further so the interview is more like a conversation. If they want to interrupt me as I go along, it's also easier to find my place when I'm done answering them.

 

[FemalesCANTDriv]

I would probably go with this

hometown, major, 3 things you love to do. 3 Strengths.

Instead of saying I'm extremely responsible, compassionate, energetic, w/e it may be..... say "People have told me I'm x, y, z" That way you can say whatever you want and it can't come off as arrogant if other people have commented on it.

I would say this is your standard, humdrum, I'm like every other premed answer. What I would go with is this: pretend like you are not at a medical school interview for a second. When people ask you to tell them about yourself, they want to get to know you. They don't want to know your grades or your strengths. They want to know about where you are from, your family, your friends, your hobbies, your dreams, your goals, your aspirations, funny stuff that you've done in the past, funny anecdotes about anything in your life, etc. An answer like that can't possibly be generic.

For me personally, I would always start by talking about my family and go from there. Usually I would throw in a funny anecdote about my name and all the different things that I've been called since my name is hard to pronounce. I talked a lot about my family and friends, because those two things are really important to me. So ya... hope that helps.

 

[ares8402]

There was an article about this on SDN a few months ago. http://studentdoctor.net/blog/2008/02/09/trick-question/

 

[parto123]

“Tell me about yourself” is another way of saying “sell yourself”, or “we interview loads of qualified applicants who appear very similar to you, why should we hire/admit you?”

Now, it probably isn’t the best idea to tell him things he already knows (grades, school, major, mcat etc.)- unless you can spin it into a coherent sales pitch. You can tell the interviewer any aspects of your life that you think will make him view you more favorably.

Also, if there is nothing interesting about your family or upbringing, it’s a waste of your time to mention this as well, because you’ll be no different than the thousand other applicants, and it will sound like youre going through the motions.

The question is essentially the interviewer giving you the opportunity to fit ANYTHING into the interview that you think they should know and will help you get admitted.

You should never squander the opportunity of “tell me about yourself.” The best way to prepare for this is to think of the things about you that will improve the odds of the interviewer liking you, connecting with you, being impressed by you etc.

 

[fireflygirl]

When I was asked this question, I followed LikeClockWork's lead; I talked about where I graduated from and why I chose my UG. I talked about some key things that I did in UG that piqued my interest for medicine and then because I was a non-trad, I talked about my former life as an I-Banker and how that turned into a decision to pursue medicine, and how that led to my post-bac. I didn't talk about strengths and weaknesses since I dont think that's really addressing the question. And that question will probably come up later in the interview anyways.

 

[bawer234]

Just tell them "no" and to move on with the interview, then look down at your note pad and pretend to write something while shaking your head back and forth with a dissapointed look on your face...I guarantee they'll be impressed

 

[bcat85]

yeah, to be honest, this isn't a good question to "write out" so much as it is to think about what has been important to you and who has defined who you are. So, my answer to this question has been something like this:

My name is bcat85, and I'm from XX, Illinois. I have lived there my entire life, up until when I went to college. I have one brother who goes to XX and is a XX major. My mom is a E and my dad is a F. When I was in HS, I played x, y, and z, and blah blah blah. I go to University M, where I majored in biology. I tend to spend a lot of my free time doing XYZ. I first became interested in medicine when I was a X because of Y (a brief recap of personal statement, and a couple of significant events.)

 

[HanginInThere]

How would you approach the interview question "tell me about yourself?"

You need to grab the interviewer's interest from start. You could go with a pseudo-humble opening: "The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."

or play on your disadvantaged status: "Things were never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, ..."

or, if you think you can pull it off, go for the classic: "Call me Ishmael."

really, any of these would be fine. It's your choice.

 

[bawer234]

You need to grab the interviewer's interest from start. You could go with a pseudo-humble opening: "The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."

or play on your disadvantaged status: "Things were never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, ..."

or, if you think you can pull it off, go for the classic: "Call me Ishmael."

really, any of these would be fine. It's your choice.

Agreed. Just remember to keep eye contact, don't blink until the interviewer blinks first. You should never slouch, instead lean forward and stare intensely at your target. Medical Schools try to sniff out the weak in these interviews. The worst thing you can do is give them any information that they can use against you, like your name, age, major, and extra curricular activities. Don't give in to their pressure and always assume you've already been accepted.

 

[jebus]

this question is a gimme. just go quickly through your early life history and then hit the big parts (the experiences that made you want to be a doctor). seriously, this is your chance to direct the conversation. grab it by the balls and go for it. you are in control. and smile! be excited! this your chance!
good luck.

 

[pakbabydoll]

Time line of activities and what you learned from them.

 

[AlternateSome1]

Just go over a timeline of your life that includes things about you that are interesting/unique. The interviewer is generally as awkward about the whole process as the interviewee, and this question is a desperate attempt to get you to say something they can latch onto and talk about. If you say, "I went to x school, graduated with top honors, and devoted my life to shadowing physicians." They will nod, and move on to the next halting/awkward question. If you say, "I went to x school where I majored in blah and spent my free time doing aerospace basketweaving." Then they will perk up and start asking you about "wtf is aerospace basketweaving?" and you will have a conversation.

 

[majik1213]

I would probably go with this

hometown, major, 3 things you love to do. 3 Strengths.

Instead of saying I'm extremely responsible, compassionate, energetic, w/e it may be..... say "People have told me I'm x, y, z" That way you can say whatever you want and it can't come off as arrogant if other people have commented on it.

don't forget to state your weaknesses. I think that addressing your weaknesses not only shows humility, but also it gives you an opportunity to say how you might be addressing them right now. For example, you could say, "But I'm not perfect. I've struggled for a while with the <blank> section on the MCATs, and you can see I got an 8 in it. I just want you to know that since the MCAT I've continued to work on improving that area. I'm at a 9 now, and won't stop until I get to a 10." That's what I said about my VR section at my interview. It's true, too. On my MCAT I got an 8 in VR. I kept working on it even though I hadn't rescheduled a retake.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I actually got more or less blindsided by this question since nobody had informed me that Arkansas's interviews were closed. My spur-of-the-moment response was basically hometown-->family-->chronic migraines as a kid-->interest in science-->interest in medicine. That transitioned nicely into the next question which was "Why Arkansas?" since all of my mom's family is from there. I sort of stumbled my way into a great response, in other words.

 

[Narmerguy]

I was asked this question a lot and I think one of the general approaches to take to it is simply to try to make it as personal as possible. Not so personal that you're talking about what you dream of and what you ate for breakfast But still, stray away from the school and the academics and focus more on your background, what gets you excited, what you find funny, what makes you tick. For me I've lived in 9 different states before I even started college so that usually got the ball rolling for me. I'd simply remember to make it sound easy and natural because this time it's all up to you what you want to talk about.