What are some essential topics and questions to be familiar with for interviews?

[asdf123g]

why doctor?
why this school?
Be familiar with the school's mission statement
why you are interested in the program with which you are interviewing
Know your primary/secondary answers inside and out
Be able to talk about your EC's
your expectations of medical school and being a physician
your hobbies/personality

Also, What are some questions you could ask your interviewer?

thanks in advance!

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[senzen]

Would you happen to know if the MSAR would have information on the school's mission?

 

[asdf123g]

@senzen : I believe it does.

 

[Catalystik]

Know something about the Affordable Care Act.

 

[AlteredScale]

why doctor?
why this school?
Be familiar with the school's mission statement
why you are interested in the program with which you are interviewing
Know your primary/secondary answers inside and out
Be able to talk about your EC's
your expectations of medical school and being a physician
your hobbies/personality

Also, What are some questions you could ask your interviewer?

thanks in advance!

Why medicine, why this school, and why you are at the centerpiece of a traditional interview.

Some other topics I focused on on my interview were:

Health policy and law (ACA) - need to know the basics and need to have an opinion that shows you've given it some thought.

Health ethics - hard to just know the answer to these but I suggest taking a look at Medscape Medical Ethics for good up to date discussions on varying cases and topics by the chief of medical ethics at NYP.

Research - why is research important to you (if it is). Why is research important in medicine/physician practice.

Questions to ask interviewer:
-what are some changes to the curriculum
-what are some school specific issues that have been brought about lately and how have they been addressed
-why have they stayed at said school for so long...or if they just joined: why did they decide to come here
-why did they choose to go into academic medicine
-what's the most important thing they've learned from being faculty at this school.

 

[GameTheory29]

Tell Me About Yourself, hard question to not ramble or stay narrow in your focus. No need to memorize an answer but just have an idea of what you want to say. If it comes first, it'll set the tone for your whole interview

 

[organdonor]

Tell me about yourself

Why medicine

Why this school

What are you looking for in a school

Do you want to do research in med school

Do you have any questions for me? (You'll get this one at least 5 times throughout the course of the day. Have a list of 10 or so questions that you could ask when you get this one. "No" is an incorrect answer to this question.

Read any good books lately

Basic healthcare ethics. Sometimes the point of these questions is that there is no good answer. They want to hear you reason your way to a justifiable answer. bonus points if you are able to cite any of the principles of healthcare ethics; non malificence, autonomy, beneficence and justice. If you have not had a healthcare ethics class, do not attempt to reference these concepts without some study as you will use them wrong and look silly doing it.

Basics of affordable care act, single payer systems, origins of American healthcare system

I see on your application one of your volunteer activities/jobs/shadowing experiences/ research was x. Tell me about that/a dilemma you saw in that

Tell me a situation where you demonstrated teamwork/leadership/ability to overcome obstacles

What is your biggest flaw

What do you do for fun outside of medicine

If you weren't in medicine what would you do

What specialty do you want to do (it's fine to answer this with a certain field or not but ALWAYS wrap it up with "but I'm keeping an open mind and realize most people change their specialty choice")

 

[operaman]

Lots of good things here. I don't know about med school, but a lot of residency interviews are incorporating more behavioral questions (tell me about a time when....). They don't do these like corporate structured interviews (yet), but they are peppering more of them in and I would guess med schools are doing the same thing. It's be de rigueur in business for a long time and they actually perform much better than traditional shoot-the-breeze interviews. You can google lists of commonly used ones and you can anticipate things you might get asked (some common ones are already mentioned above).

There are lots of ways to answer these questions; one commonly taught is the STAR method as a way of structuring your answer.
ST: quick description of the Situation or Task
A: Action you took
R: Results of your action

So, one I've been asked a lot on the residency trail is "tell me about a time when you had to find a creative solution to a problem"
So for me:
ST: I wanted to become a doctor; no science classes since the Clinton administration (high school); didn't want to take 2-3 years to apply
A: Used khan academy and iTunesU to teach myself the MCAT stuff and took it without any science background, then applied to med school while starting a DIY post bacc
R: got in to medical school 9 months after switching careers

Sticking to that basic outline makes it really easy for the interviewer to understand the situation and how I approached it.

Not only are these questions tough because you have to come up with a story on the spot, but it's easy to ramble on and lose the interviewer during your answer. Having a concise framework can help keep you focused under pressure. If you can find someone who does good mock interviews, it would be very helpful to practice answering some of these questions.