10 Medical School Interview Questions

Medical school interview questions can also ask you to do self-appraisal, and give some idea about your strengths and weaknesses. There might even be questions about your sponsorship, the alternative places you have applied to, and your hobbies.

Medical School Interview Questions

1. Why do you want to be a doctor?
2. Why did you apply to this medical school?
3. Who are your heroes/role models and why?
4. What made you go into Medicine?
5. Why physician? why not nursing?
6. What are your 2 best points?
7. What are your 2 weakest points?
8. Why would you be a good doctor?
9. What do you think you will like most about medicine?
10. How are you a match for our medical school? 

More AMCAS Work/Activities Tips

• You are allowed a maximum of 15 experiences with 1325 characters to describe each experience.
• Remember hard returns (enter) count as two characters.
• In general, medical school admission committees place more weight on activities that show dedication over a period of time and leadership.
• The admissions committees look down on repeats.
• Don’t fill the space just to fill the space. Ten stellar activities are better than 15 less-than-impressive activities.
• The AMCAS automatically lists the activities by date but you can be creative with how you list dates to have some control over activity order.

AMCAS Work/Activities

Did you know the AMCAS Work/Activities section is more than just a resume?

The Work/Activities section requires you to categorize your experiences by the following categories:

• Paid Employment— Not Military
• Paid Employment—Military
• Community Service/Volunteer—Not Medical/Clinical
• Community Service/Volunteer—Medical/Clinical
• Research/Lab
• Teaching/Tutoring
• Honors/Awards/Recognition
• Conferences Attended
• Presentations/Posters
• Extracurricular/Hobbies/Avocations
• Leadership—Not Listed ElsewhereOther

This allows you to include many experiences not listed on a normal resume. Some examples:

• Guitarist in a band that created an album
• Attended a toxicology conference in Berlin
• Won a creative writing contest in college
• Completed an Ironman triathlon

AMCAS Personal Statement - Get Help

After the sixth draft, it is time to send out the essay for an expert opinion – choose two or three people with experience in writing personal statements and gather their thoughts on three things: content, grammar, and flow (how easily the essay reads).

Afraid you don’t know anyone who can edit the essay for you? Don’t be – you are surrounded by them. Try your parents, spouse, friend who majored in English, cousin in medical school, career counselor, university writing service, writing instructor, family physician, coach, medical school admissions consultant, etc. etc. Don’t be afraid to ask.

One word of caution – do not send the essay to too many people for opinions. Comments will undoubtedly disagree and it can be very frustrating trying to please everyone. The only two people you have to please are yourself and the admissions officer.

Medical School Secondary Applications - General Strategy

Though schools change their secondary essays from year to year, most of the questions fall into eight broad categories:

• Diversity
• Personal Challenge
• Most Important Activity
• Research
• Qualities/Characteristics
• After College Activities
• Long Term Goals
• “Other” Information

Instead of writing a new answer to each question for every school, I suggest that you compose general answers to each of these eight questions and change them as needed to a particular application. This will save you an incredible amount of time and energy. It also gives you a chance to write exceptional essays that, with minor tweaking, can be used multiple times. Most of the secondary essays range from 250 to 500 words. I suggest writing each essay listed below in 500 words or less than editing as needed to fit each particular word requirement. Each essay listed has been taken from real secondary applications. Get that literary mind going, you may have hundreds of secondary essays to write in the next few months!

Medical School Secondary Applications

Medical School Secondary Applications: Diversity

Diversity is one of the most popular secondary essay topics. The point of these types of questions is to prove how you will make a unique contribution to the medical school class.

For example:

At the XXX Medical School, we are committed to building a superb educational community with students of diverse talents, experiences, opinions, and backgrounds. What would you as an individual bring to our medical school community?

If Applicable, describe a situation where you were not in the majority.

When the word “diversity” is used, many think of racial diversity. But this is a very limited view. Think outside the box. Do you speak a foreign language? Are you a non-traditional applicant with significant “real world” experience? Other possibilities include athletic achievements, musical/art/dance talent, and international experience. Everyone can add diversity to a class. 

Medical School Interviews – Current Events

Many medical school interviews now include questions regarding ethics, policy, and current events. During interview season, be sure to stay up-to-date on all current events, but especially those related to health care. Health care reform has dominated headlines recently – do you know what’s going on? How do you feel about the current health care reform debate.

What do you think about a public option or health care mandates? You don’t have to be an expert, but you should know the lingo and be able to intelligently express your opinion. Ethics questions on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and stem cell research have also become popular.

How can you prepare? I suggest reading your local paper but also browse national papers such as the New York Times. The Economist politics and business in review sections at the beginning of every magazine provide excellent current event summaries. Subscribing to The Economist is pricey but you can read these two sections at the library in less than ten minutes.

Medical School Interviews – Take Notes

Everyone seems to bring a schnazy leather legal pad on interviews. But have you ever seen someone actually taking notes? Why bring it if you don’t use it? There’s no need to take notes during the actual interview, as that may seem pretentious. But definitely jot down your thoughts after each medical school interview making note of:

• Interview date
• Interviewer name and title
• Topics discussed
• School positives
• School negatives
• Overall gut reaction

Taking 5 minutes to log your thoughts will be helpful in keeping the details of each school straight in your mind and remembering specifics to put in thank you notes. These notes can also be very helpful when you are making your final decision of where to attend medical school.

Medical School Admission Essays

Medical school admissions are becoming increasingly competitive, in part, because of the failing U.S. economy. Bright applicants who used to target business school or law degrees are finding those fields unstable and are turning their interest toward medicine. Consequently, stronger candidates are now pursuing a medical career, making professional medical school admissions consulting increasingly important in optimizing medical school applications.

Medical school admissions consulting companies come in a variety of forms. Some are larger companies that focus on admissions to several types of graduate programs not just medicine. Others are smaller companies that provide a medical focus, but have a group of consultants. Finally, elite companies offer both the medical focus and a highly experienced consultant who works one-on-one with clients. These professionals are ex-admissions officers from respected medical institutions. They have the inside knowledge of how medical admissions work, providing personalized guidance to optimize candidate's written materials and interview skills.

Because applicants can unknowingly undermine their chances of success with poorly compiled application materials, underdeveloped medical school admission essays and inadequate interview skills, a qualified, personalized medical school admissions consultant provides a great advantage.

Medical School Interviews Practice Questions

Whether you are preparing for your first medical school interview or your tenth, practice is the key to a successful interview experience. Practice the most typical questions asked in medical school interviews. There are many lists out there on the internet.

Practice answering questions out loud in front of a mirror. You will be surprised by the habits you will discover, such as playing with a ring, wrying hands, or foot tapping. Practice limiting such distracting movements. Practice by tape recording your answers. Isn’t it amazing how many times your say “like” and “um.” Practice not using those nonprofessional, filler words.

Ideally, you should arrange for a mock interview with an admissions consultant or medical school counselor. This mock interview should be as close to real as possible – do everything you will do on interview day including wearing your suit, using an office setting, and answering each question to the best of your ability.