Know yourself.
This is the time to be mindful and do personal reflection and self-assessment. You must be responsible and accountable for every choice, decision, and action (good or bad) in your life—in work, school, and personal domains.
This is my biggest number 1 tip for interviewing for medical school, residency, or anything else. It all starts with knowing yourself.
You’ve written your short essay responses, your c.v./resume, and you’ve sent your transcripts in. Keep copies of everything you turn in. Review these pieces of your application packet and know them intimately. You don’t want to go in and be clueless about the material you’ve turned in.
Some questions you should be prepared to answer.
- How are you today? (there are no inconsequential questions)
- Tell me about yourself.
- There will be specific questions about the application packet you turned in (e.g. resume/c.v., essay questions, transcripts).
- Are there any red flags in your educational/employment history that you need to explain?
- Why medicine?
- Why this medical program?
- Why this school?
- Why should we pick you?
- Why not allied health (nursing, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, physical therapist, osteopath, chiropractic, etc.)?
- What makes you think that you can handle the rigor, intensity, workload, and stress of medical school?
- What are your strengths?
- What are your biggest weaknesses/challenges?
- What inspired your interest in medicine?
- What qualities make a good physician? What qualities make a poor physician?
- What experiences have you had in a clinic or hospital setting?
- What experience do you have caring for patients?
- What experience do you have in the medical setting?
- What do you bring to our school/program community?
- What aspects of your life make you a good candidate?
- What reservations do you have about the medical field?
- Tell me about an experience you’ve had working in a team? What was your role in the team?
- What does teamwork mean to you?
- What makes a good team?
- What role do you typically play in a team?
- Tell me about a mistake you’ve made and what you learned from it.
- Tell me about a time you were not as dependable as you’d like to have been.
- How do you deal with stress?
- How do you deal with stressful situations?
- How do you deal with negative comments about your profession (e.g. alternative medicine is quackery)?
- What has been your most rewarding experience working with others?
- Why did you choose your major?
- How has your major prepared you for a career in medicine?
- What’s your favorite class and why?
- Discuss a book you recently read for pleasure.
- What are some of your hobbies?
- How do you spend your free time?
- What are your specific goals in medicine?
- What areas would you like to specialize?
- How do you see yourself practicing?
- What will you do if you don’t get into medical school?
- How would a friend describe you?
- What is your greatest fault?
- Tell me about your family?
- What does your family think about your decision to pursue medicine?
- What support system do you have?
- How do you intend to pay for your education?
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and how would you do it?
- How effective do you feel dealing with people other than your peers?
- How do you deal with people from different cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds?
- What do you think is the hardest part of this profession?
- What is a normal day in your life like?
- Do you have any regrets?
- What are you passionate about?
- What are the low points in your life and why?
- Tell me about a time when people’s actions depended on a decision that you made.
- Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you?
- Do you have any questions for us (you definitely should have questions for them)?
- List important qualities of being a good student.
- What makes you happy?
- Who are your role models?
- What do you believe in?
- Are you religious?
- What do you care about and illustrate that by telling us about an experience.
- Describe an unusual event in your life.
- If you were granted 3 wishes, what would they be?
- How do you define success?
- How do you want people to remember you?
- What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
- How do you define failure?
- How do you handle or respond to criticism?
- How do you handle conflict?
- Describe your learning style.
- Tell me a joke?
- Teach me something non-medical in 5 minutes.
- Describe your style of communicating and interacting with others.
- Describe a situation in which you were dependable and demonstrated initiative.
- Describe your experience with diversity or diverse populations.
- Describe a situation where you had to deal with difficult teammates and how was that resolved.
- How do you handle change?
- How do you adapt?
- Tell me about a time that you were criticized unfairly.
- In what course did you get the worse grades and why.
