Medical school hopefuls who are offered an interview with a school should know that the invitation was not given lightly. The opportunity to interview is granted only to promising candidates, so it is an encouraging development when premeds get the chance to prove themselves in this way, admissions experts say.
“They should feel comfortable, because a school doesn’t invite you to interview unless you’re qualified and you’d be a great candidate for their school,” says Dr. Andre Pinesett, an alumnus of Stanford Medical School in California who provides academic coaching services and refers to himself as “The Study Doc.”
Getting Ready for a Medical School Interview
Pinesett, a practicing anesthesiologist, urges premeds to arrive at their medical school interviews prepared to sell themselves. “They should be very clear about who they are and what they have to offer medical schools,” he says.
[Read: Prepare Answers to Frequently Asked Medical School Interview Questions.]
Prospective medical students can allay whatever insecurities and nervousness they might feel during interviews by reminding themselves that they were chosen for a reason, Pinesett says.
Admissions experts note that although anxiety is normal and it is understandable for prospective medical students to feel self-conscious during interviews, they should exhibit confidence and maintain good eye contact with interviewers. They can minimize worries by recognizing that medical schools are genuinely interested in learning more about who they are.
“Always keep in mind that you’re the person who knows yourself best,” says Dr. Lamin Sonko, who recently graduated from the M.D.-MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is now an emergency medicine resident.
One good way for premeds to get ready for med school interviews, Sonko says, is by asking friends and relatives to read through their applications and come up with questions. Another valuable form of interview prep, he says, is to look up explanations of bioethics principles because it is common for medical school interviewers to ask applicants how they would address various health care dilemmas.
Timelines for Interviews
Because U.S. medical schools generally admit candidates on a rolling basis, interview invitations are distributed sporadically throughout the application cycle but become scarcer over time. Late medical school applicants are less likely to receive invitations than similarly qualified early applicants.
Candidates who apply to medical schools close to the beginning of the admissions cycle — in the late spring or early summer — may receive interview invitations in the early fall, though such invitations can be extended to premeds anytime during the fall and winter.
One warning sign that an application rejection may be looming is if a school where you applied has not yet responded to your secondary application with an interview invitation by December.
[Read: What to Do If You Don’t Get a Medical School Interview.]
The Role of Interviews in Admissions
Medical school admissions officers use interviews to determine whether applicants have characteristics that are valuable within the medical profession, such as strong communication skills, presence, critical thinking, compassion and resilience.
Interviews are also used as a way to screen for applicants who are determined to proceed with a medical education while understanding the challenges ahead, including the years of effort necessary to earn a medical degree, complete a residency and obtain a license. Probing questions about a premed’s motivations are common in admissions interviews, since medical schools want to avoid admitting students who are driven by a desire for status or money.
Types of Medical School Interviews
Admissions experts say there is a major distinction between the kinds of interviews that medical schools offer. Many schools use traditional interviews, in which applicants speak at length about their personal credentials and experiences. Other schools conduct multiple mini-interviews, in which students answer questions about how they would address various scenarios if they were a health care provider.
Dr. Karen Murray, associate dean for admissions with New York Medical College, says her med school uses the multiple mini-interview, or MMI, approach in order to gain insight into the way prospective students think and how they might cope with difficult situations.
Multiple Mini-Interviews
An advantage of the MMI interview format, Murray says, is that it allows premeds to meet with several people, which means that a failure to connect with a single person may be less likely to derail a student’s interview performance.
There are several kinds of MMI prompts, including the most common approach where a scenario is presented and followed by a series of questions. Alternatively, interview subjects may be required to roleplay alongside an actor, or they might be asked perform a task or provide guidance to someone else who is doing a task. Occasionally MMI prompts are similar to conventional admissions or job interview questions.
Premeds who participate in MMI events should expect to quickly move from one interview station to another and speedily transition between a variety of discussion topics.
[Read: How to Use Interviews to Select a Medical School.]
Conventional Interviews
In contrast to MMI events, the one-on-one or panel interview style encourages lengthy conversations between candidates and their interviewers. Interviewers might choose to use a scripted set of questions that they ask all interviewees, or they might tailor their questions to individual candidates.
Responding to Interview Invitations
An interview invitation is an honor, so even if you decide not to accept a school’s invitation — perhaps because you’ve chosen another school — you should always reply promptly to the invitation and express thanks, according to admissions officers. One reason to reply swiftly if you are rejecting the offer is out of compassion for other applicants who may be waiting for invitations, admissions professionals say.
A speedy response is also important if you are accepting an interview invitation, since you want to ensure you get your name on the interview schedule before it fills up. Last-minute cancellations or no-shows to one of the limited number of interviews that a school allows are unacceptable, admissions officials say.
Interview Preparation Strategies
Premeds should find out what type of interview a school gives before they arrive on interview day so that they can show up with the right mindset, says Dr. Valerie Parkas, senior associate dean of admissions and recruitment with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where she is also an associate professor.
Regardless of the type of interview, a prospective medical student needs to arrive on time and thoroughly research the school’s mission and programs beforehand, Parkas says. Premeds may also want to read up on current events and pressing concerns in medicine like the coronavirus pandemic before their interview, so they can discuss these issues in an informed and intelligent way, she adds.
Prospective medical students whose life goals align with the mission of a target medical school, such as students who are interested in rural medicine and applying to a school that focuses on training rural doctors, should consider highlighting this in their interviews, Parkas says.
Med school hopefuls should also be mindful about dressing professionally and should schedule trips to in-person interviews in a way that ensures they will arrive at their destination with time to spare and sufficient sleep, admissions experts say.
According to experts, there are certain bedrock concepts in bioethics that premeds should learn prior to their admissions interviews, so they can explain how they would handle moral quandaries. They include:
— Autonomy: Patients have the right to make their own choices about whichever treatments they prefer.
— Beneficence: Doctors should do their best to improve the well-being of patients.
— Non-maleficence: As the Hippocratic oath for physicians states, medical professionals must take precautions to ensure they “do no harm” to the health of patients.
— Justice. Doctors are expected to treat all patients equally and fairly, regardless of social status.
Interview Etiquette During and After an Interview
If premeds stay overnight with current medical students at one of their target schools, they should be as polite as possible to their hosts, and make a point to be kind to everyone they meet on campus, experts add. Aspiring doctors should arrive at med school admissions interviews with a list of thoughtful questions, and after the interview, it would be wise for them to send thank-you notes to interviewers, according to experts.
Mistakes to Avoid During Medical School Interviews
One major error that a premed should never make during a med school interview is behaving arrogantly. Premeds should speak with humility and be prepared to answer a question about an occasion where they failed, Parkas says.
Because medical school is difficult and the medical profession is demanding, admissions officers want to confirm that students have successfully coped with adversity, Parkas explains.
[Read: 3 Interview Questions to Ask Medical Schools to Determine Fit.]
Admissions experts warn that it is unwise for premeds to mention potential red flags in their application unless interviewers ask about deficits. Since applicants have already passed through the medical school’s initial vetting process, highlighting problems with their candidacy is counterproductive.
However, before an interview, premeds should think about what they could say in response to a question about shortcomings in their background so that they are not blindsided by such a question. If the topic does come up, med school hopefuls should discuss it in a constructive way by describing the lessons learned or providing context for how and why things did not work out.
One mistake that premeds sometimes make is providing unconvincing responses to questions about their reasons for going into medicine, experts say. A lack of eloquence on this key talking point makes a terrible impression, according to experts, because explaining why medicine is a good fit is something that every prospective med student should be prepared to do.
Experts also warn against reciting words verbatim from memory, since memorized speeches often come across as inauthentic.
“You don’t want to be so overprepared that, when someone asks you a question … it seems like you turned a switch and you just start talking at them,” Parkas says. “It has to feel like a conversation. The overpreparedness can feel a little slick.”
Mollie Marr, a former president of the student division of the American Medical Women’s Association who earned a Ph.D. degree from the Oregon Health and Science University and expects to obtain an M.D. degree from the university in 2023, recommends pausing and thinking when asked a difficult question. Taking a sip of water when stumped by a question is a subtle way of creating a brief moment for reflection, she says.
Marr also cautions premeds not to be overly friendly or to share private facts about themselves such as health information during interviews. “Students should approach interviews with professional boundaries,” she says. “Even if they feel really comfortable with the interviewer, they need to stay professional in their communication.”
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Everything You Need to Know About Medical School Interviews originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 11/07/22: This article has been updated with new information.
