Preparation for the Interview

Get to know yourself well--think about your motivation, personal characteristics, values, opinions, and goals. Are you honest, empathetic, compassionate, curious, analytical?

Motivation: Consider your life experiences and how they relate to medicine. How have your experiences, your relationships with people, your accomplishments motivated you toward medicine? You should be able to talk about such things in a conversation without sounding self-centered or arrogant.

Consider your strengths and weaknesses. Are you a planner, well-organized and reliable? What are your talents? What do they contribute to making you a good candidate for medical school? What are your shortcomings? Don't try to hide them, but think about them, and how you have dealt with them to be a successful student, etc. Don't blame others for your problems or shortcomings--if it is necessary to talk about them, explain them and how you compensate for them. Don't try to turn a weakness into a strength.

Maturity: What major decisions have you made on your own? How have you dealt with disappointments? How do you handle stress and anxiety?

Intellectual curiosity: Are you a well-read person? What do you read? Are you aware of current controversies in medicine? How do you spend your free time? Have you taught yourself some special skill? Are you interested in some topic beyond what is required of you in classes?

Leadership: Have you taken advantage of the opportunities available to you on campus to become involved in a community or people-oriented activity? Have you taken a leadership role in such an activity? How involved were you? How has it helped you and the organization in which you participated?

Interpersonal communication skills: Evaluate yours, and do what you can to improve them. Practice listening, as well as talking, to others.

Values and opinions: Have opinions regarding current social/political/medical issues. Be able to discuss your opinions logically and back up your opinions clearly, but be open to other ideas. Read recent issues of Time magazine or Newsweek so that you are familiar with current events. Be prepared to consider a hypothetical situation (possibly medical, but possibly not), devise solutions for it, and defend them.

Goals: What do you see yourself doing in 5 or 10 years? Will you be doing medical research, be a primary care physician, be teaching in a medical school, be in family practice in a rural setting? Where will you fit into the medical world?

Get to know the school at which you are interviewing before you go there--look at its web page (or other sources) and know as much as you can about its philosophy, history, curriculum (required and elective courses), research, clinical facilities, socioeconomic characteristics of its setting. Look at its catalog, if possible--have some questions to ask about the particular school at which you are interviewing. Know the typical schedule for the interview day at a particular school (number of interviews, single or group interview, lunch, travel arrangements, tour of facilities). Be sure to call if you need to cancel an appointment.

On the Day of the Interview

Arrive early and walk around the campus. If possible, talk to students, perhaps arrange to sit in on a class. At some schools, a tour is part of the interview process. Occasionally there is an overnight orientation stay with a medical student.

While you are waiting for an interview, it is probably ok to accept coffee if it is offered (discard the cup before the interview).

Interviews tend to be more formal at the beginning and loosen up toward the end, if at all. Your body language may convey signals you don't intend--be aware of nervous habits, mannerisms, and eye contact. Ask a friend to practice with you or practice in front of a mirror. Your appearance and style do matter. Your honesty, interest, and sense of purpose count. Expect yourself to be nervous

The interviewer is looking for personal characteristics and interpersonal communication skills desireable in a physician. They will consider your attitude (not overconfident, but not uncertain), your language (avoid slang), and your demeanor. Look at the person you are talking to--not at the floor or ceiling, or someone else. Don't give the appearance of needing to hide something. Be forthright, up-front, but not arrogant. Use courtesy, tact, and a sense of humor. Smile, look friendly.... It is ok to bring a notebook to an interview, but don't spend time writing in it instead of talking to the interviewer.

Interviewers may be medical school faculty, administrators, admissions staff or senior students. They must follow a manual that has rules for appropriate and inappropriate questions. If you bring up a topic, they are generally entitled to follow up on it, but there are many topics they may not bring up. Don't introduce topics you don't want to talk about, but do talk about the topics the interviewer asks about. Don't be too long-winded--stop talking when you have finished what you have to say.

Interviews are more important at some schools than at others. Most use the interview to assess interpersonal skills and noncognitive qualities. Some schools just use the interview to confirm the original impression your application has made. Some use the interview as a recruiting tool--these make a point of letting you know about opportunities available as part of their program. Look interested! It is possible to have double-digit MCAT scores and a 3.9 GPA, but be a blank page to talk to (no confidence, no opinions, no conversational ability)--this will come across in an interview very clearly.

A helpful site that gives interview questions asked at particular schools is http://www.interviewfeedback.com/.
Examples of questions an interviewer might ask:

• Tell me about yourself and the process that has led you to be interested in a career in medicine.
• I see from your AMCAS file that you have had experience with _________. Tell me about that.
• How would your best friend describe you to me?
• Describe your strengths and weaknesses.
• Why do you want to attend this school?
• Describe a difficult event in your life and how you dealt with it.
• How do you spend your free time?
• What medically related experiences have you had?
• What are the most important problems facing medicine?
• Describe the kind of physician you want to be and what changes you will need to make in order to reach that goal.
• What do you think about _______? (Euthanasia, health care reform, abortion, AIDS care, genetic counseling, privacy issues, etc.)