Interview Strategy

Overview Most medical schools are pretty chill, and try to keep the interviews light hearted. For some schools, the interview is a formality while others use it as a way to further differentiate candidates. For instance, University of Illinois accepts a large percentage of students who interview (600/750) while New York University accepts a much lower percentage (200/1100). The interview is ultimately your final chance to address the elephant in the room ... Why you and not this other similar applicant (what makes you a good fit for us?) Regardless, different schools conduct interviews in different ways.

Traditional Interviews

Traditional interviews are just what you might expect, a one on one faculty interview in which you are questioned on your personal characteristics and motivation to pursue medicine. Potential sample questions are listed below.

Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs)

Based on the research, schools using the MMI format believe it produces a more reliable assessment of a candidate and limits interview biases due to the number of interactions. Because students interact with multiple interviewers in multiple assessments over the course of the MMI, opinions of a single interviewer are not over-emphasized. The MMI allows applicants multiple opportunities to showcase their skills throughout the interview, unlike the traditional one-on-one interview.

They utilize stations that may last from 5 to 10 minutes each and may have up to eight stations or different interviewers. These stations may present you with basic questions concerning your time management skills or an ethical dilemma that you may have to work through. Ethical dilemmas require a framework. For instance, I utilized a strategy described below.

- Recognize an Ethical Issue - Get the Facts - Evaluate Alternative Actions - Make a Decision and Test It - Act and Reflect on the Outcome

The key words here are RECOGIZE, FACTS, ACT, and REFLECT

I suggest you buy and read the book, "Doing Right" by Phillip Hebert. This book is very good for understanding common and not so common ethical dilemmas that physicians can face, and is often also covered in medical school. Some sample questions are listed below. The key is to showcase personal characteristics such as empathy, flexibility, critical thinking, professionalism, and communication.