You’ve received the e-mail. A medical school has reviewed your application and invited you for an interview, face-to-face or virtually. There’s a lot to it, and of course you’re going to be feeling a bit proud and a bit sick. When you’re thinking about how to prepare for a medical school interview, the first thing you should keep in mind is that the admissions committee has already determined that you will be able to deal with the demands of medical school. Now they want to see if you can speak to people and why you want to be a doctor.
The short form is as follows. Re-read your application, familiarize yourself with the school, practice answering questions out loud, have a mock interview or two, and know in advance which format you’ll encounter. The remainder of this guide explains each of these.
Before we begin, a word of caution: this article is about admissions to the US medical schools. However, if you’re considering going to an overseas school/hospital for your interview, be sure to find out what they’re looking for.
Knowing what medical school interviews are like helps alleviate anxiety. Knowing what medical school interviews are like reduces anxiety.
Consider some things your school already knows about you. It includes your grades, your MCAT score, and your AMCAS application, including your essays and letters. It lacks an understanding of how it appears when a challenge is asked, and the person waits for the answer. The interview is that fill.
The format is subject to the school’s discretion. A typical interview will be with a faculty member, a doctor or occasionally a current student. Panel interviews involve two or more than two individuals sitting at a table in front of you. A few schools conduct group interviews, in which you participate in a discussion with other interviewees. There is also the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI), a series of brief timed stations, usually related to ethical or situational issues. All can occur on video.
Needless to say, you will not have to guess which one you’ll receive. The spelling is typically presented in the invitation for the interview or on the web page where you can apply for admission. If it isn’t clear, email the admissions office and ask. Weekly answer to that question.
Primarily, the attributes you’d like to have in your own physician. Interviewers listen for communication skills, professionalism, empathy and reasoning through ethical issues. They also seek out teamwork, resilience, self-awareness and cultural humility. The AAMC has developed a list of essential competencies to include in the curriculum of entering medical students. Read it before you begin practicing, as it outlines the key areas in which you are getting deducted marks in school.
There’s a method to the madness in preparing. Start off with what you have written about yourself and find out about the school. The last step is building and rehearsing answers.
Read each word again in your main app, your secondary apps, your personal statement, and your activities list. Interviewers will be looking at your file, and anything you have in it is fair game. Oh, that project you did in sophomore year? Prepare answers to “What did you actually do? As you read, jot down questions that each experience could generate.
The home page won’t take you far. Read a mission statement and take a look at the layout of the curriculum. Do teachers mainly teach lectures, problem-based learning or both? Visit student groups and clinical/ community programs. You’re looking to find 2-3 items that fit with your interests.
Compare these two solutions. “The clinical exposure is good.” Versus: “If I could continue to work with uninsured patients, I’d still work in your student-run free clinic, which I have for three years. The second one is similar to what you’re saying.
People forget adjectives. They remember stories. Select six to eight experiences from clinical work, research, volunteering and leadership experiences. Write a couple of sentences for each one explaining what happened and what you learnt from it. At least one of the couple is going to work on a team and one of them has to be about something that went wrong. What you will see is that there is more than one question that can be answered by one good story.
State your answers orally. Thinking them through in your head doesn’t count. Also, don’t write out the entire script to memorize; a memorized response is stiff and will fall apart if the interviewer rephrases the question. Write a couple of points for each question and discuss each point until it sounds natural. If this sounds like a good idea, get a friend or advisor to conduct a practice interview, and make sure to specify the type of feedback you desire. People aren’t going to know if you ask them if that’s okay.
If you Google and go to other sites, you’ll find lists that contain more than 100 interview questions. Don’t panic. The majority of them are essentially the same questions, just asked in different terms. Once you are familiar with these 6, you should be prepared for most of it.
What they’re looking for, some questions they might ask, and how to organize your response.
| Question | What it assesses | How to structure your answer |
| Tell me about yourself | Communication, focus, self-awareness | Brief background, two relevant experiences, link to medicine |
| Why do you want to become a doctor? | Motivation and maturity | Specific experiences that shaped your interest and what you took from them |
| Why this medical school? | Fit and real interest | Two or three confirmed school features tied to your goals |
| What are your strengths and weaknesses? | Honesty and self-awareness | A strength with proof, a genuine weakness, how you’re working on it |
| Tell me about a challenge or failure | Resilience and reflection | What happened, how you responded, what you’d do differently |
| Describe a teamwork or leadership experience | Collaboration and accountability | Your role, what you did, how it turned out |
These trip up some more than others.
The big one is “Why medicine”. Most people want to claim to love science and to want to help people, so they do. Most people want to claim to want to help people, and they do. Most people want to love science, and they love science. It could be said by nurses and pharmacists. What attracted you to medicine? Perhaps a patient you saw during your shadowing, or something you observed as a scribe during shifts.
When answering the question “Why this school”, only answer what you’ve seen on the school website or heard from students. Interviewers have heard a lot of copy-and-paste answers, and they see them.
On weaknesses, avoid saying “I’m a perfectionist. It’s a statement that every interviewer has heard before. Choose something concrete that doesn’t scare anyone off, such as “I used to wait too long to request assistance. Then illustrate how you’ve improved.
If something doesn’t go as you hoped, focus on you, not on the challenge or failure. Easy to say the word professor who was unfair or a teammate who didn’t do his job. Resist that. The interviewer wants to know – what did you do next?
This is usually the first question, and it determines the tone for the following questions. Try for 1-2 minutes. A three-part format is helpful: some background, some experiences/qualities that have influenced you, and why they have guided you into the path of medicine.
An answer constructed in that fashion could sound something like this:
I grew up in a small town, an hour from the closest hospital, and when my mom was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, that’s the person who made sure she was going to her appointments and taking her meds and it got me curious about how people manage their chronic illness, and I wanted to be a physician, preferably in an underserved community, where patients walk out with a plan they can really follow.
Why does this work? It’s personal, but not a life story, and it’s specific. It also gives the interviewer some quick follow-up questions, relieving some of the burden on both parties.
Don’t read your resume out loud or begin at age 5 and in each subsequent year go one year further. They already have your file! They want to hear what you feel is important.
An MMI is quite different from a traditional interview. The task involves moving between stations. Typically you will receive 1 minute or 2 minutes to read a prompt, and a few minutes to discuss it with a rater at each of the prompts. There are ethical situations at some stations. Others involve role-play, group activity, etc., or just background questions. Each station is rated by a different rater, which is great as one bad station doesn’t mean you had a bad day.
Raters understand that ethics scenarios don’t have a single “right answer”. They’re taking you for a ride.
1. Clarify the problem. What is happening, and what are you still not sure of?
2. Identify the stakeholders. Who’s affected?
3. Identify values that are in conflict, e.g., honesty vs loyalty, fairness vs kindness.
5. Enumerate several sensible choices (even some that you would not choose).
5. Select the balanced response and provide a rationale.
Try this one. Group project is in progress and someone in the group gives to professor the idea of another student as his or her own.
If the answer is too weak, it goes immediately to “I’d report them. Yelled by a stronger answer, slow down. You may be mistaken about something. You would probably consult privately with the other student in your class first and consider what the classmate who took the idea is feeling. If so, you’d explain at what point you would call the professor in. This is a good response that demonstrates fairness and good judgment, the standards the rater is seeking.
Do a mock interview as if it were the real thing. Select 8-10 question items, some behavioral and at least one ethics item. Make an exact copy of the real format. Interviewing by MMI? Time each station. Interviewing on Zoom? Practice on Zoom.
If you have no problem with this, record yourself. You’ll notice these habits immediately, such as talking too much or looking into your own camera, but it’s a bit painful to view. Next, have your pretend interviewer give you a mark on something like this:
| Criterion | What to look for | Score (1 to 5) |
| Clarity | Easy to follow, no rambling | |
| Relevance | Answers the question that was asked | |
| Structure | Clear start, middle, and end | |
| Reflection | Shares what you learned | |
| Empathy | Considers other people’s viewpoints | |
| Delivery | Tone, body language, eye contact, pace |
Do your two lowest scores, then again. It’s a great way to ease the nerves during an interview.
IMG Helping Hands mentors, physicians who’ve sat on both sides of the table, can help you practice, tighten your answers, and walk in calm.
These are some of the most important items to take with you to a medical school interview.
When doing the interview, it is important to dress appropriately and act professionally.
The best idea is to wear dark-colored clothing with a tight fit, or some other type of business clothing. Have shoes to walk in as there is usually a campus tour. Be courteous to all at the hotel, from reception to the students on the tour. People talk.
Test Internet, camera, mic and the video platform the night before. Look for a place that is quiet and has plenty of light and a plain wall behind you. Don’t forget to have your cell handy and the admissions office’s number in case you lose your signal.
Arrival, manners and questions to interviewers
Arrive 15-20 minutes before (or log in 10-15 minutes early for a virtual interview). Sit up, make eye contact and wait for the questioner before responding. Following that, ask if the school would like an email of thanks. Some prefer that you don’t send one.
The majority of errors are either due to too little preparation or to excessive rehearsal. Be aware of these:
Any of these can cause a strong applicant to come across as not as prepared as they are.
Interview next week? The essentials can be covered in 7 days.
| Day | Preparation task | Expected outcome |
| 1 | Review application and personal statement | Identify likely follow-up questions |
| 2 | Research the medical school | Prepare specific reasons for choosing it |
| 3 | Outline answers to common questions | Build clear, personalized talking points |
| 4 | Practice behavioral and ethical scenarios | Improve structured reasoning |
| 5 | Complete a mock interview | Identify strengths and weaknesses |
| 6 | Revise answers and test interview logistics | Address feedback and technical issues |
| 7 | Review key notes and rest | Arrive prepared without over-rehearsing |
You don’t need to follow this to the letter. If the interview is still a month away, repeat the same steps and conduct additional simulated interviews.
Getting into medical school is the start. Whether you’re a future physician or an international graduate aiming for US residency, IMG Helping Hands guides you through what comes next:
This is a typical interview length of about 30 to 60 minutes. Typically, there are multiple stations of 5-10 minutes for MMIs. With an orientation and a tour, it can take half a day or more.
Interviews are only conducted with a select few of the applicants, so an invite is a sure sign you are in with a chance. However, the day’s effort still counts towards the final score!
The goal is to have two or three full mock interviews and feedback following each.
Questions to ask that will not be found in a brochure:
How do students receive support?
What is your interviewer’s favorite thing about the school?
Attending medical school is just the beginning. If you’re an international medical graduate aspiring to go on to become a US resident, IMG Helping Hands can help you navigate the USMLE roadmap, ERAS applications, and residency planning. Explore the opportunities provided by IMG Helping Hands at all stages.
Articles published by IMG Helping Hands are prepared by our team using information from direct experience, publicly available resources, and educational references. AI tools may be used to assist with drafting, proofreading, and formatting, however, all content undergoes review and approval before publication.
The information provided is intended for educational purposes only. Requirements, policies, and processes may change over time. Readers should consult official sources for the most current information.
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