How many people interviewed you?
| Response Average | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 2.92 | 342 |
| Response | # Responders |
|---|---|
| Positively | 238 |
| Negatively | 44 |
| No change | 62 |
| Response Avg | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 6.04 | 337 |
| Response Avg | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 7.03 | 218 |
| Response Avg | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 9.06 | 194 |
No responses
| Response | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 0 |
| 10 minutes | 0 |
| 15 minutes | 1 |
| 20 minutes | 2 |
| 25 minutes | 3 |
| 30 minutes | 53 |
| 35 minutes | 65 |
| 40 minutes | 81 |
| 45 minutes | 76 |
| 50 minutes | 44 |
| 55 minutes | 1 |
| 60+ minutes | 23 |
| Response | # Responders |
|---|---|
| At the school | 324 |
| At a regional location | 15 |
| At another location | 4 |
| Response | # Responders |
|---|---|
| One-on-one | 57 |
| In a group | 279 |
| Response | # Responders |
|---|---|
| Open file | 277 |
| Closed file | 53 |
| Response Average | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 2.92 | 342 |
"NDA"
"How the US healthcare system could be improved and what we can learn from other health care systems around the world."
"What causes burnout, and how will you avoid it in your career?"
"Tell me about a bias you observed while shadowing a physician?"
"Tell us about why you want to be a doctor."
"What got you interested in the field of medicine and why are you pursuing it?"
"Where do you see yourself in 12 years? (follow-up) What challenges do you foresee in your plan?"
"Who is someone that embodies professionalism in your eyes, and why?"
"Tell me about yourself - why medicine?"
"If a friend was sitting in the room what would be 2 positives and 2 negatives"
"What makes you unique?"
"What makes are the qualities of a good physician?"
"How should we modify the SGR going forward?"
"What is your motivation to pursue medicine?"
"Why did you choose to be a doctor?"
"Tell me why you're interested in a career in medicine."
"What brought you to this table today? (I was tempted to say "A car", but refrained. I suggest answering this as a combined "Why medicine and why this school"?)"
"Give me your analysis and opinion on the democratic and republican viewpoints on healthcare reform."
"Ethical Scenario"
"How would you spend $1 million to improve healthcare in the US"
"Tell us about a patient you remember from _______ experience? - What was her name? - How old was she? - What was her diagnosis? - Did you follow up on her after she left your care? - What did you learn from her?"
"What is wrong with the health care industry today and what would you do to fix it?"
"Why do you want to be a doctor and why this state? Follow up questions. Have you had rural medical experience in this state (I said I was interested in rural health care because of time I spent in Argentina). What specialty are you interested in?"
"Why do you want to change from your current career field into medicine?"
"What are the biggest problems facing health care"
"what brings you here today? (I answered as if I was answering "why medicine")"
"What is not working with the health care system of the United States? (then follow up question) What do you think is not working with Canada's (or other countries') Single Payer system, or what negatives have you heard?"
"tell me what you think is one of the problems in health care?"
"What brings you here today?"
"Why is health care so expensive in the United States and how would you fix it?"
"You recommend chemo for your teenage cancer patient, but his mother refuses treatment because she's afraid chemo will make him sick. What do you do?"
"Do you see a universal, single-payer healthcare system working in the US? Many questions about healthcare reform..."
"What would you do if a woman with two children came to you and asked for a tubal ligation?"
"Tell us about a patient you remember from one of your shadowing experiences."
"Is there any physician you admire?"
"Questions about my medical mission trips and shadowing experiences. Ex: What are the three most important things you observed at the rural family practice clinic?"
"Why are you applying to medical school?"
"Why Medicine"
"What is the healthcare system like in your hometown?"
"What have you done to improve your application since the last time we met with you? (I interviewed last year)"
"What did you learn/what most impacted you about your experience volunteering at the women's homeless shelter?"
"1. You are on president Obama's health advisory team. What two things would you urge him to do/consider"
"1. Tell us about your reasons for wanting to become a doctor. 2. What are your thoughts on the current healthcare system? 3. You said that as a former attorney, one of the drawbacks was the paperwork, yet physicians must deal with enormous paperwork. What makes you think medicine would be different?"
" 1. What motivates you to pursue a career in medicine? 2. What physician do you admire and what qualities does he/she embody that you would like to emulate? 3. What do you see as the major problems with the US health care system and what should be included in the health care plan to address them?"
"What led you here? Why did you choose to go to Arkansas for undergrad? Did you apply to many schools? "
"What have you been doing since you applied?"
"How do you know you want to be a doctor?"
"Why an M.D. and not a PhD?"
"How would your friends describe you? 2 positives and 2 negatives"
"What have you done to improve your application since you last applied?"
"How have your experiences prepared you for medicine? Tell us about a specific patient you have encountered, what did you learn from that experience?"
"Tell us your story of deciding on medicine."
"What are you doing right now (in life)?"
"What is your opinion of the recent octuplet birth in California? How would you have approached the situation if you were the doctor? Do you think the doctor should be reprimanded in a non-litigating manner? <br><br> (unethical, would have suggested more focused/quality care of the 6 children she had already, reprimand...he implanted 8, protocol is 3 for her age group)"
"What frustrations have you experienced with healthcare restrictions when providing patient care? Do you anticipate having the same frustrations as a physician?"
"Why medicine? Explain your grades in organic chemistry (I didn't do very well). How did you prepare for the MCAT?"
"1. Did the doctors you shadowed think you were crazy for wanting to go into primary care? Why do you think I am asking you this?....... 2.What are your weaknesses? ..... 3. When might a physician refuse to care for a patient? What if they are the only doctor for miles and miles in rural Alaska?"
"Role play: An obese man, chronic respiratory condition and smoker requests for oxygen, but you as the physician refuse. What are the options? Why? What else? What if X occurs... Y occurs..."
"Do you want to specialize?"
"What would you do to solve the current healthcare crisis?"
"Tell me why you want to be a physician."
"Ethics: Suppose you have two teenage daughters and one of their 15-year-old friends comes to you as a physician asking for birth control without parental consent. What would you do? What would you do if her mom finds the pill pack with your name on it and angrily confronts you about it in the supermarket? (I said I'd prescribe birth control)"
"Why do I want to become a physician?"
"Is it ever okay to lie to a patient?"
"all relating to my Peace Corps experience "
"In a role play: get a person to stop smoking."
"How would you grade US healthcare policy?"
"What medical experience have you had?"
"Describe one failure in your life so far."
"What are some of the difficulties facing pediatricians today? (related to my experiences)"
"what are some of the challenges in primary care medicine that you've seen/experienced?"
"why does the US spend so much money and get such poor results compared to other countries?"
"You have an interest in ''X'', as evidenced by your experiences earlier this year and last year. Have you done anything since involving those interests?"
"Who would negatively benefit from socialized medicine?"
"Say you're a practicing pediatrician and a mom brings in her little boy who's about six and is very sick. Just after you get them situated in an exam room, an administrator comes to you and says that they are illegal immigrants, have no insurance, your clinic has met its quota of medicaid and medicare patients for the month and you can't afford to treat the boy. What do you do?"
"Specific patient experience"
"if a mother brings in her 12 year old son and says he is very ill and needs a note to excuse him from school for the next few days, but when you examine him there is nothing wrong, what would you do? "
"Why Medicine? (duh)"
"How did you end up where you are?"
"What's the last book you read?"
"Describe your research experience."
"Tell me the problems with health care, both nationally and locally?"
"Question about volunteering."
"what would you do if you don't get into medical school no matter how hard you tried?"
"A patient with a common serious but relatively time-tested successful treatment plan wants to be disconnected from her ventilator before treatment is initiated. She is a nurse, and thus understands the implications of her request. Do you grant her wish or refuse, knowing that she will probably be fine with treatment but die without it?"
"ethics of treatment resources used on patients not following doctors orders/making lifestyle changes"
"Why do you think HIV/AIDS is so prevalent in Africa?"
"Will you be going into primary care?"
"National Health Care"
"What is the biggest problem in health care delivery in the US? "
"Why did you take so long to come to medicine?"
"You're clearly interested in working with kids, do you see yourself as a practicing pediatrician in 10 years?"
"What are the major problems in healthcare today? "
"What have you done differently since applying last year? Outside of your music and volunteering, what do you like to do for fun? Say today was a sunny May 15th, how would you spend your day?"
"Okay, your in charge of the country. How would you fix health care? (I floated the idea of national health insurance) Wait, some people are worried that National Health Insurance will result in rationing of care. What about specialist fees? I'm an oncologist and new cancer treatments are extremely beneficial but expensive, what about them? Did you know that over half of healthcare spending occurs in the last 2 months of peoples' lives? What do we do about that? Should we ration their care? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"What volunteering experience has stood out in your mind?"
"Tell us about your research."
"Tell us about what has led you to want to become a physician. "
"A series of questions about health coverage for the elderly, especially when resources are limited. "
"why do you want to be a doctor and why UWSOM?"
"What have you done since graduating?"
"What would you do if a patient didn't want to modify his diet from one of high fat to one more nutritious? (Paraphrased: the question was actually stated with cultural overtones)"
"Why not research?"
"Why are you pursuing a **** minor? (It's not a typical minor)"
"What kind of relationship should exist between pharmaceutical companies and physicians?"
"why are you switching from (previous background) to medicine"
"In what setting do I envision myself practicing medicine?"
"What is medicare?"
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years?"
"What is the problem with healthcare in the country and what would you do to fix it."
"Why do you want to be a Doctor (first question)"
"Why do you want to be a doctor? Why UW?"
"Ethics: a woman has expressed the past that she never wants to be on a breathing machine. Three monthes later, she must go on a breathing machine or die. You get her to try it for a week. After six days on the machine, she is progressing positively and she wants the breathing machine removed. You are not certain that she is ready, but she wants it done now. What do you do?"
"Why Medicine? Why UW?"
"Ethics question about PAS with several follow-ups."
"What are you doing currently?"
"During your experience as a volunteer, what was something that impacted you in a negative aspect? How would you remedy that??"
"What are you doing right now?"
"What do you think about I-330 and 336?"
"What do you think are the challenges to healthcare and what do you think we can do to fix them?"
"Motivations for medicine"
"Why do you want to pursue a career in medicine?"
"Stem cell research has generated heated debate. What are the pros and cons of this issue?"
"Question about the headlines of that day’s paper. Ethics question. Question about my research. Question about the state of healthcare today."
"If you were the president's health czar, what recommendations would you make to fix health care in America?"
"What are you currently doing? ( I applied after I recieved my undergrad degree)"
"Would you like a cookie?"
"Say you had a patient who was a chronic alcoholic and wanted a liver transplant...would you add that person to the national list for liver rationing?"
"You've traveled a lot, what do you think about the US's health care system vs. some of the countries you have visited?"
"how do you feel about stem cell research?"
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years? What was the most important event of 2004? "
"What would you say to someone who wanted ab for a viral illness?"
"How would I fix the US healthcare system if I was given the opportunity?"
"What's the biggest healthcare problem facing AK? F/u questions about how to solve this problem."
"What was your favorite class in college? What was your least favorite class in college?"
"So you're from out of the region. Why UW?"
"How would you fix the health care problems in the US?"
"What are your impressions of the US Health Care system?"
"pretend you did not believe in abortion (which I do). a 14 year old girl comes to you requesting the procedure. what do you do?"
"Why do you want to be a doctor. "
"Tell us about your decision to become a doctor."
"What do you do in your spare time?"
"How did you pick all the schools you applied to?"
"ethical (see above)"
"What have you done to improve your application?"
"heatlh care issues"
"name 3 significant problems with healthcare in developing countries. "
"What made you think medicne?"
"What challenges will you face working in a rural area?"
"ethical question involving medical malpractice: a patient is suing another doctor and comes to see you, would you treat that patient and how would you deal... etc."
"Why do you want to study medicine, and why at the UW? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? The typical questions."
"What is the most significant experience you have had that made you want to become a physician?"
"You have a patient that is a severe alcoholic and wants a new liver; do you give it to them?"
"Many questions related to my research."
"What is your stance on stem cell research?"
"Discuss the current state of medicine in this country and how you would fix the problems."
"With all your interest in international health, why not pursue a career in public health?"
"What do you know about the presedential candidates' health plans?"
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years?"
"State of healthcare in US"
"Problems facing physicians"
"What are the problems with our health care system? How do we fix them?"
"What challenges did you observe working in a (somewhat) rural clinic? "
"How has my major prepared me for a career in medicine? "
"why UW"
"assisted suicide (with lots of follow-up)"
"Why did you move to South Africa for a year? What was it like to work in an AIDS orphanage?"
"describe yourself, your hubby, your academic record."
"Assisted suicide...what would I do?"
"Which of the candidate's health policy do you support? "
"Why did you pick Spanish as a major?"
"Describe each of your clinical experiences and tell us what you learned about medicine from them."
"I see that you graduated a year ago, what have you been doing with yourself?"
"What is the main problem with healthcare today?"
"Why do you want to work in rural community if you have no experience in any rural area?"
"ethical question- end of life issues/ drug overdose"
"favorite movie"
"Tell me about yourself."
"Where do you see yourself in 20 years? Where will your ambition have taken you?"
"What do you do for fun?"
"how is the canadian system different from the US? what are the main problems of the US system? what would you do to change it? why is that a solution? is cost the only factor? (as you can see, we went on this topic for a good amount of time)"
"Dissected my essays and asked about my experiences."
"What are three major healthcare problems a physician has to deal with?"
"“Tell us why you want to get into this.â€Â"
"role play"
"Basically what everyone already said. I might as well just tell you all of them. Why med? Where do you see yourself years from now? What are some current problems in med in US? What is the deal with the aging population? What should we do about it? Is the Canadian system a possible solution? Why do HMOs cut off services? Why do people specialize when there is primary care shortage? What books do I read? Tell us about a personal failure. Tell us about a person in your volunteer program. If patient wants prescription to buy drugs in Canada, do you do it? "
"Already covered in previous posts"
"Why did I choose my major?"
"Tell us about your experiences and how you got here."
"Tell us about your graduate school experince in Boston? What did you learn from it?"
"How have experiences with patients shaped your desire to practice medicine? "
"What do you do for fun? Do you read?"
"With your background, why medicine?"
"Time's Person of the Year"
"Let's say the US is switched to a Universal Health Care system like Oregon state, where everyone got basi health care, but certain procedures were not covered. For example, a 40 year old man, regardless of situation/health, will be refused a kidney transplant. Is this fair?"
"How does the Japanese healthcare system differ from the US healthcare system?"
"What do you think about premium medicical services available to those who can pay for the added service?"
"questions about current problems with our health care system. "
"Would you like a cookie, or something to drink?"
"what sets you apart from other candidates"
"Asked me stuff about my volunteer experiences, shadowing doctors."
"What have you done with yourself in the last year?"
"What did you learn from your past traveling experiences?"
"Bioethics"
"Would you prescribe a lethal dose of morphine to a patient who was terminal if requested?"
"What are the top 3 health care problems in the U.S.?"
"Tell us about the healthcare system in Japan"
"Why should we choose you out of all these applicant?"
"Views on state of health care in US."
"Where do you see yourself in ten years?"
"Why UW? (that's a good question- why in the hell did I apply here?)"
"Who would you choose at Time's Man of the Year? (got a negative response to my choice)"
"What do you see as the three most important issues in medicine today?"
"Tell us what you learned from your clinical experiences."
"Who would you pick as Time's Person of the Year?"
"Why medicine? Where do you see yourself in 15 yrs?"
"So...tell us a bit about yourself."
"What have you been doing lately?"
"How do we fix the problem of 43 million people being uninsured?"
"Man on ventillator wants to have ventillator out even though he won't live without it. What do you do?"
"Views of physician assited suicide"
"the pill question"
"Ethics on Jahovah wittness refuses blood transplant, old patient/young, concious/unconcious, "
"What would you tell a patient who calls you up to say goodbye because he's been storing up pills and is going to take them as soon as he gets off the phone with you?"
"What has been your favorite research project ? (if you are asked this, I would definitely talk about the project you know best whether it is your favorite project or not)."
"Where do you see yourself in 10-15 years."
"So you spoke to Dr. Samson..what did he tell you and what did you do to improve your application?"
"What are problems with health care today and what would you do to fix them?"
"How did you hear about UVM and why did you apply here?"
"Read above."
"Why should we choose you?"
"Why medicine?"
"See above."
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?"
"You give a medicare patient a much-needed Rx, she immediately tosses it in the trash saying she can't afford it...What do you do?"
"Describe 2 or 3 of the most pressing healthcare issues."
"Why do you want to be a doctor? Why UWSOM?"
"You have a patient who just lost his wife and found that he has prostate cancer but refuse treatment. His family are begging you to force him to have treatment done. What do you do?"
"Why do you want to be a doctor?"
"How have you improved your application since you were here last year?"
"what do you feel is the biggest problem in today's healthcare system?"
"Time Person of the Year"
"What are your views on cloning humans?"
"What have you been doing for the last two years?"
"What's the biggest problem facing health care today?"
"Why do you want to be a doctor, and why should we support you in that?"
"What clinical experience makes you want to be a doctor. What kind of doctor."
"Do you know how many Americans are have no health care coverage?"
"Is this the only school you applied to?"
"What did you learn from traveling?"
"What area of medicine are you interested in?"
"What was your biggest failure?"
"Your patient wants a total body scan, but you know it doesn't do much good and could be potentially harmful because of irradiation. Do you let the patient do the procedure?"
"What would you do to improve the health care system?"
"Why do you want to be a doc? What specialty and why?"
"What do you think are the biggest challenges you will face as a practicing doctor in ten years?"
"tell us about yourself."
"Why do you want to become a doctor?"
"What do you do in your free time?"
"NDA"
"Why MD? Why not NP/PA/DVM?"
"What do your previous career position and the role of physician have in common?"
"If I deemed you the healthcare "czar" of the country and asked you to come up with a way to evaluate Americans' opinion on the quality of healthcare in this country, how would you go about it?"
"If you hadn’t to explain to a five year old what a doctor does, what would you say?"
"What is one obstacle you overcame and how did you overcome it?"
"Asked about time abroad in South Africa"
"What made you decide to pursue medicine?"
"Tell us about a time that you failed and how you handled that."
"Why rural medicine? (TRUST applicant)"
"Name one good thing your friends would say about you and one bad"
"Tell us about yourself, and say one thing to help us remember you."
"Tell me about a patient that was specially remarkable during your experience X."
"What is one of your biggest failures in life"
"What are 2 positives and 2 negatives about the Affordable Care Act?"
"Why not NP or PA?"
"What did you learn from your shadowing experiences?"
"Why University of Washington?"
"What has been your experience with family medicine?"
"How do you plan to manage the stress and pressure of medicine?"
"What do you see are the positive and negative aspects of the coming changes to our healthcare system?"
"So you work at the hospital I see. How does the current budget cuts of Washington state affect your ability to provide care at the hospital?"
"What are your views on the current healthcare policy?"
"Why did you take ____________ (optional, difficult class, honors o chem in my case) and what was that like?"
"What would you do if you could not pursue a career in medicine?"
"You had some trouble with the law I see. In your AMCAS you mention losing peoples respect because of that. Tell me more about that."
"What are your hobbies? What books have you read recently that you would recommend? What was a challenge (not personal) that faced one of the doctors you shadowed? Why do you think some patients do not follow through with their prognosis? (I talked about desire and follow-up). What do you like and do not like about the health care reform."
"What were the last two books that you read?"
"A new patient of yours who has lung cancer walks into your office and tells you he wants to end his life..."
"what are some of the problems with our health care system today?"
"What do you not like in terms of what you have seen in medicine?"
"tell me about a challenging patient you've worked with at X clinic?"
"What are some of the limitations of being a doctor?"
"In Vancouver BC, there are now clinics where IV drug users can go not only to get clean needles, but also to shoot up. Why? What purpose does this serve? What ethical questions are raised?"
"How would you change the current health insurance system in the US?"
"Did you apply to other schools?"
"Tell me about your family."
"If you got to determine the way the American healthcare system was to make your job easier as an underserved doctor for the benefit of your patients, how would you change it and why? What are the barriers to achieving such a system?"
"What do you see yourself doing on a day to day basis as a physician?"
"Given your experiences on humanitarian trips, what do you think of medical tourism? Of providing health care to illegal immigrants? "
"Why should we pick you"
"Two roleplays regarding very difficult patient scenarios."
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years? What kind of medicine do you see yourself practicing? (I could see my self working in the ER based on current experience, so...) Presuming health care reform goes through and everyone begins seeing primary care docs, they stop showing up at the ER and you're out of a job, now what?"
"role play scenario (you will get one, so be ready to act like a doctor!)"
"You mentioned in rationing in your personal statement. What place do you think rationing has in the US health care system?"
"Have you interviewed anywhere else yet?"
"what do you do in your spare time?"
"What are the three biggest problems in medicine? What can be done at the national level to improve these issue?"
"4. You said that returning to school to biology courses was "fascinating." Can you remember a time when you just thought to yourself, "wow?" 5. Let's do some roleplaying. You're a 3rd year medical student, and your resident shows you how to do a spinal tap, then tells you to do one on me, a patient. I am apprehensive about your experience level and ask you how many of these have you done? 6. Can you imagine a situation in which you would handle yourself differently (referring to role playing scenario)?"
"4. Do illegal immigrants deserve to get free health care? 5. I'm a taxpayer who is upset about illegal immigrants getting free health care, convince me? 6. You did your senior thesis on state health care reform plans, what can you tell us about your conclusions? 7. What did you like about the medical system in Uganda? 8. Is there a patient you particularly remember?"
"What do you do for fun? Tell us about your shadowing experience-what moment had the biggest impact on you?"
"What are three ways you would improve our health care system? Why arent primary care physicians happy?"
"Keeping in mind the current economic situation, how would you go about expanding medical coverage while cutting costs?"
"You went to a Junior College. Do you think that will help or hurt your chances of getting into medical school?"
"Why medicine? How have your experiences influenced you towards medicine? How does having a family member as a physician effect your decision?"
"Of all your activities since re-applying, which would you consider most significant and why?"
"Advise obama on 2 specific ways to improve the healthcare system"
"asked me something related to my "story""
"Why did your trip to China set you on coming to medical school?"
"Why do you think you would be a good addition to the class of 2009? What will you contribute? <br><br> (i've been a long-term oncology patient, i have a valuable perspective)"
"You have three patients who need a heart transplant. The first is a 10-year-old girl. The second is a convicted criminal who used to live an abusive, dangerous lifestyle but who has now reformed and is a respected member of society. The third is a middle-aged man who had a heart-attack. He is married and has three young children. All have an equal chance of success. Tell me who you would give the heart to, and explain your logic and thought process as you come to your decision."
"Where will you be in 15 years? What are some of the challenges of rural medicine? What do you do for fun? "
"What I learned from children that I worked with in a volunteer experience 6 years ago (when I was 17). [very few questions about recent activities]. Is there a particular health care policy plan that you like?"
"Tell me what you've read about, in regards to the amount of paperwork that physicians have to go through in the literature. (I said I didn't know but suggested that it was immense)."
"Where do you see yourself several years after finishing your medical training?"
"What type of community do you want to work with? "
"Do you think healthcare improvements will be able to be made considering the financial limitations on the next president? (after the recent bailout plan)."
"See difficult/interesting questions"
"Explain your motivation to become a doctor."
"Do you have anything you'd like to say about your grades before we take your application to the admissions committee? (I have a few C's)"
"If I could meet with Governer Gregoire what would I say to her?"
"What was your major clinical experience and what did you learn from it?"
"Tell us about what works in the Japanese health-care system? (I spent time living in Japan)"
"I was asked to clarify an accomplishment I'd mentioned in my file - it made me very glad that I don't engage in resume padding!"
"If you had a patient that didn't was life support and was DNR, but while you were away on vacation another doctor made a mistake and put him/her on support. The patient's son want the patient to stay on life support, against what they requested. What do you do?"
"What did you learn from experience (from my application)?"
"Out of all your patients, which one touched you the most and why?"
"What book are you reading?"
"What are 2 problems with the US Healthcare system and how would you fix it?"
"tell us about what you've read in the news recently that you think is a significant advancement in science."
"Why do rural areas have a hard time attracting doctors--why would doctors not want to practice in a rural area."
"Do you have a favorite health care reform plan right now?"
"Ethics question regarding selecting someone for a liver transplant"
"Explain poor grades in a couple of classes."
"What are the two biggest challenges facing doctors in the next 10 years?"
"As Hillary Clinton or the health czar, three things I would change about the US healthcare system"
"medicine isn't always about positive success stories--it is often very difficult emotionally, how will you deal with that? "
"Tell us about 3 science/technology headlines."
"What is wrong with the health care system in your opinion? How would you fix it? How is that feasible?"
"Tell me about ... with one of your patients. (see previous rant)"
"What did you learn about the challenges of primary care from your shadowing experience?"
"Would you prescribe the pill to a 14 yr old girl? "
"Ethics question about non-compliant TB patient."
"how can you improve access to all patients? "
"Describe your volunteer work at XXX and/or YYY. How have these prepared you for a future in medicine?"
"health policy...what is wrong and how to fix the system?"
"What do you think you will do for your residency? "
"Ethics about religion and medical decisions."
"Liver Question."
"What would you do if you could not get into med school no matter how many times you tried?"
"Your dad was a doctor - what did you learn from growing up in a household with a doctor? What are the challenges you saw in medicine?"
"What systems are in place to help kids in underserved communities get access to adequate healthcare?"
"How would you deal with a difficult patient who became violent during your exam."
"What other schools did you apply to? What books do you read? Why do you choose a mathematics major? How will you use mathematics in medicine? Do you feel the same passion for science that you do for math? "
"You're the attending. You have a patient who has always said that she would never want to be intubated (put on a respirator). You go home for the weekend, and on monday she is in the ICU on a ventillator. DO you take her off? Her daughter who knows her well says yes. Her son who she hasn't seen in 10 years says no, and he will sue if you take her off."
"How many other schools did you apply to?"
"Why UW? Followed by, if you are not accepted here, but accepted to another school, would you defer the acceptance to reapply here?"
"Personal Q's: Tell us about your research. What do you do for fun? How do you relieve stress? What book that you have recently read would you recommend to us? "
"Questions about my thoughts on addressing the problems of access and coverage in America, and whether my notion of a single-payer system basically entailed an expansion of Medicare to cover all citizens. "
"what makes you stand out from the other applicants?"
"What activities did you participate in at college?"
"What do you think is the main cause of obesity in America?"
"Tell me about the Terry Shiavo case."
"What did you think of the recent malpractice insurance reform bills in Washington?"
"Comparison one stated above and then Would I practice in Canada? (I'm Canadian also)"
"Tell me about your research."
"How has your research prepared you for medicine?"
"2 weaknesses/2 strengths that your friends would say about you (with respect to your ability to practice medicine)"
"Above-mentioned mother doesn't want child on life-saving medications."
"Where do you see healthcare in 20 years?"
"in your volunteering expereience, can you remember a patient or case the made you want to go into medicine (i couldn't so i talked about an interesting case having to do with ethics - which led into some ethics discussion)"
"Biggest issue faced by non-Native patients. Emphasis here due to part of eplanation for Q1."
"Ethics question about end of life decisions"
"What kind of doctors did you shadow in high school?"
"What would you do if you couldn't do anything medically related (i.e. can't be a nurse, pa, doctor, emt, etc)"
"What would you change about health care?"
"What is the largest problem facing healthcare today? How would you solve it?"
"How would you deal with a diagnosis that had no treatment?"
"Do you think that medical students should be required to participate in rural medicine for a period of time, to experience practicing medicine where they are not interested? "
"Explain your research in more detail"
"Terminal cancer patient euthanasia request ethical situation."
"What were your experiences with healtcare abroad? (because i had lived abroad)"
"How do you intend to make a practice work in an underserved community where patients are generally poor and to a degree uninsured?"
"What is a book that you've read recently?"
"Question about a patient I interacted with and what I knew about the disease he had."
"Tell us about the best books you've read in the past year."
"Tell me about your research and what you learned?"
"What are some problems in healh care today?"
"Let's say that you're the secretary of Helath and Human Services...what changes would you make to the health care system?"
"Why should we accept you to med school over the other students here for interviews today?"
"tell us about *****? (experiences from my AMCAS)"
"As a doctor, what are some of your limitations? What's wrong with healthcare? How do you propose fixing it? (Why isnt it fixed yet then?)"
"Why should we pick you and not another person?"
"What was my opinion on genetic engineering?"
"Why should we pick you over the other applicants?"
"What made you decide you wanted to go into medicine?"
"Medical school is expensive. Underserved medicine doesn't compensate well. What is it about underserved medicine that interests you to the extent that you would take on financial hardship? "
"Describe your journey in deciding to become a doctor. "
"What do you think of the health care systems in Canada and England?"
"with the flu vaccine shortage, the fda made the decision to only distribute the vaccine the elderly, young, and immune-supressed. do you agree with their decision?"
"What would you do to fix the healthcare system?"
"Have you shadowed other doctors and what have they told you/advised you."
"What would you do if you were treating a seriously injured child who need a life-saving procedure, but the child's parents, who are Jehova's wittnesses, won't allow it?"
"Describe ... ( from my own application so I suggest you know your experiences really well)"
"why medicine and then various questions along the same line intended to challenge me. "
"Has your direction you wish you pursue in medicine changed from last year?"
"recent books read"
"How would you solve healthcare problem in US?"
"'Do not give care' orders."
"How would you be able to fund or create an incentive for pharmaceutical companies to continually produce drugs if you cut down on their profit margins?"
"what's your news source and what do you think are the biggest problems with medicine today?"
"Ethical question about end of life care and living wills."
"Describe a specific patient you have interacted with in the rural setting and how you would have done things if you had been the lead physician?"
"How did you feel about working in an environment that had smokers and drinkers (I worked in a bar during college)?"
"Many questions on health care in America."
"If an 85 year old man was diagnosed with a failing kidney, and he needed dialysis to keep him alive until a transplant could be found, and his family asked you (a doctor) if he should be kept alive like this and if there was any hope for him, what would you tell them? (medical futility question)"
"Discuss morals issues in medicine. (i.e. abortion, physician assisted suicide, pharmicists refusal to fill abortion pill prescriptions)"
"Do you and your physician father discuss medical issues?"
"What are some of the ways to control healthcare costs?"
"Multiple questions about the current state of healthcare and problems associated with it."
"Ethics question"
"Some questions regarding research I had done"
"Is President Bush or Senator Kerry right about the impact of medical malpractice cases on the cost of medicine?"
"How would you personally address some of the major healthcare issues as a practicing physician (eg healthcare disparities)?"
"What is the last non-medical book I read? "
"favorite book"
"jehova's witness parents don't want child to receive surgery. what do you do. and more follow-up."
"What is the US doing wrong with respect to health care? (They should have asked 'what is the US doing RIGHT?'"
"current health care crisis...insurance, diabetes, etc."
"About myself?"
"What's a recent book you've read that you would recommend?"
"Tell me about your research (in 4-5 sentences)."
"Is health care a right or a priviledge?"
"How did you choose your undergraduate school?"
"So, on your trip to europe did you interact with the healthcare system? Do you know much about the canadian system."
"Why did you apply to MD and DO programs? If you get in both, which will you choose to attend?"
"Ethics: I had prescribed birth control to a 14 year old daughter of a friend of mine, he found out and came to my house very upset, causing a scene in front of my three children, what would I say to him?"
"Have you done any volunteer work outside of escorting patients at (XXXX) Hospital? (Okay, for one, I've volunteered more hours than probably 99.9% of applicants, but they act like that's nothing. They don't care about devotion. They want jerks who volunteer here for a month, there for a month, etc, etc, etc)"
"Where do you want to be in 10 years? (EVERYONE says working in a rural area, but I actually do)"
"What is the most important lesson you have learned from someone?"
"Why both MD/PhD?"
"A woman with 7 kids has just delivered her 8th by C-section. Her husband won't let her use birth control for religious reasons, but natural family planning hasn't worked and she is depressed and they can't afford more kids as they are already very poor. She asks you to please put a quick stitch into her tubes to stop her from having more kids. It is a Catholic Hospital that forbids doing this. What do you do?"
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years?"
"time magazine usually has a person of the year. who do you think it should be and why? what about a person of jan-feb? (that was an odd follow-up question, but i think they knew it. :P)"
"Why is universal healthcare so difficult to attain in the US."
"Why do you want to be a doctor? How did you come to the dicission to study medicine?"
"What type of medicine do you see yourself going into? "
"recommend a non-fiction book. (I said "Blowback")..how about another...(okay that stumped me)"
"What are the three most important qualities I think a physician should have?"
"Ethics questions: (1) What to do when parents cannot decide on care for children; (2) Jehovah’s Witness scenario."
"Several questions regarding my hospital experiences and involvement in sports."
"How would you get patients to consent to a research study you are conducting without pressuring them to participate? "
"Several ethics questions (consent, physician assisted suicide, etc)."
"Phys-assisted suicide scenario... then followed up by a question which addressed euthanasia as well."
"thoughts on Assisted Suicide"
"Have you been misjudged before in the past, and how did you deal with it?"
"Do you have any suggestions for solving the problem of 43 million uninsured people in the US?"
"What do you think about the pharmacuetical industry?"
"What do you think an underserved community needs? How would you contribute?"
"question on stem cell research. "
"Ethics-type questions"
"What do you do for fun?"
"talked about clinical experience specifics i have experienced"
"What's the biggest problem in health care today? (I got more health care questions than ethics)"
"What are the major problems in the health care system today?"
"If you were the attending physician of a child who was about to die if he didn't get a certain treatment and the parents opposed the treatment on religious grounds...what would you do?"
"Why UW?"
"How do you integrate your personal set of morals into our practice?"
"If you were appointed the "czar" of health care, how would you fix it?"
"what other schools did you apply to?"
"What are some of the problems with the healthcare system today?"
"How are other countries handling this."
"Went over my application activities, etc...asked questions about that..."
"Why medicine, why not something else to serve humanity?"
"Here's a senario- what would you do?"
"How do you take care of the uninsured?"
"Which states have socialized medicine? (by the way the answer is Hawaii)"
"Aside from being a doctor, what do you see yourself doing in 10 years?"
"How would you tell a woman with young kids that her husband just died of a heartattack?"
"Flesh out your activities and research experiences."
"Why medicine?"
"What are the two most poweful lobbies in Washington?"
"An ethics question regarding parents refusing potentially beneficial treatment for their child...the child later experiences complications...just stick with a point of view."
"42 million people are uninsured in america today, what would you do to revise the healthcare system to rectify this situation?"
"Views of stem cell research"
"the health care fix question"
"Ethics: old man has statement refusing treatment at a certain stage, the twist, he only has pneumonia, its not life threatening, be able to recognize the catch to certain questions, in this question the treatment did not violate his directive. "
"Why do you want to go into medicine?"
"Where do you think the field of cancer research is heading ?"
"What would you do if I a terminally ill patient called you from their home and told you that they had been saving their pain meds for the last several weeks and wanted to say goodbye and thank you.?"
"Why medicine? Why not nursing, social work, or P.A.?"
"Why do you want to be a physician?"
"What's your strengths and weaknesses?"
"More about my research and personal aspects of it. How did working with patients impact me? What was your favorite/worst experience? "
"They wanted to know a lot about my clinical experiences. They wanted to know about my most memorable patients etc..."
"Do you believe health care is a right or a privilege in this country?"
"You are an Oregon physician and a patient with terminal illness asks for a month's supply of barbituates. What do you do?"
"What problems do you think you'll encounter as a physician? "
"Parents of a child in need of a blood transfusion refuse the treatment for religious reasons despite the fact the child will certainly die. What do you do? "The law says that..." What if you can make the law? What if instead of a child it is an adult?"
"Where else have you applied and why?"
"Ethical scenario/question?"
"We were talking about having a limit on malpractice award payment. A situation: your wife's both breasts were removed mistakenly. How would you feel and what is your position on malpractice lawsuit."
"What are some other countries' health care policies and how could we use them to better our system?"
"What was the last book you read?"
"what solutions would you suggest to fix the healthcare system?"
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years?"
"How many medical schools did you apply to?"
"What are some challenges you foresee if you pursue rural medicine?"
"Several follow-up questions to #1."
"If we had to narrow it down to one quality, what one thing qualifies you to entrance to UW?"
"What kind of current clinical experiences are you doing."
"You have a cancer patient with chronic pain to the point where he can't sleep. He asks you to prescribe him 60 sleeping pills? What do you do? (extensive follow-up questioning)"
"What will you do if you don't get in this year?"
"Tell me a little about your research."
"How did you come to decide on becoming a physician?"
"Name three characteristics about yourself"
"Follow-up to first question: You prescribe the procedure but the radiologist refuses to do it because the patient doesn't have enough money and also because he says the procedure is unnecessary. What do you do?"
"If a patient with a very low quality of life called you to tell you they were going to end their life with pain killers you had prescribed, what would you do?"
"Why do you want to go to UW Medical school?"
"What experiences have you had in clinical medicine?"
"why do you want to be a doctor?"
"Generic questions... although familiar with your AMCAS application."
"I'm an alcoholic and have a bad liver. I stop drinking for one year. Do you put me on the list for a new liver? I get a new liver and start drinking again and need another liver. Do you put me on the list for a new liver? (This went on and on until the other interviewers stopped the guy)"
"NDA"
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years?"
"How would you reform the healthcare system with infinite resources?"
"A white man gets a higher dose of a pain medication than an African-American woman with the same condition. Why could this be?"
"Fast-forward ten to fifteen years. What are you doing, and where do you live?"
"How would you improve rural medicine?"
"Do you have a role model in the field of medicine?"
"Systemic inequalities in medicine and how you would fix one"
"How do you envision your career as a physician scientist? What breakdown between lab and clinical work?"
"Acting scenario."
"Besides money, what is one thing the community you work in lacks? (I work on an impoverished native american reservation)"
"What is one good thing you saw while shadowing and one bad?"
"Why medicine and not another helping profession?"
"What I thought would be the hardest part of being a doctor."
"What should I tell the admissions committee that makes you stand out?"
"What will you contribute to the class?"
"How is military medicine different from private medicine? ( I have military medical background)"
"Tell me about a specific patient from X?"
"What would you like for us to know about you that we haven't asked you about yet?"
"Where do you see yourself living/practicing in 10 years?"
"If the governor had a million dollars to spend on a healthcare campaign and wanted your opinion, how would you spend that money?"
"Tell me about the club you made/Tell me about research."
"Can you describe such and such activity?"
"How specifically would you increase the role of prevention in health care?"
"Is there anything else you would like to talk about?"
"If you received money for a clinic, how would you decide where the money would go? (I said I would take a Utilitarian approach) Role Play: Interviewer: I am a 14 year-old obese girl with no other health issues and want a note to get our of PE. Me: Why not PE? Have you talked to your PE teacher and your parents? Asked to bring in parents (played by other 2 interviewers). Finally, said that I would not write a note because she doesn't have a condition impeding her ability to participate in PE. But, I asked for a compromise: Exercise plan including her dancing (she said she liked dancing) that I will sign, and they can take to the school, and it would be up to the school if they would excuse her from PE, as long as she is staying up with the plan I made for her."
"What are your plans for the rest of the day?"
"Imagine you are on trial and we are the jury. Try to convince us that you are compassionate and empathetic."
"tell us about __ experience (a health care volunteering program) and a patient you remember from that experience"
"If you were in charge of a hospital, how would you decide how to distribute the resources/money? [After I said my answer, 2 of the doctors started with their role play to convince me to expand their departments, while the third doctor asked me this question:] Ok, so if the ER doctor wants to expand the ER, and the Gastroenterologist wants to expand the department to do more colonoscopies. They both do their sales pitch to you. What would you do?"
"if you had a limited amount of money to spend on health care services across the state, how would you go about deciding how to spend it?"
"Judging from what I've read on your application, it seems like you're better suited for a career in public health. Why MD and not an MPH?"
"A patient comes to you asking for morphine. They have end stage pancreatic cancer and assure you they don't want it to kill themselves, just to help with the pain. What do you do?"
"Why didn't you apply directly from undergraduate?"
"Tell me about a patient that you remember from your observation."
"Is there anything else you'd like us to know that we haven't asked already?"
"In the U.S. medical practice is often not as exciting as it is in developing areas, often the patients here have chronic conditions as a result of poor lifestyle choices. Do you think you will effective as a doctor even despite forces like the media (he referred to the barrage of McDonald’s commercials)?"
"Why do you want to be a doctor as opposed to a researcher (or nurse)?"
"We've noticed you have a lot of leadership experience. What do you think it means to be a good leader? Do you see yourself leading your future classmates?"
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years"
"How would you improve healthcare?"
"Please tell us about an experience that touched you emotionally (clinical experience)."
"Is there anything you'd like to tell us that we don't already know or haven't discussed? (say something!!! its your time to shine!)"
"Was X experience your longest shadowing experience? Is there a patient that still stands out to you?"
"You are a Nbio major and shadowed in a neurology clinic but said it did not excite you as much as you hoped, what let you down about the experience?"
"if you could change the health care system, what would you do?"
"What negative things have you seen while shadowing?"
"7. Can you tell us about a meaningful volunteer experience? And another one? 8. Do you have any questions for us?"
"9. You are a doctor with one liver to give three patients: a woman with an auto-immune disease who has a small child, a young man who is a reformed drug addict, and an older man who is a reformed alcoholic. Who do you give the liver to, and how do you break the news to the people you decided not to give the liver? 10. What do you like to do for fun?"
"What have you learned since starting college? Where do you see yourself in 15 years? What do you do with a patient who disagrees with you?"
"During your shadowing/volunteer experiences have you ever come across disgruntled patients and if so how did you handle the situation? "
"If you were "Medical Czar" what three things would you change to help the patients that you currently serve?"
"Three patients are brought into your hospital, a drunk driver and two people he hit. You only have enough blood to save one of them because the roads are closed. Who do you save?"
"What do you do to relax? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?"
"Ethics question: You are a transplant director and have to decide in 2 hours who to give a heart to: 18 yo, 25 yo, and a 45 yo. Who gets the heart and why? Take us through your reasoning."
"Role playing question about Death with Dignity act"
"How do I deal with difficult people at my job"
"What would you do to improve our health care system?"
"Why didn't you do more volunteering? (I was really sick through college)"
"What do you like to do for fun?"
"They presented a medical ethics case about a mom who didn't recover well from a stroke and the daughters disagreed on how to proceed. How do you deal with the situation?"
"Interviewer: What do you think is the greatest problem facing patients today? Me: lack of access. Interviewer: But the patients you worked with (in sliding-scale charity clinics) had access."
"So how are you going to go about opening your clinic? Who will fund it? What happens if X occurs... or Y..."
"Ethics: A southeast Asian man and his son visit your clinic. The patient (adult) does not speak English and the son was brought along as a translator. After careful examination, you diagnose acute lymphoma. Though the disease is easily treatable with has a high success rate, the patient's son insists that his father not be told of his diagnosis because "he would consider it a death sentence." What do you do?"
"What do you think about the recent articles in the local paper on MRSA control in the hospital (this was 2 days after the articles appeared). "
"Do you have any questions for us?"
"AMCAS essay related questions (I've had experience working in hospital settings and abroad, many questions focused on them)"
"A 14 year old girl comes to your office and tells you she had unprotected sex. She wants you to give her a prescription for plan B. How do you handle the situation?"
"Tell us why you think you'd like to be a family practice physician when your shadowing experiences are not in that field."
"How will I deal with the stress of medical school?"
"How would your friends describe you?"
"Tell us about someone in the medical profession, working in international health, that you admire?"
"Which health policy do you like the best?"
"Why Seattle if you're from the east coast?"
"What made you want to go into medicine?"
"What do you think is responsible for the U.S. healthcare dilemma?"
"Explain a time in your life where you were completely overwhelmed, but overcame such difficulties. Also what strategies did you employ?"
"Where do you go to get your medical news? (They didn't even ask me to tell them any recent medical news)"
"is there anything else on your application that you'd like to tell us about? (surprisingly, i didn't get any ethics questions)"
"ethics question around handling an older patient who wants to kill themselves."
"What are you going to go do after this interview is over? (What do you do to relax...)"
"How could a physician in a rural area make the transition/experience more positive?"
"What do you think are the drawbacks to being a doctor?"
"Ethics question about cultural competency and truth telling"
"you will have a lot of debt when you get out of med school...if you had the option between underserved and ritzy neighborhoods, what would you pick? "
"talk about one patient you encountered."
"Who gets a heart transplant of a group of equally deserving people? How do you arrive at this decision?"
"Where do you see yourself in fifteen years?"
"What type of volunteer work have you done?"
"How many family doctor's are in your home town? What kind of challenges do they face in such a small community? Would you be worried about gossip in such a rural setting?"
"Question about medicare."
"ethical questions"
"A lot of ethics questions, and a lot of questions in general about me."
"When you visited (small African country), did anything about their health system or situation suprise you?"
"what do you see yourself doing in 10 years?"
"Do you have anything you would like to add? Do you think that your application, letters of recommendation, and our discussion here represent you well? "
"Do you plan on practicing in the WWAMI region?"
"What do you want to ask us?"
"At what point should doctors stop prolonging the length of somoene's life. "
"What do you do for fun? Last book you read?"
"Tell me a little more about what you've been doing since graduation (I'm 1.5 yrs out of college), and how it has shaped your interest in medicine?"
"Who is better, Batman or Spiderman? "
"Ethics question: say it's the summer after your first year of med school, you've been shadowing a physician in rural Alaska, and a patient comes in needing a wound cleaned and bandaged. He has been in twice before for a clean dressing and you have performed the work under the supervision of the doctor. This time the doctor tells you to start and he'll be in in 5 minutes. After you start you realize the doctor hasn't shown up - the nurses tell you he is busy with another patient and to go ahead. What do you do?"
"Bunch of Cliche questions at the beginning: why medicine? why not nursing (mom is a nurse practitioner)? what do you do for fun? what did you like/dislike about shadowing so many docs?"
"What do you think about our current health care system?"
"Can you tell us about a time where you either really liked or disliked the way a physician treated a patient. "
"Policy/Ethics Q's: Drawn out Bird Flu ethical dilemma (see above). What are 2 problems with US Health Care and how would you solve these problems? (surprisingly, they didn't push me on this one). Where do you get your information about Health Care Policy(internet, etc)?"
"The other questions were biographical, and sadly where I dropped the ball most egregiously. Why do you want to be a doctor? When the committee asks me why we should accept you instead of the other candidates vying for the same spot, what should I tell them? Why exactly did you wait so very long to come to medicine? What's the story with these withdrawals and with this incomplete? How will you maintain your proficiency in foreign languages while studying medicine? What have been your duties at Bailey-Boushay House (where I volunteer)? "
"ethics questions above."
"Why do you want to do this particular specialty?"
"What is the last book you read?"
"What would you do if a terminally ill patient came to you expressing a desire to die and wanted a prescription for painkillers."
"If you were health Czar, what 3 things would you do to fix health care in the US? If your dreams come true, where do you see yourself in 10 years?"
"How did your parents influence your decision to pursue medicine?"
"Name two problems facing health care."
"how many schools did you apply to? (asked as i was leaving the room...)"
""What do you do for fun?" right after I finished up the difficult right-to-die question."
"Explain your research."
"Two physician-assisted suicide questions"
"if you were the doctor (in the above case) what would you do. also some questions about my other experiences, where i see myself in 10 or 15 years, what kind of medicine i'm interested in, and what underserved means. this last one i kinda stumbled around my words. i knew the concept but it would have helped to practice delivering an answer to this beforehand. anyway, i made my general point eventually if not gracefully."
"Health care issues faced by Alaska Native people."
"Describe your research"
"What are your hobbies?"
"Why don't you want to do research for the rest of your life?"
""We're running out of time...what is the last non-medically related book you read? What do you do for fun?""
"Why medicine."
"What is wrong w/ our health system, and how would you fix it?"
"Who is your role model? What do you do for fun? What is the difference between euthanasia and PAS? (ethical question followed about PAS)"
"Why UW? Health policy Issues? How to solve them? Ethics question about taking someone of the ventilator? Just know the basics and be yourself and you will be OK! good LUCK!"
"Standard ones like "what are you doing right now? do for fun? what if you don't get in to med school this year? discuss your clinical experience, etc""
"Ethics dilemmas."
"How would you change change out current health care?"
"Where do you see yourself in the future?"
"Other questions that are already posted on other interviewees’ feedbacks."
"A long involved ethical question about a terminally ill patient who requests a lethal dose of a prescription drug. "
"Any questions for us?"
"Tell us about your research."
"What was it like to see health care in another country? (I did an international internship)"
"How many uninsured people are there in America? (be sure you are familiar with up-to-date statistics)"
"Specific follow up questions from my application"
"Where will you be in 20 years?"
"Where did I see myself in 10 years?"
"What is your greatest achievment and your greatest struggle/challenge?"
"Where do you see yourself practicing?"
"If I were dying of cancer and was in pain and I contact you by phone to ask how many pills I should take to take my life, would you provide me with the information? Follow-up: How would you list the death upon signing the death certificate? Suicide or Disease X?"
"What do you think are the issues of people living to 150?"
"Do you think Canadian doctors care less about their patients than American doctors?"
"detailed questions related to my application and future goals. "
"PAS scenario, with follow up questions that were hard! "
"If you were, say, the doctor of a 2-year-old girl and she needed a life-saving blood transfusion, but her parents, who are Jehovan's Witnesses, refuse the treatment. What do you do?"
"What is the leading cause of death in the world."
"A question about physician-assisted suicide"
"why do you want to work with the underserved?"
"What else would you like to share about yourself that we have not touched on?"
"What would you do if you could not become a doctor."
"questions about my personal statement"
"DNR ethical dilemma."
"free time?"
"How do you see yourself disadvantaged?"
"what have you been doing in your time off since graduation?"
"Why do you think it is that the U.S. is the only industrialized country to not have universal health care coverage? With that, who do you think has a longer life expectancy, Canadians or Americans?"
"What schools have you applied to, any interviews, and how did you pick these schools?"
"What do I do to relax?"
"Have you shadowed any doctors? What are their lives like? What hours do they work?"
"How would you tell an elderly person with pancreatic cancer they would not be receiving life extending treatments because their insurance (private or medicare) only covers pain management for those with a terminal illness?"
"How many schools did you apply to? What qualities were you looking for in the schools you applied to?"
"How will you balance things in your personal life when you are going to be putting this much time and effort into medicine?"
"Medical errors question"
"End of life questions"
"What was the last novel you read?"
"Ethics question relating to elderly patient wanting to end life. "
"Which presidential candidates plan for health care do you agree with more and why?"
"did you take an MCAT prep course & when"
"what was the last book you read. tell us about it. why did you like it. do you see a trend in the follow-ups?"
"Is there anything else you want to tell us about yourself? (How nice of them to ask!)"
"ethics, ethics, ethics."
"Good books?"
"Do you have any questions?"
"What do you think will be the most important ethical dilemna you will face as a physician?"
"How have your experiences on the crew team prepared you for medical school/a career in medicine?"
"How should I sell you to the executive committee?"
"What is the biggest problem in Healthcare today."
"Explain why your MCAT scores were so low the first time you took it, and so very high when you retook it in August. Thats a very big difference in scores (16-L to 37-O)!"
"What area of medicine do I want to practice?"
"Have you shadowed a doctor? (They don't let us, but the interviewers acted like this was not a good enough answer.)"
"What do you do for fun?"
"Is there anything else important we should know about you?"
"Tell me about your research."
"What are the three most important qualities a physician should have?"
"There were many questions about why I want to be a doctor."
"what is medicare? what is medicaid? Bush recently proposed changes to the medicare system-what do you think? just be honest if you don't everything about it. they seemed to understand."
"Why I wanted to be a physician."
"If the government can not adjust their budget to try to insure the 43 million uninsured Americans today, what other solutions do you suggest for this problem?"
"Why not a PA or nursing program? "
"why med? will you work in rural areas? and questions right off your application."
"What type of books do I like to read?"
"Why do you think that there is a problem with access to health care in this country?"
"Where I see myself in 15 years. What my plans/goals were as a physician. How I plan on achieving those goals. (Hardest topic)"
"Tell us about your strengths and weaknesses. "
"How do we deal with the uninsured and practicing in a place where patients can't afford to pay for their services?"
"If you had the magic wand, how would you change health care in this country?"
"Political questions surrounding the new Medicare Bill"
"How can you establish good physician-patient dynamics when you work in free clinic settings where you may only get to see the patient once in their lifetime? What do you do to encourage sucessful dialouge in order to treat the patient? "
"Are you really a resident of Washington state?"
"What is the most difficult experience you have ever had?"
"When a patient with a terminal illess (could die in 2 weeks) and who is in incredible pain, asked you how many pills it takes to kill her, what do you do? What if her daughter came back a week later and asked you what you had told her mother, would you give her the infomation? If she died that following week, and you have to put down the cause of death on her death certificate, would you write down anything (assuming that you told her the information in the first place)?"
"where do you see yourself in 10-15-20 years?"
"What is the problem with (ANY TOPIC IN HEALTH CARE/PUBLIC HEALTH) today?"
"If you were the surgeon general of the United States, what problems would you address, and how would you try to fix them?"
"where do you see yourself in 10 yrs. "
"What are some of the hardships doctors face today?"
"Why did you decide to (pick an activity off of your AMCAS application)?"
"If you were admitted, what strengths would you bring to next years incoming class."
"Why medicine?"
"What changing medical concerns do we face and how do we deal with them; specific to aging populations."
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years?"
"why do you think so many americans are opposed to a national health insurance?"
"Ethical questions about termination of life."
"Are they providing better health care for their patients."
"How 'bout those Cubs..."
"Who has guided you in this process?"
"How do you deal with stress?"
"How and when did you decide to become a doctor?"
"Your terminal cancer patient wants 60 sleeping pills do you prescribe them?"
"What is the last novel you read?"
"Where do you see yourself in 20 years?"
"Ethics scenario and healthcare questions, but all were fair, relatively general questions."
"How do you anticipate handling the stress of the physician lifestyle?"
"Why should we choose you from this group of talented applicants?"
"What are the biggest challenges of working in rural areas? Why would you want to practice in a rural area?"
"(My first question) What have you been doing lately?"
"Opinion about affirmitive action"
"why do you want to be a doctor"
"What was the last book you read?"
"If you couldn't become a doctor, what career would you go into?"
"Have you had any clinical experience ? (there is one MD on the panel, and I got the impression that he is very big on applicants having shadowed doctors; he didn't seem at all impressed with volunteer work I had done in a hospital)"
"Tell us something, anything about yourself."
"Several ethical scenarios and lastly "What do you do for fun""
"Being married with a child, do you see your profession interferring in your family life?"
"Has anyone ever dissuaded/prevented you from pursuing medical school? Is your mom proud of you?"
"At the end they asked, "Is there anything that we haven't touched on that you wanted to make sure we knew about you?""
"How do you think you will be remembered in medicine?"
"Tell us about some of your clinical experiences."
"What do you do in your free time? "
"Very sick terminally ill patient requests you to end his life... "I wouldn't do it." Very sick terminally ill patient requests Rx to end his own life... "It's a crime in WA, I wouldn't do it." Very sick terminally ill Oregon patient requests Rx to end his life... BASICALLY take a moral stance and stick with it. (That's my opinion anyway)"
"Anything else you would like to tell us that wasn't covered during the first part of this interview?"
"What are you doing now?"
"What is the problem that you see in health care today, and how would you fix it. Tell about your research in layman term. "
"What is your stand on stem cell research?"
"What do you do in your spare time and what are your hobbies?"
"where do you see yourself in 10 years (as a doctor)? the follow-up question was why do you want to be a rural doctor."
"What would you do if you didn't get into UW?"
"Why UW?"
"Who should be Time Magazine's Person of the Year?"
"90-year-old man with late-stage Alzheimer's Disease now needs dialysis or he will die. His wife wants to know what she should do. What do you tell her?"
"What is the problem with medicine in America, and what would you do to fix it?"
"do you know what percentage of the gross domestic product is spent on medicine???? huh no. "
"You go to Hopkins...you must want to go into research, right?"
"Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?"
"Where do you see yourself in ten years?"
"If you patient is having a baby, would you advise her to have the baby tested for diseases such as Huntington's?"
"Do you think health care policy should be decided by the people, the government, by doctors, etc."
"What is wrong with the US health care system?"
"What are the biggest problems in health care today and in ten years... what are some possible solutions to these problems."
"what books have you read lately?"
"Why should we accept you as a 31-year old instead of some students that are younger?"
"Questions about how the transition from private healthcare to universal healthcare would impact physicians."
"Describe a time you had an interpersonal conflict with a friend, coworker, colleague, etc. What did you do?"
"Imagine I am about to commission the creation of a small, nineteen bed hospital. Explain what the hospital mission should be and how you will ensure it is followed. (As a follow-up) Choose a board of directors."
"Do you see medical scribes continuing to have a role in the industry in the future?"
"Is there anything you wished the committee would have asked you but didn't?"
"If you had $100 million, what healthcare problem in Washington state would you fix"
"How would you spend $5 million dollars on a rural clinic?"
"What are some of the things that you would expect to hear a physician say they enjoy about their job and that they don't enjoy about their job?"
"If given $15 million dollars to promote healthcare in your community, how would you go about constructing a plan to use that money, and what would you do?"
"Patient role play scenario"
"A role playing scenario."
"If I won the powerball what would I use the money for?"
"In response to one answer, one of the interviewers politely disagreed with me and challenged me answer with a follow up. It was related to communication as a physician and how to integrate all perspectives. It caught me off guard but we had a good academic discussion."
"If i was editor of Time Magazine and i told you that i will put any organization you wish on the cover and write a story about them, which organization would you choose?"
"What do you do in you free time?"
"What is the state of healthcare right now?"
"If President Obama approached you to help solve a local obesity problem, how would you go about making a difference in the community?"
"If Governor Inslee had extra money to spend in his budget for your use and asked you to report to him the health needs of a county in NE Washington State, how would you go about finding this information out?"
"Tell me about a patient that left an impression on you. (Not really an interesting question but really one of the only ones where I felt I could really shine and they finally wanted to know about ME, not just standard boring healthcare questions or "If you had a million dollars for healthcare...""
"How do you like Bill Greer as a Basketball coach?"
"What do you do to relax?"
"Ethical role-play. You are in a private practice with several other doctors, including me (your best friend). When you come into work one morning, your nurse tells you she smells alcohol on my breath."
"They asked a lot of interesting ethical questions. Most were straight off of the bioethics website."
"Role play: 14 year old obese girl with no other health issues wants a note to get out of PE. (It wasn't a "what would you do", rather a "let's act this out, right now.")"
"I did a role play scenario and had to convince one of the interviewers to take a treatment that they were hesitant to do."
"A new patient of yours who has lung cancer walks into your office and tells you he wants to end his life..."
"if you were tasked to find out why there were high levels of alcoholism in a rural town, how would you go about doing so?"
"Why not social work? It is said that with medicine you help individuals, but with social work, you help populations, so why not social work?"
"A role play question with the excom: One of your terminally ill cancer patients asks for prescription pain killers. What do you do? ... Patient calls you on a busy afternoon and says that instead of taking the medications as prescribed, he is planning to take them all at once to end his life. He has discussed his decision with family and friends and says you cannot change his mind; he is simply calling to say goodbye and to thank you for your help. What do you do?"
"Because you are a theology major, how does that influence your opinions about Washington's death with dignity act?"
"Say you are an internal medicine doc in small town, Montana. You have a patient that comes to you asking you to help take care of a problem that he has. You also see and know well his wife and family. This man is a salesman and is on the road quite a bit. He tells you that a few weeks ago, he was lonely. He went to the bar, had a few drinks, met a woman, and now thinks he has contracted some sort of STD. You check him out and diagnose and treat him for syphilis. You then tell him that it is a communicable disease and must be reported, as well as his contacts. He tells you, "No. There is no way my wife can know." What do you do? ........ Then, what if he says, "I know she has an appointment for a check-up next week. Can't you just tell her that she's due for an immunization and give her a shot of penicillin?" ...... I said absolutely not... What would you then say to him if he said, "I came to you, in trust, that you would help me take care of this and not say a word.""
"What are the top three most pressing healthcare issues in this state?"
"Role play: One of your long time patients with terminal cancer calls you at a busy Friday afternoon. He (in a nutshell):"The pain is getting too much, no chance of cure, talked it through with my family and gonna take a bunch of sleeping pills tonight. Just wanted to say goodbye and thanks for everything." Me:"ehmmm...""
"This is more like the question I didn't expect (but in a good way): You are a physician on call, and it it’s your anniversary. Your spouse has cooked dinner and there are roses on the table. As you enter the door, your pager goes off with an emergency. You have to go back to the hospital to see a patient. You come home 2 hours later and the roses are in the garbage can, and your spouse is upset. Why?"
"Out of a 9 year old girl with down syndrome, a 31 year old single man with a former drug addiction, and a 54 year old man with a wife and 2 children, who would you give a heart to if you only had one?"
"What is the most important feedback you've ever received, and what did you do with it?"
"What do you think about the recent guidelines for mammograms?"
"How can we recruit medical students interested in primary care?"
"We set up lots of theoretical constraints regarding health care reform that were not hard, but sort of tricky to keep track of. As advised on the UWSOM website, think out loud."
"Compare and contrast your experience working with the patients in the geriatric exercise clinic versus the varsity athletes in the training room. (both volunteer experiences in my file)"
"#2"
"You mention 'lack of self-awareness was an issue that caused my parents divorce.' What do you mean by lack of self awareness?"
"a role-play. it was kind of weird but fun."
"You are seeing a pt with kidney failure who refuses dialysis. He later loses consciousness, and his family requests that you dialyze immediately. What do you say? Later he regains consciousness and wishes to start dialysis, how do you think the family will feel towards you?"
"Are there any questions that we haven't asked you that you thought we should have?"
"Tell us what major health care issues you see in America today and what you'd do about it?"
"All modesty aside, why should we pick you?"
"Have you had any other interviews this year? (Just thought this was an odd question to ask at the end of my interview)"
"Before Tom Daschle stepped down from office, what was his plan for health care reform and do you think it would have worked? (I went to school in South Dakota where he is from.)"
"You have treated a man with every possible known treatment for cancer. He will die unless you can halt/remove the cancer and he has just recently slipped into a coma. His wife found a drug online that is not FDA approved but is advertised as possibly having life saving effects. She wants to use it on her patient. What do you do? Pretend I am the wife and role play with me."
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years?"
"Details about my specific experiences and how they relate to my current interests in medicine"
"role play scenario about ethics"
"What's so interesting about radiology?!? (The interviewer was trying to ask me why I was interested in radiology, but then became embarrassed when he realized his tone was downplaying radiology.)"
"What do you like to do? <br><br> (compose music, write)"
"A new drug has clinically been proven to extend the life expectancy of a terminally ill patient with lung cancer from 9 months to 10.5 months. The drug costs $80,000 per patient. The Canadian healthcare system has decided they will not cover the cost of this drug for patients, but Medicare here in the US does. Would you use this treatment, knowing it costs as much as it does?"
"(I worked with diabetes patients) Discuss keeping track of numbers with regard to physician performance in controlling diabetes in their patients. What do you do with "non-compliant" patients?"
"(While suggesting options about a case study) That's not going to work. What else?"
"Small role-playing scenario: I was the physician, on of the interviewers was a 55 year old obese diabetic woman living in poverty. She comes to you looking for a way to afford her medication. Where do you send her/what do you tell her?"
"If you had to choose, would you choose a lifesaving treatment for someone or prevention for many?"
"How did X experience make you think differently?"
"Describe a medical error that you've observed during your work, what was done about it?"
"A 14 year old girl comes to your office and tells you she had unprotected sex. She wants you to give her a prescription for plan B. How do you handle the situation?"
"Tell us about some of the experiences you've had that made you want to go in to medicine; give specific examples of how people inspired you to want to become a doctor."
"If I were to consult on a case of acute appendicitis on a child, but the parents did not want an operation (they wanted to use prayer instead) what would I do?"
"If your friends could describe you, what one adjective would they use?"
"How do you feel about Dr. Paul Farmer's personal life?"
"What would I tell a pregnant patient that knew in advance their child would be disabled (I work with autism) and they were seeking advice on whether or not to abort."
"What are some of the challenges facing rural doctors?"
"Compare US health system to Mexican health system"
"How do you decide who gets a liver among three equally ill patients: one child with Down's syndrom, one man in prison and one man with three children?"
"Role playing for ethical question"
"Bioethical question about drugs, can't remember the exact wording."
"How would you reduce health care costs or increase access?"
"Is there anything we didn't ask that you really wanted us to ask you?"
"reapplicant question: aside from your grades/activities, how do you think you've changed as a person?"
"See below"
"''Are there any questions we didn't ask you that you wished we had?''"
"If mental health care was suddenly cut from health care insurance (if medicine was socialized), what would happen? What would you suggest patients experiencing mental health crises do?"
"If you were the Editor of Time magazine, who would you name as Person of the Year?"
"Tell me about an encouter with a patient that really touched you."
"Question about herbal medicine use to treat a lymphoma"
"What is the hardest thing you've ever done?"
"All ethics questions. You really need to be up on your game with current medical policy, ethical issues, and health related news."
"A lot of role playing. My entire interview group was given role playing. there is only ethics questions. my entire interview group was only asked ethics questions. read an ethics book. recommended. look online for some ethics book. dont waste time, just do ethics"
"Comparing a volunteer experience I had here in the US with one in India."
"A Bioethics question"
"Usual question about what type of medicine I want to practice."
"What are your thought on genetic engineering?"
"none"
"I hear there is a brothel in your home town, or at least there used to be. Would you have a problem treating the women there?"
"Ethics question about non-compliant TB patient. "
"What would I do if a mom refused to give her 11 year old daughter HPV vaccines because she didn't want to encourage sexual promiscuity"
"Why medicine"
"About medical error, if I had ever seen one in my volunteer experience and how did I handle it."
"The biggest benefits for impoverished people living in 3rd World squalor are clean water and solid infrastructure; so why do you feel so strongly about volunteering as a physician for a relief organization?"
"How do we make health care more affordable and available in this country?"
"How will you apply your public health degree to your practice of medicine?"
"Ethics"
"Who would I give a liver to, the alcoholic on welfare with 2 young kids or the successful businessman who is active and involved in improving social concerns of the community? Why?"
"Why do you think the US has such a high infant mortality rate?"
"Why do you think doctors are not satisfied with their work these days?"
"Why don't people in underserved communities have equal access to healthcare?"
"What is the most challenging aspect of providing health care in the US?"
"Do you think family practice is dying away in America?"
"If a mistakes occurs in the operating room, who should be liable, the doctor, the nurses, ect. and why"
"Although the ethical questions I was given were incredibly difficult, they were nonetheless ''interesting''. By interesting I mean it must've taken my interviewer quite a while to come up with such a moral enigma..."
"Vast array of ethical questions."
"The ethics question: A 60 year old man who you have been treating for a while calls you in the middle of the night and thanks you for treating him but now he is ready to die. What do you say to him?"
"Who is your favorite artist? "
"Ethics scenario. When I said I wouldn't consent to PAS by giving my 65 y/o patient with end-stage cancer sleeping pills, the lead interviewer followed it up with "
"Define underserved."
"Patient comes in and wants antiviral drugs for their family to protect them from the Avian Flu although they have little to no risk of getting the disease... then, buisnessman who travels to areas of high risk wants the drug... etc, etc. Do you give them the drug? Then, when they begin threatening you, etc. what do you do?"
"A series of questions involving the Mitchell Rupe case. If you're not familiar with this man, he was on death row, ballooned up to 400 pounds, went to court saying that he could not be hung because the likely decapitation of so heavy a man would be cruel and unusual punishment. He later developed severe liver problems and needed a transplant. The case goes on, but you can imagine the sorts of questions meant to tease out my process of reasoning in ethically thorny situations."
"what i would do if a patient of mine needed an immediate surgery which only i could give him and which he couldn't afford until his insurance kicked in in 72 hours, would i write a false date on the insurance claim?"
"1. What types of activities did you do in high school? 2. How would you fix the health care system? 3. What are the disadvantages in the Canadian and UK systems? 4. What did you learn about medicine from your experiences?"
"What do you think about using a junk-food tax to help out with the obesity problem in America?"
"I was asked about 2 ethical scenarios that were both interesting. The scenarios kept evolving based on my answers, which made the discussion even more interesting."
"Do you think it would have made a difference (in the Terry Shiavo case) if they had been trying to take her off the ventilator rather than a feeding tube?"
"What seperates you from your other pre-med friends?"
"What is an example of an ethical dilemma that you have faced as a student, and how did you overcome it?"
"Would you vote for a right to die initiative in Washington"
"If you had a patient with a tumor who didnt want to recieve treatment because she believed in eastern medicine, what would you do? And what would you do if she tried eastern medicine, it didn't work, and the tumor grew?"
"What is the President going to say about Health Care in the State of the Union address, and what do you think about what he might say?"
"ethics question on genome sequencing"
"A Cambodian woman with HIV and an HIV + child doesn't want her kid to take ARVs-- what would I do as her doc?"
"Given your public health experience, why have you chosen to pursue medicine?"
"What would you do if you had a patient who had severe COPD and the only medication that made him comfortable also had the side effect of killing him. Would you give him the med?"
"What is the problem with healthcare in the country and what would you do to fix it."
"Your long term patient of 85yo has breast cancer and is at the end stage of life. She calls you and requests sleeping pills in a quantity that could end her life. How do you handle this?"
"Is Medicine a service profession?"
"I was given a question where I was asked to role play being a doctor to a family that came in. Basically, the wife (who was not present) was pregnant and wanted and abortion. The rest of the family (the grandparents and the husband, who were present) didn't want and abortion. They came to me to ask what I could do. What was tough is that I actually had to play a doctor instead of just answering a question."
"In all of your clinical experience, what made the biggest impression on you?"
"If a collegue gave a patient the wrong medication, and the patient came back in because the medication didn't work, how would you approach your collegue and what would you do?"
"I wasn't asked anything that I hadn't expected, the only "unknown" was the lone ethical question (see most difficult question.)"
"Most important lesson I can teach a patient."
"What was the most important event of 2005?"
"The question that surprised and allowed me to express my personality was , "What is the one movie you would suggest that all of us see?" This was a follow up question to what I did for fun, in which I said I watched a lot of movies. "
"Who or what would you put in the cover of Time's Magazine?"
"Do you think the Oregon euthanasia law is a country-wide precendent or a fluke? Is it a slippery slope? Discuss."
"ethics question: say 20 years down the line one of your patients wishes to select positive traits and remove negative traits in their next child. would you do it or what would you advise them?"
"What's your favorite book?"
"Who would you put on the Times magazine cover."
"Who would you put on the cover of Time magazine as the person of the year?"
"Have you had any tragedy in your life, and if so, how have you learned from it?"
"Name five essential qualities of a physician, (then, after I had already listed the first), in order of importance. "
"Do you feel that cosmetic surgery should have a tax to benefit community clinics?"
"The famouse, "would you like a cookie?" question. I knew it was coming, but still intrigue."
"So you're interested in public health and you worked in restaurants for years...didn't all the drinking and smoking offend you?"
"What book are you currently reading?"
"If someone came to you and said that they were from some religious sect where they have to get a lot of piercings and asked you if you could do the piercings for them because they trust you more than the person who normally does the piercings, what would you do? (What the heck?!!??)"
"Ethical question about pain medication and an elderly patient"
"A rambling question about named reporting of people who test + for HIV."
"They asked me what I would do in the situation involving Terri Schiavo (the women in FL who is the subject of all the lawsuits about removing her feeding tube)?"
"If you were appointed by the president to lead the US health care system, what would you change?"
"What was the biggest disappointment you've faced in your life thus far?"
"what do you think of the CDC limiting flu vaccines to at risk populations and then ending up with thousands of unused vaccines?"
"A question about my unique route to medine"
"A 15 year old girl comes into your office who is having sex with her boyfriend. Her mother has arranged for you to give her a depo shot, but when she shows up she tells you she doesn't want to have the shot, she wants to get pregnant and have a baby so the government will give her money! What do you do? "
"one of your terminally ill cancer patients calls to let you know he has made the decision to take his life. what do you do?"
"Why not psychology? "
"What would you do if you had a 2-year-old patient who needed a life-saving blood transfusion but her parents, Jehovah's Witnesses, refused the treatment?"
"Costa Rica has elected to spend the majority of their health care dollars on the young vs. elderly--what do you think of this policy."
"What one proposal would you suggest to fix healthcare in this country?"
"Ethical situation: How do I react to a patient who wants me to help kill him. "
"how will you handle the suffering taht you will encounter in medicine."
"Do you feel that your favorite author is a tolerant person?"
"Since I like analytucal, methodical processes, how will I deal with patients who rarely fit into that category."
"What are the ethical implications involved in the distribution of antiretrovirals to foreign countries at western prices?"
"Why on earth did you start another fraternity?"
"If the U.S. were to switch to a socialized healthcare system, who would be against the idea? (the answer is insurance companies :) )"
"where do you see yourself in the future?"
"Since you read Newsweek, and since 2005 is about to begin, if you were editor in chief of Time magazine, who or what do you think would be on the cover for Person/Event of the year for 2004?"
"Why the University of Washington?"
"What two issues are the most important facing health care today, and how would you address them?"
"Position on stem cell research"
"How do you explain the reelection of a president that is responsible for so many deaths in the Iraq operation?"
"Should a physician take part in carrying out a death penalty sentence?"
"Question about being a physician and treating two very different forms of illness, chronic disease versus treatable infectious disease, and how a physician must adjust and adapt (mentally, etc.) to the different situations."
"A patient of yours with a very painful terminal cancer calls and tells you that he has 54 sleeping pills and plans to take them. What do you do?"
"If you were working for a U.S. senator, how could you work to alleviate the problem of uninsured people in the United States?"
"End of life issues"
"Is President Bush or Senator Kerry right about the impact of medical malpractice cases on the cost of medicine?"
"Question 3--see below. "
"Why did you take five years to graduate?"
"[Note: I prefer not to answer the "which questions were you asked" questions to safeguard my privacy.]"
"what was your SAT score? (less interesting than just surprising)"
"How would you fix the US health care system?"
"please tell us about your experience with tango"
"What was the last novel you read?"
"Where do you see yourself in ten years?"
"All the questions I was asked were the same as some that have been posted previously and some stuff right off my application."
"What challanges do rural communities face regarding both primary and psyciatric care? I thought it was interesting to address the psychiatric componant."
"scenerio questions aimed at investigating my thoughts on larger issues: quality of life, hot health topics, balance."
"Bioethics situation in which I had to choose which patient I would treat.. and why."
"Pretty crazy weather back there, huh?"
"My greatest weakness?"
"What would I say if a patient of mine, who had an arm injury at work covered by worker's comp, asked me to write his boss a note for his work since next week was fishing season? Just seemed way too obvious to be an ethics question."
"Who would you put on the cover of Time?"
"What are some of the frustrations/complaints you have heard from physicians?"
"How has the view of death in Latin American countries changed the way you view the practice of medicine?"
"A lot of emergency rooms are being forced to shut down, why do you feel that is the case?"
"An ethical scenario in which family members disagreed about end-of-life care for an elderly relative"
"Do you think that the current trend in healthcare where physicians are given less autonomy and more paperwork will continue?"
"Ethics question"
"Ethics: See below."
"Why do you say want to do primary care in a rural community if you have no experience in any rural area? (they acted like I was lying!)"
"nothing very interesting... pretty standard stuff- ethical question + discussion of my activities"
"ethical question about lethal dosages of pain medication"
"You're the only doctor in a small town and a close family friend comes to your house furious because you prescribed birth control for her 14 year-old daughter. How do you handle the situation?"
"If you design a new chemotherapeutic drug for children, would you test it on children?"
"kid needs a blood transfusion but his parents are jehovah's witnesses-what do you do? what if they still refuse?"
"If healthcare was universalized, what would physicians lose and what would patients lose."
"What is your opinion on programs where American physicians work overseas for a certain period of time? Some say these programs do not account for what happens after the physicians leave the area and there is no longer the expertise/technology/service for the community to continue after the physician is gone. What do you think about that?"
"If a pt requested that you write a prescription to be filled in Canada (where it is presumably cheaper) would you agree to do so?"
"An ethical role play where I was the physician/counselor to a family who could not come to a consensus on their mothers end of life care."
"None. They were all pretty mainstream."
"why consider rural medicine "
""If someone you respect, say your high school principal, was slightly ill and had swollen glands, etc. for a few weeks and you ran a test for HIV, just in case, and the test came back positive, how would you negotiate the situation?""
"Since more western physicians and medical staff are going to developing countries to learn about other cultures and provide treatment some indigenous peoples are becoming skeptical of their own doctors. Is it a good idea for western physicians to continue to visit developing countries if barriers and such skepticism are being created? "
"Why do you think that there is a problem with access to health care in this country?"
"Tell me about one of your patients you have met during your volunteer time."
"How realistic is it to combine research with the practice of medicine and do well at both?"
"If my husband were there during the interview, what would he want them to know about me?"
"How do you address the problem of healthcare in a region that is extremely poor? (in the context of talking about one of my life experiences)"
"Where do you draw the line in obtaining human embryonic stem cells for research?"
"What is the last book that you have read that you felt had significant meaning in your life? "
"How could you possibly mess up the Turkey for your Thanksgiving day dinner?"
"If you were practicing medicine in another country and diagnosed a patient with tuberculosis and that patient refused to take antibiotics and instead wanted to take herbal medicine, what would you do? What if there were children around that were at risk of contracting tuberculosis and they attended school? How would you address the risk to the children and the community? Would you try to force them to accept treatment using the community or by passing a law mandating treatment?"
"What do you think about the new Medicare bill?"
"Do you believe that someone with affirmitive action status, i.e. any minority, should have first grabs at admission?"
"What would you do if a quadraplegic asked you to remove his pacemaker so that he could die?"
"compare and contrast the health care situation in my home land and the US. "
"What motivates you to be a physician?"
"Who inspires me?"
"illegal immigrant needs expensive meds...what do you do as their physician?"
"What was your biggest disappointment in life?"
"What are your strengths/weaknesses?"
"Why I felt the scandals in the service academies were such an issue as compared to other schools"
"The bioethics question"
"How do we face the challenge of an aging population?"
"The ethics question: An older patient comes to see you, is saving pills, and wants to know how many it would take for her to kill herself. Her daughter is with her, supports her choice. Would you tell her?"
"why did you decide to take a couple years off after college?"
"How has growing up in a rural area affected your descision to study medicine?"
"Lots of great ethical questions"
"Baseball fan?"
"What would you do if you were a physician and..............? (basically asking you to take a stand on some very tough issues)."
"Who has influenced your decision to study medicine and how?"
"How would you help the uninsured obtain health care?"
"Tell us about a patient you worked with. Me: Any specific type of patient, or incident? Them: Just tell us about one."
"What's the difference between a rural practice and an urban practice?"
"What's your take on the British Healthcare System?"
"Why medicine?"
"How would you address the problem of the uninsured?"
"If I had to chose Time's "person of the year" who would it be?"
"Of all the countries you've been to, which had the best/most interesting health care system?"
"How was your flight?"
"whats changed since last year"
"The ethical questions were interesting, but I was ready for them. They asked me about malpractice insurance and how we could fix the current problems."
"If you were czar of the world, how would you fix health care?"
"If you had unlimited research funds, what experiment would you conduct ?"
"If you went to a bank for a loan to pay your malpractice insurance and the bank owner came to you and basically said it would be no problem to give you the loan if you would test his son for drugs without him knowing. What would you say?"
"Tell us about yourself"
"A couple came to my office and requested an abortion because they do not want another girl. What should I do?"
"Cancer patient of yours comes into your office stressed out and is at the end of her rope. She asks you to prescribe her a months worth of pain pills and sleeping pills. You suspect that she wants to committ suicide. What do you do?"
"Where do I get my "spunk" from?"
"Nothing out of the blue....I felt prepared for most of the questions they would ask me because I had done a lot of reading. I suppose the one thing that threw me off was, "where do uninsured people go to receive medical care?" It felt almost like a trick question but the answer was pretty obvious, so I blurted out a few alternatives they would have. That question just felt a bit odd for some reason, mostly because it felt too simple to ask....I thought I was missing something."
"A patient is brought to the ER and has had a massive MI. He dies before anyone has a chance to do anything to him. The attending physician approaches you and asks if you would like to practice your intubation skills on him. What do you do? How about a put in a sub-clavian? What if the family is right outside waiting to view him? Do you ask them if they mind?"
"Do you have any clinical, one on one medical experience? If so do you remember any patients in particular, and what stands out from the others?"
"Do you think it is ethically reasonable for the surgeons in West Virginia to go on strike?"
"To prioritize the medical procedures on which we should spend our health care money. "
"What is the biochemical function of the gene you are studying?"
"How would you feel if the federal govt decided to stop paying for dialysis for patients over the age of 75 and use that money instead to provide medical insurance for all children in the United States?"
"Ethical questions, i suppose. Ethical questions tailored to what kind of doctor you want to be. "
"Mostly about my personal experiences. Read your AMCAS and personal essay. "
"How have sports helped prepare you to be a doctor?"
"Were you ever hospitalized for your asthma? I'm still not sure of the purpose of this question..."
"How will you respond to people who say you don't have enough life experience to be a doctor?"
"How would I feel about my life looking back on it 20 years from now."
"What would you do if a Chinese woman approached you with the desire to abort her female baby because she wanted a male one?"
"What is wrong with a specific federal grant program that serves rural hospitals? "
"Who should be Time's Person of the Year this year?"
"Do you know how doctors function in developing countries?"
"How I would treat a terminally ill patient and their family."
"So you have a patient who...(insert 5 minutes of setting up a complicated ethical scenario)...what do you do?"
"Were the people in Ireland happy with their healthcare system? (I had studied there)"
"The ethical question,which was expected, became very interesting at the end when the issue of death certificates arose. Question was what would I, the doctor, write on the death certificate as the reason for death when I might have good reason to believe my patient had downed a bottle of painkillers. "
"All questions were based on my application and so, they were fairly standard. Surprisingly, I was not asked any ethical dilemma questions."
"Describe a problem that you see in healthcare"
"The most interesting questions were specific to my file"
"We talked alot about my current work."
"Specific ethical questions related to my interests."
"Hard to say... Many were very specific to my interest in a particular field of medicine."
"You are a family practice physician and your long-time patient tests positive for HIV. He asks you not to tell his wife, who is also your long-time patient. What would you do?"
"Situation: A longtime patient of yours has terminal cancer and is in a lot of pain. He asks you for a months worth pain medication with the intent of killing himself. Do you give him the perscription?"
"How has your [subject] research background impacted your desire to become a doctor? (I spent last 2 years doing [subject] research)"
"Is knitting a thing Carribean people do as a cultural thing?"
"ethical question"
"What are 3 things your friends don't like about you?"
"Tell me 3 positive aspects of the ACA, and 3 things you would change."
"You attended an international health service trip during the summer. If you met any of the local health providers, please explain the role of these providers in contrast to your own role as a traveling volunteer."
"How would you improve patient turn out in rural areas?"
"Describe a good physician-patient interaction that you witnessed and one that could have been better."
"Time you had a difficult conversation with someone"
"What did and did not go well in your patient role play?"
"Tell us about a time that you had a difficult conversation with someone, including how you handled it and how they handled it."
"In the clinic you work in, how do the doctors maintain their work-life balance? Have you spoken to them about it? (this was a follow up to a question i was asked about future challenges, and I said work-life balance. It was difficult because the docs I work with don't struggle so much with work-life balance, they seem to know their boundaries. Just caught me off guard a little)."
"Describe a time when you did something to help someone else or another group while having no large benefit to you."
"Tell me about your grades (have low GPA). All questions came right out of my app."
"They asked me to explain the ACA and how it affected my home state"
"The role play scenario- patient's wife is asking for a new narcotic scricpt."
"How would you improve on breaking bad news to patients? (After I stated it was difficult to see providers do)"
"What are the major obstacles patients will face when seeking care in the future."
"Role play. Unbelievably contrived and phony."
"Tell us about a patient who reinforced your choice to pursue medicine and one who made you question your choice."
"Role play involving parents insulting their child in front of you, the physician."
"What do you see as your life's greatest failure?"
"A small town has a sudden surge in DUI and alcohol-related arrests. How would you go about researching the root of the problem (What?? Where did this come from? Very random)"
"Having to choose the specific field of medicine I want to be in 10 years from now."
"Role Play: I work for TIME magazine and am in charge of selecting the person of the year. Who would you nominate and why?"
"Role-play. I am the governor, and my wife wants to spend millions on an anti-meth campaign. What do you think about that? I encouraged him to spend it on alcohol programs instead, because it effects more people, and got several follow-up questions on what I would do specifically."
"What would you personally do to increase the number of primary care physicians in the United States?"
"I said that a single-payer health care system would save lives and would be less expensive. The interviewer than asked me to explain how it would save money, and if I really believed that? (I think he was testing if I could keep my stance)"
"What do you think are the most challenging aspects of healthcare in our state and what do you think of the current 'health care reform environment'? (It wasn't a hard question really but it was hard bridging from one concept to the other.)"
"Imagine you are on trial and we are the jury. Try to convince us that you are compassionate and empathetic."
"are primary care and preventative care the same thing? (I think I brought this on myself, though, because I said that one of the problems with health care is that there isn't enough focus on preventative care)"
"After talking about a single payer system and saying what I like and don't like about health care, one of the interviewers turns to me and says "kind of like what Massachusetts is doing?".....ummm, i'm from California...i have no idea what Massachusetts is up to."
"Follow up to question 3. Let's assume you gave the patient morphine. They call you 3 days later and inform you that they are in fact going to swallow all of the pills you provided them with and end their life. The patient lives in rural Wyoming, 1.5 hours away from any medical care."
"What have you done differently since the last time you applied. (They asked me this question twice, once in the beginning and then again at the end. I was like, eh?)"
"Role play follow up: The patient ends up taking the sleeping pills and dies. The next morning you are called to sign the death certificate. What do you put as the cause of death? (If this is supposed to present an ethical dilemma of some sort I don't get it. Seems too simple)"
"Are there any questions you feel we did not ask that you would like us to know?"
"With unlimited resources, how would you reform Seattle's public drug rehab programs?"
"The above, and, describe a conflict you were involved in and how you lead it to resolution. "
"What are 3 things you would change about health care?"
"Role playing with an ethical dilemma."
"Why are primary care physicians dissatisfied with their jobs?"
"Nothing was difficult, I was really surprised."
"Imagine you are the Czar of Medicine, what three things would you change about our health care system & why?"
"My excom member asked me to give two selling points for him to use during his presentation of my app. during the excom meeting"
"The interview was nicer than as projected by the SDN forums and my friends I've talked to. I mostly heard from others that it was going to be very stressful, but I didnt get a sense of that. They are well-aware of the impression people post about on SDN and are trying to come off less stressful now. I was in a room with 2 doctors (a retired GI doctor and family medicine doc --> Xcom) and a 2nd year medical student. They were comforting at the start and continued to stress the point that there is no good cop/bad cop game going on. They had me did a role play exercise with the med student, where we were classmates studying together, and I had to confront him about his drinking problem."
"when you think about being a doctor, what scares you most?"
"Probably listing "3" specific problems."
"How many schools did you apply to, and have you interviewed at any others?"
"What do you do with a non-compliant family of a 10 year old with Diabetes Type I?"
"an ethics question about how to allocate scarce resources"
"Is there a point at which a TB patient's autonomy/individual rights are outweighed by the safety/health of society? If so, what would you do when that point is reached?"
"Tell us what you know about Tort Reform in Wyoming."
"You have treated a man with every possible known treatment for cancer. He will die unless you can halt/remove the cancer and he has just recently slipped into a coma. His wife found a drug online that is not FDA approved but is advertised as possibly having life saving effects. She wants to use it on her patient. What do you do? Pretend I am the wife and role play with me."
"Why should we pick you over other equally qualified candidates? "
"None really...I guess I was least eloquent about answering the health care policy question, but not necessarily a "hard question""
"Talking about primary care physicians and why they are not happy in their profession. "
"If you were Christine Gregoire, what would you do to remedy Washington state's current health care issues?"
"I went to New Zealand for a study abroad. I did some volunteering there that we were referred to. (Soup kitchen and ecological restoration project). This trip was not oriented towards health care, it was a study of epistemology and the philosophy of cultural identity... <br><br> What is the health care system in New Zealand like, and what was your opinion of it? <br><br> (uhhhhhh.....)"
"You have been appointed as one of Barak Obama's advisers. With economic conditions as they are, how would you improve the healthcare system while cutting costs?"
"Talk about insurance and why the health care system isn't changing. How would you improve the health care system? Do you have any questions for us?"
"For the final question, is there anything you would like to tell us, or would you like to tell us why we should accept you? "
"From your aspirations, it sounds like you should be a social worker or politician instead. Why bother becoming a doctor then?"
"Ethics question."
"What do you see as the biggest problem with our health care system? and how would you change it? If you were an advisor to a politician, how would you advise them on health care reform?"
"None of the questions were difficult per say, just hard to think quickly and speak thoughtfully with 3 different individuals being able to ask you questions back to back."
"Describe 3 health care issues that face your home town (I'm from a underserved area of the state) and what you would do to solve them."
"A 14 year old girl comes to your office and tells you she had unprotected sex. She wants you to give her a prescription for plan B. How do you handle the situation?"
"As a role play question, each interviewer represented a different presidential candidate (Obama, Clinton, McCain). The task was to let each candidate know three ways I wanted health care improved from a physician's standpoint and three improvements I wanted from a patient's view, then to defend my choices."
"Most were pretty easy, but I was too nervous to think straight."
"Tell me about a major failure in your life and how you got over it."
"You don't have much experience working with generalists, so how can you tell us that you are interested in being a primary care physician?"
"NONE! I think the best advice I can give is just to reiterate, as much as you can to the point where you're feeling like you might be annoying, that UW IS THE SCHOOL FOR YOU. I did so, incoporating it into my answers every chance I got.. even at one point, I said, ''I'm not even sure if its appropriate to say this stuff'' because I thought I was beating it dead with a stick. Second: I got really lucky... the guy leading the interview looked around at the other two people and was like 'well, I don't know much about your area (working with autism) ..so can you guys think of any ethical question?' and ended up asking me something about a patient knowing ahead of time that their child would be autistic, what advice I would give as far as abortion. PATIENT ADVOCATE. Those are the winning two words when it comes to ethics, and sticking to your guns. Other interviewees had a lot more ethics questions... its luck of the draw I guess. I feel like I definitely OVERprepared, but it helped with my confidence... making the whole interview process at UW waaaaaaaaay easier than I had expected. Like, aside from the 'panel' and talking to three people at once, it was one of the easier interviews out of the five I've had. Definitely know your current events in health, health policy.. and local stuff if you can fit it in. I studied way too hard. I prepped way too hard. But, in the end, I think it just helped me feel really ready for it and made the whole thing ''easier''. Hope it helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck!"
"How do the cost and lack of accessability to health insurance affect our health care system?"
"Compare US health system to Mexican health system"
"Who won the Nobel Prize in medicine this year and what did they win for?"
"Role playing for ethical question"
"Explain a time in your life where you were completely overwhelmed, but overcame such difficulties. Also what strategies did you employ."
"Do you think family practice will be challenging enough?"
"Ethics question about old terminally-ill patient wanting to end his own life"
"follow-up to fixing problems in health care: How do you propose we recruit and retain more physicians in underserved areas? "
"the questions were predictable--healthcare policy and ethics."
"A question concerning a role-playing scenario with family members of a terminal patient."
"Ethical question about acknowledging a tx mistake or mistake made by a colleague. "
"Explain your felony (1 time 10 yrs ago)."
"As health czar, how would I control healthcare costs in the last 6 months of life?"
"What was the program expansion that President Bush just vetoed? "
"All equally difficult, very hard interview. not brutal, just a lot harder than my other interviews."
"Ethics Question--regarding organ donation"
"A health care systems question"
"Was asked about a past experience with a patient of mine. Thing is, I've never had patients of my own, just minimal interactions in clinics and lots of customer service. I explained this and offered ideas based upon the experience I did have, but the interviewer kept pressing on about my patients and wouldn't accept my answer."
"If we had the ability to let people know in advance that they had a disposition to Alzheimer's, would that be beneficial? Would you promote it?"
"What three things would you change about the U.S. healthcare system."
"Would you prescribe the birth control pill to a 14 yr old who asked for it? Why?"
"Same as above"
"why are physicians in the us increasingly dissatisfied?"
"Ethics galore"
"Two people come in to the ED, same exact conditions and both are in a state of emergency. One is a banker and has insurance, one is a homeless man. The hospital administrator calls you and says they need to start thinking about finances, and tells you, since you only have one cath lab to deal with these heart attack patients, to admit the banker and send the homeless man elsewhere. Who do you admit?"
"Your undergraduate curriculum and volunteer work indicates you are very interested and focused on public health issues; why not go for an MPH rather than an MD?"
"An ethical question about continuing to use scarce resources on a patient who was a chronic alcoholic."
"A primary goal of the UW medical school is to produce physicians for the under-served areas of Washington State. Since you want to take our education and work in Africa, what should I tell the admissions committee when they ask me why we should accept you over the thousands of students who want to come here and practice in Washington State? "
"Will you be going into primary care?"
"Issues regarding national health care. Careful with this question. Base on your response they will press with harder and harder topics."
"Every single ethical question that I was asked because they constantly prodded at you and tried to make you squirm."
"Ethics questions - You are running a rural clinic with a partner and they mistakenly prescrib the wrong medication for a patient (which did the patient no harm). You discover and correct this mistake when seeing the patient. Would you tell the patient about the mistake?"
"Where does the funding come from for health clinics in underserved areas?"
"Same "
"What is the most important feedback you have received (in any context)? "
"Okay, you're a transplant doc. You have three patient: a three year old child with down syndrome, a 42 year old male alcoholic in prison, and a 75 year old professor of biology. All three patients need a liver transplant or they will die. They all have equal medical necessity for the liver. The 3 year old's down syndrome will not medically alter their chance for survival-besides the liver transplant of course. The 42 year old alcoholic, although in prison and the cause of his own liver failure, has two children and promises to undergo treatment and take good care of his children. The 75 year old man is a profressor of yours that has recently published a book, and is a highly regarded researcher and teacher. Who gets the liver? If I were someone about to interview at UW, I would DEFINATELY look over some ethical principles of resource allocation. Try the UW bioethics site. Try praying for an easier question ;)"
"What percentage of family doctors have their own practice (make a guess)? Do you think that number will go up or down?"
"You wrote in your essay that you are interested in Emergency Medicine. How do you plan on mixing your background and a PhD in Chemistry with Emergency Medicine? "
"No difficult questions. Very low stress interview (despite what others have said about being grilled)."
"You said in your application that you expected med school to teach you to think objectively and dispassionately. We are actually trying to get our students to think more subjectively. How would you change the current med school curriculum to teach students more empathy and subjectivity."
"What would I do if a terminally ill patient called to say goodbye, and that he was about to take a lethal dose of sleeping pills. "
"Have you ever followed up in later weeks with any of the patients you've helped while volunteering? (obviously this Q wasn't hard to interpret, but I had to honestly answer "no")."
"There were none that ought to have been difficult, but I botched the questions that should have been easiest: questions about a couple of pecadillos on my transcript, about my unusually lengthy path to med school, and the inevitable why-a-doctor question and why-you-instead-of-all-these-other-candidates question."
"about the US and Canadian health systems, whether its preferable to weed people out at the entry level of healthcare (not being able to see a doctor at all) as in US or at the exit level (having to wait to get operations and procedures (as in canadian system)"
"I was asked multiple health care questions... what I think the major problems are... how I would fix them, if I think we need to pour more money into health care, etc."
"Follow up to previous question (paraphrased): Don't you think that taxing junk food would end up taxing those who can least afford the taxes on junk food?"
"How would you fix the US healthcare system?"
"What seperates you from your other pre-med friends?"
"Why do you want to become a physician? I had rehearsed answering this question, but choked in the interview as it was the first question they asked me. However, I was able to recover by continuing to address the question throughout the rest of the interview."
"Essentially, they asked me to compare and contrast the Canadian and American healthcare systems and how I would fix them both."
"What would you do if you could only give ten tests every month to your patients, and you were out of tests for the month and a patient came in that needed a test?"
"What will you do if medicine is not an option?"
"explain to us a project that you are working on, knowing that we don't have any background in your academic studies"
"How would I fix the problem of lack of access to care in our health care system? "
"One of the interviewers asked me a question that was not on my application, but was in one of the letters of recommendation (of course I had not seen the letters) so that caught me off guard. "
"give your sales pitch"
"Nothing sticks out."
"A question about rural health and what to do if someone comes into your office w/o health insurance"
"Same as the most interesting question."
"Be prepared to debate your position on health insurance. That took up the most of my interview."
"To was asked to compare and contrast my idea for universal health care with Medicare and Medicaid."
"You have a patient you've built a relationship with over some time, who is now on a ventilator which is sustaining his life. The family wishes to speak with you. What would you do? (Difficult because there are so many unknowns...a very open ended question.)"
"Probably same one."
"Ethics question on PAS."
"This question was difficult because it was not phrased as a question. "Discuss the impact of pharmaceutical companies upon the medical field, the medical field upon the government and the population, as well as the relationship between the government, pharmaceutical companies and medical field." Another particularly difficult question was "What would you say to pharmaceutical companies weighing the options of developing new drugs versus new vaccinations, when they are also taking into consideration profit?""
"Ethical Question about Stem Cell Research... Know your ethics!"
"What do you think we can learn from other countries' health care systems to improve our own?"
"why do you think that the elderly are confused about the new medicare drug program and what would you do to relieve this confusion?"
"Ethics scenario question."
"What do you think about I-330?"
"Why do you want to be a doctor? (because I wanted to be honest but original)"
"Besides the uninsured, what is one other thing that is wrong with healthcare in this country?"
"none too out of the ordinary"
"Why you over other applicants?"
"Make make you think you are ready to be a doctor?"
"First question out of the block..."It took you a while to apply to medical school...why?""
"Our government is not making changes to our health care system, so who do we turn to in order to improve health care? "
"Most of the questions were very specific to my the various essays I had written on my application. My interviwers definitely tried to sniff out any BS."
"How do you see medicine as an art in the Labor/Delivery department (I worked in LDRP)?"
"What my position on tort reform was."
"How would I solve the problem of healthcare in rural AK?"
"What would you do if you did not get into medical school?"
"What was the biggest disappointment you've faced in your life thus far?"
"What are some of the issues facing medicine today? (too broad)"
"What about rural medicine will present the greatest challenges?"
"How would you fix the US health care system? (I think they just want to see how you think on this one. If there were really a "right" answer I would hope we would be doing it!)"
"(follow-up question) the medical examiner calls you to let you know the patient has passed. what would you mark as cause of death?"
"PAS scenario with follow up questions. "
"What are your impressions of the U.S. health care system? [This topic is so broad in scope, it was hard to know where to begin.]"
"Ethics question about advanced directives--you have a patient who's stated he wants no heroic measures but develops pneumonia and can be treated if intubated."
"What one proposal would you suggest to fix healthcare in this country?"
"Ethical situation: So many I can't keep track"
"ethical question about cancer pt who wants you to help them end thier life. that part wasnt so hard, the hard part was that he kept changing the situation and probing me. "ok now the pt is asking .... now what would you do?""
"How would you solve the uninsured problem in the United States? and How would you provide treatment for a patient with a cultural/language barrier to make them feel more comfortable?"
"Standard ethics question: You patient with terminal illnes calls and tells you he is going to off himself with pills and wants to say thanks for all the care ovre the last 10 years. What do you do?"
"What is something you are super proud of/ biggest accomplishment?"
"What was the last book you read? (I don't read books, just newspapers, periodicals, textbooks for class, etc)."
"Who should be TIME's Person of the year"
"Well... during the interview I spent 25 minutes on health care policy, so if you don't know how our healthcare system works and/or other countries, your in for a world of hurt. (I'm sore but not broken)"
"what are the major problems with healthcare today?"
"Probably the same question because it came so far out of left field."
"Questions regarding view points on healthcare delivery..quantity vs quality ethnical issues."
"It took you a long time to make it to medical school; why?"
"Position on stem cell research"
"Can you tell us about a specific patient in your clinical experience who made you want to become a doctor more?"
"How would you tell an elderly person with pancreatic cancer they would not be receiving life extending treatments because their insurance (private or medicare) only covers pain management for those with a terminal illness?"
"What is health? "
"Would you like a cookie? Or maybe it was: What are the problems with healthcare in your home-town?"
"Question about medical errors"
"End of life issues"
"What are the problems with our health care system? How do we fix them?"
"Question 2--see below. "
"How do we solve the health care crisis and which presidential candidates health care proposals to you agree with more."
"what would you say to a man who's wife is in a coma and unlikely to ever regain consciousness. one son believes you should pull the plug, the other believes you should wait?...but what if...?"
"How can health care within the United States be changed?"
"Ethical: patient confidentiality."
"what was the last conflict you were involved in and how did you resolve it"
"Who do you think is right in the Nancy Shaivo 'right-to-die case? What would you do if you were her doctor?"
"Questions regarding my desire to specialize...it was hard to talk about this at a school that emphasizes primary care."
"I wasn't asked any difficult questions. I gave dumb answers on everything, but they really weren't difficult questions."
"Probably the same."
"your family life Vs. Patient care (balance)"
"Prescription drug OD scenario and how I would face the situation."
"Why UW?"
"Nothing was too challenging :)"
"A tie. 1) Why do you only have 1 EC listed? 2) Why, after all the problems in Canadian healthcare you've listed, is Canada rated (insert some high number. 4?) while the US is rated (insert lower number. 25?) in the world in terms of cost effectiveness, or patient benefit?"
"Why should we let you in?"
"If you were the czar of stem cell research, what kind of restrictions would you implement? "
"An ethical scenario with an illegal immigrant who is unable to pay for necessary medications"
"What is your greatest weakness?"
"A follow-up to the questions of what's wrong with healthcare in this country and what would I do to fix those problems: how would I pay for these solutions?"
"You have a premature baby who is really sick with various complications and needs a small blood transfusion to have any chance of survial, the parents refuse on religious grounds. Should you challenge the parent's wishes?"
"Ethics question"
"All were very straight forward and not too difficult."
"Why are your grades so low? (This was an unfair question! The files are supposed to be closed to the other people in the room. They also asked why I think I should get in with my MCAT scores and grades!!!!) If I don't get in, I might file a lawsuit for violation of the agreement of the interview conditions."
"no specifically difficult question, just the fact that you get no feedback (facial expressions/discussions) from the interviewers."
"You said 'be the best physician you can be.' What does that mean? Everyone says that, but what does it actually mean?"
"All of the questions were fairly basic."
"so is there anything else you'd like to say about yourself? it caught me off guard because it was one of the few personal question they asked about me. i didn't have any personal questions for the majority of the interview."
"Same as above."
"Ethical question: An elderly Asian women came to the hospital and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She refuses to take the medication required and wants to take herbal medication instead. What would you do? If you need to convince her to take the medication, what resources would you use? "
"None"
"above"
"Tell us about one of your failures. I made it harder because I went into how it ended up with some positive results in the long run and so she asked, "then why was it a failure?""
"standard ethical, health care, and end of life questions. study these a bit."
"What experience touched you and why? What did you do, specifically, for that person?"
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years? Followed by: How do you intend to achieve those goals?"
"Lots of good, thoughtful questions - none were easy! "
"What do you have to contribute to this year's medical class ? "
"What was the most difficult experience in your life that did not take place in the context of your profession?"
"What is unique about the US society that would make Universal Healthcare difficult?"
"You are the director of a hospital, and the ER doctor comes in presenting a drug addict who's been in previously 5 times beore for detox/treatment etc. At the same time, a group from the local urban community comes to you asking for your hospital to sponsor a healthy babies program that will serve over 200 infants in the community. You have limited funds and can only help one of the two, who do you help? "
"How do you know you want to be a family practitioner if you've only shadowed specialists?"
"Whare are 3 current problems in our health care? How would you solve it? "
"How do you eliminate the need for affirmitive action?"
"If you were on the administrative board of a hospital and were asked to cut certain procedures because of their high cost per patient, what would you do?"
"nothing too difficult. but they did want me to predict the outcome of the iraq war, which was challenging but doable. "
"How do you feel about the Medicare prescription drug plan that Congress is proposing? "
"Why was managed care formed? Did it succeed? ALong with questions about Medicaid drug funding for AIDS drugs and a few ethics questions."
"If an illegal alien needed an expensive prescription he couldn't pay for, what would you do?"
"probably the same question. There are some pretty tough ethical scenarios though."
"Why do you think URM physicians are UR?"
"The question centered on an older patient who had saved 13 sleeping pills and wanted to know, as her physician, how many it would take to end her life. "
"About a nurse overriding an order for a set amount of morphine, leading to the patient's death from respiratory failure"
"Same"
"See above, I guess. It was definitely the most involved."
"the governor hands you $100 million and tells you to fix the state's health care...what do you do?"
"Beliefs on affirmitive action in medical school?"
"What would you do to fix the healthcare system?"
"How did you come to the descision to study medicine (or try to at least)?"
"Why medicine?"
"Here's a senario you are faced as a doctor- what would you do?"
"Why medicine."
"How are you going to fix the health care crisis in America?"
"If you were in charge of the medical program of the US, what would you do to change it for the better?"
"Do you have anything else that you want to tell us about yourself?"
"What do you think of the Canadian and British healthcare systems?"
"None were too difficult."
"Tell me about yourself"
"What percentage of healthcare costs can be attributed to overhead? What about in Canada?"
"see above...yikes, for some reason this one was difficult. "
"If one of your friends was to describe you, what would they say positively AND negatively about you?"
"Everything else"
"the patient pill question that they asked all the others and the "how would you fix American health care" one"
"Why should doctors be paid such high salaries?"
"What would you tell a patient who calls you up to say goodbye because he's been storing up pills and is going to take them as soon as he gets off the phone with you?"
"Name some cancer drugs and their targets. (Perhaps I should have known the answer to this question, but I had been expecting questions that directly pertained to my research, so it tripped me up)"
"What about your application has changed since last year?"
"How would you react to an elderly patient that calls on the phone to tell you they are about to take an overdose of pills after they hang up the phone to you, but they are calling you to say thank you for all your past service?"
"None in particular"
"None--really. I was expecting many difficult questions, but was surprised that all of them were relatively "easy." They asked a lot about health care problems and reform."
"Strengths/weaknesses...."
"What kinds of alternatives would you propose to improve healthcare in the US?"
"Lots and lots of detailed healthcare policy -- especially financial issues. How would you fund this? How are you going to pay for that? How do you fix the system right now?"
"The new pediatric gene therapy trials with 80% efficacy. Do you as a physician use the gene therapy for a possible higher quality of patient life or not use them because of a 20% chance of negative effects?"
"How has the economic downfall in Washington state affected the healthcare community? "
"Asked me a lot of questions about my research to see if I knew what I was talking about. "
"What are the differing positions between Dems and Repubs in regards to medicare prescription drug benefits?"
"See above question."
"Ethical questions and health care solutions (?)."
"How has your experience after school made you a better candidate?"
"The ethical questions, just like everyone else."
"What is the biggest problem in health care today and how would you fix it?"
"Ethical question--what would you do if your 14 y/o female patient requested birth control but asked that you don't tell her mother who is waiting in the next room?"
"see above"
"Health care policy stuff....lots of it."
"What do you think of the vaccinating the entire US population against smallpox? Does it seem like a waste of resources?"
"How should we balance the desire to have health care for all people with the financial realities of providing such care?"
"Defend my undergraduate record from 15 years ago & grades in various classes. Fair question, but not what I was expecting."
"There were several ethical questions, dealing with Jehovah Witnesses and blood transfusions, and a suicidal geriatric patient, and others."
"How would I fix the problems of rural medicine's lack of technology."
"see above."
"Why do you think so many doctors don't take Medicaid patients? Are they just in it for the money?"
"What should be done to solve some of the healthcare problems today?"
"Continued questions on answers given regarding an ethics question "
"Where is all the money being spent in US healthcare going toward? (This was a follow-up to my statement that the high costs were one of the biggest problems in healthcare.)"
"What was the most difficult situation that you've faced, and how did you deal with it?"
"What are the ethical implications of the Oregon Medicare system where they rank procedures to determine what is covered or not. "
"What is your biggest failure?"
"How would you break the news of a child's fatal illness to the child and their family?"
"Describe your greatest failure"
"How does the your country of origin's healthcare system compare to ours?"
"Solve some of the healthcare problems today."
"Read my application, brushed up on ethics scenarios, reviewed health care policy"
"Practiced at home w/ S.O., read through the UWSOM question list online, and wrote down notes for each answer."
"Read the book "The Premed Playbook Guide to the Medical School Interview: Be Prepared, Perform Well, Get Accepted" by Ryan Gray, studied UW Medicine Bioethics Webpage, had several people ask me interview questions every day."
"Three mock interviews, some one-on-one practice questions with spouse, reading on UW Ethics page."
"Studying UW website, curriculum and practice questions"
"UW website, mock interview, SDN"
"Mock interview"
"Re-reading my primary and secondary applications, looking over sample questions on the UW website, writing out sample answers."
"Reviewed app, read up on the school, practiced some acting scenarios"
"SDN, the Healthcare Handbook by Askin & Moore, youtube videos, reading current news"
"Read up on current healthcare topics"
"SDN, read my application, think of answers for common questions and ethical scenarios (but they didn't ask me any)."
"Studied my personal statement, primary, and secondary. I read the healthcare handbook by Askin and Moore and can say that it helped so so much with my understanding of healthcare and with my ACA question which they told me I blew them away with my knowledge."
"Mock interview with pre-med advisors trained by UW admissions office."
"Plan out my responses to common questions."
"SDN, mock interview, re-read my essays, thought about common questions"
"SDN board research, SDN interview feedback, UW website"
"Watched feedback videos. Reviewed application."
"Study UW Interview website: http://www.uwmedicine.org/education/md-program/admissions/applicants/interview#interview"
"School is very upfront about what they want to see/hear during the interview - all on their website here http://www.uwmedicine.org/Education/MD-Program/Admissions/Applicants/Pages/Interview.aspx AFERM offers mock interviews that are very helpful."
"Made sure I understood my application and my motivations for medicine."
"Looked over the ethics website, a ton of mock interviews and practice questions"
"Mock interview and questions from their website."
"SDN and UW Bioethics website"
"SDN, learned about health care policy and current health care issues"
"Did a mock interview with a panel of doctors from my school. Read every word on their ethics website. Familiarized myself with current issues facing doctors."
"I read the New York Times health section, did a lot of interview prep type questions, and read all of the bioethics website. This can be accessed through the University of Washington School of Medicine page, under the interview information section."
"Read this. Watched the UW interview podcast and read on the UW bioethics website. Read "The Healing of America". Read about health care in my state. Practiced (this was my 6th interview). PRAYED LIKE CRAZY!!!!"
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What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 1)?