interview

How to Prepare Answers to These Tricky Medical School Interview Questions

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While medical school interviews can be quite conversational, thinking in advance about the questions you will face can help you articulate your unique story more effectively. Most interviews revolve around the interviewer getting to know you better, but there will likely be a number of questions that give the ill-prepared applicant pause. Below are several strategies to help you prepare answers to these tricky questions:
“Why do you want to study medicine?”
This question will be asked at almost every medical school interview that you attend, but it can be difficult to answer unless you have reflected on your goals ahead of time. Clearly explaining why you wish to become a physician—without being cliché—is paramount to distinguishing yourself. To prepare for this question, review your personal statement for inspiration. Aim to incorporate details that are not mentioned in your personal statement, but that are related to experiences or endeavors that you have described in your essay or in the remainder of your application. This can add depth to your admissions portfolio outside of what you have already explained on paper. In addition, truly attempt to define the type of medical career that you want (i.e. community medical practice, medical education, research, etc.). Weave in your career aspirations when you answer this question to connect your pursuit of medical school to your ultimate goals.

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The Million Dollar Question

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Interview season. The time of year that roads and skies swarm with the best and brightest medical students to all corners of the country taking aim at the next step in their training – residency. Believe it or not, behind the shiny brochures, extravagant dinners and polished powerpoint slides, residency programs are just as nervous about attracting top talent as you are about getting your top choice.
The interview trail is usually a blur of dry cleaning bills, rental cars, and the smell of breath mints masking cheap coffee mixed with nervous sweat. The broken record of the obligatory “strengths and weaknesses” question loops in your head. One of the more terrifying moments in the day comes when an interviewer asks: “What questions do you have for me?” Regardless of who asks it–the intern only four months above you in training or the gatekeeping program director–you know you have to ask something. So why not make it count?

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The Other Preparations to Make For Clinical Clerkships

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The transition to clinical clerkships in medical school comes after two years of lectures, in-class exams, and national board exams. Without a doubt, it is an exciting transition. It is a key stage in the development of a physician, allowing the student to see real patients and to learn from practicing professionals. Clinical rotations requires the student to critically think and to apply the vast amount of information learned in the classroom to new situations. The goal is to learn to come up with a list of differential diagnoses, use the correct confirmatory test, and develop a treatment plan. This is what many students believe will be the bulk of their clinical learning during the third and fourth years. As a result, many students spend most of their time focusing only on the academic preparation for clinical rotations and do not sufficiently prepare themselves to stand out in equally important, but non-academic ways.

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The Medical School Interview: They Aren’t All The Same!

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“What kind of interview will it be?”
This is not a question applicants ever asked 10 or 15 years ago but often do now. Every year, more medical schools now conduct Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI) while most still conduct “traditional” one-on-one interviews. A few medical schools also conduct group interviews with either groups of students who are interviewed together or several faculty who interview one student together. Therefore, when thinking about the medical school interview process, it’s important to be aware of what you might encounter on the interview trail.

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Difficult Interview Questions: Learning To Hit A Curveball Out Of The Park

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difficult interview questions

By Michelle Finkel, MD with CrispyDoc

You put your heart and soul into your compelling, charismatic personal statement; you showcased your accomplishments and drive to succeed in your activities section; and you demonstrated the endorsement of respected faculty allies in your letters of recommendation. Now your hard work has paid off and helped you get a foot in the door: You’ve been invited to interview at your dream medical school or residency program.

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How to Make the Most of a Medical School Visit

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Once you have been selected for an interview at a medical school, you will have the opportunity to visit the campus. Though your priority during this visit will naturally be to excel in your interview, it is also important that you gather key information from various individuals so that you can make an informed decision when deciding which medical school to ultimately attend. Below are three tips on how to make the most of a medical school visit:

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6 Tips for Med School Interviews

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The interview is one of the most important steps in the medical school application process. It’s your chance to get to know the medical school in person while demonstrating good communication skills, professionalism, maturity, and your passion for medicine.
Below are six tips to help you make a good impression:

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Five Ways to Make Your Audition Rotation in Anesthesia (or Other Specialty!) a Success

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It is that time of year again. Medical school students across the country are preparing applications for residency and pursuing audition rotations at residencies they are hoping to woo into an interview and hopefully to match into their program.
Any audition rotation is a challenge. This is especially true for the anesthesia audition rotation. For medical school students who look great on paper, the audition rotation can either confirm they are a great candidate or confirm the program should not interview/rank them. For medical school students who do not have a stellar record, the audition rotation can open up doors.

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Q&A With Physician-Author Matt McCarthy, MD

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Matt McCarthy
1.  What specifically prompted you to write The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly?
I was having dinner with my editor three years ago, and he asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book about medicine. I had kept a journal during my intern year, but I was hesitant to write about my experiences. Some were great, but a lot weren’t and I wasn’t sure I could convey the difficult moments fairly. My editor and I spent a long time working on the tone of the book, trying to capture just how terrifying and inspiring that first year is.
2.  What would you say is the most controversial part of the book?
The trickiest thing is writing about your own patients. Some medical writers believe we should only write about patients if we have their written consent. Most journalists tend to disagree with this and you occasionally see arguments about it break out on social media. In a few cases, I wasn’t able to get written consent for my book, so I had to change identifying details to protect anonymity. It’s not just about complying with HIPAA. It’s about changing personal details so thoroughly that you’re really protecting identities. Patients are vulnerable, and we have to be careful when we write about them.

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Q & A: Pharmacy Admissions Insider

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Applying to professional school can be one of the most daunting challenges of a student’s career. The pharmacy admissions process is no exception, and students may find it overwhelming at times. The Student Doctor Network recently sat down with Jeff, a member of a pharmacy school admissions committee, who shared his perspective on the process and some advice for students.

SDN: What advice would you give an undergraduate student just starting to explore the field of pharmacy? How can they tell whether pharmacy is right for them?

Jeff: The two things that someone who is interested in pharmacy should do are to make sure that they have a good understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a pharmacist in a variety of settings, and that the degree they are seeking is aligned with their career objectives. Many individuals are drawn to pharmacy school based upon nothing more than their perception of what a pharmacist does, with the perception based upon their visits to community pharmacies as customers or the television commercials produced by the national drugstore chains to promote their pharmacists. As you would suspect, their perception of what a community pharmacist does on a daily basis is usually wrong. Others make it to their admissions interview day and tell their interviewers that they want to work as a hospital pharmacist so they can work with patients to discover the cure for breast cancer or diabetes; a noble goal to be sure, but one better suited for a doctoral degree in pharmacology or medicinal chemistry.

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Barbara Ross Lee: The Beauty of the Broken-Field Run

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There’s no doubt that Dr. Barbara Ross Lee has led a distinguished career. The first African-American woman to be appointed Dean of a medical school, her other accomplishments include participation in the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship and garnering numerous awards. But for Ross, the path to success was full of twists and turns.
“At my institution, we call it the ‘broken field run’,” she told Student Doctor Network during an interview at the 2014 UC Davis Pre-Health conference. “It wasn’t as if I (had the typical path and) went to school and did pre-med and then went to medical school and then went into post-graduate training. I went to undergrad, then I got a job, then I got married, had kids, then I went back and got a masters, and then the opportunity arose for me to go to medical school.” And that’s just the beginning of her storied career.

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Mistakes to Avoid During Your Medical School Admissions Interview

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Earning a medical school admissions interview is a significant accomplishment. Many programs adhere to rigorous academic, extracurricular, and research requirements when selecting candidates for in-person meetings. Though you should view this as an opportunity to communicate to admissions interviewers why you are a perfect candidate for the school’s incoming class, be aware that a poor showing can harm applicants. Below are several blunders to avoid during your medical school interview:
1. Failing to articulate your career plans

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3 Tools to Help You Prepare for Interviews

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Strong interview preparation allows you to give meaningful thought to what qualities you bring to the table and why you might be a good fit for a particular school.

20 Questions: Cindy Stowe, PharmD

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Dr. Cindy Stowe is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, where she also completed a general clinical residency and a pediatric specialty residency. Following residency, she finished a pediatric pharmacotherapy research fellowship at LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis, TN. Dr. Stowe has been a part of the medical staff at Arkansas Children’s Hospital since 1996 and has extensive teaching experience as a faculty member at both the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy and the College of Medicine.

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5 Steps to Preparing for Your Medical School Interviews

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After obsessively checking your email every five minutes for weeks, the appearance of your first interview offer brings with it a flood of relief and excitement. All that studying, volunteering, and writing of countless secondary applications has earned you a coveted interview slot. Yet coming on the tail of such excitement is that sense of panic. What now?

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