Med School Interview Tips, Part III

I didn’t forget about posting the rest of my interview series. Here is Part 3, and I apologize to those who didn’t do so well on your interviews because of my delay! ………Ha ha ha, I joke around sometimes.

This next set of advice comes from a friend who attends medical school in the south, and he majored in biomedical engineering.

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WHAT TO WEAR / PRESENTATION
During my interview, all I wore was the traditional suit: shirt, tie, slacks, and coat. I think one of the things they really stress for interviews is being simple, like wearing a black and navy suit for your interview and not something ridiculous like a hot pink shirt or something. You never want to be the one that is underdressed. I once saw a guy wearing jeans to his interview and knew he wasn’t going to get a good review for his application, unless he was so personable that his jeans didn’t matter. In terms of posture, you want to sit straight up and attentive during your interview; it is important that you aren’t tired before you interview because then you won’t be able to hold your posture and won’t interview that well either!

WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE INTERVIEW (EX. THE NIGHT BEFORE) / HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW?
Honestly, the night before your interview, you should relax and prepare minimally for the interview the next day. I would find where the interview is, maybe do a test drive out to the site if you are nervous of being late the following day, and just review briefly over the positives of the school, and why you want to attend it. You know yourself and your application by now, so you should be able to speak freely about why you want to go to medical school and about specific questions regarding your application.

Actually, to prepare, I read the Medical School Interview book by Fleenor to help me be ready for any questions I would encounter during my interview. In the book, they give you common questions that are asked during interviews, while also advising you to fill out an “interview profile” about yourself so you can be familiar with all the important experiences in your life, and learn how to use them when appropriate for your interview. Additionally, I would always research the school I was interviewing for, finding things that I liked about the school that I could mention during my interview and also noting questions I may have about the program that I could ask during the interview as well.

WHAT TO ASK THE INTERVIEWER
You should always have questions for your interviewer. The ones I asked were regarding why the interviewer is employed at the specific medical school and why they enjoy it, opportunities for student involvement in local clinics, etc. You’ll know what questions to ask, just make them relatively important rather than superficial questions.

WHAT TO DO AFTER THE INTERVIEW
People say it’s not necessary to send a thank you for your interview, but I always did as a common courtesy. A thank you could never hurt your interview/ application profile, so I would just do it anyways.

GENERAL INTERVIEW SCHEDULE
Usually, interview days first start out with a breakfast and then you either go to your interviews or do a tour of the campus etc. I personally had morning interviews for most of mine, so I would do the tour in the afternoon. Some schools, like UT Southwestern, has a 2 day program, where they first show you the clinical experiences on the first day of the program, and then the second day would be a traditional interview day.

HAVE YOU HAD A DIFFICULT INTERVIEWER?
I had one difficult interview, in which the interviewer did not have a desk and I was basically sitting side by side with her. She was pretty foreign and didn’t seem to understand most of what I was saying, but I just did my best at answering her questions to the best of my ability.

WHAT WERE SOME QUESTIONS THAT THEY ASKED YOU?
Most questions are about you, and why you want to be in medical school, and what talents you have to offer to the medical school. I think the biggest things to remember is that you are in control of your interview, not your interviewer. You have the power to control your interview, so use that to your advantage by talking about experiences that make you look like a strong candidate. For example, I chose to guide the interview towards my experiences as a biomedical engineer, as not many medical school matriculants have an engineering background.

A difficult, but not strange question was always the question regarding the future of healthcare and your opinions on healthcare policy. One common question asked was, “if you had three ways you could improve healthcare in the United States, what would you do?”

WHAT TYPE OF INTERVIEW DID YOU HAVE (ONE-ON-ONE, MMI, ETC.)?
All my interviews were one-on-one interviews with professional degree interviewers. In Baylor and Texas Tech, however, you could also have interviews with MS4’s at random.

OTHER ADVICE
Be yourself, guide the interview to your strengths, and make yourself seem like the most important candidate that the med school could ever admit.