Premedical Advising: Interviewing

I. Introduction to Interviewing

When you go for an interview, you usually participate in a day's worth of activities designed to help familiarize you with a particular school. This typically involves a tour, an overview of the curriculum, lunch with students or faculty, and a financial aid meeting.

As part of your day, you will have an interview or interviews with representatives from the admissions committee. Your interviewers will likely include faculty, and may include admissions staff, a member of the profession, and/or a student at the school.

Prepare: Be sure to re-read your personal comments essay, and supplemental question answers. Research the schools where you are interviewing. What do they list as their accomplishments? What kinds of research programs do they emphasize? Do they have an honor code for students? Hint: You can find honor code for the KU School of Medicine at www.kumc.edu/som/medsos/hc.html.

Practice: Don't rehearse answers for particular questions, but do practice the general art of answering questions! If you're a current or former KU student, you can schedule a practice interview with me by calling (785) 864-3500 and with the University Career Center, www.kucareerhawk.com, by calling (785) 864-3624.

Act Professionally: Dress appropriately, as you would if you were working in a professional environment. Most men wear suits, or at least a tie and sports jacket. Most women wear a professional looking suit or dress. Include titles, like Dr., when addressing people. Make sure you arrive on time. If you're delayed, call the Admissions Office to explain.

Present yourself openly and honestly. Professional schools have room for different kinds of people. Some candidates come across as more passionate, while others are more calm. Some are more decisive, others more thoughtful. Above all, try to stay in the moment, and actively attend to your interviewers and their questions.

It's normal to feel nervous, especially at the beginning. Some questions may throw you for a moment, but most candidates recover. If you're stumped, it's fine to say, "I don't know;" and it's also okay to thoughtfully pause and gather your thoughts before answering questions.

Don't try to be someone you're not, but do try to put your best qualities forward. Interviewers look for experience, a passion for the profession, sincerity and honesty, the ability to communicate clearly, warmth and compassion, confidence (not arrogance), down-to-earthness, a positive and enthusiastic outlook, ethical integrity, the ability to reason through challenging problems, awareness of current events and social issues, a respect for other people and their opinions, a willingness to work hard, a love for learning, maturity, professionalism, and a sense of social responsibility and commitment to service.

II. Interview Questions

There are many possible interview questions, so rehearsing answers to particular questions is not at all useful. You may, however, want to think about some of the common themes for interview questions:

Who are you? Examples:

Tell us a little about yourself.
Who are your heroes?
What are your greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses?

What kind of experience do you have with the profession? Examples:

What was your most memorable interaction with a patient?
What doctor has had the most influence on your decision to become a member of this profession?

Why do you want to become a member of this profession? Examples:

What are your greatest fears and reservations about becoming a member of this profession?
What can you do as a member of this profession that you cannot do in other professions?
Why do you want to become a doctor instead of a nurse?

What are your professional goals?

Where do you see yourself in 20 years?

How familiar are you with general health care issues? Examples:

If you had the power to make big changes, how would you improve health care in the United States?
How will the human genome project improve health care? How could the results of this research be abused?
What are HMO's? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these organizations?

How do you reason through ethical dilemmas? Examples:

If you found out another student was cheating on an exam, what would you do?
A patient who has been seeing you for years is dying of cancer. Your oncology colleagues have exhausted treatment possibilities. Your patient is in terrible pain, and asks you to prescribe a medication he can use to end his life. What would you do?
You discover that a colleague falsified the date of a medical diagnosis, so that the treatment would be covered by a patient's insurance. The patient is ill, and without treatment, will probably die within one year, but cannot afford the treatment unless it is covered by the insurance. What would you do?

If you've been involved in research, you might be asked some questions like:

How would you describe what you were doing in terms your grandmother would understand?
How was your activity related to a larger research program?
How could the results of your research benefit practicing health care professionals?

Breadth of education and involvement. Examples:

What are your three favorite books? Who were the authors?
If you could have a conversation with three historical figures, who would you choose, and what would you talk about?
Tell us about an event that was in the news this week.

Why are you interested in our school? Examples:

What other schools are you applying to?
What do you like most about our school? What do you like least?
If you are accepted to multiple medical schools, how will you decide which one to attend?

And, interviews often close with questions like:

Do you have any questions you'd like to ask us?
Is there anything about your academic record or test scores you'd like to explain?
Is there anything you would like to add?

You can find feedback from candidates who've interviewed at different professional schools at http://more.studentdoctor.net/welcome.php.

III. The KU School of Medicine Interview

At an advisors conference at KU Med, current and former chairs of the Admissions Committee (Drs. Ken Kallail, Ph.D., Christine Morantz, Ph.D., and Peggy Sellner, Ph.D.) spoke about how they evaluate applicants. There are several levels of interpretation here, so what I share isn't a perfect transmission, but here it goes:

Your Audience: The interview groups may include faculty (basic science, clincial or other), practicing physicians, and/or 4th year medical school students.

The Format: They conduct two interviews, one with a single interviewer, and one with two interviewers. Each of the two interviews may be up to 30 minutes long. The one-to-one interviewer will have read your entire file, including grades, MCAT scores, and recommendation letters. The two-on-one interviewers will not have your grades, MCAT scores or evaluation letters.

Some content they are looking for:

1. Motivation - Why do you want to become a physician?

2. Self-Appraisal - How do you see yourself?

3. Problem-Solving/Judgment - How do you solve problems, and resolve ethical issues? The answer you arrive at may be less important than the path you take, your problem-solving style.

4. Commitment to Service - Are you compassionate and caring?

5. Interpersonal Skills - Can you communicate clearly?

6. Do you understand what you are asking for? What do you know about being a physician?

Some hints they gave:

Talk about what you have done, not just what you want to do.
They look for passion -- Are you passionate about becoming a physician, or do you "light up" when you talk about another career possibility?
Open & Honest - Do you come across as genuine when you talk about your interest in medicine?
They do try to accept some people from rural areas who are sincerely interested in providing primary care services to people in similar communities in Kansas. A lot of people, however, say they want to do this without really demonstrating the interest.
Admissions Committee Members often ask themselves questions like: "Is this someone I want in my class?" and "Is this someone who has the maturity, drive and initiative to treat me, that I would want as my own physician?"
A pet peeve: The candidate who talks forever, but doesn't say anything.
It's okay to have some quiet pauses during your interview. Thoughtfully considering a question before answering comes off much better than unfocused chatter.
Avoid giving extraordinarily long or short answers.
Engage in appropriate eye contact. Neither creepy staring, nor hiding.
They look for candidates to come across as professional -- open and personal, but not overly chummy or insincerely ingratiating.