University of Michigan Medicine Interview Questions
Interview Format
The candidate participates in two to three one-on-one traditional interviews that last about 30-45 minutes. One of them is conducted by a faculty member. The other is done by a medical student and/ or an alumni where it tends to be more conversational. The interviews are open-file, meaning that the interviewers have access to the AMCAS application, the secondary application, and the personal statement.
The university follows a hybrid approach of assessment; along with the traditional interviews it includes 6 shorter-version MMI stations. This approach aims at assessing the candidate’s abilities of:
- Social skills
- Competence
- Teamwork
- Reliability/ Dependability
- Resilience/ Adaptability
- Critical thinking
- Research and clinical experience
Key Dates
Interviews generally take place between September and February.
Past Interview Questions
Motivation and Insight into Medicine
- How do you think culture affects medical practice and patient interactions?
- What is the difference between a nurse practitioner and a physician?
- What kind of environment do you want to practice medicine in the future?
- Do you think diversity is an important element in medical school?
- What could be potential problems that you face at the onset of your medical education?
- How will your X experience help you be a good doctor?
- What specialty are you interested in and why?
- In your opinion, what qualities should a doctor have? And which ones do you possess?
- Why do you want to study in Michigan?
- Why do you want to pursue medicine?
- If you were the dean of a medical school, what one course would you want to have included in the curriculum?
- Why do you want to be specifically a doctor, not a nurse?
- Tell me how your undergrad major would help you to study medicine?
- Tell me more about your X clinical experience.
- What research experience do you have?
- What is one of the biggest problems in healthcare today?
- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
- What other fields would you be interested in if you weren't going to become a doctor?
- Do you think you will be having time for extra-curricular activity while you are in medical school?
- In your opinion, what are possible conflicts might arise in medical school?
- What would you like to do in Michigan?
- What are some challenges in medicine that you saw in your shadowing or volunteer experiences?
- What do you think about the difficulties women face in pursuing medicine?
- What would you do to reform the healthcare sector?
- Which side of practicing medicine are you most interested in: the scientific or the compassionate?
- What would you want to do with your medical degree?
- What was the doctor’s X shadowing experience like?
- What are three drawbacks of practicing medicine?
- Tell me about your experience as an EMT.
- What do you think about Managed Care?
- Do you think training on mannequins detracts from patient contact?
- What are your thoughts about the current health plan?
- How has How has the medical malpractice influenced the healthcare price?
- In your opinion, what responsibilities do physicians have towards the public?
- How would you choose to spend $100,000 in the medical field?
- In your opinion, who provides the greatest benefit to society: the primary care physician, the public health worker, or the entertainer?
- If you have a big budget to spend on AIDS education and research, how would you split it up between them and why?
- In your clinical experience, what did you learn about medicine that you were not aware of earlier?
- What are some problems you think you will go through as a physician on a personal and societal level?
- How would you incorporate your faith with practicing medicine?
- If you could pick a medical figure to meet, who would they be?
- What do you think about a colleague who delivered exceptional medical care 29 days of the month, but gave poor medical care one day a month?
- What are three good thing about HMOs?
Ethical Dilemmas
- What is your opinion about University of Michigan’s most infamous alumnus, Dr. Kevorkian and your thoughts on the physician-assisted suicide?
- What would you do if you had the choice of giving a liver to a 25-year old who could go a year without it, or 55-year old alcoholic who needed it immediately?
- Would you legalize marijuana?
- What is the difference between medical ethics and personal morals?
- If you had a patient in jail who faced the choice of having a kidney transplant or being on dialysis for the rest of his life, what would you do?
- What is your opinion on abortion?
- What do you think about euthanasia?
- What would you do if you could give a small town's children all immunizations, or give three patients heart transplants or else they would die?
- If you have two patients about to die, and you can only save one of them, how and based on what standards would you choose?
Scientific/Medical Topics
- What is maple syrup disease?
- What did Jonas Salk invent?
- In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of EMRs and what do you think about integrating more technology to the healthcare?
- Explain what apoptosis is, and does it happen in normal cells?
- What do you know about euthanasia and in which states is it legal?
- Pick a medical topic and argue both sides of it.
- What do you know about HIPAA?
- In which European country is physician-assisted suicide legally practiced?
Case/Article Reviews
- What are your thoughts on the Terri Schiavo case?
- Do you think distribution of wealth in the metro Detroit community is equitable?
- Did you hear about that surgeon who branded the letters "UK" on a woman's uterus- the University of Kentucky?
- What are your opinions on the current Iran conflict?
Communication Stations
- How would you plan on telling the families of children with terminal illness that there is nothing that can be done?
- How would you deal with noncooperative patients?
- How would you explain your research to a 12-year old kid?
- As a physician, how will you communicate with patients who you don’t personally like?
- How would you emotionally handle and respond to a woman who blames you for the death of her husband who refused to listen to your medical advice?
- How would you communicate with a patient who refuses to take their prescribed meds due to religious beliefs and what would you do?
- How would you describe the American healthcare system to a foreigner?
- How would you convince someone to invest in X instead of Y?
- How will you communicate death of a patient?
- How would you explain HMO to a non-US resident?
Prioritisation Tasks
- What coping mechanisms do you use to relive stress?
Teamwork Tasks
- What significant leadership roles you had and what did you learn from them?
- How do you work in a team?
General / Personal Statements:
- Do you think the relatively privileged status of Ann Arbor is a problem?
- What book have you read that had an impact on the way you think?
- What is the most human rights issue you feel strongly about?
- Do you consider yourself a risk-taker?
- What are you hobbies?
- How was your undergrad experience?
- What are your strong and weak points?
- If you got to have a superpower, what would it be?
- What did you do over the summer?
- What is the biggest obstacle you encountered in your life and how did you face it?
- Why did not you get a recommendation from your research lab?
- Why do you think attending a big school would be beneficial?
- How come you got X in this section of the MCAT?
- What was hard about your X volunteering work?
- How would your friends describe you in 3 words?
- How you would you define a successful career?
- What is the most significant thing you have done in college?
- What would you like said at your eulogy?
- In your opinion, what should society do about the homeless?