How Should I Approach the “Blind” Med School Interview?

Session 18

There are several types of medical school interviews. One of them is the blind interview. How should you prepare for a blind med school interview?

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[00:13] What Is a Blind Interview?

When you’re interviewing for medical schools, there are several different styles of interviews., namely: open interview, partially blind, blind interview, group interview, panel interview, etc.

A lot of students think of a traditional interview as an open one. But there’s also the blind interview, where the interviewer doesn’t know your application. They don’t know your stats, your MCAT scores, your extracurriculars, or your personal statement. They don’t have that information yet.

[00:56] What Is a Partially Blind Interview?

A partially blind interview usually means they have access to your essays, your personal statement, secondaries, maybe your extracurriculars. But they don’t have access to your grades or your MCAT score. That’s to help reduce the bias that could be associated with that.

[01:12] The Goal of Every Medical School Interview

With a blind interview and an open interview, you prepare the exact same way.

Several students think that because it’s a blind interview, they need to highlight things in their application. They think they need to tell all the things they’ve done.

What this turns into is an interview where you’re just reciting your application. You’re going down your resume. The goal is to have a conversation with the interviewer and you can’t do that by reciting your resume.

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Even though they don’t have their application in front of you doesn’t mean you should give them the application during your interview. Connect with them and answer the questions. Have a conversation. They’ll have your applications after the interview.

So don’t worry about forcing things into the discussion just because it’s a blind interview.

[02:30] Don’t Force Them All In!

Even in an open interview, don’t go into the interview with an agenda of what you need to mention and not what to mention. Just have a conversation and you’ll be fine. Don’t try to force anything in there.

Don’t be boring and list all of your extracurricular and recite everything all over again or give your grades. You don’t need to go down that route. They’re going to have access to that when they want it.