How Should You Approach Certain Questions in Your Interview?

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Highlight & Takeaways

Session 59

When you are asked a question on an interview, do not answer based on what the interviewer wants to hear. Just be you and answer from the heart.

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For more help on your medical school application, check out The Premed Years Podcast.

[00:38] What the Interviewer Wants to Hear

What does the interviewer want to hear? This is a question that gets asked over and over by premed students.

Don’t worry about what the interviewers want or the person reading your personal statement wants. At the end of the day, the answers you give in your interview and the essays you write has to be you.

There are good ways to write about you as well as some bad ways to write about you. When you approach the question from a standpoint of what they want to hear, you’re immediately starting off on the wrong foot.

'The goal of this process is to be you.'Click To Tweet

[02:20] Make Yourself Stand Out

Being you is the only way that the admissions committee is going to truly understand if they should invite you to have a seat in next year’s class or not. It’s the difference between an acceptance and a rejection.

'The moment you start thinking about what they want, you can no longer stand out from the crowd.'Click To Tweet

There are going to be plenty of other medical students who are thinking, writing, and saying the same things. They’re thinking to themselves what the medical school admissions committee wants. They are failing to stand out from anybody else. Now is your chance to stand out and be you.

[03:10] What Gets You the Acceptance

Good grades and good MCAT score do not get you an acceptance. In that interview, it’s you as a personality. It’s you as a person. You need to stand out.

But a lot of students fail to recognize this and think having good grades or a good MCAT score is enough to get them the interviews.

'It's not the grades and the MCAT score that get you the interviews.'Click To Tweet

Your grades and MCAT get you the review. Then your personal statements, secondaries, and extracurriculars get you that interview. And it’s your interview that gets you the acceptance.

[04:30] Just Be You

Stop worrying about what the admissions committee wants and just be true to who you are. When you do that, it’s going to show in your essays and your interviews. Then you’re going to be able to connect on a more personal level.

Hopefully, they’d want to advocate for you even more when it comes to discussing your file in front of the rest of the admissions committee.

“At the end of the day, you have to be YOU!”Click To Tweet