If you received an invitation for interview – congratulations! That means you passed the first hurdle!

Stony Brook University Medical Center

Interviews are an important process for medical schools to evaluate you as a potential candidate to their programs. They want to determine whether you are truly yourself as presented in your application, and you would fit the dynamics of their programs. They are interested in learning about your maturity, interpersonal skills, and emotional intelligence in the context of your desire to become a physician-scientist.

MD/PhD interview day formats vary by programs. The duration of the interview day and the number of interviewers may be different. It is important to learn about the interview styles of programs you are interviewing. You can look at their website, ask the admissions office, or look it up on Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR).

Stony Brook MSTP has a full-day interview day, with a dinner with current students a night before. Each candidate will have four 30-minute interviews: two interviews by basic-translational scientists will evaluate you for your readiness for research, one interview will evaluate you for readiness for medical school and one interview with a current MD/PhD student will evaluate you for both. Additionally, some students may want to be considered for MD/PhD and MD-only (ie if the MD/PhD does not come through, those candidates will still be considered for medical school). These candidates will have an additional interview assessing their readiness for medical school.

Treat the interview day as an opportunity to convince the program to make you an offer, but also use the chance to see whether this is a program in which you want to spend the next 8 years of your training. We therefore offer one mini-meeting for each candidate to choose, which are “MD-only interview”, “Women in Science”, “CIE Diversity”, and “Imaging tour.” Candidates will receive itineraries before the interview day. Take time to study your interviewers, to learn about their research interests and field of practice. Knowing this would help you understand their level of knowledge in your field of research or interests.

Think about what kind of impressions you want to leave at an interview. This takes time to learn about yourself: your strengths and weaknesses; career goal in 10 years; your previous and current research projects; expectations in MSTP training.

Practice describing your experience concisely and confidently.

General tips for interview day

• Be yourself, honest, and positive.
• Be confident, but do not boast.
• Be courteous to everyone you meet on interview day.
• Prepare a 2-minute answer to “why do you want to become a physician scientist”.
• Prepare a 2-minute description of your current research.
• Study your application well and be prepared to answer any questions related to it.
• Be appropriately dressed.
• Study the programs you are interviewing, to know their interview style, their mission and vision, and strengths.
• Prepare to ask questions about the programs you are interviewing to show your interests.
• Talk to current students about the programs. You’d want to know this before commitment.
• Rest well the night before.
• Maintain professional and confident demeanor: Smile, shake hands, make eye contact, and be polite.

For general medical school interview day, check AAMC “Applying to Medical School” page.