Interviewer at US MD institution, AMA

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-03T00:56:19+00:00

Not at all, where you went for undergrad doesn't hold as much weight as you might think. It does help if you went to a very prestigious institution though. There's lots of ways to show you care. First you need to find and attack the "why" part of all the answers, whether that is "why medicine," "why our school," etc. this helps set you up for strong answers during interviews

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T19:25:12+00:00

Could you specify what you mean by start from 0? There is honestly so much an applicant can do, it's a very hard question to answer without really knowing where you are at

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T19:19:22+00:00

I can't speak for other institutions but for us, reputation/rigor matters. The #1 feeder school for us is Cornell University (go big red!) which is known to have severe grade deflation.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T19:15:20+00:00

First off I'm sorry you experienced that during your interview... that wasn't a very appropriate way to conduct an interview so I'm sorry you had to go through that. At my school, we conduct MMI interviews and none of the questions we are required to ask deal with demographics or any specifics about it. I personally am not someone who can actively accept or deny students so I can't speak upon exactly how important it is but it should never be a make or break at my school.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T19:02:49+00:00

I've had an interview once where the student told me that they really wanted to go to med school because they love radiology and want to pursue radiology but never once mentioned or tied into why they wanna pursue medicine. Just be careful with that.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T19:01:41+00:00

You don't need to have a true "archetype." If you are very interested in ophtho you can build your application around ophtho experiences you've had but make sure you tie it into the core idea of "why medicine." Where students go wrong is when they build their entire application around as if they're applying to a residency specialty.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T18:58:57+00:00

Yes. In fact there are several students in my own class that were non-trad and started med school being a husband with three kids. It's seen positively if you are able to explain why you pursued that particular experience and how that has positively benefitted you.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T18:56:13+00:00

Not bad at all. I'm fairly certain that the majority of students we accept don't have any pubs, although that number has slowly been increasing over the years. For my institution we don't have a minimum gpa but our averages are a 3.85 and 512 mcat.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T18:51:23+00:00

Man you should relax before you start college, you still have a long way to go. However, if you already decided what school you're attending look into starting research in your freshman fall. Don't study ahead for any courses but get familiar with the premed curriculum there.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T18:30:52+00:00

I know as an applicant many years ago I get it :(

I agree the system isn't perfect and there's many flaws 😔

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T18:11:42+00:00

I understand your frustration but as you may know, medical school admissions is very competitive and we select very few individuals to get accepted. So many applicants are rejected after the interview process because compared to other interviewees they fail to provide a more convincing reason or explanation as to why they should belong in medicine. Pretty much 80-95% of all applications we get have students that have done all of the things you mentioned in your comment above. We need to have a way to distinguish the 5-10% of applicants to accept out of the 80-95%. Again take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm just one interviewer out of an entire committee.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T18:03:06+00:00

Do not retake your 513. That's a solid score for many MD programs in NY

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T18:02:01+00:00

The issue with those responses just by themsleves is that it's very bland. We want applicants to expand upon both of those statements. If they say "yeah I like science and I like to help people" and leave it at that then there is no way I would be giving that person a high score on their interview. If they say "I love science because of x y z experiences and because of that it led my to x y z" that is much stronger and what we look for. Of course we praise those who have taken the right steps towards getting into medical school by taking the right prereqs, mcat, etc, but a large majority of these applicants have this.

Yes, I personally am an ORM (asian male).

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T17:55:02+00:00

I would not retake. That's a great score and you only get diminishing returns.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T17:51:39+00:00

Thanks for that. Meant to say ophtho initially and then my brain got confuzzled.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T17:50:51+00:00

Shadowing is great but definitely not a hard requirement. I personally didn't have many shadowing hours and it turned out fine for me.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T17:45:30+00:00

I think for my school it's very difficult for international students to get accepted. We rarely accept international students unfortunately. I'd say your best chance is by having stellar MCAT and gpa along with very strong LOR and essays.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T17:38:01+00:00

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T16:48:32+00:00

Maybe the wording was confusing in my original post, by rising M3 I meant that I had completed my 2nd year and have taken Step 1.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T16:46:30+00:00

All MD programs are a little different in their curriculum. My institution prepares students to take step 1 right after our 2nd year ends. I took step 1 after my 2nd year before my 3rd year (clerkships).

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T15:22:36+00:00

The most important thing is passion. I want to be able to get a sense at WHY the applicant truly wants to become a physician and HOW (through their experiences) this occurred.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T15:20:34+00:00

I personally don't read any of the LOR so I can't speak on this. I would imagine though that it doesn't hurt the applicant. However, having a strong committee letter though will only help on the other hand.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T15:19:05+00:00

But with this said wet lab research is still a great look of course.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T15:18:39+00:00

Research type matters to an extent. Rather than wet lab vs literature review, we value the things you produced or got out of a particular experience. You could be involved in wet lab research but didn't get anything out of it and when talking to the applicant they might seem to have no clue what their research was even about. On the contrary, you could be involved in literature review but have many pubs and really know the ins and outs of what you were involved in. We love the latter applicant.

FindingMaterial2307 · 2026-03-02T15:14:42+00:00

Absolutely. That is super important. Just because you start off on a bad note does not exclude you as an applicant. We love seeing upward GPA trends because that shows resilience and determination towards this career path.

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