Allopathic Medical School Interview Styles: From Traditional to New Approaches

Your interview is the next and hopefully final step in your journey to medical school acceptance. Are you ready for it? Before prepping for your interview, you’ll need to know what type of interview you’ll be having. There are four main types of medical school interviews that you can expect at an allopathic med school:

1. Traditional
2. MMI (Multiple Mini Interview)
3. Hybrid
4. PBL (Problem-Based Learning)

Traditional medical school interview

The traditional interview has been in use the longest and typically includes a one-on-one interview, lasting anywhere from 25 to 60 minutes. Traditional interviews can include more than one interviewer and more than one applicant, usually no more than three people on either side of the table – panel style. Some schools also have a group interview in which four or more students are interviewed by one or more faculty or medical students.

The interviews I refer to below as Traditional Plus (Trad +) include one or more traditional interviews as well as additional activities: writing exercises, patient-based situational interviews, standardized patient exercises, standardized interview formats, and group activities. These additional activities are different on each campus and will vary in length, requirements, and details. Some schools are using actual patients in the interview process who provide feedback on their interactions with you.

The multiple mini interview (MMI)

After the traditional interview, the multiple mini interview is the second most popular format. The MMI was first created in Canada to create a more unbiased and standardized way to assess applicants at the McMaster University Medical School. In an MMI, multiple people interact with and assess applicants, providing more reliable scores for applicants. It usually includes anywhere from 5 to 10 different stations that vary from 6 to 8 minutes in length at each station, and students have 1 to 2 minutes to think about a question or prompt before engaging in the activity. Not long after the first article was published about the MMI in 2004, it was being used in the U.S. UCLA David Geffen was one of the first medical schools in the U.S. to begin using the MMI method in 2007 and still continues to use it.

The hybrid med school interview

Some medical schools are using a combination of the traditional and MMI formats in creating a Hybrid interview. These interviews often include one or more traditional interviews along with a shorter version MMI – 5 or fewer stations.

The Hybrid Plus (Hybrid +) style interview includes these variations along with an additional activity, like situational judgement tests. Again, these will vary from school to school so be sure to collect as much information as you can about them if you are interviewing on a campus that uses them.

Problem-based learning interview (PBL)

One school, Carle Illinois, is taking a new approach in using PBL (problem-based learning) group activities. In this type of interview, a facilitator leads a group problem-solving session involving a patient case. It’s equally beneficial to students to participate in a PBL style interview since many medical schools integrate problem-based learning in their curriculums. Read this article to learn more about it.

If you are invited to interview at an allopathic medical school, you can expect to encounter any combination of these types of interviews.

Here is an overview of the different styles of interviews allopathic medical schools offer and the total number of schools that use them.

Types of medical school interviews

Traditional	95 (Traditional +6)
MMI	37
Hybrid	11 (Hybrid +2)
PBL	1
Total number of schools	143
Total number of campuses	144

As you can see, most schools (66%) still use a traditional interview format. The next most popular interview style, MMI, is offered at 26% of medical school campuses. Eight percent of schools have a hybrid interview, a combination of both traditional and MMI interviews. Only one campus relies solely on a PBL interview, a statistically insignificant number.

Below, you will find a complete list of all 143 allopathic medical schools (144 campuses) with the style of interview they offer. This data is based on the last known interview style used by each school as of March 2019. Since this information is subject to change, please double check the school website and/or call the school to confirm before an interview if the school does not provide this information to you in its interview invitation.

Interview styles at allopathic med schools

School Name:	Interview Style:
Albany	MMI
Albert Einstein	Traditional
Baylor	Traditional
Boston University	Traditional
Brody	Traditional
California Northstate University	MMI
California University of Science and Medicine	MMI
Carle Illinois	PBL
Case Western Reserve	Traditional
Central Michigan	MMI
Charles E. Schmidt	Traditional
Chicago	MMI
Columbia	Traditional
Cooper	Traditional
Creighton	Traditional
Donald and Barbara Zucker, Hofstra	MMI
Drexel	Traditional
Duke	MMI
East Tennessee	Traditional
Eastern Virginia	Traditional
Emory	Traditional
Florida International	Traditional
Florida State	Traditional
Frank H. Netter	Traditional
Geisel	Traditional
George Washington	Traditional
Georgetown	Traditional
Harvard	Traditional
Howard	Traditional
Icahn	Traditional
Indiana	Traditional
Joan C. Edwards	Traditional
Johns Hopkins	Traditional
Keck	Traditional
Lewis Katz	Trad+ (3 writing activities)
Loma Linda	Traditional
Louisiana State in New Orleans	Traditional
Louisiana State in Shreveport	Traditional
Loyola	Traditional
Mayo	Traditional
Medical College of Georgia	MMI
Medical College of Wisconsin	Traditional
Medical University of South Carolina	Traditional
Meharry	Traditional
Mercer	Traditional
Michigan State	Hybrid
Morehouse	Traditional
New York Medical College	MMI
New York University	MMI
Northeast Ohio	Traditional
Northwestern	Traditional
Nova Southeastern	Hybrid
Oakland	Traditional
Ohio State	Traditional
Oregon Health and Science	MMI
Pennsylvania State	Traditional
Perelman	Traditional
Ponce	Traditional
Renaissance	Traditional
Robert Larner, University of Vermont	MMI
Rush	Trad+ (group activity)
Rutgers New Jersey	Traditional
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson	MMI
Saint Louis	Traditional
San Juan Bautista	Trad+ (patient-based situational interviews)
Sanford	Traditional
Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian	Traditional
Sidney Kimmel	Traditional
Southern Illinois	Traditional
Stanford	MMI
State University of New York Downstate	Traditional
State University of New York Upstate	MMI
TCU and UNTHSC	MMI
The Commonwealth	Traditional
The University of Toledo	MMI
The Warren Alpert MS	Traditional
Tufts	Traditional
Tulane	Trad+ (standardized patient exercise)
UCLA/Drew	MMI
Uniformed Services	Traditional
Universidad Central Del Caribe	MMI
University at Buffalo	Traditional
University of Alabama	MMI
University of Arizona	MMI
University of Arizona at Phoenix	MMI
University of Arkansas	Traditional
University of California at Davis	MMI
University of California at Irvine	MMI, Filmed
University of California at Los Angeles David Geffen	MMI
University of California at Riverside	MMI
University of California at San Diego	MMI
University of California at San Francisco	Traditional
University of Central Florida	Traditional
University of Chicago	Traditional
University of Cincinnati	MMI
University of Colorado	Hybrid
University of Connecticut	Traditional
University of Florida	Traditional
University of Hawaii	Traditional
University of Illinois	Traditional
University of Iowa	Traditional
University of Kansas	Traditional
University of Kentucky	Traditional
University of Louisville	Traditional
University of Maryland	Traditional
University of Massachusetts	MMI
University of Miami	Traditional
University of Michigan	Hybrid
University of Minnesota	Minneapolis - MMI Duluth - Traditional
University of Mississippi	MMI
University of Missouri, Kansas City	MMI
University of Missouri, Columbia SOM	Traditional
University of Nebraska	Traditional
University of Nevada, Las Vegas	Trad+ (standardized interview format)
University of Nevada, Reno	MMI
University of New Mexico	Traditional
University of North Carolina	Hybrid
University of North Dakota	Traditional
University of Oklahoma	Traditional
University of Pittsburgh	Traditional
University of Puerto Rico	Traditional
University of Rochester	Traditional
University of South Alabama	Traditional
University of South Carolina	Traditional
University of South Carolina, Greenville	Hybrid
University of South Florida	Hybrid
University of Tennessee	Traditional
University of Utah	Hybrid+ (situational judgement test)
University of Virginia	Traditional
University of Washington	Traditional
University of Wisconsin	Hybrid+ (small group situational exercise)
Vanderbilt	Traditional
Virginia Commonwealth	MMI
Virginia Tech	MMI
Wake Forest	MMI
Washington State	MMI
Washington University, St. Louis	Traditional
Wayne State	Hybrid
Weill Cornell	Traditional
West Virginia	Traditional
Western Michigan	Hybrid
Wright State	Traditional
Yale	Traditional

Final tip: Know your medical school interview style!

To prepare for an interview, practice. Mock interviews can provide the best preparation, especially if they are similar in length, style and questions to the interview(s) you have scheduled. Many schools share detailed information about the interviews they offer on their websites. Learn as much as you can about their approach and use this information to inform your preparation.

If you have new information, please let us know by commenting on this post!

Do you need assistance in preparing for your interview? Check out our Medical School Interview Packages for the highest quality preparation and feedback for all interview styles.

Alicia McNease Nimonkar worked for 5 years as the Student Advisor & Director at the UC Davis School of Medicine's postbac program where she both evaluated applications and advised students applying successfully to med school and other health professional programs. She has served Accepted's clients since 2012 with roughly a 90% success rate. She has a Master of Arts in Composition and Rhetoric as well as Literature. Want Alicia to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

 

Related Resources:

• The Ultimate Guide to Medical School Interview Success, a free guide
• Do I Really Need a Mock Admissions Interview?, a short video
• Practicing for Your Med School Interview: Conversation 101