Panel question

Community that shaped you

Kind
Reflection

Prompt

Describe the community you grew up in. How has it shaped the kind of physician you want to be?

Practice this question

After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it

What this question tests

  • Self-reflection and growth
  • Cultural humility

How to approach this question

This panel interview question tests whether you can describe where you come from with specific detail and connect it honestly to how you'll treat patients. Describe your community through concrete features, such as its size, its people, its work and how people got care, rather than adjectives. Pick one or two experiences that shaped your values, and include what the community lacked or got wrong as well as what it gave you. Then draw a clear line from those experiences to the kind of physician you want to be, such as who you hope to serve or how you hope to listen. Show cultural humility by recognizing that your community is one experience among many, and that your future patients will come from places unlike it.

All 13 questions on this topic

Mock interviews

If you want to practice with a person, we run mock MMI and panel interviews with feedback on every answer.