How to answer “Describe the community you grew up in” in a medical school interview
- Kind
- Reflection
Prompt
Describe the community you grew up in. How has it shaped the kind of physician you want to be?
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How to approach this question
What this question tests
- Self-reflection and growth
- Cultural humility
How to approach it
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.
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