Splitting limited club travel funds: a medical school interview question
- Topic
- Resource allocation
- Kind
- Ethical dilemma
Prompt
You are treasurer of a student club with $2,000 left to cover a national conference that costs $500 per person. Ten members want to go. Two founded the club and did most of the work this year, and three have told you privately that they cannot attend without full funding. How would you decide who goes?
Practice this question
Answer it yourself first. The approach to this question opens below when your feedback arrives.
How to approach this question
What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Professionalism and integrity
- Communication
How to approach it
This panel interview question tests how you divide a scarce resource when merit, need and fairness pull in different directions: the two founders earned recognition, and three members can't go at all without full funding. Start with the arithmetic aloud, since $2,000 covers four full places, and ask whether partial funding, fundraising or cheaper travel could stretch it. Name the criteria you'd consider, such as contribution, financial need and what each member would bring back to the club, and say how you'd weight them. Explain how you'd keep the private disclosures confidential while still taking them into account. A strong answer ends on a clear, transparent process the whole club could accept, including the members who don't go.
More on resource allocation
All 7 questions on this topicMock interviews
Practice with a real interviewer
A real interviewer asks questions, records the interview so you can review it together, and gives feedback on your content and delivery.
