How to answer “What do you do for fun?” in a medical school interview

A strong answer to "what do you do for fun" names one or two activities you actually do and describes them with enough detail to show you care about them. It lets the interviewer see a person who will have a life outside medicine. The question sounds casual, but interviewers ask it on purpose and listen to the answer as closely as any other.

What the interviewer is assessing

• Self-reflection and growth
• Communication

Medical schools ask this because physicians with no life outside work burn out, and burnout harms patients. The interviewer wants to hear that you have interests you'll keep through training, and they want to hear how you talk when you're not performing. An applicant who answers with warmth and specifics comes across as somebody the panel would want on a ward team. They also learn whether you can hold a conversation about a subject other than medicine, which is a skill physicians use with patients every day.

In a panel interview, this question often comes near the end, when the panel has formed most of its view and wants to see you relax. In an MMI, it rarely gets its own station, but it appears as a warm-up or as a follow-up at a personal station.

How to structure your answer

1. Name one activity you do regularly, and say how long you've done it and how often.
2. Describe what you enjoy about it in specific terms, such as the people, the skill it builds or the state of mind it gives you.
3. Add a second activity only if it shows a different side of you, such as one solitary pursuit beside one social one.
4. Mention briefly how you've kept the activity going through a demanding term, because that is the evidence the interviewer wants.
5. Stop there, without forcing a link to medicine unless one exists.

Choose an activity you could talk about for ten minutes if asked, because the follow-up often asks for exactly that. Reading, cooking, a sport, an instrument, a game, a craft or time with family all work when you describe them concretely. Keep the answer to about a minute: the practice box allows three, and this is one of the shortest answers you'll give in any interview.

Common mistakes

• Answering that you have no time for fun tells the interviewer you have no plan for staying well through four years of medical school.
• Naming an activity you did once, three years ago, leaves you with no detail to give at the first follow-up question.
• Choosing an activity because it sounds impressive, such as reading medical journals, suggests you're still performing when the panel wanted to meet you.
• Listing six hobbies in one sentence gives the interviewer no single activity to ask about and no sense of which one you care about.
• Answering with one word, such as "hiking", and waiting for the next question leaves the interviewer to do the work of drawing you out.

Follow-up questions to prepare for

• How will you keep that up during medical school?
• When did you last do that, and what was it like?
• What has it taught you that has no connection to medicine?
• Have you ever had to give up a hobby, and how did you decide?
• Is there an activity you'd like to take up but haven't had time for?