How to answer “What is your greatest accomplishment?” in a medical school interview

A strong answer to "what is your greatest accomplishment" chooses one achievement, explains what it took and why it mattered to you, and lets the interviewer see the qualities you used to get there. The second half of the question is the part interviewers score. Many applicants answer the first half and stop.

What the interviewer is assessing

• Self-reflection and growth

This answer tells the interviewer what you consider worth doing and how you talk about your own success. An applicant who picks an award tells the panel they measure themselves by recognition. An applicant who picks a hard task they completed quietly tells the panel they measure themselves by the work. Neither choice is wrong on its own, and the explanation of why it matters is what separates a considered answer from a reflex.

The interviewer also listens for how you share credit, because medicine is practiced in teams and an accomplishment described with nobody else in it is rarely the whole story. In a panel interview, this question is often paired with one about failure, and the panel expects the two answers to come from the same person. In an MMI, a version of it appears at a personal station, where the rater scores reflection and communication rather than the size of the achievement.

How to structure your answer

1. Name the accomplishment in one sentence, so the interviewer knows what the story is about.
2. Describe where you started, including the obstacle or the doubt that made the outcome uncertain.
3. Say what you did, with enough specifics that the interviewer can see your part in it and the part other people played.
4. Explain why it matters to you, in terms of what it changed in you or for somebody else rather than what it earned you.
5. Close with one sentence connecting the qualities you used to the work ahead of you in medicine.

Choose the accomplishment with the best story behind it, which is rarely the most impressive line on your application. A long effort with setbacks gives you more to say than a single award, and an outcome that helped other people gives you a better answer to "why does it matter". Keep the setup to about 30 seconds of the three minutes the practice box allows, since the reflection is what the question asks for.

Common mistakes

• Choosing your MCAT score or your GPA tells the panel that your proudest achievement is one they already have in front of them.
• Describing the achievement without the difficulty makes it sound easy, and an easy achievement can't be your greatest.
• Leaving out the other people involved makes the interviewer wonder whether you'll share credit on a clinical team.
• Answering "why does it matter" with "because it got me here" repeats the first half of the answer instead of adding to it.
• Choosing an accomplishment from early high school suggests you haven't done anything you're proud of since.

Follow-up questions to prepare for

• What did you have to give up to achieve that?
• Who helped you, and what did they do?
• What would you do differently if you were starting it again?
• Can you tell me about a goal you set out to achieve and didn't reach?
• Which of the qualities that got you there do you expect to need most in medical school?