Prompt
What will you do if you are not accepted to medical school this year?
Practice this question
Try answering it yourself first. The answer guide is below.
After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Self-reflection and growth
- Professionalism and integrity
How to approach this question
This question tests whether your commitment to medicine is durable and whether you can respond to a setback with a plan. Say plainly that you'd be disappointed, then explain how you'd reflect on your application and seek feedback where it's offered. Describe concrete steps you'd take in the year ahead to strengthen the weakest parts of your application. Show that you'd keep doing work you value, rather than filling time to look good. Mention that you'd reapply if your reflection confirmed that medicine is right for you. Avoid sounding either indifferent or devastated, and don't name another career as a backup unless you mean it.
Answer guide
When an interviewer asks what you'll do if you don't get into medical school this year, show that you'd reflect honestly, find out where your application fell short, and use the year to grow before reapplying. The panel wants a steady, practical plan rather than a promise that you'll never give up.
What the interviewer is assessing
Many applicants aren't accepted in a given year, and plenty of physicians applied more than once. The interviewer is checking how you handle disappointment and whether your motivation for medicine survives it. They also want to see insight. An applicant who can name the likely gaps in their own application is more likely to close them. Finally, they're listening for whether you'd use the time well and keep contributing to the people and work around you.
How to structure your answer
- Acknowledge in one sentence that you'd be disappointed.
- Explain how you'd review your application, including asking for feedback if the schools offer it.
- Name the parts of your application you'd work on, and say how, such as a longer commitment to a community, a course, research or a job.
- Describe how you'd keep doing work you care about during the year.
- Say that you'd reapply with a stronger application if the year confirmed that medicine is right for you.
Feedback and reapplication policies differ across schools in both Canada and the US, so keep your answer general rather than describing any one school's process. Your plan for what you'll do if you don't get into medical school should sound like a year you'd value for its own sake.
Common mistakes
- Saying you'd switch to a different career right away suggests medicine isn't your priority.
- Saying you'd reapply with no changes suggests you don't see room to grow.
- Sounding as if a rejection would devastate you can worry the panel about how you'd handle setbacks in training.
- Blaming the admissions process for a hypothetical rejection comes across as defensive.
- Listing activities only because they'd look good on an application makes the plan sound hollow.
Example answer
Here is an example answer from a fictional applicant who studied nutritional sciences and works as a research assistant in a university lab.
I'd be disappointed, and I'd give myself a week or two to feel that. Then I'd start working out why.
First I'd look honestly at my application. I'd ask for feedback from any school that offers it. I'd also ask my research supervisor and a mentor who went through the process to read my file. My guess is that I'd hear my community work is thinner than my research. Most of my volunteering has been short-term, and I'd want to change that.
So in the year ahead I'd look for one long-term commitment. A community kitchen near me runs a cooking program for families who are new to the city, and I've already talked to them about volunteering every week. I'd also keep my job in the lab, because I enjoy it and the project I'm on runs another eighteen months.
If that year confirmed what I believe now, I'd reapply with a stronger application and a clearer sense of why. I'd want to come back to an interview like this one and be able to say what I'd learned in the year between.
More on personal qualities
All 15 questions on this topicMock interviews
If you want to practice with a person, we run mock MMI and panel interviews with feedback on every answer.
