Prompt
Why do you want to attend our school?
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
- Critical thinking
How to approach this question
This question tests whether you've done real research on the school and can connect what it offers to what you've already done. Name two or three features of the program, such as its curriculum, its community partnerships, its location or its student initiatives, and link each one to an experience on your application. Show that you understand who the school serves and the communities its graduates tend to work in. Avoid praise that would fit any school, like its reputation or its excellent faculty. Mention a conversation with a current student or a detail from interview day if you have one. Finish with what you would contribute to the class.
Answer guide
A good answer to the "why this medical school" interview question names two or three specific features of the program and explains how each one connects to your own experience and goals. Interviewers reward research and honest fit, and they notice flattery quickly.
What the interviewer is assessing
Schools want students who will thrive in their particular setting and who chose them for real reasons. The interviewer is checking whether you understand the school's mission, the community it serves and how it teaches. They also want to know whether you'll be an engaged member of the class. Some schools focus strongly on rural communities, underserved populations, research or a particular teaching style, and they look for applicants whose experiences match. Interviewers can tell when an applicant has read only the homepage.
How to structure your answer
- Before the interview, read the school's mission statement, curriculum overview and student organization pages, and note the features that genuinely appeal to you.
- Pick two or three features and connect each one to a specific experience you've had.
- Say what you would contribute, such as a skill, a perspective or a commitment to continue work you've started.
- Keep it to about 90 seconds, and speak about the school with interest rather than flattery.
If you answered a version of this question in a written supplementary or secondary application, keep your interview answer consistent with what you wrote. The why this medical school interview question often comes back in a different form later in the conversation, so make sure your reasons are ones you can expand on.
Common mistakes
- Praising the school's ranking or reputation tells the interviewer what everybody already knows.
- Naming features without connecting them to your own experience makes the answer sound copied from the website.
- Saying the school is close to your family can be true, but it shouldn't be your main reason.
- Getting a fact about the program wrong suggests you didn't prepare, so check every detail you plan to mention.
- Giving the same answer at every school is easy to spot, because the features you name won't quite fit.
Example answer
Here is an example answer from a fictional applicant who grew up in a small farming town and studied agricultural science. The program details are invented for illustration, so use the real features of the school you're interviewing at.
Three parts of this program stand out to me.
The first is the long placement in a smaller community during third year. I grew up in a town of about 4,000 people, where the nearest family physician also covered the hospital's emergency department two nights a week. I want to train somewhere that treats that kind of practice as a destination, and the placement tells me this school does.
The second is the small-group learning in the first two years. During my degree, I learned the most in a soil science seminar of eight students, where we had to explain our reasoning to each other. I do better when I have to teach what I'm learning, and that's how these groups work.
The third came from the student I spoke with this morning. She described the student-run program that brings health information sessions to farm workers during harvest season. I spent four summers working harvests, and I'd like to help run that program.
I'd also bring that background to the class. Much of what I know about rural life comes from living it, and I think that would be useful to classmates who haven't.
How real applicants answered it
“I’d tell a student to find one concrete reason per school before interview day, and to make sure it couldn’t be said about the school down the street.”
Read how five applicants prepared for their medical school interviews
More on motivation for medicine
All 13 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.
