What Questions Should I Ask A Medical School?
Whether you are looking at what schools to apply to or questions to ask the medical school you are interviewing for, congrats! You’ve made it very far on this pre-med journey! Knowing what you are looking for in a school is a great starting point for when you are applying. Applying is $$ and you don’t want to just throw your application everywhere and hope it lands on your dream school. You need to do your research and find out why you would like to go there. Once you apply, now it is time to wait for interviews. Med schools will start sending out interviews from now until spring. Once you get an invitation, the ball is now in your court. On interview day, they are trying to convince you to come to their school. They will tell you all they have to offer. This is the only time you’ll get to see for yourself if this is the school for you which is a great time to ask lots of specific questions, so here’s a list: Academics The point of medical school is to prepare you to become the best doctor you can be. They are supposed to train you in all areas including but not limited to everything relating to the human body (symptoms, diagnoses, tests for abnormalities, etc.), and how to interact with patients (casual conversations, explaining diseases, being empathetic). They also tailor their curriculum to prepare you for taking your USMLEs which are national licensing exams that will accredit you as a practicing physician. It is very important to go to a school that has consistently high USMLE scores and rates of matching into residencies. You should know how well a medical school prepares their students (curriculum, test prep, clinical training, etc.)
What are your average Step/Comlex scores?
What test prep do you provide for step?
How does your school provide us for step i.e. study materials, outside resources, q-banks?
How much you have off for dedicated step studying?
What kind of curriculum style do you have?
What kind of clinical exposure do we get as first year?
You do not take your USMLE 1 exam until the second year of medical school so until then, how are you going to make sure you do well in school? It is one thing to ask about how they prepare you for USMLE, it is another to ask what is it like to learn on a day to day basis. A good medical school will have lots of academic counselors that are experts in studying techniques and getting you the help you need. They will also be very receptive to student feedback and will send out evaluation forms for each professor/block. These schools listen to students when we complain about scheduling problems and dense material to study and try their best to help us.
What kind of academic resources do you have i.e. tutoring sessions, practice questions?
How receptive are you of student feedback and what is the process for when a student needs to file a complaint?
What types of resources do you provide for us to excel in the coursework? (is there pass back of study material from previous classes)
Having physicians and professors means different style classes. Physicians usually like to teach clinical cases and base their lessons on what they see in real life. They have clinic as well so they are on a tighter schedule. On the other hand, professors have an academic background so they know how to structure slides, condense material, and are more readily available when you have questions.
Are your courses taught by physicians or PhDs?
How responsive are your professors to emails and questions?
How many professors do you have teaching one topic → multiple professors means multiple approaches to the same topic which could be confusing OR beneficial due to multiple POVs
Testing organization is very important for you to know how to study effectively. At my school, they tell us exactly how many questions are going to be on the test and how many questions of each lecture will be on it. So for example, a 1 hour lecture over a topic equates to 3 questions on the test (3 hours = 9 questions). Test taking is partly knowing the material but it is also planning what you think you will be tested on. Schools with a good and structured testing format really wants their students to focus on studying the material and making it fair.
How straight forward are your tests?
What is the structure of your test? Is it cumulative?
Do you have weekly quizzes to ensure material from past weeks are being retained?
How do you test anatomy practicals? Is it fill in the blank or multiple choice?
How are your dissections structured?
Atmosphere It is important you feel at home and connected with the school you are applying to. You will be staying there for the next 4 years of your life. Your class size is very small and so there is no escaping once you commit. Medicine is all about collaboration and helping one another. Knowledge should be passed back and forth, up and down throughout the entirety of the medical school. If you see that the people you are interviewing with are very competitive or hard to get along with, well you might see them around if you get in. When you interview, look around and see how the students are. Do they look like they are having a good time or do they look really depressed. You wouldn’t want to go to a school where everyone is for themselves and going into first year, make you feel like you’re alone and have no direction.
How collaborative are first and second years? Are there mentorships where I can get advice from upperclassmen
What are some things that show you support students outside of academics?
How would you describe your class in one word? (this question would be to an upperclassmen)
LifeNo one every delves deep into what is it like to go to medical school. You should ask these little details because you will have to deal with this on a day to day basis. You can tell the way upperclassmen answer these questions if they are comfortable having/not having these amenities/supplies. Some schools require you to pay for a lot of extra things but they won’t tell you unless you ask (stethoscopes, blood pressure cuff, anatomy tools, etc.) You also need to think “if I stay at school all day and forget to pack food, what is there for me to eat?”
What are some hidden costs that are not included in tuition?
In a week, tell me what your schedule is like as a first year?
Are there food places on campus that is convenient?
Does the library get congested? Is it a good place to study?
How’s the parking situation? Is there plenty of space or will I have to show up early to secure a spot?
Ask about the city → good social life? Hangout spots? Eating?
Do you have a gym?
Does your school come with a tech pack?
ResearchMany med schools are known specifically for their research. These schools look upon your undergraduate research heavily. You should look into these schools if you have a passion for doing research or possibly teaching in the future (PhD). Research is required for specialization in competitive fields such as dermatology and ophthalmology. I wouldn’t apply to these schools if you feel like research is not your thing.
Do you have any summer research program?
How do I find mentors?
What is the process of getting my research approved?
There are lots and lots of other questions you can ask, but I wanted to focus on the questions no one thinks about! I hope you guys the best of luck! Lub dub, Shanon