The Best Medical School Interview Prep

By Jessica Freedman, M.D., Founder and President of MedEdits Medical Admissions. Former faculty member, admissions committee member, and associate residency director at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

By the time you receive a medical school interview invitation, you have already cleared every screen the admissions committee uses. Your grades, MCAT score, and letters of recommendation were strong enough to move you past the initial review. From that point forward, how you are perceived on interview day becomes the single most important factor in whether you are accepted. Your numbers will not carry you the rest of the way, and with the growing emphasis on personal qualities and characteristics, even outstanding credentials will not automatically translate into an acceptance. This is the part of the process where preparation, done the right way, changes outcomes.

I spent a decade in the interviewer's seat before I ever advised an applicant. As a faculty member at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, I served on the medical school admissions committee, worked in residency leadership as an associate residency director, and conducted hundreds of interviews. Since founding MedEdits in 2007, I have coached thousands of applicants through this exact moment. That combination of experience, from both inside and outside the process, as well as witnesses trends as they shape, influences everything about how we prepare applicants for their interviews. I know what interviewers are looking for, what happens behind the scenes after you leave the room, and how a candidate's success is influenced by the skill and experience of the person sitting across from them.

What the interview is really testing

Your transcript and MCAT score speak to your academic aptitude, so the interview is where the committee assesses everything else. Interviewers want to know whether you are genuinely committed to medicine and understand what practicing it involves, whether you are confident yet humble, whether you have the resilience to make it through medical school and residency, and whether you can recognize your own limitations. They are evaluating your maturity, your empathy and compassion, your communication and interpersonal skills, and whether what you say matches what you wrote in your application. They are also ruling out red flags or subtle aspects of your personality that could be concerning. Applicants often stumble when they try to say what they think an interviewer wants to hear instead of representing themselves honestly. The applicants who do best are the ones who can speak authentically about their path, and that ability is a skill you build through practice.

Why who you practice with matters more than how much

Interviewing well is a skill, and like any skill it improves with the right kind of practice. Doing mock interviews helps you become comfortable speaking openly about yourself with a stranger, and it surfaces the things you cannot see on your own. What does your body language say about you? What do your expressions convey? Are you projecting confidence without tipping into overconfidence, and do you come across as open, approachable, and professional? You will only know the answers to these questions once you have practiced and received honest feedback.

Here is what most applicants get wrong. They practice with friends and family, or with someone who has never evaluated an applicant, and they mistake encouragement for preparation. The people closest to you are rarely well suited to assess how you come across as an interviewee, and feedback from someone who has never sat on an admissions committee can only take you so far. Much of what is marketed as interview coaching in this field is delivered by recent graduates, current students, or professional coaches who have never had to make a decision about an applicant's future. That is not the same as sitting across from someone who has evaluated candidates from the committee side, written them up, and defended them to colleagues. The quality of your feedback depends entirely on the experience of the person giving it.

Every MedEdits mock interview is with a medical educator who has served on an admissions committee

At MedEdits, every faculty member who conducts a mock interview is a physician who has served on a medical school admissions committee for a minimum of two years. I hand select each one, and I do not make exceptions. You will not practice with a recent medical school graduate, a current medical student, or a coach who has never evaluated applicants. Our faculty have made pivotal decisions about applicants' fates, and they bring that perspective to your preparation. They know what a strong answer sounds like from the other side of the table, they recognize the habits that quietly undermine an otherwise excellent candidate, and they can tell you what an interviewer will take away from the way you told a particular story. This is the difference between practicing and preparing.

Practice with different faculty, not just one interviewer

You cannot control or predict who will interview you on interview day. You might sit across from an admissions dean, a clinical faculty member, a basic science researcher, or a medical student, and interviewers vary widely in style and experience. Some are warm and conversational, some are formal, and some ask an unexpected question simply to see how you think on your feet. Panel and group formats add other people to the room, and the multiple mini interview moves you through a series of stations, each with a different evaluator. Because you cannot know in advance who will be assessing you, the goal of preparation is to develop broad appeal and the flexibility to adapt to whoever walks in.

This is one of the features that sets MedEdits apart, and it is one I feel strongly about. We do not lock you into a single coach for every session. You can complete mock interviews with different faculty members across your preparation, each with a distinct background, style, and set of questions. Practicing with only one person teaches you to be comfortable with that one person, which is not the challenge you will face on interview day. Practicing with several teaches you to stay poised and authentic no matter who is across from you. Working with a range of our faculty also means you benefit from our collective experience at outstanding medical schools across the country, rather than the perspective of a single individual.

Preparation for every interview format

Most applicants will encounter more than one type of interview during a single application cycle, and each format rewards a slightly different kind of preparation. We prepare applicants for the traditional one-on-one interview in its open, closed, and partially closed file variations, as well as panel and group interviews. We prepare applicants for the multiple mini interview, including ethical and policy scenarios, acting and role playing stations, and collaboration tasks, using a structured approach our faculty developed for working through these prompts. We prepare applicants for the virtual interview, where presence and communication translate differently through a screen and small details of setup and delivery matter. And we prepare applicants for CASPer, which assesses your ability to navigate complex situations with empathy, professionalism, and sound judgment. Whatever combination of formats your schools use, your preparation is matched to it.

How our mock interviews work

Everything we do is individualized. Anything you have written in your application is fair game in an interview, so we prepare you within the context of your own experiences rather than handing you a generic script. We help you think through your path, identify the overarching themes in your background, and connect the dots between one experience and the next, because I am always surprised by how many strong applicants struggle to articulate their own story. We help you research and speak knowledgeably about the specific schools where you interview, since fit matters as much as strength. Above all, we make sure your preparation makes you more comfortable and more authentic rather than rehearsed. I strongly discourage applicants from memorizing answers, because sounding canned undermines the authenticity that interviewers are looking for. The purpose of practice is to let your best and truest self come through, not to replace it with a performance.

What to look for in an interview prep service

Interview coaching is not regulated, and the quality of what you receive varies enormously from one company to the next. Before you hire anyone, I encourage you to ask a few pointed questions, because the answers will tell you far more than any marketing page. Ask who will actually conduct your mock interview, and specifically whether that person has served on a medical school admissions committee rather than simply completed the process as an applicant. A recent graduate or a current student has been through interviews, but that is not the same as having evaluated candidates, written them up, and decided their fate. The person giving you feedback should have done the deciding.

Ask whether you are assigned a single coach for every session or whether you can practice with more than one interviewer, since you cannot predict who will interview you on interview day and practicing with only one person prepares you for only one person. Ask which formats the service actually covers, because a company that prepares you well for a traditional interview may have little real expertise in the multiple mini interview, the virtual interview, or CASPer. Ask whether your preparation will be built around your own application and experiences or whether you will be handed a generic script, because canned answers are easy to spot and they work against you. And ask who owns and runs the company and who selects and trains the people doing the coaching, because independence and accountability matter when your future is on the line. A company that offers polished editors or coaches but no one with genuine admissions committee experience cannot give you the insight that comes from having sat on the other side of the table.

If you are still weighing which company to work with more broadly, not just for interviews, I have written in detail about how to evaluate providers on our medical school admissions consulting page, and you can see how MedEdits compares with other firms in our admissions consulting comparison.

Why applicants and families choose MedEdits

MedEdits is physician founded and independently owned. I started the company in 2007 after years of advising and mentoring students and residents at Mount Sinai, and I still coordinate the work of every member of our team. Our faculty are experienced academic medical educators, all with admissions committee experience, and they stay current by attending the annual Association of American Medical Colleges meeting, reading the academic medicine literature, and meeting regularly to discuss applicants and trends. We believe you get what you pay for in this field, and that a company offering coaches without genuine medical admissions experience cannot provide the insight that comes from having sat on a committee. When you prepare with us, you are giving your candidacy your best possible shot with people who have done this from the inside.

Frequently asked questions

How many mock interviews should I do before my medical school interviews?

There is no single number that fits every applicant. The goal is to reach the point where you can speak openly and naturally about yourself without sounding rehearsed. For most applicants that means more than one session, and it often means practicing with more than one interviewer so you are comfortable adapting to different styles. We help you find the line between being underprepared and being over rehearsed, because both work against you on interview day.

Who conducts MedEdits mock interviews?

Every MedEdits mock interview is conducted by a medical educator who has served on a medical school admissions committee for a minimum of two years. I hand select each faculty member. You will not practice with a recent graduate, a current student, or a coach who has never evaluated applicants from the committee side.

Can I practice with different interviewers rather than the same person each time?

Yes, and this is one of the features that sets us apart. Because you cannot predict who will interview you on interview day, we let you complete mock interviews with different faculty members across your sessions. Practicing with several interviewers, each with a different style and background, builds the broad appeal and adaptability that real interview days require.

Do you prepare applicants for MMI, virtual, and CASPer as well as traditional interviews?

Yes. We prepare applicants for the traditional one-on-one interview, the multiple mini interview, the virtual interview, and CASPer. Our faculty are well versed in every format, including panel and group interviews, so your preparation matches the specific schools where you are interviewing.

Will you help me review my own application before the interview?

Yes. Anything you have written in your application can come up, so we prepare you within the context of your own experiences. We help you connect the dots in your background, speak articulately about each experience, and present yourself consistently with what the admissions committee reads in your file.