Cleveland Clinic Lerner College Medicine Interview Questions

​Motivation and Insight into Medicine

• What policies from different healthcare systems would you combine to design a more effective system than the ones currently in place?
• What would a DNA molecule be like if you designed it?
• If you have a research budget of 5 million dollars, to what research and how would you spend it?
• Why did you decide to study medicine?
• What other schools did you apply to? And what were your criteria while applying?
• Why did you apply for Cleveland Clinic?
• Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
• What research project have you worked on?
• How are you going to deal with the limitations placed on your interactions with patients by the current US healthcare system?
• Do you think healthcare is a right?
• In your opinion, what problems will you encounter while pursuing medicine?
• What do you think about the current healthcare system in the US? What would you change?
• What was the most fun you have had in a lab?
• If you were the CEO of this hospital, how would you decide which is better for it: electronic medical histories or traditional audio-recorded histories?

Ethical Dilemmas

• How would you react if a colleague began to develop a drug addiction, but it had not impacted his work performance significantly?
• In your opinion, what is a major moral dilemma in medicine today?
• If your classmate was supposed to perform surgery, but he was hung-over so he asked you to sign him in, how would you respond?
• What do you know about passive euthanasia?

Scientific/Medical Topics

• In your opinion since cardiovascular disease leads to more deaths in this country than other causes, why is so little research funding devoted to it?

Communication Stations

• Have you ever had to look at things from another socioeconomic or cultural perspective?
• How would you communicate with a group member who thinks they were always right and would not stop talking?

Prioritisation Tasks

• How did you balance school and work?
• Describe a time when you asked for an extension on an assignment, and how did you manage it?
• How are you planning on managing your personal life as a physician?

Teamwork Tasks

• How would you manage teamwork like if someone is not participating in a PBL activity?
• How do you work in groups?

MMI Sales Pitch Station

• What weaknesses and strengths would you want me to inform the admission committee about you?

General / Personal Statements

• What do you like to do in your spare time?
• Would you describe to me a time when things did not seem to workout, no matter what you did?
• How do you deal with criticism?
• Who is your favorite author?
• Have you ever knowingly put yourself in an uncomfortable situation and how did you manage it?
• Describe a time someone disappointed you how you responded.
• Have you ever had to break the rule to get what you wanted?
• Who is your role model and why?
• Why did you to major in X in your undergrad?
• How do you find Cleveland so far?
• What has been an emotional demanding situation in your life and how did you deal with it?
• Which learning style works best for you?
• What was your favorite undergrad non-science course?
• What three things about you would you like to change?
• How would you define emotional maturity?
• Would you be able to handle the Midwest weather?