Vanderbilt University School of Medicine has an acceptance rate of 5.2%, with an average GPA of enrolled students at Vanderbilt being 3.8, and the average MCAT score of enrolled students being 520. 550 applicants are interviewed each year, with 250 being offered admission, for a total of 96 seats in a given academic year.
Candidates at Vanderbilt are invited to two separate interviews, one long and one short, each being with different faculty members. Before your interview you will be matched with your interviewers and given either a morning or afternoon session. Sessions will last for around six hours in total, consisting of welcome lectures, a lunch break, student experience session and the interviews themselves. Both interviews are conducted by Vanderbilt professors – the short interview will last for 30 minutes, and is ‘closed file.’ The longer interview is one hour, and the interviewer will have access to your entire application.
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The earliest date for submission to the AMCAS is May 27th, with the earliest date for interview being July 30th. The first batch of admission offers are communicated in mid December, with the second in late February.
Motivation and Insight into Medicine
Did you have any shadowing/volunteering experiences to make sure that this (becoming a doctor) is something that you want to do?
What sets Vanderbilt’s Medicine program apart from those of the other schools that you have applied to?
What are you looking for in a medical school?
What do you think you will change about yourself when you come to medical school?
Before entering medicine, what do you see as the pros and cons?
How would you fix the problem of chronic disease in America?
What do you think about the US healthcare system?
Do you have any idea what type of medicine you’d like to go into?
Why not pursue a PhD?
Where do you see yourself after graduating medical school?
What do you think of the current health care reform proposals?
If you could choose one social cause to take up, what would it be?
What have you done clinically?
Discuss the differences between the healthcare systems of the US and the country where you grew up.
Do you see yourself more likely to do basic science or clinical research?
Where do you see healthcare headed?
Why did you stop your basic science research? Did it lead to any publications?
Why do you want to be a doctor?
What role will your faith play when you practice medicine?
What do you plan on doing with medicine?
What community service activity had the most impact on you?
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Ethical Dilemmas
Do patients that make poor lifestyle choices deserve to get one of the limited number of organs available for transplantation?
Teamwork Tasks
Tell me about a leadership activity that you have undertaken.
Sales Pitch Station
What would you contribute to Vanderbilt? Why should we choose you over thousands of other applicants?
Is there anything else about you that I should tell the admissions committee?
Why should we pick you over the other 5,000 qualified applicants?
General / Personal Statements
Describe a book, movie, etc that has changed the way you view or approach the world.
Tell me about a time when you disagreed with authority.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years (career wise)?
Can you give me an example of a time you failed?
Is there anything that you wish that you could redo or do more?
Give an example of a time you gave someone the benefit of the doubt and were glad you did.
Tell me about your childhood.
What do you think you will add to Vandy Med?
Tell me about you growing up and your family.
Can you tell me about a difficult personal situation and how you handled it?
Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone into doing something that was not popular.
If you could address any issue, anywhere in the world, what would it be?
Tell me about a difficult situation and how you handled it.
What one accomplishment are you most proud of?
Why should we accept you?
Tell me about your weaknesses.
Tell me about your background/personal history.
Give an example of a time that you changed your position on a topic, and why.
Discuss a type of pain that isn’t physical and your experience with or surrounding it.
Tell me 3 words that your friends would use to describe you.
