So you’ve received an interview invitation from an osteopathic medical school. Congratulations! This is a big accomplishment. Now you need to get ready for the next step, which is the interview.
We’ve put together a complete guide to help you ace your osteopathic interview that includes tips from two top sources: InterviewPrep and Cracking Med School Admissions. This guide goes over the most common osteopathic interview questions and gives you tips and examples to help you come up with great answers.
Why Choose Osteopathic Medicine?
This is a crucial question that requires you to articulate your passion for osteopathy and how it aligns with your career aspirations, Here’s how to structure your response
1, Context and Initial Interest
- Share your initial exposure to osteopathic medicine, whether through personal experiences, role models, or specific events.
- Explain how these experiences sparked your interest in osteopathy and shaped your desire to pursue this path.
2. Reasons for Choosing Osteopathic Medicine:
- Highlight your specific interest in osteopathic principles and philosophy, such as the interconnectedness of the body and the emphasis on holistic care.
- Explain how the osteopathic approach aligns with your personal values and how you envision yourself utilizing it in your future practice.
- Express your enthusiasm for the unique training in osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) and its potential to enhance patient care.
3 Examples of Your Experience and Activities
- Showcase your commitment to osteopathic medicine by sharing relevant experiences like shadowing an osteopathic physician, witnessing OMM in action, or participating in research related to osteopathy.
- Demonstrate your dedication to helping others by sharing stories of volunteering, community service, or leadership roles that align with your osteopathic aspirations.
4. Preference for Osteopathic Medicine over Other Professions
- Emphasize your desire for a career that involves continuous learning and professional growth, aligning with the evolving nature of osteopathic medicine.
- Express your interest in understanding the rationale behind medical decisions and the desire to engage in a field that offers a deeper understanding of patient care.
- Explore specific areas of medicine within osteopathy that pique your interest and explain how they align with your long-term goals.
5. Future Aspirations as an Osteopathic Doctor:
- Share your vision for your future as an osteopathic physician, outlining your goals and ambitions.
- Explain how you plan to utilize your skills and knowledge to contribute to the osteopathic community and advance the field.
- Describe specific steps you intend to take during your medical school journey to achieve your aspirations.
Bonus Tip: Cracking Med School Admissions offers a FREE Interview Guide that will help you prepare for your osteopathic interview with more information and tools.
Additional Common Osteopathic Interview Questions:
1. Have you applied to MD programs?
- Be prepared to discuss your reasons for applying to both MD and DO programs, highlighting the unique aspects of each that attract you.
- Avoid criticizing allopathic medicine and show respect for both professions.
- Focus on the specific reasons why you are drawn to the osteopathic program you are interviewing for, emphasizing its unique opportunities and resources.
2. Why did you apply to this school?
- Demonstrate your thorough research by highlighting specific aspects of the school’s curriculum, faculty, and opportunities that resonate with your interests and career goals.
- Explain how you plan to take advantage of the school’s resources and contribute to its vibrant community.
3. Tell us about your experience shadowing an osteopathic doctor.
- Share your observations and insights gained from shadowing an osteopathic physician, focusing on the osteopathic philosophy and the application of OMM in patient care.
- Ask thoughtful questions about the physician’s experiences and insights into the field of osteopathic medicine.
4. How would you deal with criticism of osteopathic medicine?
- Acknowledge the existence of anti-DO bias and demonstrate your understanding of the challenges faced by osteopathic physicians.
- Discuss strategies for combating misinformation and promoting the value of osteopathic medicine, such as engaging in social media campaigns, community education initiatives, or research projects.
- Highlight the increasing recognition of osteopathic medicine and the growing presence of DOs in various healthcare settings.
Remember:
- Be confident, articulate, and passionate in your responses.
- Use storytelling and personal anecdotes to illustrate your points and make a lasting impression.
- Practice your answers beforehand to ensure fluency and clarity.
By following these tips and tailoring your responses to your unique experiences and aspirations, you can confidently navigate your osteopathic interview and increase your chances of success.
List of DO Medical School Interview Formats
One of the first things you should do to get ready for a medical school interview is to make sure you know how it will be set up. Below is the list of all 37 osteopathic medical schools and their interview formats. It is important to check with the schools you are interested in about how the interviews are set up, as this information is often updated to fit the current admissions cycle.
To find out how long to prepare for a medical school interview and what skills you will be asked to show, you need to know the interview format. You will also need to know the interview format for any mock medical school interviews you want to do. If you have an MMI interview or a regular interview that includes MMI stations, you should get ready for the way it is set up. Make sure to practice with different station types, such as acting stations, writing stations, and collaborative stations. It’s important to think about how you will answer ethical questions in a medical school interview, as these questions are becoming more and more common. No matter how your interview is set up, make sure you practice it in a real-life setting before the real one.
To be safe, don’t apply to DO schools just in case. The admissions committees will be able to tell if you aren’t really interested in becoming a DO. This doesn’t mean you have to lie and say you’ve always wanted to be a DO doctor and have dreamed of this since you were a child. But you are expected to demonstrate a conscious and willing decision to become a DO. If the interviewers see that you don’t care about osteopathic philosophy or don’t know what its main ideas are, then you probably won’t get into this school. You do not have to recite the philosophical mission of osteopathic medicine to make a great impression. There is only one thing you need to show: you chose to become an osteopath and practice medicine. During your interview, show the admissions committee what made them decide to accept you. This could include volunteer or shadowing work, interactions with patients, or activities outside of medicine.
An osteopathic medical school interview is not much different from an MD interview. Prepare for medical school interviews by doing fake ones, and bring a range of experiences that show how much you want to learn about medicine, especially osteopathic medicine.
Are you getting ready for your interview? Here is an example of an MMI interview led by one of our expert admissions consultants:
Sample Question #1: Why Do You Want to Be a DO Doctor?
Be ready for this question. It can be phrased in dozens of different ways, but it will certainly come up in your interview. You are inevitably going to be asked why you want to pursue osteopathic medicine specifically. Remember that when you answer common medical school interview questions like “Tell me about yourself,” you can also talk about experiences and reasons that led you to the DO school interview. But when you answer “why you want to be an osteopath,” you need to be very clear about why you want to be an osteopath instead of an MD or another medical professional.
Not being able to give a convincing answer can only hurt your chances for acceptance. Keep in mind that admissions officers hear a lot of answers to this question during the application process, so make sure yours stands out. Follow the structure below to formulate your answer:
Be sure to use the “show, don’t tell” strategy for your answer. The more vivid and illustrative your answer is, the better. If you want to stand out from other applicants, make sure you have a great answer ready for this question. Now let’s have a look at a sample answer.
“Everything in my life changed on March 21, 20XX, when my little brother was diagnosed with leukemia. I was 15 years old and had just moved to the United States as an international student. At the same time, I was hearing that my brother was sick. During my first four months at X High School, I went to class and got used to my new surroundings. On the weekends, I went back to Mexico to spend time with my family and slept in a hospital chair next to my brother, who was going through a tough treatment that his little body could barely handle. Seeing the treatment ravage his body, I questioned if medicine would ever be a correct path for me. A few weeks passed, and I started to see the benefits of treatment. It was a riveting and exciting sight. I now appreciated the possibilities of medical care. A group of doctors came up with a treatment plan that saved my brother’s life, and my family will always be grateful for this. With this experience came my first interest and passion for medicine.
But after his stay at the hospital, my brother was hardly recognizable. He didn’t look like the person he used to be, and it took longer for him to get better after the treatment than it did during the chemotherapy. My parents were struggling to find help to get my brother back on his feet. This made me wonder if we can improve the way we treat people so that the rest of the body can get better while the treatment is working.
As years passed, this experience stayed with my family. When I started college in New York, I started going to X Children’s Hospital once a week. I was moved by the kids and moved by them. These two things worked together to help me grow as a pre-med student and future doctor. I learned how to use my experience with oncology in a clinical setting. Before I applied to medical school, I knew I wanted to gain important skills and try out a career in medicine in a clinical setting. That’s why I slowly started to get more involved at X Children’s Hospital. Because I liked working with patients and coworkers, I decided to go after the chance to become a medical scribe. Within a few days of graduation, I accepted the scribe position for an esteemed DO physician, Dr. Y, at X Children’s Hospital.
On my first day on the job, I was writing down notes from a visit with a young boy who had just learned that his leukemia had gone away completely. That day, I felt the same way I did when we heard that my brother’s cancer had gone away: relief and hope. I spent the entire visit observing Dr. Y and his actions, from explaining further treatment options to steps to full recovery. His care for the boy and his family and his kind, patient-centered approach made me even more sure that I wanted to become an osteopathic doctor.
This boy’s story greatly reminded me of my brother’s struggle to return to normal life. We come from an underprivileged background where post-treatment was not an option. My family struggled to find help as my brother returned to his normal self. My experience with Dr. Y demonstrated that for a physician, a patient interaction can be more than a one-off event. It is an ongoing relationship that helps the patient keep up healthy habits, avoid getting sick again, and have someone they can talk to if they need medical help. When I become a doctor, I hope to be that person for my patients—a trustworthy and caring professional who can help them live the healthiest lives possible. I know about both paths in medicine, and I would be happy to go down either one to reach my medical goals. However, I think osteopathy is the future of medicine and patient-centered care. ”.
Are you wondering what DO actually stands for? Check out this video:
73 Questions with an Osteopathic (D.O.) Medical Student | ND MD
FAQ
Why osteopathy interview question?
Why DO you want to become an osteopathic physician?
What are osteopathic medical school interview questions?
Osteopathic medical school interview questions are an opportunity for you to highlight your specific interests and goals in medicine. Moreover, interviewers will use the process to determine whether you have a sufficient understanding of the DO philosophy and if you have the ideal qualities of an osteopathic physician.
How do I prepare for an osteopathic medical school interview?
You’ll likely be asked osteopathic medical school interview questions by more than one person. Make sure you practice answers to enough questions so that you aren’t stuck at any point. At the end of all the questions they’ve prepared for you, the interviewer will ask if you have anything to ask them.
What questions should I ask a student about osteopathy?
Your questions could center around their experiences in osteopathic medicine, what they like best about the particular school, challenges they might have faced in osteopathy, etc. to find out how we can help you get accepted.
How many top applicants are interviewed for Osteopathic Medicine?
But both types of schools interview only a small percentage of top applicants. For instance, Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine only interviewed 15% of applicants for the Class of 2023, while Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine invited 12%.
