Interview Day
Interview days provide an opportunity to interact with current students, the Admissions team, and interviewers. Activities include a timed MMI and presentations about the curriculum, research, and facilities.
All interviewees should plan to reserve time from 7:45 a.m. until approximately 3:30 p.m. (EST) on their scheduled interview day.
A welcome event is held the night before interviews for all interviewing students. This event gives interviewees the opportunity to meet with admissions staff and current Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine students.
Multiple Mini-Interview Process
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine uses the Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) process. Applicants rotate through scenario interview stations and one traditional interview station. No prior medical knowledge is required for the MMI.
During the MMI process, interviewers evaluate applicants within the context of their respective scenario to determine the interviewees’ potential to develop into culturally competent, effective physicians.
Applicants move through a series of scenario questions designed to evaluate behavioral competencies such as communication, ethical and moral judgment, problem-solving, and responsibility. The MMI process assesses the ability to function in team settings, an important skill for the school’s small-group learning curriculum.
To learn more about the Multiple Mini-Interview, watch our video.
Welcome to the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, a research intensive allopathic medical school with a patient-centered problem based curriculum. We use the multiple mini interview process. It's a busy fun interactive process. Here's what you can expect.
Our interview weekend actually begins with the reception Friday night at a hotel adjacent to our medical school campus. Applicants are greeted by staff from our admissions department and then are allowed to mingle and enjoy a casual dinner with some of our current medical students. It gives our applicants the opportunity to ask the types of questions they might not want to talk to an admission staff about - like where do you current students live? What kinds of things do they do for fun when they have free time? Are they really getting to get involved clinically? They need to find a place where they're not just gonna survive, but they're gonna thrive for four years. We don't think there's a better way of showcasing what truly makes us strong than giving our applicants an opportunity to speak with our current students.
The actual interviews take place on Saturday. We use the multiple mini interview or MMI process at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and it's an opportunity to assess some behavioral competencies that we think are really important for being an effective physician. We run scenario stations where applicants walk up to the door, have two minutes to read a prompt, then hear a bell, walk in, and discuss the scenario answer or discussion, and then hear another bell, at which time they move on to read the next prompt in the lineup.
These are opportunities for our applicants to talk about how they work in teams, give examples of their conflict resolution and maybe just explain their own personal moral compass. Our MMI interviewers are faculty, physicians, members of the community with a vested interest in our medical school. One of the real strengths of our school is that it is so enthusiastically supported by our community. I truly feel that community members want to have a part in selecting which students come and matriculate here.
We also have a traditional interview. That is a period of time that our applicants get to speak with a voting member of the admissions committee. Those are people who have read their application from beginning to end and it's a more traditional interview in the sense that they ask questions about the application and really try to get a sense of whether or not the applicant is ready for medical school.
We're hoping to see that the very very smart accomplished applicants that we know we're interviewing on the basis of their written application also have great interpersonal skills and a real enthusiasm for the fact that we're a research-intensive patient-centered problem-based learning curriculum.
Our interview day is half interviews and half a really immersion experience of what it's like to live in Roanoke and to be a student at our school. We provide the students with an overview of what each year of medical school looks like - especially those first two years when they're learning their basic science.
This really gives them a chance to see how they'll learn from each other and make sure that that's something that they feel comfortable with going into their medical education.
Also during the tour the students get to meet with the founding executive director of the Research Institute. He gives them some information about what the research curriculum is like and gives them a very good look at the opportunities that are available for them to do basic, translational, and clinical research.
Our medical school tour is actually given by current medical students. We think that is a great way for our applicants to see which spaces are really used by our medical students and get to hear about the curriculum straight from the horse's mouth so to speak.
We do a brief tour by bus of the downtown area in Roanoke to give our applicants an idea of not just how close everything is to our medical school campus, but also what's out there for them.
We think the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Roanoke are great places to thrive, not just survive. If your passion is problem-based learning a research-intensive curriculum and truly exceptional clinical experiences, then look no further than Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
Who Should I Contact If I Have Additional Questions?
Contact Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Admissions with any questions.
