3 PA School Interview Questions You Must Be Ready For

You'll hear the amount of information in PA school compared to "drinking from a firehose," and interviewers want to know you can keep up. The strongest answer reframes the question, because work you're passionate about doesn't carry the same weight.

Think of learning an instrument. People push through months of sore fingers happily because practicing a passion doesn't feel like a burden. Tell your interviewers the workload is something you welcome as part of practicing yours: you're an avid learner, you've handled rigorous loads before, and you know what you signed up for. That's confidence backed up with evidence.

This question separates applicants who applied broadly from applicants who chose deliberately. Before each interview, identify what actually distinguishes that program: some focus on rural medicine and recruiting local students, others emphasize research, mission work, or a particular curriculum structure.

Read the mission statement and curriculum page, then connect their distinctives to your goals in one or two concise sentences. A specific answer here shows fit AND preparation at the same time.

This one feels informal, but it has a serious purpose. Interviewers are checking for interpersonal skills, personality, and balance, which are the things that predict whether you'll survive 27 intense months and be a good classmate while doing it.

Give a real answer with a little texture (not just "reading and hanging out with friends"), and let yourself be likable. A program choosing between equally qualified candidates picks the person they'd want in the building every day.

Here are three rules from the interviewer's side of the table:

• Keep answers succinct, because rambling dilutes good content.

• Don't go off on tangents. Answer the question asked, then stop.

• Smile! Warmth registers as much as content.

And remember what the whole interview is really asking: with a room full of qualified candidates, why should they choose you? Choose responses that are unique to you, your stories and your specifics, because generic answers are indistinguishable from everyone else's.

Prepare these three and you've covered the question types that decide interviews: capability, fit, and personality. Then practice all three in a mock interview before the real thing. (Guest post by Jorge Muniz, PA-C. Find his illustrated medical education work at medcomic.com.)