Academic interviewing is generally broken out into three types. This does not necessarily mean you will engage in all three in every interview, but being aware of and preparing for all three is valuable. 

Conference/Convention/Meeting Interviews 

Generally these short (1/2 hour) interviews are vetting opportunities for faculty to choose candidates to advance to on campus interviews.  Several faculty usually participate with an emphasis placed on one or more faculty in your discipline/sub discipline. Participating in conference interviews can be tiring for you and faculty so take breaks, bring good energy to each interview, and remember you and they are assessing your fit for their department and institution. Typical questions in the conference interview may include:

• Tell us about your dissertation
• What do you want to teach?
• Where direction do you expect your work to take?
• Do you have questions for us?

The AMCAS application is the primary application for the vast majority of allopathic (MD) medical schools. The  AMCAS application usually opens in early May.  While you will not be able to submit your AMCAS application until early June, you may begin filling out the information in the required sections as soon as the application goes live.

Applying to medical school is an expensive endeavor.  The most significant expenses will include:

If you have a disability (as defined by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act) you may be qualified to study medicine with the use of reasonable accommodation.  Be sure to familiarize yourself with:

The biggest advantage of applying through and Early Decision Program (EDP) is that you will not have to go through the somewhat agonizing yearlong process of waiting to hear from multiple medical schools since you are guaranteed to learn the outcome of  your application by October 1.  Nor will  you have to incur in the high cost of applying to and interviewing at several schools, paying multiple deposits, etc.  However, the biggest drawback is that as an EDP candidate, you may apply to only one medical school (AMCAS or non-AMCAS participating, or AACOMAS) and cannot apply t

It is important that you understand how the MCAT is structured and scored, how often it is administered, and how it is used in the admissions process to make sound decisions around it.  We highly recommend you read the MCAT Essentials to familiarize yourself with registration modalities, test-day policies,  post-test procedures, and more.

In the U.S., you can become a physician either by pursuing your medical education at an allopathic  (MD) or an osteopathic school (DO).    In any given year, University of Michigan consistently ranks among the top three universities in the nation for the highest number of graduates matriculating into allopathic and osteopathic medical schools.  See Medical School Application Statistics for UM graduates.  You owe it to yourself to understand both training options when deciding where to apply.  Many students apply to both MD and DO schools.

If you wish to combine your call for medicine with  your strong interest in research, you may elect to pursue both an MD (or DO) and a PhD.   Combined MD/DO-PhD programs offer intensive training in the biomedical sciences and are designed for those interested in joining academic faculties in varied and often multiple capacities as researchers, clinicians and educators.

Define your goals

Why are you doing an internship and what is important to you about the outcome? Do you want to work in a big city? Small company? One of many interns or the first one ever? Considering not just the industry you want to work in but the type of experience you are looking for is important in helping you weed through so many opportunities. And chances are, the more you know about both what you want to do, and how you want to do it, the better prepared you'll be when a company asks you that question in an interview!

Job searching is both an exciting and stressful process further complicated when you and your partner are both in academe. Dual career couple issues are common in academia and in fact most institutions have a variety of support services to aid dual career couples.