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How Will You Contribute to Diversity? Med School Interview
How to answer the diversity question in a medical school interview: what schools say they value, a three-part outline, mistakes and the underserved variant.
To answer "How will you contribute to diversity?" in a medical school interview, tell one specific experience or perspective, say what it taught you about people or care, and say what you would bring to your classmates and patients at that school. The question tests how you understand and work with people whose experiences differ from yours. Avoid listing an identity without a story, a generic "I'm open-minded" and saying you have nothing to add.
Some schools also ask a written version in the secondary application. This page is about the spoken answer, where the interviewer can follow up.
What the question tests
The AAMC's premed competencies for entering medical students describe the skills behind it. In 2026 “the AAMC updated the titles and definitions” of two of them, so the names are new. “Understanding Others” (formerly Cultural Awareness) means the applicant “Understands that people's experiences and backgrounds influence their behaviors and interactions” and “demonstrates curiosity about how others see and make sense of the world”. “Self-Awareness” (formerly Cultural Humility) includes someone who “helps create an environment where all individuals feel respected and able to contribute”. “Service Orientation” adds “a commitment to making meaningful contributions that meet the needs of communities”, and “Interpersonal Skills” covers how you treat people in the room. See all the AAMC competencies.
Schools read "diversity" broadly. Boston University says the word “can include geographic factors, socioeconomic status, disability, educational and childhood experiences, immigration experiences and cultural and religious traditions”. University pre-health advising lists group these under a heading like Montevallo's “Questions about Diversity”, next to the other common medical school interview questions.
What five schools say they value
Each school's own admissions or mission page, read October 20, 2026. Read your school's version before the interview, since the third part of your answer should fit it.
| School | Its own page says |
|---|---|
| Dell (UT Austin)MD | “A broad range of such experiences will create a valuable variety of perspectives.” Source |
| Boston UniversityMD | “applicants who have experiences beyond what is typical for medical school applicants bring a particular value to their class and to their patients” Source |
| Frist (Belmont)MD | “These unique experiences help build a class of students who can learn with and about each other.” Source |
| ATSU-SOMADO | “Guided by our mission to serve underserved populations” Source |
| Campbell (CUSOM)DO | “To recruit a diverse student body who have a desire to serve a rural and underserved population.” Source |
A three-part answer
- One specific experience or perspective. Where you grew up, a language you speak, a job, caregiving, military service, being the first in your family in college or a community you served. Pick one and tell it as a short scene with a time and a place.
- What it taught you about people or care. The insight, in a sentence or two. How it changed the way you listen, explain things or notice what someone needs.
- What you would bring to classmates and patients. Concrete, at this school. A small-group discussion, a student-run clinic, an outreach program or the patients the school serves. Tie it to the school's own mission in one line.
A strong answer spends one sentence on the background and most of its time on one story and what it changed in how you work with people.
The same story can serve Tell me about yourself and Why our school?, so check that your three answers don't repeat each other word for word.
Mistakes to avoid
Most weak answers fall into one of six patterns.
Listing identity without a story
Naming a background or a group and stopping there. The interviewer learns a fact but not what you did with it, what you learned or what it means for your classmates and patients.
A generic "I'm open-minded"
Open-minded, accepting and a good listener are claims anyone can make. One example where you changed your view or bridged a gap shows it instead.
Saying you have nothing to add
Every applicant has experiences that shape how they work with people. Schools read the word broadly, so look at your jobs, family, hometown, languages, service and education before deciding you have none.
Speaking for a whole group
Tell your own experience as yours. Describing a whole community as if one story covers it can come across as a generalization.
Forgetting the patient half
Answers often stop at classmates. Add one line on how the experience will shape the way you care for patients.
Reciting the mission statement
Quoting the school's page back is not an answer. Link one thing the school does to your own experience in a sentence.
Other ways they ask it
Montevallo's list includes “What exposure to other cultures have you had?”, “What experience have you had with minority, disadvantaged, or marginalized populations?” and “What special qualities or unique characteristics set you apart from other medical school candidates?” The same three parts work for each.
What would you add to our class?
The same question, with less emphasis on background. Keep the three parts and make the third one about the class itself.
What exposure to other cultures have you had?
Pick one sustained experience over a list of trips, and say what you learned about working with people who see things differently.
What experience have you had with minority, disadvantaged, or marginalized populations?
Name the setting and your role, then what you noticed about access to care and what you would do with it as a physician.
What special qualities or unique characteristics set you apart from other medical school candidates?
Closer to a strengths question. One quality, one example, and what it would let you contribute.
Tell me about a time you worked with someone very different from you.
A behavioral version. Tell the story in order: the situation, what you did, how it turned out and what you would keep doing.
The underserved communities version
Schools whose mission centers on underserved or rural care often ask how you would serve those patients instead. ATSU-SOMA describes the underserved as including “those with distance, cultural, language or insurance barriers”, and Campbell's goals mention students with a desire to serve a rural and underserved population.
Here the first part is service, not background: what you have done for a community and for how long. The second is what you learned about barriers to care. The third is how you would keep serving at that school, linked to its own programs. This is where “Service Orientation” shows most.
Sources: AAMC, The Premed Competencies for Entering Medical Students, the admissions or mission pages of Dell Medical School, Boston University, Belmont's Frist College of Medicine, ATSU-SOMA and Campbell University, and the University of Montevallo interview question list. All checked October 20, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What if I don't think I add diversity?
Schools tend to read the word broadly. Boston University, for example, lists geographic, socioeconomic, educational, immigration, cultural and religious experiences among others. Pick one experience that shaped how you work with people and build the three parts around it.
Do you have to talk about race or ethnicity?
No. Share the parts of your background you choose to and nothing you are not comfortable discussing. Whatever you share, the interviewer is listening for what the experience taught you and how you would work with classmates and patients.
Is this the same as the diversity secondary essay?
It covers similar ground, but this page is about the spoken answer. Your interviewer may have read your essay, so use it as a starting point and bring a new detail or example rather than reciting it.
How long should my answer be?
Long enough for one story and what it means, and short enough to leave room for follow-ups. Rehearse it out loud and time it. See how long interview answers usually run.
How is the underserved communities question different?
It asks about service rather than background. Answer with what you have done for a community, what you learned about barriers to care and how you would keep serving, ideally linked to the school's own mission.