The BU med school interview format

The Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine interview is a virtual one-on-one with a faculty member. BU's MD requirements page says it plainly: "Interviews are by invitation only and are held virtually with a randomly assigned faculty member." It isn't an MMI, and BU doesn't describe a panel or scenario stations anywhere on its MD admissions pages.

The same page adds one more required piece: "All applicants invited to interview are also required to attend a remote information session with Dr. Hanssen and students." Kristen Hanssen, MD, is BU's associate dean of admissions. So there are two required pieces: the faculty interview and a remote session with the dean and current students. BU doesn't say whether they fall on the same day, so check your invitation.

BU doesn't publish how long the interview lasts, whether your interviewer has read your file, or how many questions you'll get. Go by your invitation for timing, and prepare as if the interviewer knows your application well. Being ready to talk about anything you wrote costs you nothing if they turn out not to have read it.

When BU interviews and the dates around them

These come from BU's deadlines page for the class entering in 2027 (the 2026-27 application cycle):

Step	Date
AMCAS application opens	May 1, 2026
Latest MCAT test date accepted	September 13, 2026
Latest Casper test date accepted	October 28, 2026
AMCAS deadline	November 1, 2026
Secondary application deadline	December 1, 2026
Interviews (by invitation)	Mid-September 2026 to early February 2027
Earliest acceptances	Late December 2026
White Coat Ceremony	August 2, 2027

The requirements page gives a slightly different window for interviews ("select days mid-September through mid-February"), so treat early to mid-February as the tail of the season. BU says it doesn't prescreen primary applications and sends its supplemental application to everyone who selects BU on AMCAS. It also recommends applying early.

Casper is required at BU

BU requires Casper, and you have to take it in the same cycle you apply. The requirements page says "You must retake the CASPER test for each application cycle," and that the Snapshot and Duet sections aren't required. For this cycle the deadlines page lists October 28, 2026, as the latest Casper date BU accepts. (The requirements page still carries an older line about an October 2024 date for the 2025 cycle. Use the deadlines page.)

Interviews start in mid-September, well before that Casper cutoff, so taking it early keeps your file complete while invitations are going out. If you haven't taken it yet, our Casper practice questions are a good place to start.

What BU says it's looking for

BU lists the interview as one of six things its committee reviews, alongside your academic record, experiences, life history, letters and essays. Its selection factors page has the sentence that matters most for interview prep: "We want to know your motivations for a career in medicine and to understand how you've grown and get a feel for what you have dedicated to the pursuit of your passions."

Read that as three things you need clear answers for: why medicine, how you've changed, and what you've put sustained effort into. The admissions committee's stated mission is to select students who will "excel academically, engage vigorously in the life of our campus, enhance the diversity of our school community and contribute generously to our society in the care of patients, in the conduct of medical research and in the advancement of the public's health." Care, research and public health are all named, so it's fine if your strongest story is a research one.

The clinical setting is also worth knowing for "why BU." BU's clinical affiliations page says Boston Medical Center is the school's primary teaching affiliate, a "650-bed safety net hospital, the largest in New England," and that the school is affiliated with 21 hospitals in total. If you want to train in a safety-net hospital, say why, using something you've actually done, such as working with uninsured patients or in a community clinic. Naming BMC without a reason doesn't help.

For scale, BU's application process page reports 11,484 MD and MD/PhD applicants and 342 admitted, about 3 in 100. The page doesn't say which cycle those numbers are from.

BU interview questions to practice (written by us, not BU)

BU doesn't publish its interview questions. We wrote these to match what the selection factors page says the committee wants to learn. Use them for practice. They aren't a leak.

Motivation

Why medicine? When did that answer stop being a guess?
What's one thing about being a physician you're not looking forward to?
Why BU, and why Boston?

Growth

How are you different now from when you started college?
Tell me about a time you were wrong about a person or a situation.
What's the most useful criticism you've received?

What you've dedicated yourself to

Which activity on your application took the most of you, and why did you keep going?
Tell me about something you started that didn't work.
If you had a free year before medical school, what would you do with it?

BU's setting

What do you think is different about training in a safety-net hospital?
Tell me about a time you worked with someone whose background was very different from yours.

For a longer general list, see our medical school interview questions.

A prep plan for a one-on-one faculty interview

One interviewer means one long conversation with follow-ups. That rewards depth more than polish. This plan assumes about two weeks between your invitation and interview day.

When	What to do
Days 1–2	Reread your AMCAS application and BU secondary. For every activity, write one sentence on what you did and one on what it changed. Anything you can't explain in two sentences needs work.
Days 3–5	Pick six stories. Map them to BU's three themes: motivation, growth, dedication. Each theme needs at least two stories so you don't repeat yourself.
Days 6–9	Answer questions 1–11 aloud with a two-minute timer. Re-record anything that runs long. Most first drafts spend too long on setup.
Days 10–12	Have a partner ask a follow-up after every answer, such as "why?" or "what would you do differently?" Do two rounds of follow-ups per question.
Day 13	One full mock interview over video from the room you'll use, with your camera, lighting and audio set up as they'll be on the day.
Day 14	Light review only. Write two questions you'd like to ask students in the information session.

Here's a fictional example of the follow-up step. An applicant answers question 5 with a story about assuming a quiet lab-mate wasn't pulling their weight, then learning they were caring for a parent. Follow-up one: "What did you do once you knew?" Follow-up two: "Has that changed how you work with people since?" If the answer to the second is vague, the story shows a moment, not growth. A concrete change ("I now ask before I assume, and here's a time it mattered") turns it into what BU says it wants to see.

If you don't have a practice partner for days 10–13, Confetto's AI mock interviews run a traditional one-on-one format, ask follow-up questions and give rubric-based feedback. You can start with a 7-day free trial.

Applying to other Massachusetts schools? See our UMass Chan interview guide.

Confetto isn't affiliated with Boston University. School details here come from BU's public MD admissions pages, checked October 1, 2026. Formats can change between cycles, so go by your interview invitation.