The Duke MMI format

Duke University School of Medicine interviews MD applicants with a virtual Multiple Mini Interview (MMI). The school's admissions FAQ puts it plainly: "The virtual Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) will be our official interview format." The AAMC's MSAR interview procedures report for the 2027 entering class lists the same thing for Duke: a virtual MMI, with invitations starting in mid-August.

Duke describes the MMI as 8 to 10 stations, each lasting about 10 minutes and built around a scenario. It also publishes the mix of stations, which most schools don't. Here's what the Duke MD admissions FAQ says:

Item	What Duke says
Format	Virtual Multiple Mini Interview (MMI)
Stations	8 to 10, each about 10 minutes, centered on a scenario
Station mix	Five ethical stations, two traditional interviews, team stations (visited twice) and one video station
Video station	You watch a video instead of reading a written prompt
What stations address	Empathy, initiative and resilience, communication and problem-solving skills, teamwork, insight and integrity, and cultural competence
Who rates you	Members of the Admissions Committee, which includes administrators, faculty, staff and students
Open or closed file	Closed. Raters are blinded to your application before they meet you
Other people you'll meet	Current students, who talk about the curriculum, living in Durham and their involvement in the school and community (per the AAMC MSAR entry)

Two details in that table change how you should prepare. First, two of the stations are traditional interviews, so you still need clean answers to "Why medicine?" and "Why Duke?" even though the format is an MMI. Second, the raters haven't read your file. Anything you want them to know about you has to come out of your mouth in that room.

What Duke doesn't publish: reading time before each station, the exact content of the team task, sample scenarios, or a scoring rubric. If another guide claims to know these, be skeptical.

What interview day looks like

Duke's FAQ lays out a two-part virtual day. The evening before (a Sunday, per the FAQ) there are optional online events: a welcome, virtual tours, a session on the third-year research program and breakout conversations. On interview day itself you check in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern, go through the MMI and finish with a closing session. Duke tells applicants to plan on being available from about 12:55 to 3:45 p.m. Eastern.

One line from the FAQ is easy to miss: you're also observed in how you interact with your fellow interviewees and members of the Duke community. The team stations make that explicit, but treat the whole afternoon, including the waiting room and the breakouts, as part of the interview.

Invitation and decision timeline

Duke's admissions timeline for 2026-27 gives these dates:

AMCAS deadline: October 15, 2026. MCAT scores must be from a test taken by September 12, 2026.
Secondary applications go out from mid-August. The secondary deadline is mid-November (the FAQ gives November 16, 2026).
Interview invitations go out from September through January, according to Duke's timeline.
Virtual interviews run from roughly mid-September into January or February. The timeline says September through February and the FAQ says mid-September through the end of January, so go by your invitation.
If you haven't been invited by the end of January, Duke says you won't be considered further this cycle.
Final decisions come in February, and Duke says accepted applicants get a personal call.
Revisit Weekend for admitted students is April 2 to 4.

We didn't find Casper, PREview or the AAMC situational judgment test on Duke's MD admissions pages. Check your secondary instructions rather than relying on a third-party list.

What Duke's interviewers are looking for

You don't have to guess at Duke's values. The school states them, and the MMI competencies above map closely onto them.

The About the School page lists five core values: excellence; respect and inclusion; service, solving real-world problems; urgency in translating discoveries; and professionalism and integrity. The MD program's mission is to "prepare the student body to pursue a spectrum of medical career options in order to become physician leaders who can advance biomedical research and improve local, national, and global health."

The admissions pages say Duke wants students who have "extraordinary empathy and compassion, are visionary leaders and dedicated to caring for others." The expectations Duke lists for applicants include sustained clinical experience, community service, research you can actually discuss (methods and findings, not just the lab's name), teamwork and adaptability.

That last point matters for the traditional stations. If you list research, expect a question about what you did and what you found. Be able to explain your project to a non-specialist in two minutes, including what went wrong.

The Duke curriculum and why it comes up

Duke's MD curriculum is unusual, and the reason "Why Duke?" can be answered well is that the structure gives you specific things to talk about. All of these are on Duke's own pages:

Basic sciences in one year. Duke covers the core basic science curriculum in the first year.
Clinical clerkships in the second year. Core clerkships begin in the second year.
The third-year research year. Students spend 9 to 12 months on a scholarly research experience, a tradition Duke says goes back more than 60 years, with 16 study programs to choose from.
Dual degrees. Duke says about 40% of its students graduate with a dual degree.
Primary Care Leadership Track. A Duke track focused on primary care, running since 2011.
Medical Scientist Training Program for MD-PhD students (a separate application).

The third year is the one interviewers are most likely to hear about, so don't just name it. Say what you'd want to do with nine to twelve months of protected time and why. A vague answer ("I love research") is weaker than a specific one tied to something you've already done. Only mention a program you've read about yourself.

How to prepare for each station type

Duke's FAQ includes a sentence worth taking seriously: "Reviewing a list of 'practice' questions is not helpful." Its advice is to understand the structure, time limit and number of stations, and to read every prompt carefully. So use the questions below to practice a way of reasoning, not to memorize answers.

Ethical stations (five of them). These are scenario-based. A reliable approach: name the central conflict, say what you'd want to know that the prompt doesn't tell you, walk through two or three options including one you'd reject and why, then commit to a course of action and explain how you'd talk to the people involved. Ten minutes is a long time, so expect the rater to push back or change a detail.

Traditional interviews (two). Because raters are blinded, you need to introduce yourself well. Prepare short, specific stories for why medicine, why Duke, a challenge you worked through, a time you were wrong, and your research. Aim for answers of about two minutes, then let the rater steer.

Team stations (visited twice). Duke doesn't publish the task. What you can control is how you work with others: listen, build on other people's ideas, make sure quieter people get heard, and keep track of the goal and the time. Taking over is as risky as staying silent.

Video station (one). You'll watch a video instead of reading a prompt. Practice taking quick notes while watching: who's involved, what happened, what's the problem. Then respond the same way you would to a written scenario.

Because the whole day is on video, set up your space early. Test your camera and microphone, use a plain background, and look at the camera rather than your own image when you speak.

Duke practice questions (written by us, not Duke)

Duke doesn't publish its scenarios. We wrote these to match the station types Duke names. They won't predict what you'll see, and the point is to practice the reasoning.

Ethical stations

You're a medical student on a team. A resident asks you to document a physical exam finding you didn't personally check because "we're behind and it was normal yesterday." What do you do?
A patient with a serious infection wants to leave the hospital against medical advice because he can't miss work. Discuss how you'd approach the conversation.
A research participant tells you mid-study that she joined only because she thought it would get her faster appointments. She wants to keep going. What should happen next?
A friend in your class asks you to sign him in to a required session he's missing for a family matter. What do you do?
A clinic can fund one program: free transportation to appointments or a community health worker for patients with diabetes. Make a recommendation and defend it.

Traditional interview questions

Walk me through a research project you've worked on. What was the question, and what did you find?
What would you do with your third year at Duke?
Tell me about a time you were part of a team that wasn't working well. What did you do?

Team and video station practice

With two partners, you have 8 minutes to agree on a ranked list of three changes to improve a busy emergency department waiting room. (Practice this with friends, and afterward ask them how you came across.)
Watch a short news clip about a patient-provider disagreement once, without pausing. Then explain, out loud, what each person wanted and how you'd help them reach a decision.

For more scenarios, see our MMI questions guide and the medical school interview questions list.

A full Duke MMI drill

Pick nine prompts from the list above: five ethical, two traditional, one team, one video. That roughly matches Duke's published mix.
Put each on its own page or card so you can't read ahead.
Set the free MMI timer for 10-minute stations. Duke doesn't publish reading time, so give yourself one minute to read each prompt and treat it as part of the station.
Do the whole run on video, on the same computer and in the same room you'll use on interview day.
Have a partner play the rater. Give them no information about you beyond your first name, since Duke's raters are blinded. Ask them to push back at least twice per station.
Afterward, note any station where you ran out of things to say before 7 minutes or where you never committed to a decision. Redo those.

Run it at least once at the real time of day, starting around 1 p.m. Eastern. Nine or ten stations in a row is tiring, and you want to see how your answers hold up in station eight.

If you don't have a practice partner, Confetto's AI mock interviews run MMI stations, ask follow-up questions based on what you actually said, and give rubric-based feedback afterward. The question bank has over 500 questions, and you can start with a 7-day free trial.

Duke interview FAQ

Is the Duke interview in person?

No. Duke's admissions pages and the AAMC MSAR entry for the 2027 entering class both describe a virtual MMI. Admitted students can attend Revisit Weekend in April.

Do Duke's interviewers see my application?

No. Duke says MMI raters are blinded to your application before they meet you. Bring up the experiences you want them to know about.

Does Duke have a traditional interview?

Yes, inside the MMI. Duke lists two traditional interview stations among the 8 to 10 stations.

When will I hear back after my Duke interview?

Duke's timeline says final decisions come in February, with personal calls to accepted applicants.

Does Duke require Casper or PREview?

We didn't find either on Duke's MD admissions pages. Confirm in your secondary instructions.

Applying to other schools in the region? See our guides to the UNC School of Medicine, Wake Forest and Vanderbilt interviews, or our medical school interview prep page.

Sources: Duke MD admissions FAQ, Duke MD admissions timeline, Duke MD program, About Duke University School of Medicine, AAMC MSAR interview procedures (2027).

Confetto isn't affiliated with Duke University. Everything here about the school comes from its public admissions pages and the AAMC MSAR report, checked in October 2026. Formats can change between cycles, so go by your invitation email.