Preparing for the Howard University College of Medicine interview

Howard's college mission includes preparing physicians to serve underserved communities, with particular attention to educating disadvantaged students and addressing health care disparities through teaching and research. Use that mission to examine your own reasons for applying.

Don't replace those reasons with a list of organizations you haven't worked with.

Choose an honest example

Choose an experience where you helped someone whose needs weren't being met. What did you learn from that person?

What could you do within your role, and what required another person's help? If your contribution was small, describe it accurately.

The lesson can still matter.

A fictional example

For a fictional example, imagine you volunteered at a support desk and helped someone find the correct number for an appointment. You saw them make the call but didn't see whether they later received care.

A defensible account would stop at what you observed. “I improved health access in the community” would claim an outcome you don't know.

Connect the learning to a need you have as a future student: “That encounter made me want to understand what happens after a referral. I knew how to give someone a number, but not how to check whether the next step was workable for them.”

The example is invented to illustrate reflection. Use a true event from your own experience in an actual interview.

This exercise is built around Howard's stated service mission. It isn't a school scoring rubric.

Take one experience from your application and write a short account under four headings.

• Their need. What the person or community told you they needed. Separate their words from your interpretation.
• Your role. Your actual responsibility. Name the action you owned, rather than the whole organization's work.
• What you saw. What you could verify afterwards. Include the limits of what you saw.
• Next time. What you'd ask or do differently next time.

Give a partner your account. Ask them to circle the strongest claim and challenge its evidence.

If you say you built trust, they can ask what changed in the interaction. If you say you advocated for someone, they can ask who made the decision and whether the person wanted your help.

Now explain the experience aloud in two minutes. That's our practice limit, not Howard's answer timing.

You're volunteering with a community organization. A person says a new booking process makes it harder to get an appointment.

Your colleague wants to post their story publicly to persuade the organization to change it. The person hasn't agreed to that.

Explain what you'd do.

Start by distinguishing help from permission. You could ask the person what they want shared, if anything, and how they'd prefer the concern to be raised.

You can discuss a process problem without exposing their personal account. Don't promise that public attention will fix the booking system.

The follow-up

For a follow-up, your partner can tell you the person wants help but worries about being identified. Explain how that changes what you'd propose.

Would an anonymous description be possible? Who can confirm what information the organization needs?

Stay within your volunteer role instead of inventing authority to rewrite a policy.

What is the Howard interview format?

Howard's MSAR 2027 entry says it plans virtual, one-on-one interviews with admissions committee members for 2026-27, though the plan could change.

When does Howard interview?

Usually from late September through April, mostly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Invitations arrive by email about three weeks ahead.

How many applicants does Howard interview?

About 300 each year, per the school.