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Preparing for the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine interview
Key facts (2026-27)
Every invited applicant has three separate virtual interviews, two with full-time faculty and one with a senior medical student, plus an orientation and a student-led virtual tour.
- Format
- Three one-on-one interviews: two faculty, one student
- Where
- Virtual
- Stations
- 3 interviews: 2 with full-time faculty, 1 with a senior medical student
- Length
- Day window Tue and Fri 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wed 12:45 to 5 p.m. Central
Dates for 2026-27
August to early February, by email
Interview invitations
Selected Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, late August to mid-February
Interviews
Checked October 2026 against Feinberg MD admissions: Interview, Feinberg MD admissions: Candidate characteristics and AAMC MSAR 2027 interview report. Confirm details in your invitation.
Northwestern Feinberg's published M.D. interview format is three individual virtual interviews: two with full-time faculty and one with a senior medical student. Prepare for separate conversations about your experiences and motivation, including follow-up questions.
The current interview-day format
- Interview days. Feinberg's official interview page lists selected Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from late August through mid-February.
- Invitations. Invitations are emailed from August through early February, and applicants are expected to schedule soon after receiving one.
| Published day | Interview-day window, Central time |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Wednesday | 12:45 to 5 p.m. |
| Friday | 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
The day also includes an orientation and a virtual tour with first- and second-year students. The invitation provides further details.
These windows cover the day, not the duration of each conversation. Check your invitation and convert Central time to your own time zone.
Choose experiences that show how you think
The school's candidate guidance includes exploration of medicine, inquiry, service, professionalism, communication, and teamwork. Use it to select examples from your own application.
It isn't a public list of guaranteed interview questions.
Prepare examples in detail
Prepare a few experiences in enough detail to handle follow-up questions.
- Research. For a research example, explain the question you investigated, your own role, and a limitation.
- Service. For a service example, explain what someone needed and what you learned from responding.
- Teamwork. For a team example, identify the disagreement and what changed after your action.
Don't claim the whole team's outcome as your own. If you don't know why an intervention worked, say what you observed and what you couldn't establish.
Practice questions for Feinberg's three interviews (written by us)
Feinberg doesn't publish its interview questions. We wrote these around the candidate characteristics it lists, for practice with a partner who asks follow-ups:
- Why Feinberg, and which part of its training would you use to build on something you've already done?Practice this question now
- Feinberg says it wants physicians who can serve the needs of a changing world. What change in health care do you most want to be ready for, and why?Practice this question now
- Tell me about a research or inquiry project. What was the question, what was your part, and what was one limitation?Practice this question now
- Feinberg lists capacity for improvement among the traits it looks for. What learning goal have you set for yourself recently, and how did you track it?Practice this question now
- Tell me about a time people relied on you to finish something and the plan changed under pressure. What did you do?Practice this question now
- Describe a service experience where you had to learn what someone actually needed before you could help.Practice this question now
- Feinberg pairs service with health equity. Where have you seen a gap in access to care up close, and what did you do about it?Practice this question now
- Tell me about a disagreement on a team. What did you do, and what changed afterward?Practice this question now
- When did you have to be honest at a cost to yourself?Practice this question now
- Your third interview is with a senior medical student. What would you want to ask them about training at Feinberg, and why?Practice this question now
- What might a faculty interviewer misunderstand about your application after reading it once?Practice this question now
An experience-to-question worksheet
Make one row for each experience you might discuss. This is an original preparation exercise, not Feinberg's scoring system.
| Experience note | Follow-up to practice |
|---|---|
| What you personally did | What decision was yours, and who supervised you? |
| What surprised you | How did that change your understanding? |
| One limitation | What couldn't your experience establish? |
| A next learning goal | What would you want to investigate or practice next? |
A fictional example
For a fictional example, suppose you helped a team summarize survey responses but didn't design the survey. Describe your contribution as organizing or analyzing the responses.
Don't say you led the study. A credible limitation might concern who responded and whose views are missing; explain it without inventing results.
Rehearse three different conversations
Use the following drill with a practice partner. The times are suggested practice blocks, not official interview lengths.
- Spend six minutes discussing why you want to study medicine. Let your partner ask what changed your mind or challenged your assumptions.
- Spend six minutes on an experience involving service, research, or teamwork. Ask the partner to probe your role and a limitation.
- Spend six minutes discussing how you choose a learning environment and what you'd want to ask a current student.
- Spend six minutes reviewing whether you answered each question directly and used evidence from your own experience.
That's 24 minutes. Repeating an experience in another conversation is fine if it's relevant.
Don't force a new story just to avoid repetition, and don't deliver the same rehearsed paragraph regardless of the question.
Make “why Feinberg” specific
Choose one current, official curriculum or student-experience detail that matters to your goals. Explain the connection to something you've already done and identify what you want to learn next.
Chicago's location alone isn't a substitute for understanding the program.
Check any clinic, research opportunity, or student activity before naming it. Use the school's own description to explain why the opportunity interests you.
Practice out loud
Confetto's AI interview practice lets you rehearse spoken answers and review feedback. Use it to check whether your examples are understandable, then ask a partner to challenge your reasoning with follow-up questions.
Also have a WashU interview? Our guide to the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine interview covers its open-file and closed-file Zoom interviews.
Northwestern Feinberg interview FAQ
What is the Feinberg interview format?
Three individual virtual interviews: two with full-time faculty and one with a senior medical student.
When does Feinberg interview?
On selected Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from late August through mid-February. Invitations go out from August through early February.