The NSU-KPCOM interview format

Nova Southeastern University's Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine (NSU-KPCOM) uses a traditional interview inside a full candidate day. NSU's DO admissions page lists, as one part of that day, a "private interview with a small team of faculty members." AACOM's Choose DO Explorer lists the format as "Traditional."

One quick note before anything else: NSU has two medical schools. The Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine grants the DO and admits through AACOMAS. The Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine is NSU's separate MD school, with its own admissions process. This guide covers the DO program only.

Item	What the school says
Format	A private interview with a small team of faculty members. AACOM lists it as traditional.
Number of interviewers and length	Not published. The school says "a small team."
Virtual or in person	AACOM says applicants have the option to interview virtually or in person. NSU's page describes an on-campus day. Ask the admissions office which applies to you.
When interviews start	Personal interviews may begin in August.
Before the day	An email invitation, then a confirmation email with an agenda. The school asks you to tell it about any dietary needs.
Does an interview mean acceptance?	No. NSU says the interview "does not guarantee admission."
Situational judgment test	None mentioned. We found no Casper, PREview or other SJT requirement on NSU-KPCOM's pages or its AACOM profile.

Sources: NSU-KPCOM's D.O. Program Admissions page, the D.O. program page, and the college's AACOM Choose DO Explorer profile, checked October 2026.

What the candidate day includes

NSU lists these parts of the day. The interview is one item among several, and you're around faculty, students and staff for all of it.

Meeting the college's admissions counselor
Information on how the admissions committee makes decisions
An overview presentation of the curriculum, facilities and student support
The private interview with a small team of faculty
A tour of the medical college led by student ambassadors
A chance to experience NSU as a student (activities vary)
An interactive lunch session
Q&A with the dean of the college
An optional campus bus tour

Two practical points. First, the dean Q&A and the lunch are real chances to ask good questions, so bring two or three. Second, the school hasn't said that only the interview counts, so treat the whole day as part of the interview. Be the same person with the student ambassador that you are with the faculty panel.

Two campuses, one application

NSU-KPCOM trains DO students at its Fort Lauderdale/Davie campus and its Tampa Bay Regional Campus in Clearwater, with about 322 students per class across both. You apply once. If you prefer one campus, have a reason. If you'd be happy at either, say so and focus on what draws you to the college.

What NSU-KPCOM is looking for

The DO program describes itself as "dedicated to student-centered osteopathic medical education to produce exemplary osteopathic physicians known for competent and compassionate care." The college's broader mission includes advocating "for the health and welfare of diverse populations including the medically underserved."

That focus on the underserved isn't just a mission line. Every NSU-KPCOM student completes a required three-month rotation in a rural or urban medically underserved setting. The school's admissions materials name the selection criteria as academic excellence, leadership, compassion and commitment to the osteopathic medical profession.

Put together, a strong NSU-KPCOM interview shows four things, all backed by specific stories:

What they value	Have ready (our suggestion)
Compassionate care	One patient or person you helped, described in enough detail that the panel can picture them
Commitment to the underserved	Work with people who face barriers to care, and what you'd want to learn on a three-month underserved rotation
Commitment to osteopathic medicine	What you saw while shadowing a DO (NSU accepts only in-person shadowing, per AACOM) and why osteopathic training fits how you want to practice
Leadership	A time you took responsibility for a group outcome, including what didn't work

Programs worth knowing

NSU-KPCOM lets students earn a master's degree alongside the DO in four years. The program page lists options including the M.P.H., an M.S. in Health Informatics, an M.S. in Disaster and Emergency Management, an M.S. in Medical Education and an M.S. in Nutrition. If one of these connects to your past work, it's a natural answer to "Why NSU?" If none does, don't force it.

The college also sits inside a large health professions division alongside NSU's colleges of pharmacy, optometry, nursing and dental medicine, which the program page highlights as part of its interprofessional training. If you've worked on a team with nurses, pharmacists or therapists, that experience is worth having ready.

Timeline for the current cycle

AACOMAS opened May 4, 2026. NSU's page lists the AACOMAS deadline as January 15, and AACOM lists January 14, 2027. Treat mid-January as the cutoff and submit well before it.
NSU sends a secondary application after you complete AACOMAS. The fee is $50, and the secondary is due March 1, 2027.
Admissions is rolling. NSU says it receives more than 7,500 completed applications a year and that applying early is in your best interest.
Personal interviews may begin in August and run through the cycle.
Letters: one from a physician plus a committee letter, or two science letters, one non-science letter and one physician letter.

How to prepare

Write your three "why" answers. Why medicine, why DO, why NSU-KPCOM. The underserved rotation, a concurrent degree, or the interprofessional setting can each anchor the last one, if it's true for you.
Prepare for a small panel. With more than one faculty member in the room, answer the person who asked, then bring the others in as you finish. Expect different interviewers to probe different parts of your story.
Build six stories. Cover compassion, service to the underserved, leadership, a team conflict, a failure, and an ethical gray area.
Prepare questions for the day. Two for the dean, two for students. Good ones are specific: how students choose a site for the underserved rotation, or how students fit a concurrent master's into four years.
Plan the logistics. If you're interviewing on campus, the day is long and includes lunch and tours. Wear shoes you can walk in.

Practice questions (written by us, not NSU)

NSU-KPCOM doesn't publish its interview questions. We wrote these to fit the college's mission and programs. They're for practice and don't predict what you'll be asked.

Tell us about yourself and how you got to osteopathic medicine.
Why NSU-KPCOM? What would you want from your four years here?
Every student here completes a three-month rotation in a rural or urban underserved setting. What do you expect to find hard about it?
Tell us about a time you cared for or served someone who faced real barriers to care.
Our mission talks about "competent and compassionate care." Which of the two is harder to teach, and why?
A patient in Florida tells you he skips his blood pressure pills to make them last until his next paycheck. What do you do in that visit?
You notice a fellow student on your team is often late and unprepared, and patients are starting to notice. What do you do?
Describe a time you led a group through something difficult.
What's something you saw a DO do while shadowing that changed how you think about medicine?
If you earned a master's alongside your DO, which would it be and how would you use it?
Tell us about a mistake you made and how you handled it afterward.
What will you add to a class of more than 300 students across two campuses?

Our free question bank preview has more medical school interview questions, and the full bank has over 500.

A panel drill

Recruit two or three people to play the faculty team. Give each a different focus: one asks about your background, one about service and patients, one about ethics.
Have them pick eight questions from the list above and add their own follow-ups.
Run it for 30 minutes. NSU doesn't publish the length, so this is a practice default, not the school's timing.
Ask each panelist what they'd write in one line about you. If those three lines don't mention compassion, service and osteopathic medicine, adjust your stories.
Run it again a few days later with the questions shuffled.

If you can't find a panel, Confetto's AI mock interviews run panel and traditional interviews as well as MMIs, ask follow-ups based on what you actually said, and give rubric-based feedback afterward. You can start with a 7-day free trial.

NSU-KPCOM interview FAQ

Is the NSU DO interview an MMI?
No. NSU describes a private interview with a small team of faculty, and AACOM lists the format as traditional.

Is it virtual or in person?
AACOM says NSU-KPCOM offers the option of virtual or in-person interviews. NSU's own page describes an on-campus candidate day. Your invitation will say which you're doing.

How long is the interview?
NSU doesn't publish the length of the interview itself. The candidate day around it is a full day.

Do I need Casper or PREview?
Neither appears on NSU-KPCOM's admissions pages or its AACOM profile.

Is this the same as NSU's MD school?
No. The Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine is a separate MD program with its own process.

Does interviewing mean I'll be admitted?
No. NSU says the personal interview is the next step and "does not guarantee admission."

Applying to other schools in Florida? See our guides to the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine and LECOM interviews, or our medical school interview prep page.

Considering a campus in Florida or the Southwest? See our guide to the Burrell College of Health Sciences School of Osteopathic Medicine interview.

Confetto isn't affiliated with Nova Southeastern University. Details about the college come from NSU-KPCOM's public admissions and program pages and its AACOM Choose DO Explorer profile as of October 2026. Formats can change between cycles, so go by what your invitation says.