The UMass Chan interview format

UMass Chan's T.H. Chan School of Medicine no longer runs a classic multiple mini interview for most MD applicants. It uses what it calls a mixed, structured interview in two phases. First you record short video answers in the Kira Talent portal. If that goes well, you're invited to live Zoom interviews: three one-on-one interviews of 10 minutes each, each with a different interviewer, and each focused on a single topic.

The MMI hasn't disappeared completely. Applicants to the PURCH track do a separate virtual MMI with the UMass Chan-Baystate campus, and older guides that describe a seven-station MMI for everyone are describing that format, not the current main interview.

Stage	What the school says
Who gets interviewed	By invitation only. Interviews typically run September through March.
Phase 1: Kira Talent	Pre-recorded video responses. You must finish them within seven days of being notified.
Phase 2: live interviews	By invitation, based on your Kira performance. Three 10-minute one-on-one interviews on Zoom, each with a different interviewer. You pick your date in PeopleSoft.
How they're run	Structured, objectively scored and blinded. The interviewer knows nothing about you or your application.
What they assess	Seven AAMC premed competencies (listed below). No science knowledge is tested.
PURCH track	A second interview day: a virtual MMI with members of the UMass Chan-Baystate campus. The school doesn't currently publish the number of stations or their timing.
LEAD@Lahey track	An extra virtual, open-file, one-on-one structured interview with the UMass Chan-Lahey campus.
MD/PhD (MSTP)	The same mixed interview, then up to two more rounds focused on research, if invited.

Sources: the school's Interviews page, How to Apply page, PURCH and LEAD@Lahey application page, and the orientation video (Introduction to the Virtual Mixed Methods Interview) linked from the Interviewed Applicant Resource Center. The school posted that video in August 2026 for the current cycle.

What the interviewers score

The orientation video says the live interviews measure seven of the AAMC's premed competencies, and that the school wants to be "completely transparent" about what it's looking for. Take it at its word. Here are the seven, with the AAMC's short definition and what we'd have ready for each.

Competency	AAMC definition (short)	Have ready (our suggestion)
Ethical responsibility to self and others	Honesty and integrity; weighs conflicting principles to decide	A time you did the right thing when it cost you something
Interpersonal skills	Reads social cues and adjusts behavior	A tense interaction you changed by changing your own approach
Understanding others	Knows that background shapes behavior; respects differences	Someone whose choices made sense only after you learned their situation
Self-awareness	Examines own assumptions; considers other viewpoints	An assumption you held that turned out wrong
Oral communication	Conveys information clearly; listens actively	Nothing to memorize. This is scored in how you answer every question.
Commitment to learning and growth	Sets and pursues goals for growth	Feedback you got, what you changed, and how you know it worked
Resilience and adaptability	Perseveres and adjusts under stress or ambiguity	A plan that fell apart and what you did next

Definitions are paraphrased from the AAMC Premed Competencies page. The school doesn't publish which competency each of the three interviews targets or what its scoring rubric looks like.

Why "blinded" changes how you should answer

Your interviewer hasn't read your personal statement, your activities or your letters. So "as you can see from my application" does nothing, and your best story won't come up unless you bring it.

That means you need real stories, told fast. Expect one question and then the interviewer pushing deeper into it. If your first answer is vague, you'll spend the remaining minutes being asked "What specifically did you do?" If it's concrete, the follow-ups go somewhere useful.

Build six to eight stories before the interview and tag each one with the competencies it shows. Most good stories cover two or three. You want enough overlap that any topic you're given has at least two stories that could fit.

Pacing a 10-minute, single-topic interview

This is our suggested structure, not the school's. The school says only that the interview lasts 10 minutes and that a Zoom message tells both of you at the 8-minute mark that two minutes remain.

Time	What you're doing
0:00 to 0:30	Hellos. Don't give a speech.
0:30 to 2:30	Your first answer. Name the situation in one sentence, spend most of the time on what you did and why, then one line on what came of it.
2:30 to 8:00	Follow-ups. Answer each in under a minute. If you talk for five minutes straight, the interviewer can't probe, and probing is how a structured interview separates people.
8:00 to 10:00	Two-minute warning. Finish your current thought. Don't start a new story.

The live interview day, step by step

Here's the sequence from the school's orientation video:

Log in to Zoom with the link you're sent. Have a photo ID and your AMCAS ID number ready. The school suggests logging in a few minutes early to check your tech.
Check-in with the admissions team, then a short orientation.
You're sent either to your first interview room or to an open Q&A breakout. Interviewers are already waiting in their rooms.
A Zoom message starts all interviews at once. Another comes at the 8-minute mark.
After your three interviews you move to the open Q&A, and the other half of the group moves to their interviews. You can ask the admissions team anything about admissions, student life or the school.
Everyone returns to the main room for a wrap-up.

Your three interviews add up to 30 minutes of interviewing. The school doesn't publish the length of the whole session, so block off more time than that.

The Kira Talent stage

The school publishes very little about this phase. The Interviews page says it's a series of brief, videotaped responses, while the orientation video calls it a "single question video essay." It doesn't say how many prompts you'll get, how long you have to think, or how long you can talk. Read the instructions in your invitation carefully.

What's certain is the deadline: seven days from notification. Don't wait until day seven. Record yourself answering two questions from the list below, watch it back, and fix the obvious things, like looking at the screen instead of the camera or trailing off at the end.

If you want timed practice that feels closer to the real thing, Confetto's one-way video interview practice gives you a Kira-style screen (a question, a short think time, one recorded attempt) and feedback on each answer. Its presets reflect typical set-ups, not UMass Chan's settings, so enter the timings from your own invitation if they're given. One round is included in the free trial, and unlimited practice is part of every paid plan.

If you applied to PURCH: the MMI

PURCH applicants still do an MMI, on a separate day with members of the UMass Chan-Baystate campus. You book it in PeopleSoft at the same time as your main one-on-one interviews. The school's current pages don't say how many stations there are or how long each one runs, so check your invitation. Earlier versions of the How to Apply page described seven stations with 2 minutes to read a scenario and 6 minutes to discuss it, which is a common MMI setup and a reasonable default to practice with. Like the main interview, it doesn't test science knowledge.

The school's older admissions page still shows one sample scenario. It describes hospitals that, after the SARS outbreak, limited patients to two visitors at a time during a six-hour window each day, and patients and families who complained. You're asked to discuss the viewpoints for and against those policies.

A workable plan for your 2 minutes of reading on that prompt:

List who's affected: patients, families, nurses, infection control, hospital leadership.
Name the real conflict. Infection risk and staff workload on one side, patient recovery and family involvement on the other.
Pick a position you can defend, and a middle option (exceptions for end-of-life care or for a designated support person, for example).
Decide what you'd want to know. Is the policy still tied to an active outbreak, or has it outlived its reason?

Then spend the 6 minutes laying out both sides fairly before you say where you land. PURCH's page says the track focuses on population health, health disparities, and the health of urban and rural communities in western Massachusetts, so some of your stories should connect to that if they honestly can.

Practice questions (written by us, not UMass Chan)

UMass Chan doesn't publish its interview questions. We wrote these to line up with the seven competencies. They're for practice and don't predict what you'll be asked.

Tell me about a time you had to decide between being loyal to a friend and being honest.
Describe a time someone misread you. What did you do?
Tell me about a person whose decisions frustrated you until you understood their situation.
What's a belief you held strongly and later changed?
Tell me about the most useful criticism you've received.
Describe a time a plan you were responsible for fell apart.
A classmate asks you to sign them in to a required session they're skipping. Walk me through what you'd do.

Our free question bank preview has ten more, and our MMI questions guide is useful if you're also preparing for the PURCH MMI.

A drill for the live interviews

Pick three practice questions that hit different competencies.
Open the free MMI timer. Set response time to 10 minutes and reading time to 1 minute (the shortest option; the live interviews don't mention reading time, so start answering right away). The timer's minimum is four stations, so treat the fourth as a bonus round.
Have a friend ask the question and then keep asking follow-ups ("Why?", "What would you do differently?", "How did the other person see it?") until 10 minutes are up. Their job is to push, not to be nice.
Afterward, write down which competency each answer showed. If you can't name one, the story wasn't specific enough.

For PURCH, set the same timer to seven stations with 2 minutes of reading and 6 minutes of response. That matches the format UMass Chan used to publish; switch to your invitation's timings if they differ.

If you don't have a practice partner, Confetto's AI mock interviews cover MMI, traditional and panel formats, ask follow-up questions based on what you actually said, and give rubric-based feedback afterward. You can start with a 7-day free trial.

Other things worth knowing before your interview

Interviews aren't the only professionalism measure. UMass Chan requires the AAMC PREview exam, and your application isn't complete until the results arrive.
The school's selection criteria list "oral communication and interpersonal skills as documented in letters of support and in the interview" as one factor the admissions committee weighs.
Admissions is rolling. Acceptances start going out in mid-October, and the school says you'll hear a final decision no later than April 30.

Sources: How to Apply, Selection Criteria, Interviewed Applicant Resource Center. Questions go to admissions@umassmed.edu or 508-856-2323.

For general interview prep beyond UMass Chan, see our medical school interview prep page.

Confetto isn't affiliated with UMass Chan Medical School. Details come from the school's public admissions pages and its orientation video as of October 2026. The school can change its format from cycle to cycle, so go by what your invitation says.