Preparing for the Wake Forest University School of Medicine interview

The admissions page says the MD program looks for applicants "who demonstrate values that align with our mission and vision." Those are worth knowing word for word:

• Mission: "Educating future physicians empowered to transform health for all."
• Vision: to be national leaders in medical education and innovation, graduating physicians committed to improving the health of individuals and communities through lifelong learning.
• Values: Compassion, Community Engagement, Teamwork, Integrity, Excellence and Work Ethic.

The Wake Ready curriculum

The curriculum is called Wake Ready. According to the curriculum overview, it runs in three phases:

• Foundations (pre-clerkship), an 18-month phase covering the foundational sciences plus clinical skills, bioethics and population health, ending with USMLE Step 1.
• Immersion, the core clerkships: Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Ambulatory and Inpatient Internal Medicine, OB-GYN, Psychiatry, Neurology, Pediatrics and Surgery.
• Individualization, with two Acting Internships, a Critical Care rotation, a two-week Geriatric and Palliative Care course, and electives across both campuses.

Two campuses

The part most worth understanding before your interview is the two-campus design. Pre-clerkship learning on the Charlotte campus is mainly small-group, problem-based and team-based.

The Winston-Salem campus uses large-group lectures for foundational material, then applies it in small-group, case-based and simulation sessions. The school frames it as two approaches to the same outcome.

If you have a real preference based on how you learn, be ready to explain it with an example from your own studies. If you don't, say so honestly and explain what appeals to you about each.

The overview also lists early patient exposure, integrated basic, clinical and health systems science, and training in bedside and point-of-care ultrasound as features on both campuses. The MD program page says you'll see patient care from your first week and that the curriculum emphasizes team-based interprofessional learning.

The prospective students page names the school's affiliations: Wake Forest University, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center.

This is general advice for any video interview, not Wake Forest instructions. Follow your invitation email wherever it differs.

Two or three days before

• Platform test. Install or update whatever platform the invitation names, and do a full test call with a friend on the same device you'll use.
• Device. Use a laptop or desktop, not a phone. Plug it into power.
• Internet. If you can, use a wired internet connection. If you can't, sit close to the router and ask anyone at home to hold off on streaming during your slot.
• Microphone. Test your microphone on a recording. Wired earbuds with a mic usually sound better than a laptop's built-in one and cut echo.
• Camera. Put the camera at eye level. A stack of books under the laptop works.
• Lighting. Face a window or lamp so light falls on your face. A bright window behind you turns you into a silhouette.
• Room. Pick a plain background and a door you can close. Put a note on it.
• Display name. Check your display name. Use your full name as it appears on your application.

On the day

• Timing. Log in 10 to 15 minutes early.
• Distractions. Close every other app, silence your phone and turn off notifications.
• Within reach. Keep water, a pen and paper, and the invitation email's contact number within reach.
• Eye contact. Look at the camera when you're making a point, not at the interviewer's face on screen. Moving the video window close to the camera helps.
• Dropped connection. If your connection drops, rejoin right away and follow the contact instructions in the invitation. A tech glitch handled calmly doesn't hurt you.

Most people practice by thinking through answers in their head. That doesn't prepare you for talking to a camera, where you get no nods and no visual cues.

Record yourself instead.

That's 47 minutes. Run it three or four times across the two weeks before your interview, with different questions each time.

The timings in the table are our practice suggestions, not Wake Forest's. The free MMI timer handles the read-then-answer countdown for the scenario round.

Once your answers are solid, the gap is usually follow-up questions, because a recording can't push back on what you said. Confetto runs mock traditional and MMI interviews with an AI interviewer that asks follow-ups based on your answers, then gives you a scored report with a transcript.

You can start with a free trial through the AI interview simulator. More medical school resources are on our medical school page.