Preparing for the Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine interview

WSU's timeline for the 2027 entering class

• AMCAS: due October 15, 2026, with "no extensions for any reason."
• Secondary application: due December 1, 2026 at 5:00 pm Pacific, with a $50 fee (waived with AAMC Fee Assistance Program approval). Not everyone receives one: WSU checks that you meet its secondary requirements first.
• Interviews: August 2026 through February 2027. Your application stays in review until all interview seats have been filled.
• Offers: rolling acceptances from November 2026 to March 2027, for an initial class of 80. WSU has no early decision program.

We didn't find Casper or PREview requirements on WSU's MD admissions pages.

Who WSU invites to apply: the secondary requirements

WSU is strict about who receives a secondary application, and without one there is no interview. Its requirements page says all of the following must be met, with "no exceptions":

• U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident.
• Meet 3 of 4 "from Washington" ties (born in Washington, a childhood address in Washington, graduated from a Washington high school, or a parent or guardian who currently lives in Washington), or qualify as a Washington "resident student."
• Meet one of three UGPA and MCAT combinations: a 3.8 to 4.0 GPA with an MCAT at the 27th percentile or higher, a 3.4 to 3.79 GPA with the 43rd percentile or higher, or a 2.6 to 3.39 GPA with the 61st percentile or higher.

Once the secondary is returned, GPAs and MCAT are masked for the rest of the process. WSU says it only admits applicants with strong ties to Washington or who are residents of the state, so the school is relevant to a specific group of applicants.

What WSU says it is looking for

WSU's mission is "to serve Washington and beyond through collaboration and problem-solving in education, research, and healthcare with a focus on rural communities, Tribal Nations, and people who have been historically marginalized." Its requirements page describes a mission-aligned process in which the committee decides without seeing GPA or MCAT. It asks questions that show up as themes: which communities have you served, what opportunities have you pursued, what adversities have you overcome, what leadership roles have you taken, and what values guide your decisions. The experiences and attributes it lists include experience with communities facing significant barriers, connection and commitment to Washington, motivation for medicine, service, and clinical exposure.

The college says it will enroll 80 students "from Washington," and that reviewers look for "connections to the state of Washington." For 2027, WSU adds detail to the childhood-address tie: a childhood home address in Washington between ages 8 and 18, for at least six years (not necessarily continuous). Read the page for the current definitions before applying.

The college's founding Admissions Committee chair has said of the format: "We want to take a broader look at your ability to problem solve and demonstrate critical thinking skills." That fits the format: scenario and behavioral prompts that let a rater see how you reason, show empathy and communicate professionally.

How to prepare for a mix of live and recorded interviews

• Practice the three-minute monologue. There's no interviewer to react to you and no follow-up. You need a complete answer, with a beginning, middle and end, in three minutes.
• Talk to the camera, not a person. The moderator isn't assessing you. Your audience is the rater who will watch the recording later.
• Use a structure. For a scenario: name the issue, say who is affected, give your decision and reasons, name a risk and how you'd handle it. For a behavioral prompt: situation, action, result, lesson.
• Prepare for fast live interviews. Ten minutes is short. Open with your best answer, not a long preface.
• Use the mock interview program. WSU's student-led CougDoc Applicant Mock Interview (CAMI) project offers every invited applicant a mock interview with a trained medical student. The college says to take advantage of it.

WSU practice prompts (written by us, not WSU)

WSU doesn't publish its prompts. We wrote these in the style it describes: scenarios and behavioral prompts to answer in three minutes, plus short live questions.

1. Describe a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information. What did you do, and what happened?
2. You are working with a team and one member is not contributing. How do you handle it?
3. Tell me about a community you have served and what you learned from it.
4. A patient in a rural clinic has to travel two hours for follow-up care and says they will skip it. What do you do?
5. Tell me about a time you overcame an adversity and how it shaped you.
6. Describe a time you showed empathy toward someone whose situation you didn't fully understand.
7. Why do you want to practice in Washington, and what draws you to its rural or underserved communities?
8. Describe a time you disagreed with a supervisor. How did you communicate?
9. What value guides your decisions most, and when was it tested?
10. Tell me about a leadership role that challenged you.

For a wider set, see our MMI practice questions with answers guide, since the recorded section is closest to an MMI.

A drill for the recorded section

1. Choose four prompts from the list. Set a three-minute timer for each and record yourself reading the prompt once, then answering without notes.
2. Don't stop early or run over. Aim to finish at about 2:45 with a one-sentence summary.
3. Watch the recordings as a rater would. Score each on structure, empathy, specifics and professionalism.
4. Next, ask a friend to give you two live 10-minute interviews with questions from the list. Practice opening with the strongest answer.
5. Do a full run: two live interviews and four recorded prompts, with short breaks, and note when your energy fades.

If you don't have a practice partner, Confetto's AI mock interviews ask follow-up questions based on what you actually said and give rubric-based feedback afterward. The question bank has over 500 questions, and you can start with a 7-day free trial.

WSU interview FAQ

Is the WSU interview an MMI?

WSU calls it a Mixed Structured Interview: two live structured interviews plus four recorded responses to a moderator's prompts, rated afterward.

Will the moderator ask follow-up questions?

No. WSU says the moderator only gives the prompt and records your response, and doesn't ask follow-ups, clarify or assess.

Is the WSU interview virtual?

Yes. WSU says all interviews are virtual, and interview days are held on select Mondays and Fridays.

Do interviewers see my GPA and MCAT?

No. The live interviews are closed file, and WSU says GPA and MCAT are masked in the remainder of the process once the secondary is submitted.

Do I need ties to Washington?

Yes. WSU says it only admits applicants with strong ties to Washington or who are Washington residents, and that applicants who don't meet the requirement won't receive a secondary application. See the eligibility section above.

Applying to other Pacific Northwest schools too? See our guides to the University of Washington School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University and Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences interviews, or our medical school interview prep page.

Sources: WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine: Application Process, Timeline and Pathways, Admissions Requirements, FAQs, CAMI Project, Mission and Vision, AAMC MSAR interview procedures (2027).

Confetto isn't affiliated with Washington State University or its College of Medicine. Everything here about the school comes from its public admissions pages and the AAMC MSAR report, checked in October 2026. Formats can change between cycles, so go by your invitation email.