The WesternU HCOM interview format

Heatherington College of Osteopathic Medicine (WesternU HCOM) in Lebanon, Oregon was formerly known as COMP-Northwest, the Oregon campus of WesternU's College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific. WesternU's Oregon interview page is direct: "WesternU HCOM conducts online interviews exclusively." The day runs about four hours on Zoom and has the same components as an on-campus day: a welcome from COMP administration, an orientation, "a traditional half-hour panel interview with 2 or 3 interviewers consisting of faculty, physicians, community members, alumni, current students or staff," a question-and-answer session with current students, two MMIs, an icebreaker, a narrated campus tour and a closing about next steps. The 30-minute interview asks you to "draw from personal experiences to formulate your answers." The page does not describe what the two MMIs involve. This is a different interview day from the one WesternU describes for its California campus, which we cover in our WesternU COMP guide.

Item	What WesternU says
Format	About 4 hours on Zoom: 30-minute panel interview with 2 or 3 interviewers, two MMIs, student Q&A, orientation and campus tour.
In person or virtual	Online only for HCOM.
Before the day	Watch short required videos (campus, curriculum, residency placement, Lebanon, student support) and read the Interview Day Guidebook. An optional Student Ambassador Social is held the evening before.
Check-in	Zoom links arrive three days before. You can check in 10 minutes early.
After the interview	Complete a feedback survey. A decision comes in about 4 weeks: Admit, Alternate or Deny. WesternU says all decisions are final.
MMI content	Not described on the Oregon page.
Situational judgment test	None mentioned. We found no Casper or PREview requirement on WesternU's pages. (WesternU "Preview" is a campus visit event, not an exam.)

Sources: WesternU's Your Interview (Oregon), Application Requirements and Competitive Class Stats pages, the COMP-Northwest Interview Day Guidebook, and the shared AACOM Choose DO Explorer profile, checked October 2026.

What HCOM is looking for

The college mission, shared with COMP, is to prepare students "to become technically competent, culturally sensitive, professional, and compassionate physicians who are prepared for graduate medical education, who are lifelong learners, and who will serve society by providing comprehensive, patient centered healthcare with the distinctive osteopathic philosophy." WesternU describes humanism as a core principle: acceptance, altruism, compassion, diversity, empathy, fairness, inclusion, integrity, kindness and respect. The Admissions Committee, per the guidebook, "places high value on Cognitive, Experiential, and Cultural diversity." WesternU's list of what it seeks includes being academically prepared, well-rounded with diverse experiences, involved in the community, committed to compassionate care, aware of the profession and the university, and a strong verbal and written communicator.

What the school names	How it might show up in your answers (our suggestion)
Humanism: empathy, kindness, respect	A time you treated someone with dignity when it was inconvenient
Cultural sensitivity	Something you misunderstood about another culture and how you adjusted
Diverse experience	A part of your path that is not typical for a premed, and what it taught you
Community involvement	Sustained service, not a one-off event
Understanding of the profession and WesternU	What you know about osteopathic medicine and why Lebanon, Oregon

Timeline for the current cycle

AACOMAS opened May 4, 2026 and closes March 1, 2027, the same application and deadline as COMP in California. AACOM says to submit at least six weeks before.
Interviews run between August and April, with a May option if needed, and acceptances are rolling until the class is filled (guidebook).
Requirements on WesternU's page: a baccalaureate degree by matriculation, at least 90 semester units at application, MCAT within three years, and two letters: one from a physician (MD or DO, DO preferred) and one from a science professor or university health professions committee. Prerequisites are one academic year each of English and behavioral sciences (6 units each) and biology, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry and physics with labs (8 units each), completed by June 1 of the entering year. Online prerequisite courses and labs are not accepted, apart from a COVID-era exception.
The guidebook says the deposit is $2,000, split into two $1,000 payments for offers received through November 15, and that the Alternate list is reviewed monthly starting in February.
WesternU says admission is competitive. Recommended academic benchmarks on AACOM are a 3.0 science and overall GPA and a 500 MCAT, and AACOM says the college does consider MCAT waivers in limited circumstances.

Oregon campus numbers

WesternU's Competitive Class Stats page gives separate numbers for the Oregon campus for the class entering in August 2025: 3,356 applications received, 466 interviews granted and 95 students enrolled. About 42 percent of the Oregon class were in-state residents, the average overall GPA was 3.58, the average science GPA was 3.57 and the average MCAT was 507. The guidebook says COMP-Northwest has 100 seats per year and that the college interviews 450 or more applicants annually. That is about 14 percent of applicants interviewed, so an invitation is already a real filter. The same page also lists California numbers, so check which campus the figures refer to before comparing.

How to prepare

Do the pre-work. WesternU requires you to watch short videos before your interview day. Watch them early and write down one question each for the panel.
Prepare for a panel of two or three. Practice answering the person who asked while including the others. Expect a mix of faculty, physicians, community members and current students.
Prepare for two MMI stations. The Oregon page does not say what they are. WesternU's California page describes two five-minute standardized-patient interactions, so practice listening-first responses, but do not assume the content is identical.
Draw from real experience. The school says you will be asked to draw from personal experiences, so choose your stories ahead of time and know which value each shows.
Prepare a "why Oregon" answer. The campus is described as the only osteopathic medical school in Oregon and one of two in the Pacific Northwest. Say what draws you, honestly.
Set up your space. A quiet, well-lit room, camera at eye level, a charged device, and a pen and notepad for the Q&A.

Practice questions (written by us, not WesternU)

WesternU does not publish its interview questions. We wrote these around its mission and humanism values. They are for practice and do not predict what you will be asked.

Why osteopathic medicine, and why HCOM?
Tell me about an experience that shaped your view of medicine.
Describe a time you treated someone with respect when it was hard.
What does cultural sensitivity look like when you have 15 minutes with a patient?
Tell me about a time you worked with someone very different from you.
Describe your longest commitment outside school and what it asked of you.
What do you know about Lebanon, Oregon and the communities this campus serves?
A patient does not share your language and an interpreter is not available. What do you do?
Tell me about a time you got feedback you did not want to hear.
Standardized-patient practice: a person is frustrated because a form is confusing and they are afraid of losing their place in line. You have five minutes.
Standardized-patient practice: a person says they do not want to follow the plan their doctor gave them. You have five minutes.
What question are you hoping we would ask?

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

A 45-minute practice run

Recruit two people to play panelists, and one more to play a "patient."
Run a 30-minute panel on Zoom using six questions from the first ten, with a follow-up for each. Keep answers around two minutes.
Run two 5-minute listening-first stations with your "patient," with no medical knowledge required.
Record the whole thing. Check whether you gave a specific example, responded to what the person said and stayed within your role.
Ask what they would still want to know, and add that detail next time.

Practicing alone? Confetto's AI mock interviews run traditional and panel-style interviews as well as MMIs, ask follow-up questions based on what you said, and give rubric-based feedback afterward. You can start with a 7-day free trial.

WesternU HCOM interview FAQ

Is the HCOM interview in person?
No. WesternU says HCOM conducts online interviews exclusively, over Zoom.

Is it an MMI?
It combines a 30-minute panel interview with two MMIs on the same day.

How is HCOM different from COMP in California?
It is the same college and the same AACOMAS application, with a separate Oregon campus and an online-only interview day. WesternU's California page offers online and in-person options.

When do I hear back?
WesternU says about 4 weeks after your interview, as Admit, Alternate or Deny.

Do I need Casper or PREview?
Neither appears on WesternU's admissions pages.

Applying to other Pacific Northwest DO schools? See our guide to the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine interview, or our medical school interview prep page.

Confetto isn't affiliated with Western University of Health Sciences. Details come from WesternU's public pages, its COMP-Northwest Interview Day Guidebook and the AACOM Choose DO Explorer profile as of October 2026. Formats can change between cycles, so go by what your invitation says.