Updated
Teamwork Essay Example for Medical School: 300 Words, Real Prompts
A medical school teamwork essay shows a team that hit a problem, what you did to help it work and what you would do differently. UNR's secondary asks exactly that in 300 words, and Case Western asks research applicants what they learned about team dynamics in 600 characters.
Below are the real prompts from schools' own pages, what they say teamwork means, how it differs from a leadership essay, five steps and a full example essay we wrote.
Real prompts, from the schools' own pages
Quoted exactly, with each school's cycle and limit as its page shows them, checked October 27 to November 1, 2026. School names link to the page we read.
University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine · Secondary essay · No cycle year on the page · 300 words
“Teamwork Challenge: Describe a time when you were part of a team that was struggling to meet objectives. How did you react? What would you do differently? What did you take away from this experience that will influence your approach to working on a team in the future?”
University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences · Secondary essay · 2026-27 dates on the page · 1,200 characters
“Reflect on your role in a particularly impactful leadership or team experience in which your efforts resulted in a meaningful outcome.”
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine · Secondary essay · 2026-27 · 600 characters · optional
4-year University Program, part C of the research questions
“If you worked in a team, what did you learn about team dynamics?”
More prompts on this topic
University of Washington School of Medicine · Interview prep question · 2026-27 interview page
“You are on a committee to solve a particular issue. You disagree with the direction being set by the chair of that committee, and strongly feel that it is incorrect. What would you do?”
University of Washington School of Medicine · Interview prep question · 2026-27 interview page
“If you were putting together a healthcare team, who would be on it?”
What schools say they look for
Schools describe teamwork in concrete terms you can show:
- Neither passive nor dominant. Michigan looks for future physicians with “the ability to work collaboratively, set a positive tone, are neither passive nor dominate the situation, resolve and diffuse conflict, listen to and incorporate others’ perspectives, accept shared responsibility.”
- Your letters. Kaiser Permanente lists “collaborative teamwork skills” first among the qualities letters of recommendation should evaluate.
- Shown, not claimed. Writing about the experiences it wants to see, TCU tells applicants to “be prepared to demonstrate your ability to work in a team.”
- Following counts. A prehealth advisor writing on the AAMC's site suggests practicing with this prompt: “Describe a time or situation where you were not the leader or could not be. What was your role within the team? What did you learn from that experience?”
- Your interview. UW Medicine lists teamwork questions on its own interview prep page, including what you would do if you disagreed with a committee chair.
In Confetto's practice data, 19% of teamwork interview sessions missed at least one core point (150 sessions from 99 applicants, August 26 to October 9, 2026). Teamwork is among the four highest-scoring of the 17 question types we track, so a strong essay has to stand out with specifics.
Teamwork or leadership: which story goes where
Many applicants have one story that could answer either prompt. Sort it by what the story is about:
| If the story is about | Use it for | Center the essay on |
|---|---|---|
| A group that struggled and how it recovered | Use it for: Teamwork prompts (UNR) | Center the essay on: The team, your part and what you'd change |
| A change you pushed for and got others to adopt | Use it for: Leadership prompts | Center the essay on: What you noticed and how you brought people along |
| A role you held for a long time | Use it for: Leadership or Work/Activities | Center the essay on: One moment in the role, not the whole job |
| A conflict between two people | Use it for: Teamwork prompts or interviews | Center the essay on: How you listened and what you agreed |
UND's prompt asks for “leadership or team”, so either works there. For a leadership version, see our leadership essay example. For the out-loud version, see the MMI teamwork station and the conflict with a coworker question.
How to write it, in five steps
- Pick a team that hit a real problem: a missed deadline, a conflict, someone not pulling their weight. A team that went smoothly gives you nothing to show.
- Set the goal and what went wrong in two or three sentences.
- Say what you did, including any first reaction that didn't work. Honesty about a misstep reads as maturity.
- Give the outcome for the work and for the team.
- Answer "what would you do differently" in one or two sentences, then tie it to working on a care team.
Mistakes readers see
- Being the hero. If you fixed everything alone, it is a story about you, not a team.
- Blaming teammates. Describe what happened without judging people, and own your part.
- A team with no problem. Prompts like UNR's ask about a struggling team on purpose.
- Skipping the "differently" part. UNR asks it directly, and interviewers almost always follow up with it.
- Ending on the grade or award. End on what you now do differently on teams.
An example essay we wrote
Written by Confetto for UNR's teamwork challenge prompt (300 words). The applicant is invented. It is 1,301 characters with spaces, about 246 words.
Six weeks before our senior design deadline, my four-person team had a working circuit and no working team. We were building a low-cost pulse oximeter for a rural clinic partner. Two of us were coding late into the night, the other two had stopped coming to meetings, and our group chat had turned sharp.
My first reaction was to take over their tasks, and for a week I did. It made things worse. The two who had stepped back felt shut out, and I was too tired to test anything well.
So I asked each of them to coffee, one at a time. One was working 30 hours a week and couldn't make our evening meetings. The other felt her work on the casing had been ignored in our last presentation, which was true. We moved meetings to lunch, split the remaining work by what each person could do that week and opened every meeting with a two-minute update from each of us.
We delivered a device that read within two points of the clinic's monitor in our tests, and we finished as a team that would work together again.
What I would do differently is ask sooner. I spent a week guessing at reasons instead of finding out. I now treat a quiet teammate as a question to ask, not a problem to work around. In medicine, the nurse who stops speaking up on rounds may be telling the team something it needs to hear.
This essay works because it answers each part of UNR's prompt in order: the struggling team, the applicant's reaction (including the one that failed), what changed and what they would do differently. No teammate is blamed, and the ending links a design team to a care team in one plain sentence.
Drafted yours? Confetto's Essay Coach reviews personal statements and secondaries and gives you a score and notes on your exact lines.
For every prompt type, timing and limits, see our secondary essay guide, and for prompts school by school, secondary essay examples.
Practice the interview version
Expect this one in interviews, often with a follow-up about the teammate who stepped back:
“Tell me about a time you worked on a team that wasn't working well. What did you do?”
Interviewers ask this out loud, often with a follow-up about the teammate who wasn't helping. Describe the problem without blaming anyone, say what you did, and finish with what you'd do differently.
Example answer written by Confetto (the applicant is invented)
On my senior design team, two of us were doing all the work and two had stopped coming to meetings. At first I just took on their tasks, which made things worse.
Then I talked with each of them. One had a 30-hour work week that clashed with our meetings, and the other felt her work had been ignored. We moved meetings, split the work fairly and finished the device together. Next time I'd ask in the first week, not the fourth.
Sources: each school's own admissions page and the AAMC, linked above and checked as of November 1, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What should a teamwork essay for medical school include?
A team with a real problem, what you did to help it work, the outcome and what you would do differently. UNR's teamwork prompt asks for each of those in 300 words. See UNR's prompts.
What's the difference between a teamwork essay and a leadership essay?
A leadership essay is about how you moved a group. A teamwork essay is about how the group worked, including times you followed, supported or fixed a conflict. UND's prompt accepts either.
Can I write about a sports team or a class project?
Yes. The setting matters less than the problem and your part in solving it. Connect it to care teams at the end, since medicine runs on them.
What do schools mean by teamwork?
Michigan looks for future physicians who can work collaboratively and set a positive tone, who are neither passive nor dominate the situation, and who accept shared responsibility. Show those in your story. Read Michigan's criteria.
How do I write about a teammate who didn't do their part?
Describe what happened, not their character. Show that you found out why, adjusted the plan and kept the person in the team. Readers watch how you treat the teammate more than the outcome.