Questions to Ask a Doctor About Medical School
These are for a student in high school or college who has a doctor willing to talk, perhaps the family physician, a relative's colleague or whoever is being shadowed that week, and who wants the story of medical school more than the story of the job. The list follows the path in order: deciding to go, getting in, the years themselves, paying for it, the residency match and what the doctor would change. Every doctor trained in one country in one decade, so hear each answer as that person's route and check how the same step works now where you mean to apply.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Deciding
When did you decide to go to medical school, and what made up your mind?
Why ask it
Some doctors knew at twelve and some decided at twenty-six after another job, and knowing which kind you are talking to helps you weigh everything else they say. Ask what the deciding moment was: a person, a patient, a class. If you have no such moment yet, say so and ask whether they had one at your age.
What do you wish you had known before your first day of medical school?
Why ask it
Doctors tend to have this one ready, and it is usually about the volume, the pace or how ordinary they suddenly felt among their classmates. Write down their exact words. Then ask whether knowing it sooner would have changed how they prepared or only how much they worried.
How long did it all take, from starting college to practicing on your own?
Why ask it
Have them count it out loud: college, medical school, residency, any fellowship, and how old they were when the trainee years ended. Their total is for one specialty in one system, and in some countries students enter medicine straight from high school, so look up the usual length of the route you would take.
What should someone be honest with themselves about before applying?
Why ask it
This invites the warning without asking them to judge you. Take the answer home and test it against yourself in writing: if they say you have to like studying for its own sake, ask whether you do. A doctor who answers 'nothing, just go for it' is worth one follow-up about the classmates they saw leave.
Did you seriously consider another career, and why did medicine win?
Why ask it
The careers they turned down show what they thought medicine offered that nothing else did. If they name nursing, research or another clinical role, ask what the difference came down to for them, since those are routes you should look at too before committing.
Did you go straight from college, or take time out first, and would you do it the same way again?
Why ask it
Those who waited can say what the time gave them, and those who went straight through can say what they missed. Find out what most of their classmates had done as well: how common a gap was in their year shows whether their choice was the usual one or the exception.
What kind of student does well in medical school, and what kind struggles?
Why ask it
You are asking for traits you can check in yourself now, so push past 'hard workers' to habits: how people handled being average for the first time, whether they asked for help early. If the struggling type sounds like you, ask what those students did that turned it around.
How did medical school affect your family and the people close to you?
Why ask it
Partners, parents and friends absorb the moves, the missed holidays and a long stretch of low income, and a doctor a few years out can say which of those strained things most. It is worth asking if someone else's plans are tied to yours. Skip it if the doctor seems private about home life.
If you were where I am now, what would you spend this year on?
Why ask it
Say your exact stage first, a high school junior or a second-year in college, so the advice fits. You want one or two things to do and, just as usefully, what they would tell you to stop worrying about yet. Report back later on what you did with it: that is how one conversation becomes a mentor.
Getting in
What did you major in, and did it matter once you were in medical school?
Why ask it
Doctors who studied something outside the sciences can say whether they felt behind in the first months and when it evened out. A science major can say which college courses turned out to be a head start and which never came up again. Required courses are a different question, and each school's own list answers it better than anyone's memory.
How much did your grades count, and was there a class or a term that nearly sank you?
Why ask it
The second half is the one that helps. A doctor who recovered from a bad semester can say what they did next and how they explained it later. If your own record has a dip, this is a low-risk place to ask how one gets read.
How did you prepare for the MCAT or your entrance exam, and what would you change?
Why ask it
Ask how many months, how many hours a week and what else they were doing at the time, because a plan built around a full course load looks nothing like a summer with a clear calendar. The exam they sat may not be the one you will sit: it gets revised, and other countries set their own. Keep the method and look up the current format.
What had you done outside class by the time you applied, and which part did interviewers ask about?
Why ask it
A long list tells you less than the one item that came up in every interview. How they found it, and how long they stayed with it, is the part you can copy. A doctor who now teaches students or reads applications can also say what they would do in your place today, which may be more than they did themselves.
What did you write your personal statement about?
Why ask it
Listen for how small and specific the subject was, and ask who read the drafts and what got cut. Do not ask to see the essay, and do not borrow the subject. What you are collecting is a sense of scale for your own.
How many schools did you apply to, and how did you choose which ones?
Why ask it
The reasoning matters more than the number: location, cost, where their scores fit, where family lived. Ask which of those reasons held up once they were enrolled. Their count belongs to their own year and system, so before you copy it, find out what each application costs now and whether the number you may send is capped.
What were your interviews like, and is there a question you still remember?
Why ask it
The question that stuck is often one they answered badly, and hearing how they would answer it now is a free rehearsal. Find out whether it was one long conversation or a circuit of short stations too, since the two call for different practice.
Did you get in the first time you applied?
Why ask it
Ask it lightly and accept a short answer. A doctor who was turned down once has the most useful account you will hear: what they changed in the year between and how the second round felt. If the answer is yes, ask about a classmate who reapplied.
Why did you pick the school you went to, and what should have counted for more?
Why ask it
With one acceptance there was no choice to make, and they will tell you so. With several, the reasons they had at the time and the reasons they would give now are rarely the same list. The difference between the two lists is the advice.
Does it matter now where you went to medical school?
Why ask it
A practicing doctor is the right person for this, having watched who gets hired and who gets the referrals. Ask whether the school's name counted at the residency stage, in a first job, or not at all, and whether they think it would go differently in a field unlike theirs.
Did you weigh more than one route, such as MD and DO programs or training in another country, and how did you decide?
Why ask it
Which routes exist and how each is treated afterwards depends on where you want to practice, so the part to keep is how they compared them. If they trained abroad and moved, ask what it took to be licensed where they work now. If they only ever considered one path, put this to a second doctor who took another.
The years
What was the hardest part of medical school, and what got you through it?
Why ask it
Some doctors name a stretch, such as the first exams, the licensing test or the first months on the wards, and some name a single bad week. Either way, ask who they told at the time and whether the school was any help. If the answer turns personal, a failed exam or a term of wondering whether to quit, give them room and take what they offer.
What was your first year like, and how long did it take to find your feet?
Why ask it
Many people arrive having always been near the top of a class, and first year is where that stops being unusual. The first exam, and what they changed after it, is the part of the story to press on. Whether the adjustment took a month or most of the year is the detail to remember when your own turn comes.
What did an ordinary weekday look like before you started on the wards?
Why ask it
Ask for it by the clock: when they got up, where they were at ten in the morning, when the books closed at night. A timetable is easier to picture than 'it was a lot', and you can lay it beside your own week as it is now. Then ask what the same day looked like in the two weeks before a big exam.
How did you study, and what had to change from the way you studied before?
Why ask it
Get the mechanics: alone or in a group, in the lecture hall or from a recording, flashcards or practice questions, and what they dropped because it did not work. Tools date quickly, so a doctor who trained a while ago gives you the principle and a current student gives you the app.
What was the anatomy lab like the first time you walked in?
Why ask it
Plenty of students have wondered about this since they first thought of medicine, and doctors tend to remember the day exactly. You will hear how they steadied themselves and how the class was taught to respect the donors. If the thought makes you uneasy, say so, and ask whether anyone in their class felt the same and how it went for them.
How did you get ready for the licensing exams, and how much rode on them?
Why ask it
Which exams there are, when they fall and how they are scored has changed more than once, and each country has its own. Ask what the result decided for them then and what they hear from students now. What carries over is how they protected study time and what the final week looked like.
What changed when you left the classroom for the hospital?
Why ask it
This is where school starts to resemble the job: early starts, grades from people who watched you for a few weeks, a place at the back of a team. The follow-up that pays is what a good student did on the wards that a merely clever one did not.
Which rotation surprised you, and did it change your plans?
Why ask it
A doctor who entered sure of one field and left in another, because of a single month, is a living argument against fixing on a specialty before you start. What made that rotation different, the patients, the hours or the people teaching it, is the thing to find out.
How much of a life did you have outside school?
Why ask it
Ask for particulars: whether they kept a sport, a relationship, a free Saturday. The answer tends to differ by year, so find out which stretch was tightest and which had slack. If they gave everything up, ask whether that was needed or simply what everyone around them did.
Who helped you most during those years?
Why ask it
A study group, an older student, one senior doctor who took an interest. The answer shows what kind of help to look for early, and it leads naturally to how they found that person, since nobody hands a student a mentor on the first day.
Money
How did you pay for medical school?
Why ask it
Loans, family, a scholarship, a service commitment, a partner's income: expect a mix, named without figures, and that is enough to begin with. Tuition where and when they trained may bear no relation to yours, since countries, and public and private schools within them, fund it very differently. Take away how they pieced it together, not the sums.
Would you tell me roughly what you owed when you finished, and how long paying it back took?
Why ask it
Open by saying a range is fine and that they can pass. The total from their graduating year will not match what you would face, so the parts to keep are how many years it took and what life looked like meanwhile. If they are still paying, ask what the monthly bill does to their choices.
Did what you owed shape your specialty or where you took a job?
Why ask it
One doctor will say it never crossed their mind and the next will say it decided everything. Ask about classmates as well, because people speak more freely about a friend who gave up the lower-paid field they loved.
Which costs did you not see coming?
Why ask it
Tuition is the number everyone looks up. What catches people is the rest: application and exam fees, travel for interviews, moving for rotations or residency, years of rent on little or no income. Make a list as they talk and price each item for the year you would apply.
Did you look at scholarships or programs that pay for school in return for years of service?
Why ask it
Military, rural and public-health commitments exist in many places, and the terms are set by whoever runs them, so read the current contract instead of trusting anyone's memory of it. What a doctor can give you is how the classmates who signed one feel about it today.
What would you say to a student choosing between a cheaper school and a better-known one?
Why ask it
Make it concrete: how wide would the gap in cost have to be before they took the cheaper place without a second thought? Where they draw that line shows what they think a name is worth in borrowed money. Doctors in other specialties may draw it elsewhere, so put it to more than one.
The match
When did you settle on your specialty, and what had you ruled out by then?
Why ask it
Here you want the timing more than the story of the choice: how late a student can decide and still be ready to apply. Ask what they would have had to start earlier if they had aimed at a more competitive field.
How did applying for residency work when you went through it?
Why ask it
Have them walk through it in order: applications, interviews, ranking, the result. The systems that place graduates into training posts are run differently in each country and adjusted often, so treat their account as a map of the stages and look up the current rules for where you would train.
What counted most when programs were deciding on you?
Why ask it
Exam results, rotation grades, letters, research, a month spent working at the program itself: the weighting shifts by specialty and over time. A doctor who now helps choose residents can tell you what their own program looks at today, and that beats anyone's memory of what mattered years ago.
How did you decide which residency programs to put at the top of your list?
Why ask it
Career and private life collide at this step: reputation against a partner's job, a city against being near family. Hearing how one person traded them off teaches more than a ranking table could. The telling detail is what they put first, and whether they would again.
What do you remember about the day you found out where you would train?
Why ask it
It is a light question that tends to produce a good story, and a telling one: you hear how little say a graduate can have over where the next several years are spent. Ask who was with them and how soon they had to move.
Did anyone in your class not get a residency place, and what did they do next?
Why ask it
Nobody plans for this outcome, and someone who watched it happen can describe the options that were open: a later round, a research year, a different specialty. A gentle follow-up is whether, looking back, anything might have warned that classmate sooner.
How did residency compare with medical school?
Why ask it
The interesting part is what changed once they were paid and the decisions were theirs: the hours, the sleep, being the one who gets called. Doctors split on which stretch was harder, and the reason each gives shows what that stage really tests. It is also a reminder that graduation is the midpoint of training and not the end of it.
Looking back
What would you do differently if you were starting medical school again?
Why ask it
The regrets you can use are small and practical: studied with other people sooner, slept more, asked for help before the exam instead of after it. If they say 'nothing', ask what a close classmate would change.
What did medical school not teach you that the job turned out to need?
Why ask it
Running a practice, talking with patients about cost, leading a team, looking after their own health. Whatever they name is something you could begin learning on your own, and it marks out what the school years are for and what they leave to you.
What is the best advice you were given along the way, and the worst?
Why ask it
The worst is often the more useful half, because someone is probably still handing it out. It helps to know who gave each piece and whether they followed it at the time.
Knowing how it all went, would you go to medical school again?
Why ask it
Hold this until they have talked for a while, so it gets a considered reply. A yes with conditions, such as 'yes, but not with that much debt', tells you more than a flat yes or no. One doctor's verdict is not a forecast for you.
Is there a current student or a resident you think I should talk to?
Why ask it
A practicing doctor remembers medical school as it was. Someone in it now knows this year's application, this year's exams and this year's costs. An introduction from a physician they know will usually get a reply where a message from a stranger might not.
Could I get back in touch when I am closer to applying?
Why ask it
Getting a yes now makes the later email easy to send and easy to answer. Say what you would come back with, a school list or a question about an essay draft, so they know the size of the favor. Then follow through, even if it is a year away.
How to ask a doctor about medical school
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you ask
Ask for twenty minutes, and say what for
A doctor asked for 'some advice about medicine' cannot tell how long that will take. A doctor asked for twenty minutes on what medical school was like can say yes between clinics. Name the subject when you ask, or they may prepare a talk about their specialty when you wanted to hear about first year.
Find out when and where they trained
Open with it, because it frames everything that follows. Someone who graduated thirty years ago in another country can still tell you what the years feel like and what they would change, but their account of exams, applications and fees describes a system you will not meet. Someone five years out can speak to the details.
Choose by your own stage
In high school, stay mostly with Deciding and add a few from The years: you are testing whether you want this at all. As a college pre-med, Getting in and Money will earn their place. With an acceptance already in hand, bring The years and The match. Five or six questions fill twenty minutes once the follow-ups are counted.
On a shadowing day, wait for the gap
Between patients a doctor is thinking about the next patient. Lunch, the drive between sites and the last ten minutes of the afternoon are the times for these. Ask in the morning whether there will be a few minutes later, and keep the list in your pocket until then.
During the conversation
Ask what happened, then what they would advise
'How should I study for the entrance exam?' gets a general answer. 'How did you?' gets months, hours and the thing that went wrong. Once you have the story, ask what they would do if they were sitting it this year, and you leave with both the experience and the lesson drawn from it.
Make the money questions easy to decline
Debt is personal, and a student asking about it can feel like an audit. Say first that a rough range is plenty and that they are free to skip it. A doctor who passes on the figure will often still describe how the loans felt, which is the part you needed.
Stay with the hard parts when they come up
If a doctor mentions failing an exam or nearly leaving, do not hurry to your next question out of politeness. Ask one more thing: what they did the following week, or who they told. Those are the minutes no school website could have given you.
Put a year beside your notes
Write their graduation year next to what they tell you. Two years on, when you are choosing schools, you will want to know which advice came from a recent graduate and which described the path as it used to be.
What to do with the answers
Sort experience from rules
How first year felt, what a low point was like and what they regret are theirs to tell, and none of it expires. Requirements, exam formats, deadlines and costs are set by schools, testing bodies and governments, and they change. Check that second kind with an admissions office, an advisor or the official source for the year you apply.
Put the same three questions to a second doctor
One physician is one specialty, one school and one temperament. Ask someone in a different field or a different generation whether they would go again, what they would change and what the debt did. Where the two accounts agree, you can lean on it.
Send a thank you that says what you did
A short note the same week is expected. A second one months later, saying you took the class they suggested or sat the exam when they advised, is rare, and it is what makes a busy person glad to hear from you again.
What spoils the conversation
Asking them to rate your chances
Unless they sit on an admissions committee, a practicing doctor has not seen this year's applicants and cannot tell you whether your grades are enough. Asking leaves them to guess or to flatter. Ask how they got in, and take your numbers to an advisor.
Asking for a letter at the first meeting
A recommendation carries weight only when the writer has seen you work. If you hope for one eventually, ask what they would need to see from a student first, and leave it there.
Only asking how to get in
Admission is one year. School, residency and repayment run for many more, and a physician is one of the few people who can describe all of them from the far side. Spend at least half your time on what came after the acceptance letter.
Taking one mood for the whole truth
You may catch a doctor at the end of a draining week or in the glow of a good one. A flat 'do not do it' and a breezy 'best decision I ever made' are each one person on one day. Ask what is behind the verdict, and keep asking other people.