Interviewing for a job or internship at UCLA can be an intimidating process. With fierce competition for limited spots, you need to come prepared to showcase your skills experience, and fit for the role and organization.
While every interview will be unique, there are a number of commonly asked questions to expect. Understanding these questions and practicing your answers ahead of time will help you walk into the interview room feeling confident and ready to succeed.
In this article, we’ll overview some of the most frequent UCLA interview questions along with tips for crafting your best responses.
Common Questions About Yourself
Tell me about yourself,What are your strengths and weaknesses?Why are you interested in this role/our organization?Where do you see yourself in 5 years?What motivates you?How do you handle stress and pressure?
UCLA interviewers want to get to know you on a personal level. Questions about your background, interests, career goals, and work style help them determine if you’re a good match for the role and organizational culture.
When answering, be authentic but also strategic. Pick highlights from your experiences that show your qualifications and genuine excitement to work at UCLA. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to provide clear examples that showcase your top skills and motivations aligned with the job.
Questions About the Role and UCLA
Why are you interested in this role/our organization?
What do you know about UCLA/this department?
Why do you want to work here?
What appeals to you about this role?
What skills and experience make you qualified for this job?
With these questions, interviewers want to see that you have done your research and understand the requirements of the job and priorities of the organization. Be specific when describing what excites you about the university, department, and position. Back up your enthusiasm by connecting your background directly to the role’s responsibilities and qualifications. Highlight relevant coursework, internships, leadership activities, and jobs that have prepared you to excel.
Behavioral Interview Questions
Tell me about a time you faced a challenge. How did you overcome it?
Describe a conflict you had with a coworker/classmate. How did you handle it?
Give an example of when you showed leadership.
Talk about a time you failed and what you learned from it.
Behavioral questions require you to provide a story/example from your past experience to demonstrate critical skills like problem-solving, communication, leadership, and resilience. Use the STAR method to structure a compelling story highlighting your actions, thought process, and the positive results. Choose examples relevant to the job. For instance, overcoming a group project challenge shows teamwork just as persevering through a science experiment setback displays persistence.
Questions About Working Style
How would you describe your working style?
Do you prefer to work independently or on a team?
What kind of work environment do you thrive in?
How do you evaluate success/handle feedback?
Are you more comfortable leading or following?
With these questions, interviewers want to determine if your working preferences and values align with the demands of the role and culture of UCLA/the department. Understand the job qualifications and organization before the interview to tailor your answers effectively. For instance, if the role requires tight collaboration, emphasize your teamwork skills vs. independent work. Share examples that demonstrate you possess the necessary qualities to thrive and be successful in the specific environment.
Questions About UCLA Values
Why is diversity important to you?
How would you contribute to a culture of equity and inclusion at UCLA?
Describe a time you demonstrated UCLA’s core values such as respect, accountability, or collaboration.
UCLA prioritizes diversity, equity, accountability, respect, and other core values. Be prepared to share your commitment to upholding these principles. Reference specific experiences where you modeled values that are important to the university/department. For instance, working successfully with classmates from different backgrounds demonstrates your ability to collaborate in a diverse environment.
Questions About Your Interest in UCLA
Why are you interested in UCLA/this department specifically?
Where else have you applied/been admitted?
Imagine you are accepted here and elsewhere – what would lead you to choose UCLA?
It’s crucial to express genuine, well-informed enthusiasm for UCLA and the specific department/program. Avoid generic answers about prestige or ranking that could apply to any top institution. Do extensive research beforehand so you can speak in depth about specific offerings, programs, research, professors, resources, values, and more that get you truly excited for the unique opportunities at UCLA. If asked about other options, reaffirm that UCLA is your top choice while listing factors (focus on academic/professional fit versus superficial perks) that would still make it your priority if accepted elsewhere.
Common Graduate/PhD Interview Questions
Walk me through your research interests and experience.
Where do you see your research going in the future?
Which of our faculty are you most interested in working with and why?
What is your approach to mentoring students?
For PhD and graduate programs, expect more questions tailored around your academic and research background and goals. Be ready to delve into the specifics of your thesis work, areas of focus, methodologies, and future research interests. Relate these directly to faculty and resources offered in the department. Graduate interviews may also ask about mentoring experience and teaching philosophies, so have classroom stories and approaches ready.
Common Teacher Interview Questions
Why are you interested in teaching here?
How would you engage a variety of learners in your classroom?
How do you incorporate technology into teaching?
How do you handle classroom management/discipline issues?
Tell me about your teaching experience/philosophy.
For teaching roles, interview questions will focus on your classroom experience and educational philosophies. Provide specific examples of your approaches to areas like differentiated instruction, technology integration, classroom management, curriculum development, and other priorities named in the job description. Back up your ideas with concrete stories from past teaching experiences including student teaching, TA roles, tutoring, or other work with learners.
Questions About Challenges Facing Higher Education/UCLA
What challenges face higher education/our field today? How might UCLA address these?
What ideas do you have for improving the student experience at UCLA?
What opportunities exist for UCLA to better live up to its mission and values?
For higher level roles, you may get asked broad questions about today’s pressing challenges and your vision for the future of higher education, UCLA, or your department/field. Avoid cliches and speak thoughtfully about the nuanced issues facing universities like improving access and affordability, ensuring student wellbeing and success, balancing free speech and inclusion, adapting instruction models, and more. Outline realistic yet creative ideas rooted in UCLA’s mission and values.
Technical Interview Questions
Technical interviews for specialized roles will include questions assessing hard skills and knowledge relevant to the job. For example:
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For engineering/IT roles: questions about your coding languages, troubleshooting scenarios, complex technical projects, and approaches to learning new technologies.
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For research roles: questions probing your statistical expertise, lab techniques, and understanding of discipline-specific concepts and methods.
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For healthcare roles: questions about clinical experience, patient cases, healthcare laws, and scenarios testing your judgment and bedside manner.
Thoroughly review the job description and brush up on key competencies needed to excel in the specialized role.
How to Prepare for UCLA Interview Questions
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Research the role, department, and UCLA to tailor and inform your responses
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Review commonly asked questions and practice answers aloud
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Write down stories and examples that showcase relevant skills and fit
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Prepare questions to ask at the end about the job, projects, culture, etc.
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Dress professionally, arrive early, bring extra copies of your resume
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Make eye contact and give confident, concise yet thoughtful answers
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Send thank you notes to reiterate your interest and fit
Preparing responses for the most common UCLA interview questions ahead of time will help you feel poised and ready with the right stories and examples to impress your interviewers. However, don’t memorize answers word for word or recite them robotically. Stay engaged and attentive so you can tailor your responses and have an authentic conversation.
With practice and research, you will ace the interview and show you have what it takes to contribute value to the university and thrive in your program or role at UCLA!
UCLA Medicine Past MMI Stations & Interview Questions
Personal Statement or General Statement: Since interviewers can see the candidate’s application, they pay a lot of attention to their work history and background. Many interviewers begin with the open-ended question “tell me about yourself”. Applicants should be ready to be asked to explain any part of their personal statement in more detail and give examples to back up their answers.
- Tell me about yourself
- Can you tell me about your family and siblings?
- Tell me about your family and how they shaped you.
- What do your parents do?
- Tell me about your childhood.
- What motivates you?
- We believe that our students should always be growing as people and as doctors here at David Geffen School of Medicine. What is your self-development plan? .
- Describe a situation where your work was criticized. What was your immediate reaction to the situation?.
- When something goes wrong, how does that make you feel? How does that affect your work?
- Who in your life mentors, or inspires you?
- Tell us about your overall academic performance so far. Where have you excelled? Where could you improve?.
- Where did you grow up? How would you describe this place?
- What do you want me to say to the admissions committee that you think is very important for your application?
- What is your strongest quality?
- What are you passionate about?
- How would you describe the education that you have received?
- What are you doing right now?
- Can you tell me about some of your volunteering activities?
- What activities have you been involved in?
- Do you ever think about what makes you successful?
- Is there something that you have dealt with that has been the hardest?
- What obstacles have you come across?
- What did you think about [part of the activity] when you did [AMCAS activity]?
- Why your major?
- Where are you now (geographically), and what are you doing?
- Tell me more about the research projects you participated in.
- Tell me about the research that you did. Why did it have anything to do with the other projects in the lab? Why does it have anything to do with drugs in general?
- What do you do for fun?
- Why did you take time off?
- “What is the most eye-opening experience you’ve had?”
- Why do you want to go to UCLA instead of the other schools you’ve visited and been accepted to?
- How would a friend describe you?
- What is the most important thing in your life?
- What was the most interesting interview question someone asked you?
- Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
- How do you think that people learn most efficiently?
- What was your favourite class?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- What schools have you interviewed at?
- What schools did you get into? Describe your life until the end of high school.
- Why did you select your undergraduate institution?
- Where do you see yourself 15 years from now?
- Please tell me about the most important volunteer work you’ve done. What did you learn from failing at something?
- How can you keep students interested in the community after they start medical school?
- Why should we pick you?
- What sets you apart?
- What is your coping mechanism?
- Explain the grade you got in this class.
- Name one thing that you are most proud of.
- Please talk about a creative project you worked on or a time you were in charge of a project or program.
- Do you consider yourself disadvantaged in any way?
- What would (a person I didn’t get along with) say about me, and what would she tell me I need to work on?
- If you don’t go to this school, what will UCLA be missing?
- Why are you a better applicant then everyone else?
- Describe a typical day for you.
- Have you read anything interesting lately?
- Give me a one-sentence summary of yourself.
- When you were a leader, what was the most creative thing you did?
- What would you be if you could be anything that has nothing to do with science?
- Tell me about some of your political views.
- Tell us something about yourself that we wouldn’t get from reading your CV.
Motivating and Insight into Medicine: These stations test the candidate’s drive to study and practice medicine, as well as how realistic their ideas are about the job and being a doctor. Present events and issues in healthcare are often a main topic of inquiry because they show interest in the medical community as a whole and the issues it is facing. Questions may include:
- Why do you want to become a doctor? Why do you want to go to UCLA?
- What are the current challenges in medicine?
- How will you overcome the challenges in medicine?
- Why do you want to help people through medicine?”
- What can you bring to the field of medicine?
- What are you thinking about when you choose a school?
- How would you change the healthcare system?
- Compare Obama’s and McCain’s health care plans and say what you think about them.
- Tell me about your thoughts on the health care system. What do you think should be changed without making the whole thing completely different?
- What does medicare for everyone mean to you? What does socialized medicine mean to you?
- How do you know that medical school will make you happy?
- How is our health care system different from those in other countries?
- How many people in the United States don’t have health insurance? Tell me.
- How will you handle family life and medicine?
- What do you think of nationalized health care?
- You want to be a doctor. When did you decide that?
- What would you do if you didn’t make it as a doctor?
- Do you think someone who is addicted to food should be treated the same way someone who is addicted to coke?
- How does religion play into medicine?
- Did you think about the hard times you’ll have as a doctor?
- What do you think are the good and bad things about HMOs?
- Why not a teacher, a lawyer, or a social worker?
- What do you think about women who work in medicine? Do you think they face any problems?
- In what way do you see yourself working in medicine? As a doctor, a researcher, or something else?
- What is the world’s most important health problem, and how would you fix it?
- Would you be interested in a certain specialty? If so, what would it be?
- Tell me about your path to medicine?
- Why do you think you would be a good physician?
- How would you like to see health care changed in three ways?
- What do you think about managed care? How could it be improved?
- In addition to being hard in other ways, medicine can be very hard on the emotions. How do/will you deal with this issue?.
- What does UCLA offer that you can’t get somewhere else?
- What do you think makes a good doctor?
- What kinds of medical needs do people who live in secluded groups have because of their race, class, or location?
- Why do you think there are so many rules and regulations in medicine? What are your plans to deal with them?
- What can people do to understand how people with special needs feel?
- How would you change health care if you were Harry Potter and had a magic wand?
- What do you know about how health care is delivered in the US and other countries?
- What would you do about the coming crisis caused by baby boomers getting older and living longer?
- How would you diffuse a situation with a hostile patient?
- Who would you want to meet from the history of medicine, and why?
- What do you know about UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine?
- Please let us know what you think about the idea of working with blood and other bodily fluids. As a doctor, you will have to deal with tough situations. How do you feel about this?
- Because you are a doctor, you will see death every day. How will you professionally cope with this reality?.
- In order to keep up with new medical discoveries and current events, what medical journals, newspapers, and magazines do you read?
- For what reason should medical students who get money from the federal government practice medicine in an area that isn’t as good?
- Tell me what you think about alternative medicine. What do you agree and disagree with?
Ethical Scenarios – These stations have no clear right or wrong answer. Instead, the interviewer wants to know if the candidate can look at the situation from different points of view and make a good choice. In order to succeed in these stations, ensure that you review the ‘2 Sorts. 2 Sides. ’ Approach to MMI Ethical Scenarios. Examples of these types of questions/scenarios commonly include:
- What do you think about euthanasia?
- What about stem cell research?
- Would you tell someone they have a debilitating disease (e. g. cancer) even if your spouse begs you not to because it would be too hard on them because a family member died of the same disease before?
- Would you end the life support of a person who is unconscious if their family asked you to?
- Discuss an ethical dilemma that you have experienced
- The question is why work to save poor or sick people abroad if it’s really “survival of the fittest”?
- Would you perform an abortion?
- Would you give a liver transplant to an alcoholic?
- Do you think it’s okay to do medical research or tests on animals?
- In what situations would it be okay for a doctor to lie to a patient?
- In the MMI Question Bank, you can find more MMI Ethical Scenarios with Sample Answers.
UCLA Medicine Interview Questions and Answers
When it comes to education, research, and patient care, UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine stands out. Students are ready for a changing healthcare field because the school combines cutting-edge research with a wide range of clinical experiences. The focus on working with the community and helping a variety of people fits with my goal to become a doctor who can make a big difference in the health of the community. Also, UCLA’s location in a busy and varied city like Los Angeles provides unique chances to learn in many medical areas.
