Question 1

Tell me about yourself.

Accepted Answer

The interviewer has your activities and essays (applicants report) but wants to hear how you connect them. Georgetown encourages candidates to share their background, motivation, interests and goals. About 60 to 90 seconds: where you come from, what you do now, two or three experiences that drew you to medicine, and where you want to go. End on the experience you most want them to ask about.

Question 2

How did you come to decide you want to be a doctor? Tell me about your path to medicine.

Accepted Answer

Motivation is one of the qualities the Committee on Admissions names, and this is the most-reported way interviewers get at it. Tell it as a sequence of real moments: what first pulled you toward medicine, what you did to test that interest, and what confirmed it. Name one patient or physician you learned from and what you learned.

Question 3

Why medicine? Why do you want to be a doctor?

Accepted Answer

Separate from your story, this asks for your reasons in plain terms, and what a physician does that draws you. Two or three clear reasons, each backed by something you saw or did. Georgetown's whole-person idea of care gives you language here if it honestly fits: caring for a patient's psychological, spiritual and social well-being too.

Question 4

What do you like to do for fun? What are your hobbies?

Accepted Answer

A warm-up that shows who you are outside your application, and whether you have a life that keeps you balanced. Pick one or two real interests and say something specific about each: what you get from it, a recent example. Short and genuine.

Question 5

Why Georgetown?

Accepted Answer

It tests whether you know what Georgetown is and why its mission matches yours. It appears more than once in SDN's aggregated summary. Two or three specifics tied to what you've done: cura personalis as the founding principle of the medical center, a Longitudinal Academic Track you would apply to (Bioethics, Health Justice Scholars, Community Health Leadership, Clinical Medical Spanish), or the student-run HOYA Clinic at The Triumph in Southeast Washington. Connect each to an experience you already have.

Question 6

What can you bring to Georgetown? Why should Georgetown want you?

Accepted Answer

Asked in several forms, including how you would contribute to Georgetown's diversity. The interviewer wants to know what classmates and patients would gain from you. One or two concrete things: a language, a community you know well, work before medicine, a skill from service. Say where you'd use it at Georgetown, for example a HOYA Clinic outreach team, Clinical Medical Spanish, or a track.

Question 7

How have you exhibited cura personalis in your healthcare experiences?

Accepted Answer

Cura personalis means care of the whole person: individualized attention and respect for each person's circumstances. The interviewer wants proof you have practiced it, not just read about it. Tell one specific encounter where you paid attention to someone's situation beyond the medical problem: their family, fears, faith, money or housing. Say what you did and what changed. One applicant reports a follow-up asking whether others they'd seen embodied it too, so have a second example.

Question 8

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? What do you hope to accomplish between matriculation and graduation?

Accepted Answer

Checks that you have thought about what you'd do with a Georgetown education, not just getting in. Be open about specialty but specific about the kind of physician you want to be and the patients you want to serve. Name what you'd do at Georgetown: a track, your required independent scholarly project, service in DC.

Question 9

Tell me about your research.

Accepted Answer

Georgetown says a highly competitive applicant should present at least 100 hours of academic research; the interviewer checks you understood your work. The question in one sentence, your role in plain words, one problem you hit and how you handled it, and what you learned. Keep it pitched for a clinician who isn't in your field.

Question 10

Speak about empathy and your life or work experiences. Will those make you a better doctor? How?

Accepted Answer

Applicants report (2010) this question; it tests the compassion Georgetown names in its aim to educate compassionate physician-healers. Choose one experience that changed how you understand someone else's situation, ideally from direct service or clinical work. Then name one specific thing you'll do differently as a doctor because of it.

Question 11

What are your gap year plans?

Accepted Answer

The interviewer wants to see you're using the time with purpose. A 2022 SDN podcast summary advises using a gap year to fill gaps in your experience. Say what you're doing, what you're learning from it, and how it prepares you for medical school. If it adds clinical or service hours, say so with one concrete example.

Question 12

Why did you perform poorly in this class?

Accepted Answer

Tests honesty and maturity about a weak point. Applicants report interviewers don't see GPA or MCAT, so this may come from your transcript notes, essays or something you mention. One or two sentences on what happened, no excuses, then what you changed and the evidence it worked (later grades, new habits).

Question 13

Tell me about a time you were stressed. How did you handle it?

Accepted Answer

Tests maturity and how you'll cope with medical school's demands. A real, specific situation, what you did in the moment, and what you do now to manage stress. Keep the ending on what you learned.

Question 14

Tell me about a challenge you faced, or a time you failed and what you learned.

Accepted Answer

The interviewer wants self-awareness and resilience: can you own a failure and grow. Choose a real failure with stakes. Spend a third of the time on what happened and two thirds on what you did after and what changed.

Question 15

How would your friends describe you? Give me three words.

Accepted Answer

A quick check on self-awareness and how you come across to others. Three honest words, each with a short example a friend would actually give. One can be gently self-critical.

Question 16

Describe an ethical dilemma you've faced and how you resolved it.

Accepted Answer

Listed several times in SDN's summary. Georgetown aims to graduate ethical physicians, and this tests your reasoning in a real situation. A situation with a genuine conflict between two good options. Say what you considered, who you talked to, what you chose and why, and whether you'd decide the same way now.

Question 17

If you gave a patient the wrong prescription and they had complications, what would you do?

Accepted Answer

Tests integrity and professionalism when you're the one at fault. Patient safety first: address the complications. Then disclose the error honestly to the patient, tell your supervisor, and report it so the system can prevent it again. Mention what you'd personally learn.

Question 18

As a physician, would you let a patient stop a medication if it might slightly hasten an already imminent death?

Accepted Answer

Applicants report (2010) gentle ethics questions on end of life and patient autonomy; another 2010 applicant advises reviewing basic bioethics. Respect for an informed, capable patient's choice, making sure they understand the consequences, checking for treatable causes such as pain or depression, and focusing on comfort. Cura personalis fits: attend to their spiritual and family concerns too.

Question 19

What do you think is the biggest problem in health care right now? What can be done about it?

Accepted Answer

The single most repeated question in SDN's summary. It tests whether you follow your future field and can reason about solutions. Pick one issue you understand, explain it with a concrete example, and offer one realistic step. Be ready for more: one applicant was asked for another problem, then another, so have three or four in reserve.

Question 20

What is the biggest health care problem facing D.C.?

Accepted Answer

Georgetown trains students in Washington and commits to serving its community; this checks whether you've looked at where you'd learn. Ground it in what Georgetown students see: the HOYA Clinic serves people in temporary housing in Southeast Washington, and student groups address street homelessness, food insecurity and opioid overdose. Say what you'd want to learn there.

Question 21

What are a physician's professional responsibilities? What qualities of professionalism matter most?

Accepted Answer

Tests your understanding of the role you're entering. Name two or three (honesty, putting the patient first, competence, respect) and give an example of each from a physician you've watched.

Question 22

How do you think artificial intelligence will change medicine?

Accepted Answer

No Georgetown applicant reports an AI question, but applicants report questions on current health care problems and advise knowing trends in medicine, so it's a reasonable topic to prepare. Give one concrete possible benefit and one real risk, then say what stays human: the whole-person attention cura personalis describes.

Question 23

Why should I recommend you to the admissions committee?

Accepted Answer

Your chance to sum up. The interviewer writes up what they'll tell the committee. Three sentences: what you bring, the evidence, and why Georgetown specifically is where you want to use it.

Question 24

What questions do you have for me?

Accepted Answer

Applicant advice says to prepare interesting questions for the interviewer; it shows real interest. Ask about their own experience: a faculty member's work with students, or a fourth-year's time in a track or at the HOYA Clinic. Two or three questions you can't answer from the website.

Questions Georgetown applicants report

Opening

Why Georgetown

Your experiences

Character and judgment

Health care issues

Closing