Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (MD) Medicine InterviewFormat, Questions & Prep Tips

Loyola Stritch is a Jesuit medical school rooted in cura personalis — care for the whole person. What does this principle mean to you, and how has it shaped your approach to patient care or community service?

The most important question at Stritch. Connect cura personalis to a specific clinical or service experience — show it is a lived principle for you, not just a phrase you looked up before the interview.

Loyola values service to those who are disadvantaged or marginalised. Describe a sustained service experience — not a one-off event — that genuinely shaped your understanding of healthcare inequality.

Sustained vs. episodic service is an explicit Jesuit distinction. Describe a commitment that ran over months or years, what you observed, how you were changed, and what it means for your career.

A Catholic patient refuses a recommended blood transfusion for religious reasons. The transfusion is necessary to prevent serious harm or death. How do you approach this?

Directly relevant to a Jesuit school with significant Catholic patient community. Address Jehovah’s Witness doctrine (most common clinical context), patient autonomy, informed refusal, advanced directives, and blood conservation alternatives. Show deep respect for patient values without abandoning clinical responsibility.

A patient from a low-income background tells you they understand your recommended treatment plan but cannot afford it and will not be returning for follow-up. How do you respond?

Whole-person care means addressing structural barriers. Identify financial counselling resources, patient assistance programmes, alternative care pathways, and the physician’s role as patient advocate in navigating systemic obstacles.

A physician colleague performs a medically unnecessary procedure under pressure from a patient who insists on it. No harm results. Is this an ethical problem?

Beneficence, non-maleficence, and physician integrity. Address the slippery slope of procedure-on-demand, resource stewardship, professional responsibility, and how to handle this situation if you witness it.

Stritch has a strong track record of producing primary care physicians and family doctors. If you currently lean toward a subspecialty, how do you think about that in the context of Stritch’s mission?

Honesty is valued. Acknowledge the tension if it exists; describe how the Stritch mission has shaped or challenged your specialty thinking. You do not need to commit to primary care, but you need to engage authentically with the question.

A hospital administrator proposes closing the medical centre’s financially struggling community health clinic that serves a low-income neighbourhood. As a senior physician, how do you respond?

Healthcare justice in institutional decision-making. Address the service mission, the clinical and community impact, the physician’s voice in institutional governance, and alternatives to full closure.

You are caring for a dying patient whose family members have conflicting wishes about end-of-life care. How do you navigate this conversation?

Palliative care communication and family dynamics. Address the patient’s own expressed wishes (advance directive, healthcare proxy), the physician’s role as neutral facilitator, and the emotional complexity of end-of-life family conferences.

Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, spoke of finding God in all things. Whether or not you are religious, how do you find meaning in the routine or difficult moments of clinical work?

Spiritual and philosophical resilience in medicine. This is a deeply Jesuit question. Reflect on where you find meaning, sustain yourself through difficulty, and maintain empathy in repetitive or traumatic clinical encounters.

Healthcare rationing decisions are increasingly made by hospital administrators and insurance companies rather than physicians. How should physicians respond to rationing decisions they believe harm patients?

Physician advocacy, healthcare system navigation, and the limits of professional autonomy. Address formal grievance processes, public advocacy, professional organisations, and the risk of individual physician burnout when fighting systemic decisions.

Role-play: You are a student volunteer. The actor is a patient with a terminal diagnosis whose adult child has privately asked you not to discuss prognosis in front of them, but the patient now directly asks you, 'Am I dying?' Respond to the patient.

Honour the patient's right to information while remaining compassionate; do not deflect dishonestly. Explore what the patient wants to know, involve the attending and palliative team, and navigate the family tension with cura personalis. Stritch's Catholic, whole-person context makes end-of-life communication central.

An interviewer notes that Stritch graduates enter primary care and family medicine at among the highest rates of US allopathic schools. Why do you think a mission-driven Jesuit school produces this pattern, and where do you fit?

Discuss how mission-aligned admissions, service emphasis, and curriculum shape specialty outcomes. Engage honestly with your own leanings — Stritch values candidates who reckon authentically with the primary-care mission rather than simply affirming the statistic.

Cura personalis means attending to the whole person. Describe a time your formal training or studies left you unprepared for the human dimension of a situation, and how you learned from that gap.

Use a specific example showing reflective learning and humility. Connect intellectual rigour to the relational and spiritual dimensions of care that define a Jesuit education at Stritch.

A patient at the Hines VA — a veteran with significant trauma history — becomes withdrawn and reluctant to discuss their symptoms with you. How do you build enough trust to provide good care?

Show patience, trauma-informed communication, and respect for the patient's pace. Stritch's major VA affiliation means veteran care and trust-building are genuinely relevant clinical contexts.

St. Ignatius spoke of being 'a person for others.' Tell me about a sustained commitment where you put another's needs ahead of your own convenience over a long period. What sustained you?

Depth over breadth: describe a months- or years-long commitment, what it cost you, and what kept you in it. Stritch interviewers are skilled at distinguishing genuine, sustained service from episodic, resume-building activity.