Perelman School of Medicine, UPenn (MD) Medicine InterviewFormat, Questions & Prep Tips

Which of the Perelman Areas of Concentration do you see yourself pursuing as part of your Scholarly Pursuit, and what in your background points toward that choice?

Scholarly Pursuit is a graduation requirement. Answer concretely, not as a hedge. Reference a specific past experience that maps to one of the Areas of Concentration: Clinical Informatics, Medical Humanities, Public Health, Global Health, H-MET, or Academic Surgery.

Penn Medicine developed the first approved CAR-T therapy. It costs over USD 400,000 per infusion. How should healthcare systems decide who receives access to breakthrough therapies at this price point?

ICER cost-effectiveness analysis, insurance coverage decisions, outcomes-based contracts, Medicaid budget implications, and equity concerns.

Tell me about a patient or person you encountered during your clinical experiences who changed how you think about what it means to provide good care.

Humanistic medicine. Choose a case that illuminates your interpersonal competency and cultural sensitivity.

A patient refuses blood transfusion on religious grounds. Without it, they will likely die. What are the ethical and legal obligations of the treating team?

Patient autonomy, informed refusal, Cruzan precedent, advance directives, and blood conservation alternatives. Penn Bioethics is a landmark program — show engagement.

Describe a time you needed to shift your communication style significantly to reach a particular person. What cues did you notice, and what did you change?

Cross-cultural communication, health literacy, or interprofessional dynamics. Penn trains physicians to work in diverse West Philadelphia communities.

West Philadelphia has some of the highest rates of firearm injury in the country. As a physician at Penn Medicine, what responsibility do you have beyond treating individual gunshot wounds?

Violence as a public health issue, trauma-informed care, hospital violence intervention programs, and physician advocacy. Penn Medicine has an active HVI program.

Penn pioneered CAR-T therapy. Pick a translational research question you find genuinely exciting and explain how you would move it from bench observation toward patient benefit.

Show you understand the translational pipeline — mechanism, preclinical validation, trial design, and the access and cost questions that follow approval. Connect it to a Perelman Area of Concentration and your own background rather than reciting a textbook.

You are shown trial data for a new CAR-T product showing strong remission rates but a high incidence of severe cytokine release syndrome and a price over USD 400,000 per infusion. How do you weigh this evidence for a real patient?

Balance efficacy against serious toxicity and cost. Discuss number-needed-to-treat versus harm, informed consent, ICER-style cost-effectiveness, and equity of access. Penn expects applicants to hold breakthrough enthusiasm and sober realism at once.

A patient who is a Jehovah's Witness is refusing a blood transfusion that the team believes is life-saving. She is alert and has capacity. Talk with her about her decision.

Respect informed refusal and capacity, explore her values and what she understands, discuss bloodless-medicine alternatives, and avoid coercion. The skill is honouring autonomy while ensuring the choice is genuinely informed — Penn's bioethics depth rewards this.

You are a Penn student volunteering at a West Philadelphia clinic. A young man who survived a gunshot wound tells you he plans to retaliate. Respond to him.

Combine trauma-informed empathy with the limits of confidentiality and any duty to protect. Connect him to hospital violence-intervention resources and address the cycle of retaliatory violence — Penn runs an active HVI program, so systemic awareness matters.

Explain to a patient with limited health literacy what a clinical trial is and why being in the control arm might mean they do not receive the new drug.

Plain language, no jargon, and honesty about randomisation and equipoise. Address the therapeutic misconception gently and confirm understanding with teach-back. Trust in West Philadelphia communities depends on transparency.

Tell me about a time you had to advocate for a patient or a person against a system or institution that was not serving them. What did it cost you?

Penn trains physicians who engage with structural barriers. Choose a real instance of sustained advocacy, reflect on the personal cost and the limits of what you could change, and avoid casting yourself as a lone hero.

Penn Medicine's high-cost innovations are funded partly through a health system that also serves a low-income catchment. Is it ethical for an academic center to invest heavily in USD 400,000 therapies while local residents lack basic access? Defend a position.

Engage the tension honestly. Argue a clear view while acknowledging cross-subsidy, the public good of innovation, and the obligation of an anchor institution to its immediate community.

Why dentistry-adjacent fields, policy, or research were not enough — why does Penn's MD path specifically fit you, given how strong its non-clinical programs are?

Probe whether you genuinely need the clinical degree. Connect your motivation to a gap only direct patient care fills, and tie it to a concrete experience rather than prestige.

The Scholarly Pursuit is a graduation requirement. Walk me through a past project where you owned a question from start to finish — and what you would change with hindsight.

Show intellectual ownership and self-criticism. The 'what I'd change' answer signals scholarly maturity, which Penn weighs heavily given the required independent research.