Physicians are required to think on their feet. The multiple mini-interview (MMI) format of medical school admissions interviews requires the same skill.
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Though most medical schools still rely on traditional interviews, the MMI format is growing in popularity, with more medical schools assessing applicants with a hybrid of traditional interviews and MMIs.
The MMI is a series of six to 10 brief interactions (or mini-interviews) conducted at different stations over a two-hour time frame.
From an institutional vantage point, the goal of the MMI is to mitigate bias in the interview process and allow for more diverse opinions on each applicant.
MMIs are taking place in the virtual realm as well, though some formats are being modified. At University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, in-person MMIs included actors to interact with applicants while members of the school admissions committee observed. The school has been unable to replicate that exercise online, so is employing a hybrid model with some similarities of both MMI and traditional interviews but over Zoom.
Jorge Girotti, PhD, is a research assistant professor and the former associate dean for admissions and special curricular programs at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago (UIC). In addition to his work at UIC, he has consulted for institutions that have implemented the MMI.
The aim, he said, is to have each medical school applicant “go through the same stations and be assessed on the same scenarios.”
Here are a few tips about the MMI offered by Girotti and a recent medical student who went through the MMI.