Interviewers love to find out why you want to be a doctor… and rightly so. But at the end of all of this questioning, it is not uncommon for you to be asked, “What else do you bring to the table?” In other words, what else makes you, you?
In this guide, I will be telling you everything you need to know with regards to ‘Outside Interests’ of academia and medical school, as well as reflect on my personal experience and everything I spoke about during my interview.
Written by Rozh Akram
What Are Outside Interests
This is a pretty easy one, but outside interests include anything that doesn’t include your studies, it could be any hobbies such as sport/ that you do or any arts and craft you’re interested in.
This doesn’t have to be something academic, adventurous or even particularly fulfilling. Even the highest level specialists give themselves the benefit of having a hobby or outside interests. These make doctors able to relate to patients on a human level, which is definitely a useful thing.
For lack of a real-world example, Dr. Gregory House, M.D. is a good example. The man is hopelessly obsessed with being the best at his passions: music, science, medicine, cooking… the list could probably go on. And in one episode, he uses his musical prowess to help a diagnosis: he rules out a brain condition that affects one hemisphere of the brain, because the patient is able to play the piano, a global brain process.
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Why Are Outside interests Important For Medicine?
It is very good to have interests outside of medicine because not only will you be looking after your physical and mental well-being, but this in turn, enhances your school and university performance.
In your interviews, admissions tutors are usually keen on looking for individuals who have outside hobbies and interests. This is because they believe that a medical degree is quite stressful, and good social networks are a must. They’re also very much interested in recruiting students who will contribute to the culture and social life of their universities.
But, more interestingly, they believe having outside interests will teach you a lot of outside skills that will not only make you a better doctor and medical school, but also a better human being. Example skills would include communication, teamwork, leadership and time management.
Lastly, you want to be able to connect with your classmates, and other future doctors. Having a shared interest can help spark important relationships you may need later in practice or even sooner, during your coursework.
Example Outside Interests For Medicine
While your outside interests could be anything (and you probably already know what they are), I would like to explain the interests I shared during my medical school application:
1️⃣ Regular exercise and swimming: time management and a good demonstration of healthy body, healthy mind. This was also particularly useful to relieve any stress I had acquired from school life.
2️⃣ Muay Thai classes: this taught me a lot of teamwork and physical resilience. Interestingly I used to coach some of the junior classes which taught me leadership skills as well as communication.
3️⃣ Music: I was also taking lessons to learn to play the guitar at the time.
Now that I’m at university and will be going into my third year of medicine I will tell you about the things I’ve done so far:
1️⃣ Rowing: I was on the rowing team as a novice which was particularly exciting as I was learning a new sport and meeting a lot of new people.
2️⃣ Societies: I am a member of the Kurdish Society where I meet people from my ethnic background and attend cultural events with them. More excitingly I am also the president of the Kurdish Society for the year 2024/25.
I am also planning of joining the Rugby to pick up something new, and meet even more people.
One thing to note: don’t include that you like talking and spending time with your friends as your hobbies. If anything, it would be weird if you didn’t and it definitely will not make you sound interesting!
What Are Your Outside Interests? Potential Interview Questions
A lot of medical schools like hearing about your outside interests in your personal statements and your medicine interviews, example questions they would ask would be:
1️⃣ What interests do you have outside of your studies?
2️⃣ How do you avoid stress and burn out?
3️⃣ Apart from our academics at this university, is there anything else that interests you?
4️⃣ Which clubs and societies are you planning to join if you were to get a place?
5️⃣ Outside of school life, how would you say you’ve developed your interpersonal skills and how do they translate to the role of a doctor?
These questions could come up in either a Panel interview or MMI, so let’s see how we could we would answer them. This is the answer I would give for most of these questions:
What Are Your Outside Interests? Example Answer
I would say I have quite a few interests outside of medicine and schoolwork. I have a quite active lifestyle in the sense that I go to the gym and swimming once every 3 days, and I also go to Muay Thai classes every week and I also volunteer with the junior classes.
My swimming and gym time have really helped me look after my physical and mental well-being, as they give me the time to reflect on my daily life and all the stress that I acquire during school. But, I’ve also noticed that I learn and sleep better when I have exercised that week.
The Muay Thai classes have been particularly useful as I learn a lot of teamwork and physical resilience, but also leadership and communication skills when I coach the junior classes, especially given that they’re all aged from 5-14.
I am also very much looking forward to joining a few new societies when university starts, especially for things I haven’t tried out before, I am particularly keen on joining the Boat Club, as I have never rowed before and I’d like the idea of being surrounded by medics.
I’m also keen on joining the Kurdish Society as I’m quite interested in meeting more people from my ethnic background, and I very much believe medicine will be challenging and stressful, and having good social networks and other interests will definitely make the burden lighter.
Of course, the content of your answer will be different to mine, but the idea is to offer interesting examples of your interest and explain how they benefit you in both a professional and general way.
However, that’s everything you need to know about tackling this question. It’s not the hardest question you’ll encounter in an interview, but it’s important to understand what admissions tutors are actually looking for when they ask this.
There are plenty more interview questions to be prepared for, so check out our library of free interview guides which covers everything from the basics to very specific ethical questions that may come up. If you want more in-depth support with your interviews, our Interview Tutoring Bundles provide everything you need for effective preparation, including one-to-one support from an expert medicine tutor. Discover our bundles today or book a free consultation to speak with our team.
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