Pre-Med Interview Prep

Pre-Med Interview

Info, Tips & Questions

revised from the Pre Medical Student Manual, University of Idaho

INTERVIEWS

Most interviews seek to:

1. Determine whether you can think.
2. Determine whether you can communicate effectively.
3. Determine whether you can get along with people.
4. Determine your motivation to pursue medicine.
5. Determine how you handle a stressful situation.
6. Determine whether you are enthusiastic about their program. (Hint: be enthusiastic about their program.)
7. Sell their program to you. (Probably the most common goal.)

A primary care physician may deal with 30-35 patients a day and may spend less than 10 min with a patient. Efficient oral communication is a must and the interview is indicative of a necessary skill.

Interview format:

The interviews of most medical schools are one-on-one. That is, you interview with a single interviewer for 30-60 min then go on to the next interviewer. Generally the medical school interview consists of one to three such one-on-one meetings. Some medical schools, for example the University of Washington, hold panel interviews where you face a group of two to four (and usually three) interviewers.

One-on-one or panel interviews may be either open-file or closed-file. Interviewers in an open-file interview have reviewed your file including grades, MCAT scores, personal statement, letters of recommendation, etc. In closed-file interviews, the interviewer has either seen nothing in your file or just your AMCAS or AACOMAS personal statement (or an essay in your secondary application). The point of the closed-file interview is to remove any bias that might exist in your file and address how you come across to someone who does not know you. In either case, be very sure you can discuss any and all comments you made in the AMCAS/AACOMAS and secondary application essays.

 Tips to be prepared:

• Before going into any interview, reread the essays that were transmitted to that program.  Also, be prepared to discuss problems with application such as a low MCAT score or some low grades or inconsistent MCAT scores and grades. Know what mistakes you've made and what you have learned from them.
• If you are asked a question the answer to which you truly do not know, admit it - don't try to bluff your way through it. The interviewer doesn't expect you to know everything about everything.
• If you can, get to the school a day or so early. If at all possible, stay with a current med student in the program with which you are interviewing - ask that student(s) many questions and listen attentively.
• Tour the campus ahead of time and know exactly where your interview will take place. If possible, sit in on a med school class. You want as much knowledge about the program as possible.
• Expect to be nervous. If you are taking the interview seriously you will be somewhat nervous and anxious – that’s OK. Keep in mind that everyone else is nervous and that the interviewers take that into consideration. It's not necessarily the best to come across as extremely cool, collected, and absolutely confident.
• Make eye contact and don’t fidget. It’s generally not a good idea to jot down extensive notes during the interview as that disrupts the rapid flow of the interview. 
• Pay attention to the name of the person interviewing you. If you can, use that person’s name once or twice during the interview. That shows you’re relating to the interviewer as a person and that you pay attention to detail.
• Be courteous to everyone you interact with: EVERYONE!
• Appearance: Dress neatly. Be well groomed.
• Be on time. (Being late is a GREAT way to get the admissions committee upset.)

Expect anything! And keep your cool (even if the water glass is glued to the table or you're asked to open a window that's nailed shut).

Be prepared to answer questions to which the interviewers already have the answers.

The interviewer may not have taken the time to go through your file. Don't say, "Like it says in my application…" because it can be interpreted as "if you had only taken the time to read my application carefully, you would not have asked such a silly question". During the interview, do not say "like I said before. . .” for the same reason.

If you don't understand the question, ask for a clarification. When asked a question that comes from out-of-left field, something totally unexpected, many students launch into an answer and quickly begin to ramble off on tangents of tangents. This can annoy the interviewer and chew up valuable time. The best strategy when asked a tough question is usually to pause and organize your thoughts before speaking. And make sure you do not try to give them the answer that you think they want to hear - it doesn't work. (On the other hand, if you're interested in going into medicine primarily for the money, prestige, and/or to satisfy your parents' wishes, for example, don't give these as the major/important reasons no matter how true they are.)

If/when you are asked an ethics question which begins “A patient of yours comes to you and wants XXX, what would you do? ”, where XXX is an abortion, a pack of cigarettes, medicinal marijuana, etc., it is important to be flexible so as to serve the patient. You should not give the impression that you are so rigid, because of your own philosophies and doctrines, that you cannot do what is in the best medical interests of you patient. For example, if you firmly are opposed to the concept of abortion and are not willing to perform one, regardless of the circumstances (e.g., youth, rape, incest), but this procedure would be in your patient’s best interests, consider referring her to another physician. You must act in the best interests of your patient even if that requires some bending on your part.

There is a set of questions to which you MUST have an organized, well-thought out, logical answer. We recommend that you outline answers to make sure that they are comprehensive and logical. Then verbalize the answers to some unbiased person(s). Thinking things through in your own mind is not as effective as orally trying to convince someone else (like an interviewer). So do your homework and be prepared for these:

1. Why do you want to pursue a career as a physician? Why not a nurse, dentist, teacher, etc.? (Your answer should be based on your personal experiences and not on lofty ideals or buzz words.) If you're applying to an osteopathic medical program be prepared for the question: Why do you want to be an osteopathic physician?
2. Why are you applying to this medical school? Saying that they take out-of-state students or that your pre-med advisor recommended it won't impress anyone. Be very familiar with their program: their philosophy, where their graduates have gone, etc. If you know someone who has graduated from the program, talk with them extensively about all aspects of the medical program. Read their bulletin prior to the interview. Carefully check their Web site.  Contact the medical student associations on that campus for information about programs unique to that medical school.
3. Considering the large number of highly qualified and impressive students applying to our program, why should we choose you? Do not be suckered into comparing yourself to the average applicant. (For example: I’m more motivated to go to medical school than most of your applicants.) You don’t know what their average applicant; you don’t have the data, so you can’t legitimately make any comparisons. Stick with enumerating your qualities and why those qualities would make you an asset to their program and to the profession.
4. Do you have any questions for me? Any questions about our program? You should be very familiar with their program at the time you walk into the interview. A lack of questions on your part could be due to their having cleared up everything or perhaps that you haven't given much thought to their program and where it can take you. Don't ask trivial questions such as how they grade, how many students are in their class, and what the weather is like. Ask meatier stuff concerning research opportunities, outreach/international opportunities, emphasis on prevention, placement success of their graduates into residency programs, etc.
5. What is your plan B? That is, if you are not accepted, then what? It is important to indicate that you will try to learn as much as possible about why you were not successful and that you will try again. However, you have to be prepared for the question: What if you are never accepted into medical school? It is imperative that you have a viable, realistic, long-term career option. Ideally, it should share characteristics with the rationale you give for why you want to go into medicine in the first place. For example, one of the reasons you give for wanting to become a physician is that you really enjoy working with and helping people; however, your Plan B is becoming a computer scientist working in a setting where you interact with relatively few people and you have relatively little impact on people=s lives. With this kind of answer, admissions committees will seriously question your genuine motives for wanting to become a physician. If, however, you mention that Plan B is becoming a Physician’s Assistant or going into Public Health, such an answer will reinforce your rationale for wanting to become a physician.
6. What do you see yourself doing in 5, 10 or15 years? What will be the nature of your practice? What will you be doing? In what environment/setting? How will you be balancing your professional life? It's important to have a not-too-exact vision of where you are headed.
7. At the end of the interview: Is there anything that we have not discussed that I should know about you? Is there anything that you would like me to know about you? Have a mental checklist of topics you hope will have come up in the interview, such as hospital experience, community involvement, international experience, athletics and sports accomplishments, positive trends in your grades (e.g., your freshman year was awful but then you became focused and motivated and your grades show this), having been present at the birth or having given birth to your child, etc. If one of these topics hasn't come up during the interview, you're prepared to bring it up and deal effectively with it now. You’ve got to sell yourself; you’ve got to convince them that you want their program and they should want you because of the unique person you are. 
8. And if you’re applying to the D.O. programs: Why are you interested in osteopathic medicine? (Why do you want to be an osteopathic physician?) Compare osteopathic versus allopathic medicine. (The safest answer is probably based on your desire to provide medical care as a physician. Since there are two accepted paths to becoming a physician – MD & DO, you're taking both paths because you're keeping an eye on your goal. It's probably best not to say you have a preference for DO [unless you really do]; just emphasize that you're focused on your goal and either path is fine and will get you there.)
9. Who was Andrew Taylor Still? Again, when you go for an interview, it’s important to have some reasonable idea of how you’ll pay for medical education. Take a look at AAMC’s FIRST (Financial Information, Resources, Services, and Tools) site: https://www.aamc.org/services/first/first_for_students/

Beyond that basic set of questions, there are an infinite number of questions that they may ask. Answer the interviewer’s question; don’t try to shoehorn one of your prepared answers into the question. Below are some that have been asked of our applicants.

Keep in mind, however, to expect the unexpected. Use your personal experiences to explain the rationale behind your answers. Don't be afraid to voice strong opinions or positions; you don't want to come across as a 'mediclone' (derogatory term applied to candidates which all look alike {Michael Greger, My Advice to Medical School Applicants}.) Rather than have pat answers to the questions below, use them to develop a strategy of tackling questions. Pause, organize, then present your answer and don't ramble.

Group 1. Questions about you:

• Tell me about yourself. What should I know about you?
• Why are you here?
• Do you like yourself?
• How did you develop your values?
• How did you develop your personality?
• What makes you tick?
• If you could do something over again, what would it be? Why?
• How many brothers and sisters and what do they do? What do your parents do?
• How do you go about writing an essay exam? How do you organize your thoughts?
• Tell me about growing up in a small town.
• What did you learn from working at the gas station/casino/lumber mill etc.?
• What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun? What do you do in your spare time? What have you done besides study a lot? If you can’t do your favorite activity, what will you do then? What do you do for exercise?
• Do you think that a sense of humor is important? (and of course:) Why?
• Tell me a good joke.
• What is your greatest achievement?  Biggest regret?
• How would you describe yourself in terms of your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
• If you could change one thing about yourself, what?
• What is your biggest fault?  What is your biggest blunder in life?
• What one word would your friends use to describe you?
• What would a person who knows you well consider to be your best and worst qualities?
• What about you is a strength AND a weakness?
• Tell us something crazy/unique about yourself.
• What has been your most challenging relationship?
• What has been your greatest challenge in life?
• How will you prioritize/balance your life in 10 years?
• Discuss a tragedy in your life and how you dealt with it and resolved it.
• What are you proudest of?
• Looking back at your high school years, what did you gain from them?
• As a premedical student, what skills have you learned to manage your time and relieve stress? (What stresses you out? How do you handle stress?)
• If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be, and why?
• If you had $100 and a day to do anything, what would you do?
• Discuss a time in your life when you have been "put down" and how did you react to it?
• What types of books do you enjoy reading? What did you learn from the last book (non-text book) you read?
• What books, films, or other media come to mind as having been particularly important to your non-sciences education?
• Describe a situation in which you have endured criticism, constructive and not.
• If you have wronged someone, what do you do about it?
• Have you ever seen a traffic accident? How did you react? Describe.
• What is the most hilarious movie you have ever seen?
• If you were locked in a library overnight, in what section would they find you in the morning?
• Why did you choose to attend XXX University?
• Why did you choose your undergraduate major?
• How have you tried to achieve breadth in your undergraduate education? What humanities have you taken?
• What has been your favorite (non-science) undergraduate class and why?
• Do you feel that your education at a community college was easier than the education at the university level?
• We see you have many A’s. Do you work hard to achieve A’s?
• If you could invite four people from the past to dinner, who would they be, and why? What would you talk about?
• Do you have any blemishes in your academic record? If so, what are they and why did they occur?
• Talk about your role as a team leader in sports/student government.
• Do you have any pets? You have a snake/ferret/hermit crab etc. as a pet. Why?
• What kind of leadership qualities do you have?
  • How have you demonstrated leadership in the past and how will you assume leadership in the future?
  • What is leadership?
  • How can a person be a good leader?
  • How do you solve problems? What activities have you participated in that demonstrate this?
  • What have you done since you graduated from college?
  • How many hours each week to your children spend on the computer?
  • What does your husband (wife) do?
  • Your father is an M.D., does he agree with your decision to become an osteopathic doctor?
  • What makes you angry?

Group 2. You as a medical school applicant:

• How do you know you’ll enjoy spending time with sick people?
• Have you had any other interviews? Where?
• So, you applied to both MD and DO schools?
• You mentioned that you work with both MD and DO practitioners; have you noticed any differences in how they practice medicine? (Question at a DO interview.)
• What excites you about medicine in general?
• What activities or accomplishments indicate your interest in medicine?
  • -and- How have you demonstrated self-motivation in other aspects of your life?
  • Do you know what you're getting into? How familiar are you with the lifestyles of medical students and physicians?
  • What do you consider to be advantageous and disadvantageous about becoming a physician?
  • What makes you think that you would be a good doctor? What qualities do you have that are different and desirable for a medical doctor?
  • How have the jobs, volunteer opportunities, or extracurricular experiences that you have had made you better prepared for the responsibilities of being a physician?
  • What travels have you taken, and what exposure to other cultures have you had?
    • -or- What did you learn about the culture, and how did that change how you went about your job?  -and- How will this experience make you a better physician?
    • Are you a soft-hearted person?
    • What personality types do you hang out with?
    • Tell me about a patient you have taken care of.
      • -and- What patient stands out the most in your mind and what did you learn from him/her?
      • -and- Based on a student's volunteering in the ER: Have you ever followed up on a patient that was admitted into the ER while you were there? What ultimately happened to that patient?
        • -and- Is there a particular night or event from the ER that you remember well? What was wrong with the patient?
        • Thinking of examples from your recent past, how would you assess your empathy and compassion?
        • What do you think a typical medical school day involves? How many hours of study?
        • How do you envision using your medical school education? Where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 20 years?
        • How has your undergraduate research experience better prepared you for a medical career?
          • -or- Tell me about your research. It seems like you are pretty excited about it.
          • Tell us about your research at the hospital and its outcome. Is the hospital still conducting this research? What are they finding?
          • What do you know about the current trends in our nation's health care system?
          • Tell me what you believe to be the most pressing health issues today. Why?
            • -or- What is wrong with the health-care system? Followed (of course) by: How would you fix it if you were in charge?
            • -or- Pick any topic concerning health care today and discuss it.
            • What’s the biggest problem with preventative medicine in America today? (Cigarette smoking kills 450,000 per year.)
            • How could you fix health care with one solution?
            • What do you feel are the negative or restrictive aspects of medicine, from a professional standpoint?
            • For a female applicant: How will you handle having a medical practice and a family at the same time? How will you do it? (What about a career, marriage and family?)
            • What are some good and bad qualities you have observed in emergency room physicians?
            • What are the top four qualities for a good physician? Do you have these qualities?
            • You've moved to a new city. How do you choose a physician?
            • Have you ever seen "bad judgment" in a doctor's office or hospital by a doctor or staff?
            • If you had to choose between clinical and academic medicine as a profession, which would you pick?
              • What do you feel you would lose by being forced to choose?
              • What field of medicine would you like to enter and why?
              • You look very calm right now. Are you always this calm?
              • Where would you like to practice? If selected would you return to Idaho and why?
              • Physicians in what medical areas call themselves generalists?
              • How could you as a physician contribute to reducing the cost of health care to your patients?
              • What can we do to insure more children in the US?
              • Can you discuss the following issues in medicine?
                • Medicare payment cutbacks?
                • patients shopping for the lowest priced care?
                • chemical dependency and substance abuse among health care providers?
                • handguns?
                • socialized medicine?
                • tobacco as addictive? (and your stance on regulation)
                • child abuse?
                • surrogate mothers?
                • health care reform? HMOs? PPOs?
                • (What are the positive and negative aspects of HMOs?)
                  • assisted suicide?
                  • You appear to have done a variety of things. It would appear that you are unfocused. Please comment.
                  • What is "success", in your opinion? After 20 years as a physician, what kind of success would you hope to have achieved?  Please explain.
                  • What qualities do you look for in a physician? Can you provide an example of a physician who embodies any of these ideals? How do they do this?
                  • What kind of experiences have you had working with sick people? Have these experiences taught you anything that you didn't know beforehand?
                  • What family members, friends, or other individuals have been influential in your decision to pursue a medical career?
                  • What special qualities do you feel you possess that set you apart from other medical school candidates? What makes you unique or different as a medical school candidate? What distinguishes your from other qualified applicants?
                  • What kind of medical schools are you applying to, and why?
                    • -and- How many and which other medical schools are you applying to?
                    • Where on your list of medical programs is this program? (For example, where is the University of Utah on your list of preferences?) Have you applied to other medical schools?
                    • Pick any specific medical school that you are applying to, and tell the interviewer about it. What goes on there, and what makes it particularly desirable to you?
                    • What general and specific skills would you hope an ideal medical school experience would give you? How might your ideal school achieve that result?
                    • Talk about your father's/mother's/brother's death.
                    • How will you handle death? What experiences have you had with death and dying?
                    • How are you in a one-on-one setting with a patient?
                    • How did you prepare for this interview? What did you read on the plane on your way to this interview?
                    • Tell me everything you know about the anatomy/physiology of the human visual system.
                    • How will you finance your medical education?
                    • What percentage of the graduating medical school class will you be in?
                    • Tell me about your grades/MCAT scores.
                    • Your MCAT scores dropped by 1 point the second time you took the test. Is there a reason?
                    • Tell me about your friend's cancer (mentioned in AMCAS statement).
                      • Do you know about the disease?
                      • Did you read up on the disease?
                      • Did you talk to your friend's physician about the disease?
                      • When did you decide to become a physician and why?
                      • Discuss any experience you have had related to a career in medicine.
                      • What is a current breakthrough in medicine? How is it beneficial?
                      • Why did you decide to choose medicine and not some other field where you can help others, such as nursing, physical therapy, pharmacology, psychology, education, or social work?
                      • How have you tested your motivation to become a physician? Explain...
                      • How do you feel about death?
                      • Tell me about your pre-med advisor. What characteristics does he possess that you like?
                      • How can you address your patients’ needs most effectively?
                      • How can you better prepare yourself as a physician?
                      • What was the most significant disease of the 20th century? Why?
                      • What have you done to demonstrate your interest in becoming a physician?
                      • Would you consider working in a rural health care setting, even though your career might not be as lucrative?
                      • Are you used to getting A's? If so, what will you do if you don't get A's (honors) in medical school?
                      • If medicine were a lump of clay, how would you mold and shape it? What do you want to do with medicine?
                      • What do you think your chances of acceptance are and why?
                      • We're thinking of implementing an honor code. What do you think of this? What would you do if you saw a fellow medical student cheating?
                      • What would a typical day as a family practitioner be like?
                        • What time would you be at work? Home?
                        • Own practice or in a clinic?
                        • Would you visit your patients in the hospital? When?
                        • What are the characteristics of a good primary care physician?
                        • Convince me why I should recommend you to the admissions committee over any other candidate. What sets you apart from other applicants? What makes you think you are a good candidate for admission?
                        • Do you think your application has any weak spots?
                        • Do you think spirituality should exist in the medical field? If you are a Christian and you have a Buddhist patient who is spiritual, do you try and relate to him from a spiritual standpoint?
                        • (At a DO interview) Did you apply to M.D. schools as well?

Group 3. Society related questions.

• What makes health care so expensive?
• What do you feel are the social responsibilities of a physician?
• What is the most important social problem facing the United States today, and why?
• How should society deal with the problem of child abuse?
• How do you think national health insurance might affect physicians, patients, and society?
  • How do you think insurance helps the doctor-patient relationship?
  • How do you think it hurts the doctor-patient relationship?
  • In what manner and to what degree do you stay in touch with current events?
    • What is a major non-medical issue in the news?
    • What were the major news events last year?
    • Imagine the medical technologies of the year 2020. How do you think those technologies will affect you and how do you think you will deal with them?

Group 4. Ethics-related questions:

• Are you aware of any current controversies in the area of medical ethics? List and discuss some of these.
• Have you personally encountered any moral dilemmas to date? Of what nature?
• How do you feel about euthanasia or medically-assisted suicide?
  • Of an older person, of a middle-aged person, of a child?
  • With the consent of the family? Without the consent of the family?
  • If the patient is in a coma? If the patient is terminally ill?
  • Could you pull the plug?
  • How do you think the current "overflow" of patients into our emergency rooms could be solved?
  • How might you deal differently with a terminally ill patient, as opposed to other patients?
  • There are only four units of blood and you are in a major emergency with a wide assortment of patients from all ages, backgrounds, and occupations. Who receives the blood and why?
  • What would you do if a 12 year-old girl came into your office asking for birth control pills?
    • -and- A 13 year old girl comes to you for birth control. She and her family have been friends of yours for years. What do you do?
    • What do you think of abortion? Could you perform one?
      • What if. . . then could you perform one?
      • Would you recommend other physicians to the woman who wanted an abortion?
      • Will you accept training to perform an abortion?
      • When do you withhold life support?
        • -and- An 81 year old woman has no brain activity but is able to breathe on her own.  She requires feeding tubes and IV=s. Why keep her alive?
        • What would you do if you found out that one of your colleagues was taking drugs? embezzling funds?
        • Should we allow AIDS victims to apply to/attend medical school?
          • Should physicians with AIDS be allowed to practice medicine?
          • Do physicians have the right to refuse treatment to patients with AIDS? (How is AIDS transmitted from one person to the next?)
          • Why are so many teenagers killing themselves today?
          • Can you think of any instance in which you would refuse treatment to a patient?
          • Transplant a human brain: comments?
          • Do frozen embryos have rights?
          • A patient has a persistent headache that has been occurring on and off for about a year but it isn’t so bad that it keeps them up at night. You have determined that it is neither stress related nor sinus related, and a simple MRI (cost ~$1500) would answer any questions about a tumor. Your HMO director is putting stress on you to keep costs low. What do you do?
          • A 75 year-old man is diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and is given between 6 months and 1 year to live. He requests that you prescribe enough painkillers for him that if taken all at once would end his life. He does not explicitly say he will commit suicide, but you know that he will do so if you prescribe the medication. What do you do?
          • A 55 year-old man is in and out of consciousness with pneumonia that causes progressive bleeding in his trachea. This condition is terminal and he has but a few painful hours to live. His family gives consent for removal of the ventilator, he regains consciousness and begins flailing his arms and legs wildly. He also begins to scream in pain spewing blood all over the room. You can prescribe painkillers, but even a small dose would certainly be fatal. Do you prescribe medication to end his life even without family consent?
          • If you had an 85 year-old patient with Alzheimer’s and failing kidneys, would you prescribe dialysis?
          • An elderly patient who has very poor health requests that no measures or procedures be performed on him that would prolong his life. While you were out of town, he collapses on the street and paramedics save his life and intubate the patient. When you return the patient asks you to remove the tube. (You realize that if you remove the tube the patient will die rather quickly.) Do you remove the tube?
          • Do you think that health care funds should be more focused on the expensive development of new technologies, or on providing adequate care for the masses who aren’t insured?
            • (Based on the previous answer:) Ok, you have a patient who is a young girl with bone marrow cancer. Because of the health care system that you advocated, procedures to treat her are considered too experimental. What do you tell her and her family?
              • How else could you help her since her insurance won’t cover her?
• (After discussion on HMO’s) What would you do if you were in the position of trying to obtain medical care for your patient from a specialist not on the provider list but the HMO refused?

Group 5. Underrepresented group/admission related questions.

• If you are not a minority, how do you feel prepared to meet the diverse needs of a multiethnic, multicultural patient population?
• To what extent do you feel that you owe a debt to your fellow man?
• To what extent do you owe a debt to those less fortunate than yourself? Please explain.
• If you are a minority student, will you take your medical skills after you leave medical school back to your ethnic community?
  • How will you apply your skills in that community?
  • Do you anticipate any problems going back to that community after having finished medical training?

Group 6. Off the wall / Miscellaneous

• Ok, you’re the editor of Time magazine and it’s December. Who’s going to be your person of the year and on the cover of Time magazine? Why that person?
• What is a dromedary? What is the difference between a camel and a dromedary?
• How do you feel about gays in the military? (Asked by a staff member of Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.)
• One of our students had a 1 hour interview during which the ONLY thing the interviewer said was "Tell me about yourself" -- the interviewer was silent after this comment, never called for clarification or elaboration -- nothing.
• Describe with words (not using your hands) how to tie your shoes.
• One of our students was told at the beginning of an interview that in the opinion of the interviewer, the student did not have competitive grades nor MCAT scores and so why did he think he even had a chance?

Finally, be prepared for the following questions after your answers:

What data do you have to support your comments? So how do you know? Who told you? Why do you believe them?

Questions which are generally off-limits (modified from the Department of Pre-health, Clark University, Worcester, MA):

• Inquiries about your name which indicates your lineage, ancestry, national origin, descent or marital status.
• Any inquiry indicating whether you are married, single, divorced.
• Questions related to your spouse or number and age of children.
• Any questions concerning pregnancy.
• Questions with whom you live. Do you live with your parents?
• Whether your rent or own your home.
• Request that you give your age or date of birth.
• Inquiries that would require you to divulge handicaps or health conditions which do not relate reasonably to fitness to perform your duties.
• Questions directly or indirectly related to race.
• Any inquiry into your national origin. Questions whether you or your parents or your spouse are naturalized or native-born U.S. citizens.
• Questions concerning your religious affiliation or religious holidays observed.
• Type of discharge from the service.
• Questions related to arrests.
• Questions of the names of organizations to which you belong if such information indicates the race, religion, or ancestry of membership.