Will You Actually Be Interviewed?
118 programs name an interview, but 14 of them say 'where specified'. Twelve of those fourteen are Romanian, and the difference decides how you prepare.
Quick Answer
104 of them definitely will, and 14 more say only that they might. Of the 212 programs on this site that publish exact admission requirements, 118 mention an interview — but the wording splits them in two. At 104 the interview is stated as part of the process with no qualifier. At the other 14 it sits behind a condition: Semmelweis says, of its dentistry course, that an interview follows the oral assessment "where required", and eleven Romanian programs use near-identical wording, "selection is by the university's published file-scoring method and, where specified, interview or science/English assessment". Twelve of the fourteen conditional cases are Romanian, which means Romania is close to the whole of Europe's grey area. The practical consequence is that a Romanian application is a file-scoring exercise you may never be called for, while a British one — 61 of the 104 unconditional cases — is an interview you should assume is coming. Only one Romanian program, Grigore T. Popa's dentistry course, states a definite interview, and it is online.
Source Status
Counts come from the exact admission requirements recorded per program in our catalog. A record is counted as conditional where qualifying wording — where specified, where required, may include, if required — appears in the same clause as the interview. That is a reading of published wording, not a statement of what any university will do in your case.
Quick Take
- 104 programs state an interview outright; 14 only say they might.
- 12 of those 14 conditional cases are Romanian.
- 61 of the 104 certain interviews are British.
The split
Our interview guide counts 118 programs naming an interview. That number is right, and on its own it is misleading, because it treats two different sentences as the same fact.
| Programs | |
|---|---|
| Interview stated with no qualifier | 104 |
| Interview stated behind a condition | 14 |
| Total naming an interview | 118 |
The conditional 14 are not evenly spread. Twelve are Romanian, one is Hungarian and one is British. So for practical purposes there is a rule and a country-shaped exception to it: outside Romania, if a program mentions an interview, expect one.
This distinction is not in the wider interview guide, which covers formats, countries and what the conversation is like. This one only answers whether it happens.
What the conditional wording actually says
Eleven Romanian programs publish a near-identical sentence:
"Selection is by the university's published file-scoring method and, where specified, interview or science/English assessment."
Read that carefully, because two separate uncertainties are stacked in it. Where specified means it may not happen at all. Interview or science/English assessment means that if something does happen, it may not be an interview — it may be a test. So a Romanian applicant cannot know from the published page whether they face nothing, a conversation, or an exam.
Semmelweis University's dentistry course in Hungary is the other pattern: an oral admission assessment in medical biology, medical chemistry, English and biomedical English, "followed by interview where required". Its medicine and pharmacy courses state theirs outright. Here the assessment is certain and the interview is the conditional part — the reverse of the Romanian case.
What both share is that the decision to interview you is made after your file is read, which means it is a signal rather than a stage. Being called is not automatically bad news, and not being called is not automatically good.
Where an interview is a certainty
The 104 unconditional cases concentrate heavily, and the concentration is useful.
| Country | Programs stating an interview outright |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 61 |
| Poland | 9 |
| Hungary | 7 |
| Cyprus | 5 |
| Greece | 4 |
| Ireland | 4 |
| Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Bosnia | 2 each |
| Romania, Portugal, Croatia, Serbia | 1 each |
By subject the split is more even than people assume: 49 medicine, 28 pharmacy, 27 dentistry. Pharmacy interviewing almost as often as medicine surprises most applicants, and in the UK it is close to universal — 22 of the 23 British pharmacy programs that publish requirements name one. That is covered in what UK pharmacy schools ask for.
So the honest summary for a North American shortlist: if it is British or Irish, prepare for an interview. If it is Romanian, prepare a file.
What this changes about preparation
A shortlist weighted to Romania needs almost no interview preparation and a great deal of document preparation. Romanian selection is file-scoring: your grades, your documents and their translation and recognition are the application. The chain is in the document set.
A shortlist weighted to the UK inverts that. Interviews are near-certain, 22 of the 22 multiple mini interview programs in our data are British, and the format is a circuit of stations rather than a conversation. Preparation there is a genuine time cost.
Where the wording is conditional, ask. One line to admissions: for the 2026-2027 cycle, will all shortlisted applicants be interviewed, or only some, and on what basis? A published "where specified" is precisely the situation where a written answer is worth having.
Do not read a conditional interview as a lower bar. Romania still runs one of the tightest document chains in Europe — 14 of the 58 apostille requirements in our data are Romanian — and file-scoring means your transcript carries the whole weight with nothing to offset it.
The limits of this count
This measures published wording, not practice. A university that publishes no qualifier may still interview only a shortlist. One that says "where specified" may in practice interview everyone. What the count gives you is the best available prior, not a promise.
59 programs publish no exact requirements at all, so they are absent from both columns. Their silence is examined in the programs that publish no requirements.
Our catalog's shorter selection-method field disagrees in places, and the disagreement is instructive rather than alarming. It summarises Romanian selection as "file examination and/or university-specific assessment" with no mention of an interview, because it is a summary. Where two of our own fields differ in detail, the longer published requirement text is the one this guide uses.
FAQs
Do all European medical schools interview applicants?
No. Of the 212 programs on this site publishing exact requirements, 118 mention an interview — 104 with no qualifier and 14 only conditionally. The remaining 94 do not mention one at all. Interviewing is common but far from universal, and it is concentrated in the UK, which accounts for 61 of the 104 certain cases.
Does Romania interview international applicants?
Mostly only if specified. Eleven Romanian programs publish that selection is by file-scoring method and, where specified, interview or a science and English assessment — so you may face nothing, a conversation or a test. Only one Romanian program, Grigore T. Popa's dentistry course, states a definite interview, and that one is online.
Which countries always interview?
None literally always, but the UK comes closest: 61 of its programs state an interview with no qualifier, and in UK pharmacy it is close to universal at 22 of 23. Poland follows at 9, Hungary 7, Cyprus 5, then Greece and Ireland at 4 each.
Do pharmacy programs interview?
More than people expect. Of the 104 programs stating an interview outright, 28 are pharmacy against 49 medicine and 27 dentistry. In the UK specifically, 22 of the 23 pharmacy programs that publish exact requirements name an interview, though only one runs a multiple mini interview.
What does 'interview where specified' mean on a requirements page?
That the university decides after reading your file whether to interview you, and at eleven Romanian programs it also means the alternative may be a science or English assessment rather than an interview. It is worth emailing admissions to ask whether all shortlisted applicants are interviewed for the current cycle.
Should I prepare for an interview if my shortlist is continental?
It depends which countries. A Romanian-weighted shortlist rewards document preparation far more than interview practice, because selection is file-scoring. A Polish, Hungarian or Cypriot shortlist does include certain interviews. And a British or Irish one makes interview preparation unavoidable.