The majority of students who enter medical school will become practising doctors. Therefore, medical schools have a social responsibility to select applicants that will go on to be safe practitioners who are worthy of the trust of the public.

Sheffield Medical School is moving towards character-based selection of applicants. A list of 12 characters, based on Peterson & Seligman’s ‘Character Strengths and Virtues’ was combined with 4 additional skills (time management, public performance, organisational skills, self-directed study skills).

Applicants invited to admissions interview were asked to complete a self-evaluation of their own personal characters from the list of 16 items. They selected the five characters or skills they felt best represented them and then ranked them as either "very superior", "above average" or "below average"; at least one of the five had to be ranked as "below average" .

The interview panel, comprising of a faculty member, a clinician and a senior student, conducted the interview along standard lines, but also assessed each applicant’s strengths and weaknesses, blinded to the applicant’s self-evaluation. Offers and rejections were recommended based on global impression and not on strengths and weaknesses directly.

Applicants' self-evaluations were compared to the evaluations by their respective interviewers and analysed to identify any correlations between specific strengths and weaknesses and the outcome of the interview.

Flexibility is the most significant character identified, having the strongest bearing on the likelihood of applicant selection.

Interviewers agree on positive characters and skills more in accepted applicants.