After submitting your primary application to all the schools you're interested, you have to be patient and wait for the schools to send you a secondary application. Almost every single school you've applied to will send you a secondary application and honestly, it's kind of a money making business for these schools. However, the secondary application is extremely important. A secondary application is where the school asks you their own questions. These questions are usually in paragraph form. Medical schools are looking for very specific answers when they send you these essays. Note, some questions might be similar between universities but in my experience, they have never been the same. You can adapt some essays to fit but there will be a good amount of essay writing included so be prepared!
One of the most common questions that is asked among these applications is how do you plan on bringing diversity to the school. When answering this, you always want to put it in terms of HOW YOU WILL HELP YOUR FELLOW PEERS. Simply saying your a different ethnicity than the majority will not be sufficient. However, you can connect your ethnicity to a different view on a medical subject matter or etc. You could also talk about your different interests and how you would expose your peers to it. Basically, always answer this question considering how you will impact your peers.
Another common question is why are you applying to this certain school. To properly answer this question, you must research background knowledge about this school. Look at the mission statement, their values, new innovations they've brought into their school, investments, and etc. You want to include all of these into your answer to show the school that you actually did your homework and your interests match. Not only will this impress the admission officers but it will also give you more knowledge about each school when deciding which acceptance offer to choose.
Another common question is tell us one thing unique about yourself that isn't medically related. Let me repeat myself, THAT ISNT MEDICALLY RELATED. Do not attempt to connect this unique thing to medicine; it will instantly turn off the school. This is where schools want to see your true personality and see qualities you might possess. For example, I wrote about how I love traveling and exploring new cultures. This correlates with being able to adapt and a thirst for knowledge which are 2 important qualities a medical student must possess but I did not directly state it; it can be assumed.
Other common questions include: experience that led to self growth, future plans in medicine, leadership, and problem solving scenarios. Once again, do not try to always connect these prompts to medical related scenarios unless they specifically ask for it (such as the future plans question) because that will only bore the admission officers and decrease your chances. Always try to be exciting and fresh with your ideas. For my experience of self growth, I talked about improving public speaking. For the future plans in medicine, I talked about my interest in policy making. For leadership, I talked about my summer research fellowship. For problem solving, I talked about the Detroit Tutoring project I participated in and how I had to adapt to each student I taught.
One important thing to keep in mind is that the more concise your answer is, the better. Don't add fluff just to get to the word limit; admission officers appreciate short and concise answers as opposed to longer and fluffier answers. However, if you are concise and hit the word limit, do not worry. Just make sure you're not writing to fulfill the limit.
Furthermore, remember to ALWAYS BE HONEST. If you do get an interview, they WILL ASK YOU about your secondary essays and for specific details. If you lied and aren't prepared, they will immediately be able to tell and you'll be heavily marked down. Just be HONEST.
The earlier you send in your secondary application, the better chance you have of the admission officers viewing your application first so get them out as fast as you can! The recommended time is 1 week but I would say get them out in a few days if possible.
If you want to see an example of a secondary application essay I wrote or want me to read over your essays, contact me!
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