Every medical school will likely send you multiple secondaries. If you apply to 10 schools and each has 2-3 secondary essays and depending on when you get sent these secondaries, you might find a flood of secondary deadlines. The goal of writing the three basic secondary essays that I’ve shared below is to avoid writing so many unique, new essays. Rather, you want to write the core of the essay first, and then tailor it to the school. This will save you a lot of time and energy. Ideally, you want to start writing these after submitting your primary application and while waiting to be verified.
Three Most Common Medical School Secondary Prompts
The following three prompts will come up the most often – each school will word the prompt a bit differently, but they all try to get to these core questions:
- Why are you applying to this school?
- How do you add diversity to this school?
- Which is a challenge you’ve overcome?
By writing these prompts to address these core topics, you can then “recycle” them to each school. When you receive the secondaries from the schools, make sure you review the school’s specific prompt carefully and address each component of their question(s).
I will delve into some ways I recommend my tutees to address the prompts above.
“Why this School?”
Schools are looking for candidates who “fit” in their schools and demonstrate an interest in attending their institutions. To stand out using this essay, you need to integrate your qualities, experiences, and goals with the school’s mission, program, and resources. Don’t just tell the school that they are great. Tell them how you fit into their school and how you plan to contribute and learn at their institution.
Here are some prompts from various schools
FSM: Given the distinctive educational philosophy and curriculum at FSM, describe how your personal characteristics and learning style would fit the institution.
Mount Sinai: Please describe how the characteristics of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s program with help you to achieve your career goals
Research the school
Do research on the school’s mission, extracurricular activities, free clinics, curriculum so you can personalize your essay to them. Understand what they care about. If they have a huge emphasis on serving rural populations, talk about what you’ve done and how you want to integrate your rural medicine interests to contribute to the school and further develop your skills there. Research using the website, current student or alumni information, etc
Share how the school’s resources will help you achieve your goals as a medical trainee and future doctor
Once you receive the specific secondary, double-check to make sure you are answering all components of the essay prompt and modify if needed. Make sure to check for careless mistakes like leaving in School X name in when you’re applying to School Y.
Answering the “Adding Diversity” Essay
“How will you add diversity to our school” is a common prompt you’ll see in the secondaries you receive. The admission committee will read thousands of essays during the application season and they are looking to build a diverse student body. Here, I will outline how you can make yourself stand out!
Here are some prompts from various schools
UChicago: Our Mission Statement above is an expression of our core purpose and educational philosophy. In particular, it highlights the value we place on diversity since we regard the diversity of the entering class as essential for educational excellence. Please write an essay on how you would enhance diversity at Pritzker and advance the Pritzker mission.
Stanford: The Committee on Admissions regards the diversity (broadly defined) of an entering class as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the school. The Committee on Admissions strongly encourages you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as the quality of your early educational environment, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and life or work experiences. Please discuss how such factors have influenced your goals and preparation for a career in medicine.
Northwestern: If you wish, use this space to provide more detail about your selections above and how you would bring diversity to the Northwestern community.
OHSU: Please discuss the diversity that you would bring to the OHSU School of Medicine and the profession of medicine.
Brainstorm a list of topics
To begin addressing this prompt, I’ve provided a list of topics to help you brainstorm what to write about:
-Ethnocultural or socioeconomic background
-Immigration and assimilation experience
-Values that family instilled in you
-Health disparities
-Experiences and pursuits related to diversity, social justice, etc.
-Cultural awareness and competency such as through multicultural interactions
– Commitment to service
-Visions and goals
-Early educational environment
-Socioeconomic status
-Gender, sexual orientation, gender identity
-Unique life or work experiences
Illustrate the topic through an engaging experience/story
Use an engaging experience/story to illustrate your topic. Remember that your reader will be going through multiple essays. You want to keep their attention and make yourself memorable. Also, make sure to highlight the qualities you want the committee to know. Also talk about how you plan to apply these lessons and experiences in your medical training and career?
Lastly, Once you receive the specific secondary, double-check to make sure you are answering all components of the essay prompt and modify if needed.
General approach to writing the “Challenge essay”
The general format I suggest is “I have done this volunteering/work because I am passionate” and then follow up with “Given X opportunity at this school, I want to continue this work.” Notice how I am integrating my experience and passion into the school’s resources.
You will inevitably encounter situational, personal, and academic challenges during medical school. Schools want to know how you apply learned experiences in your life, reflect on challenges, resolve issues, and cope with stress.
Here are some prompts from various schools
Vanderbilt: Please discuss a challenging situation or obstacle you have faced in the past. Why was it challenging? How did you handle it? Knowing what you know now, would you do anything differently? What did you learn?
UChicago: Tell us about a difficult or challenging situation you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills you called upon to resolve the dilemma and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice.
University of Illinois-Chicago: Describe a situation in which you were really stressed. Tell us how you dealt with it. Please detail your reaction(s), and how it affected you. If this situation, or a similar one, were to happen again, how would you handle it?
Notice that each prompt gets to the same core topic, which is asking you to describe how you overcame a challenging situation. Also notice that they have different components – for example, UChicago specifically asks you to identify coping skills and support people. On the other hand, the University of Illinois-Chicago asked to detail your reaction.
Describe the Challenging situation
First, write a general essay that addresses the common question which is describing the challenging situation. Once you receive the secondary, make sure your essay addresses it and modify/tailor it to address any other parts of their prompt.
Describe/illustrate the challenging situation or obstacle. Choose a situation that demonstrated your growth and maturity
Explain how you approached it and what you learned
Reflect on what you learned. You can definitely acknowledge that it’s a work in progress. And end on a positive note
For each school, make sure you double-check to make sure each component of the prompt is answered; if not, add that really quickly!
Additional Essays to prepare (once you write the three above)
These are likely to come up less often. Therefore, write the above essays first and then write prompts for the following
1. Please tell us a situation in which working collaboratively with others was challenging.
2. Please feel free to use this space to convey any additional information that you might wish the Committee to know.
3. Describe a hobby or activity other than something in medicine, in which you have a keen interest. Why?
In summary, get a head start on secondary essays after submitting your primary application. It’s also important to be efficient with the essays you start writing during this period. You want to start preparing essays for topics that schools are most likely to ask.
I hope that you found this post helpful. Good luck!!
Suggested Readings:
18 Important Medical School Interviews Questions
How to Successfully Prepare for Your Medical School Interview
