One of the key components of the medical school application is the secondary application — also referred to as the supplemental application.
Unlike the primary application, which comes from a centralized application service, each medical school has its own secondary application with a series of focused questions aimed at learning more about prospective students.
Dealing with medical school secondary applications can be overwhelming — you’re expected to complete them on time, but they can easily pile up. Here are tips to help you tackle the secondary applications.
[Get more tips on applying to medical school.]
1. Make a plan: Put together a spreadsheet with a list of all medical schools you have received secondaries from in one column and the application deadlines in a second column.
Then, prioritize schools based on their application deadline, how time-consuming their secondary application is and where the institution ranks in your short list of schools. This systematic approach can make the secondary application process more efficient.
[Find out what to include in medical school application secondary essays.]
2. Develop an outline: Before writing the secondary essays, take time to carefully think about the points you plan to cover in each response and develop an outline.
For example, if a secondary essay prompt asks you to explain why you wish to attend the medical school, start by writing down your reasons, such as the school’s strong curriculum, diverse clinical opportunities and availability of research electives.
Once you have a list, go through and expand on each point. This exercise will make the writing process more efficient and ensure that your responses are well-organized.
3. Answer the question directly: Pay careful attention to what each question is asking. Unlike the personal statement, most secondary essay prompts are not open-ended. They ask specific questions and expect applicants to give a direct answer.
Take this secondary essay prompt, for example: “How will you contribute diversity to our student body?”
One common mistake applicants make with this question is to digress and write an open-ended response about their past experiences related to diversity. While it is appropriate to allude to previous experiences to show that you can bring diversity to the school, this should not be the bulk of your response.
Instead, focus primarily on how you would use your past experiences to contribute diversity to the school as a future medical student.
[Be sure to highlight diversity when applying to medical school.]
4. Be careful about copying and pasting: Many secondary application essay questions sound similar. As a result, you may be tempted to copy a response from one application and paste it into another.
If you use one response for another application with a similar but not identical prompt, make sure you modify your response to answer the new prompt as accurately as possible.
Further, if the second prompt gives you more space than the application from which you copied, expand on your original response. The more space a secondary prompt gives you, the more you are expected to write.
5. Be consistent: When you present a consistent narrative throughout the application, you present yourself as an applicant who has carefully reflected on the decision to pursue medicine. In other words, what you say in your secondary applications should match what you have said in your personal statement and what you will say during the interview.
If your reasons for wanting to pursue medicine or your future career plans are inconsistent in the personal statement and secondary application, admissions committees may question your conviction.
6. Don’t be overly critical: It is often said that perfect is the enemy of good. This is certainly true when it comes to medical school secondary applications.
It’s tempting to approach each secondary with the same scrutiny as you did your personal statement. But given the number of secondaries you’ll need to complete, the limited time you’ll have to do so and the importance of submitting them early, don’t get too caught up in each.
As a general rule, we recommend going through two drafts for every secondary application. Respond to each secondary essay prompt, review your response one to two days later, make edits as necessary and then submit.
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6 Tips for Successfully Completing Med School Secondary Applications originally appeared on usnews.com
