Completing your American Medical College Application Service application is the tip of the iceberg when crafting a complete application for medical school. Despite how satisfactory it may feel to submit that initial application, you still have admissions work ahead in the form of secondary applications.
Each medical school will have its own secondary application, and each of these will typically have additional essays. For the average applicant applying to multiple programs, secondary applications can involve a great deal of summer writing.
[Discover six tips for successfully completing med school secondary applications.]
The good news about secondary application essays, however, is that many of their prompts feature the same themes. This means that it is possible to begin crafting these important essays even before you see the specific topics.
Here are three tips for getting started on your secondary application essays before you receive your first prompt.
1. Review your primary essays for overlap: Medical schools provide secondary essay prompts because they are interested in learning about you — beyond what you have already discussed in your primary application. Retelling a story that you included in your primary statement, no matter how compelling, is unlikely to yield phenomenal results when admissions committees read your secondary essays.
Avoid this trap by revisiting your primary application before you receive your secondary application prompts. Take careful note of those activities that you have already expanded upon in the “Work and Activities” AMCAS section, and be sure to avoid them in later essays.
Furthermore, do not write a secondary essay that is an extension of your original personal statement. Your secondary essays should feature topics that are completely separate from your primary statement.
A great rule of thumb when deciding which experiences you have already adequately covered in your primary application is to determine how many words you have spent describing them. If you have dedicated more than 100 words to a topic, chances are it isn’t suitable for your secondary essays.
[Find out what to include in medical school application secondary essays.]
2. Identify experiences for secondary essays: As important as it is for you to note which experiences have been adequately covered in your primary application, it is equally important to identify those meaningful experiences that you did not have room to cover.
Which experiences — perhaps listed in your “Work and Activities” section — would best illustrate an ability or attribute that you have yet to expand upon? While you may have spent significant time talking about your research interests, have you overlooked a volunteer position at a local clinic that you held for several years while in college?
Remember that medical schools want well-rounded candidates, so pay attention to those activities outside of academics and research that might highlight a quality or interest that particularly suits you to a helping profession.
[Learn how to sharpen last-minute secondary medical school applications.]
3. Prepare with multiple resources: Many medical schools ask similar types of questions on their secondary applications. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the kinds of diversity you would bring to a medical school class and a description of one significant nonacademic and nonmedical activity in which you have participated.
While it is inadvisable to have canned answers to each of these questions, you should seek guidance regarding the points you should include in your best answers. This is a good way to prepare for writing within these common themes.
Approach your premedical adviser or a current medical student for help identifying personal attributes that would stand out in each of these essay themes. You might even want to consult internet resources to identify what kinds of prompts specific schools have used in the past, as well as what successful candidates covered in their essays.
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Proactively Prepare for Medical School Secondary Essays originally appeared on usnews.com
