2022-2023 Virginia Tech (Carilion)

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Thank you to @wannabeamedstudent for sharing this year's questions!

2022-2023 Virginia Tech Carilion Secondary Essay Prompts (completely changed from last year's questions)
600 word limit each

A. From the following list of human qualities, choose the ONE you think is most important and explain your choice: intelligence, honor, humility, perseverance, optimism.
B. What advice would you give someone your age but from a different culture who is new to our country?
C. What do you think your chances of being accepted into medical school are this year? Please explain your answer.
D. Please describe something you deserved but didn’t get and how you felt about it.

Good luck to everyone applying!

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Received notification of app submission at 1:16 PST.
 
OOS acknowledgement received :')
 
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IS Secondary Received. All essays 600 words @wysdoc
A. From the following list of human qualities, choose the ONE you think is most important and explain your choice: intelligence, honor, humility, perseverance, optimism.
B. What advice would you give someone your age but from a different culture who is new to our country?
C. What do you think your chances of being accepted into medical school are this year? Please explain your answer.
D. Please describe something you deserved but didn’t get and how you felt about it.
 
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Thanks for posting these. Questions C&D are honestly kind of concerning to me, I don't know how to answer them without sounding full of myself yikes
 
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+1 IS Secondary, wonder why they decided to drastically change the prompts this year?
 
OOS secondary received. These prompts are intimidating.
 
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OOS, 3.13 GPA, 3.65 sGPA, 523 MCAT, secondary received today. Seems their GPA screen is pretty low
 
wannabeamedstudent said:
IS Secondary Received. All essays 600 words @wysdoc
A. From the following list of human qualities, choose the ONE you think is most important and explain your choice: intelligence, honor, humility, perseverance, optimism.
B. What advice would you give someone your age but from a different culture who is new to our country?
C. What do you think your chances of being accepted into medical school are this year? Please explain your answer.
D. Please describe something you deserved but didn’t get and how you felt about it.
Click to expand...
Anyone got any tips or advice on how to answer prompt C "What do you think your chances of being accepted into medical school are this year? Please explain your answer." ?
 
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OOS secondary received at 1032 AM EST. These prompts are whack lol no clue how I am gonna answer C
 
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OOS received but these questions lmfao
 
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I'm sure this has been asked before, but for essays like this where the limit is 600 words, is it recommended to be closer to the word limit? Or is it okay if you're able to provide a good answer in ~300 or so words?
 
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The_JLK said:
OOS, 3.13 GPA, 3.65 sGPA, 523 MCAT, secondary received today. Seems their GPA screen is pretty low
Click to expand...
Probably specifically to catch people like you. That's a hell of an MCAT.
 
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FiletFrenzy said:
I'm sure this has been asked before, but for essays like this where the limit is 600 words, is it recommended to be closer to the word limit? Or is it okay if you're able to provide a good answer in ~300 or so words?
Click to expand...
I'm wondering the same thing. How do I write 600 words on why one human quality is more important than 4 others? These prompts are killer
 
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1nygiantsfan said:
Anyone got any tips or advice on how to answer prompt C "What do you think your chances of being accepted into medical school are this year? Please explain your answer." ?
Click to expand...
I'm a re-applicant (got overwhelmed with secondaries 2 cycles ago and didn't even submit VTC like a dummy), so I'm going to focus on the parts my application that I strengthened since the last time I applied, as well as the most unique aspects of my application that set me apart as a great applicant.
 
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FiletFrenzy said:
I'm sure this has been asked before, but for essays like this where the limit is 600 words, is it recommended to be closer to the word limit? Or is it okay if you're able to provide a good answer in ~300 or so words?
Click to expand...

Quality > quantity
 
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In answering the "what are your chances" question, is there some sort of consensus about how to approach this in terms of the direct answer to the question? Like is everyone going with a number like "I believe I have an X% chance of being accepted" or more of a broad thing of "I believe I have an excellent/good/bad chance of being accepted"
 
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meerkat__ said:
In answering the "what are your chances" question, is there some sort of consensus about how to approach this in terms of the direct answer to the question? Like is everyone going with a number like "I believe I have an X% chance of being accepted" or more of a broad thing of "I believe I have an excellent/good/bad chance of being accepted"
Click to expand...
I said favorable lmao. Neutral-positive????
 
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meerkat__ said:
In answering the "what are your chances" question, is there some sort of consensus about how to approach this in terms of the direct answer to the question? Like is everyone going with a number like "I believe I have an X% chance of being accepted" or more of a broad thing of "I believe I have an excellent/good/bad chance of being accepted"
Click to expand...
I'm basically saying that I worked hard to craft a strong application and hope that a program will recognize my potential lol. Too passive?
 
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gasstationsushi said:
I'm basically saying that I worked hard to craft a strong application and hope that a program will recognize my potential lol. Too passive?
Click to expand...
As a reapplicant, this is what I'm saying. I don't think it's too cynical, it's honest!
 
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RubMcDub said:
As a reapplicant, this is what I'm saying. I don't think it's too cynical, it's honest!
Click to expand...
I'm a reapplicant too, just not at VTC! It makes this prompt tricky because I can't talk about how much I've strengthened my application since my last cycle, but it's definitely what's keeping me from saying anything with too much certainty. Nothing is guaranteed in this process so all we can do is be honest.
 
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gasstationsushi said:
I'm a reapplicant too, just not at VTC! It makes this prompt tricky because I can't talk about how much I've strengthened my application since my last cycle, but it's definitely what's keeping me from saying anything with too much certainty. Nothing is guaranteed in this process so all we can do is be honest.
Click to expand...
I would use this as an opportunity to reinforce why you're going to be a great doctor. Tell them, yes, you think you have an excellent chance of being accepted to medical school this year and here's why. And then sell yourself.
 
trying to pay but I keep getting a blank screen when I press proceed to payment...anyone else having this issue?
 
If anyone was wondering I emailed the admissions office and online labs taken to fulfill their prereqs are fine if taken during COVID
 
emsea123 said:
How do I write 600 words on why one human quality is more important than 4 others?
Click to expand...
I had an epiphany about this last night. I took one of my challenge essays for another school and reworked it to explain how my chosen quality had helped me navigate the situation more successfully than the other qualities would have. I talked about the qualities more generically as well, but once I had an example from my own life I quickly reached the word limit.
 
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emsea123 said:
I'm wondering the same thing. How do I write 600 words on why one human quality is more important than 4 others? These prompts are killer
Click to expand...
I actually got closer to the 600 word count in this essay than I did on any of the other prompts. I pretty much discussed how the quality I chose has been pertinent in my life and how I have seen it play a role in the lives of others and then finished by discussing its importance for medical students and practicing physicians.
 
fahmy said:
I actually got closer to the 600 word count in this essay than I did on any of the other prompts. I pretty much discussed how the quality I chose has been pertinent in my life and how I have seen it play a role in the lives of others and then finished by discussing its importance for medical students and practicing physicians.
Click to expand...
In the end, I ended up at 600 words by taking a similar approach to you!
 
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I wrote no more than 300 words for each essay so nobody feel bad if you didn't hit 600 lol
 
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To be honest, I don't know! The WARS score takes into account multiple different EC factors in addition to GPA and MCAT, which makes it more comprehensive. You can read more about it and try it out here: Wedgedawg's Applicant Rating System. I personally found the WARS score to be much more helpful to use as a starting point when formulating my school list. I guess stay tuned to see if it works lol
 
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Lol just realized they recommended submitting secondary within 2 weeks. Welp that's passed for me
 
sdoh_junkie said:
Same... is it worth it to still submit? I haven't started writing for these obnoxious essays.
Click to expand...
Yes, your odds of getting in are zero percent if you don't submit. Take your time, but submitting is better than not submitting.
 
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HauntingDevil_0776 said:
Lol just realized they recommended submitting secondary within 2 weeks. Welp that's passed for me
Click to expand...
Where are you seeing this? I checked the email they sent for the secondary invitation and it doesn't say anything like that, just the due date in December.
 
sdoh_junkie said:
Same... is it worth it to still submit? I haven't started writing for these obnoxious essays.
Click to expand...
Same here. I'm still working on other apps that haven't passed their 2 week deadlines...since VA tech is already late for me. They do say "recommend" though, not required; and the email says "recommend responding within two weeks or before our December deadline." So I'm thinking that I'll still hand it in...just later.
 
FiletFrenzy said:
Where are you seeing this? I checked the email they sent for the secondary invitation and it doesn't say anything like that, just the due date in December.
Click to expand...
It's before the highlighted sentence in their email. They also have something like "we recommend you submit within 2-3 weeks" in their app portal
 
HauntingDevil_0776 said:
It's before the highlighted sentence in their email. They also have something like "we recommend you submit within 2-3 weeks" in their app portal
Click to expand...
My email said this: We have done a preliminary review of your academic record and standardized test scores and believe that you may be a competitive candidate. We hope that you will take the time to complete and submit our online secondary application. Our deadline for secondary application submission is December 15, 2022. Please complete and submit your secondary application as soon as possible.

and I don't see anything about 2-3 weeks in the app portal.

Either way, I'm late but I'll work on this one next haha.
 
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i think this school is the only school I applied to that still require application fee (although reduced) from those who have waivers. Makes me feel :/ about this school.
 
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