2008-2009 University of Chicago (Pritzker) Secondary Application Thread

Applying to Med School? Get In Or Your Money Back
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The open-ended essays are designed to help the Admissions Committee gain insight into you as a person. Please understand that we are interested in your personal experiences and reflections; we do not have preconceived responses in mind. Many applicants have commented that they learned a great deal about themselves in answering these questions. You must complete the questions within the character limits provided: 3500 characters for essay 3A, 2400 characters for essay 3B, including spaces. Special characters, such as quotation marks, will use more than a single space and should be used sparingly. You may paste in any reasonable font but your choice will not be reflected in the version reviewed by the Committee. We advise you to compose your essays using a word processing program, saving them as you work in the usual manner. And then, when you are ready to complete your supplemental application for submission, copy and paste them into the appropriate text boxes.

3A. At the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, we strive to identify students who will be a great "fit" with our medical school. Our Mission Statement is an expression of our core purpose and educational philosophy. Please reflect on its content and write an essay describing why you see yourself as a great "fit" for Pritzker. Please include examples of past service, community, clinical, educational, and research experiences. Please also discuss your future goals.

"At the University of Chicago, in an atmosphere of interdisciplinary scholarship and discovery, the Pritzker School of Medicine is dedicated to inspiring diverse students of exceptional promise to become leaders and innovators in science and medicine for the betterment of humanity."

3B. Tell us about a difficult or challenging situation that you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills that you called upon to resolve the dilemma, and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice.
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The open-ended essays are designed to help the Admissions Committee gain insight into you as a person. Please understand that we are interested in your personal experiences and reflections; we do not have preconceived responses in mind. Many applicants have commented that they learned a great deal about themselves in answering these questions. You must complete the questions within the character limits provided: 3500 characters for essay 3A, 2400 characters for essay 3B, including spaces. Special characters, such as quotation marks, will use more than a single space and should be used sparingly. You may paste in any reasonable font but your choice will not be reflected in the version reviewed by the Committee. We advise you to compose your essays using a word processing program, saving them as you work in the usual manner. And then, when you are ready to complete your supplemental application for submission, copy and paste them into the appropriate text boxes.

3A. At the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, we strive to identify students who will be a great "fit" with our medical school. Our Mission Statement is an expression of our core purpose and educational philosophy. Please reflect on its content and write an essay describing why you see yourself as a great "fit" for Pritzker. Please include examples of past service, community, clinical, educational, and research experiences. Please also discuss your future goals.

"At the University of Chicago, in an atmosphere of interdisciplinary scholarship and discovery, the Pritzker School of Medicine is dedicated to inspiring diverse students of exceptional promise to become leaders and innovators in science and medicine for the betterment of humanity."

3B. Tell us about a difficult or challenging situation that you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills that you called upon to resolve the dilemma, and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice.

5. Premedical Advisor If your school has a premedical committee or premedical advisor who composes a letter for each applicant from your school and you choose not to avail yourself of this service, please provide an explanation in the textbox below for your decision not to do so.

9. Additional Information Please feel free to use this space to convey any additional information that you might wish the Committee to know. There is a limit of 1000 characters including spaces.
 
Ahhh...along w/ homework for summer school, all these essays are going to start piling up!
 
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LOR question - under the LOR section, the two options are as follows:

Premedical Advisor or Letter Packet. Choose this option if your college is going to submit a premedical committee letter on your behalf, or if your premedical advisor will submit a letter on your behalf, or if your premedical advisor will submit a letter accompanied by a collection of letters by faculty and others on your behalf, or if a college or university will submit a packet of letters on your behalf.

Multiple Letters. Choose this option if you are having three faculty members submit separate letters on your behalf. If you choose this option, at least two letters should be from science faculty who have had reasonably close contact with you. It is not helpful to have letters from instructors of large classes where little more than the final grade information is provided. Faculty members with whom you worked in smaller, upper-level courses often are better able to provide you with helpful letters of evaluation.


However, under the FAQ section, it says the following:

Q. My college doesn’t have a premedical committee to write me a letter, but they will collect letters and send them as one packet. On your secondary application, do I say that is a committee letter or multiple letters?

A. You would indicate multiple letters.


This confuses me, as it seems that this would fall under the "if a college or university will submit a packet of letters on your behalf" as described on the actual secondary. Does anyone know what we should do if our premed advisers do not actually put together a committee letter, but they still put together a packet of letters and send it? I didn't know if the FAQ answer was outdated or something. Thanks.
 
if we are sending it as a packet would there be a limit...by the way, thanks shemarty for the pm...sorry i didn't check my inbox for a few weeks!
 
cetona said:
LOR question - under the LOR section, the two options are as follows:

Premedical Advisor or Letter Packet. Choose this option if your college is going to submit a premedical committee letter on your behalf, or if your premedical advisor will submit a letter on your behalf, or if your premedical advisor will submit a letter accompanied by a collection of letters by faculty and others on your behalf, or if a college or university will submit a packet of letters on your behalf.

Multiple Letters. Choose this option if you are having three faculty members submit separate letters on your behalf. If you choose this option, at least two letters should be from science faculty who have had reasonably close contact with you. It is not helpful to have letters from instructors of large classes where little more than the final grade information is provided. Faculty members with whom you worked in smaller, upper-level courses often are better able to provide you with helpful letters of evaluation.


However, under the FAQ section, it says the following:

Q. My college doesn’t have a premedical committee to write me a letter, but they will collect letters and send them as one packet. On your secondary application, do I say that is a committee letter or multiple letters?

A. You would indicate multiple letters.


This confuses me, as it seems that this would fall under the "if a college or university will submit a packet of letters on your behalf" as described on the actual secondary. Does anyone know what we should do if our premed advisers do not actually put together a committee letter, but they still put together a packet of letters and send it? I didn't know if the FAQ answer was outdated or something. Thanks.
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Uhh.... why? Read a bit closer...

If there is an added letter from the Pre-med Committee or Pre-med Advisor, you would mark the first choice. If there is only one letter from the Committee/Advisor mark the first choice.

If all they do is collect the letters and distribute, mark Multiple Letters.
 
JWLuiza said:
Uhh.... why? Read a bit closer...

If there is an added letter from the Pre-med Committee or Pre-med Advisor, you would mark the first choice. If there is only one letter from the Committee/Advisor mark the first choice.

If all they do is collect the letters and distribute, mark Multiple Letters.
Click to expand...

Actually, it says if your school submits a packet of letters for you, select the first choice. Second choice is only if your letter writers are submitting them separately.
 
costadelsol said:
Actually, it says if your school submits a packet of letters for you, select the first choice. Second choice is only if your letter writers are submitting them separately.
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Yeah, that was what confused me, because if you look in the FAQ section, it says the following, but it just seems counterintuitive to me. Maybe it is just outdated or something.

Q. My college doesn’t have a premedical committee to write me a letter, but they will collect letters and send them as one packet. On your secondary application, do I say that is a committee letter or multiple letters?

A. You would indicate multiple letters.
 
cetona said:
Yeah, that was what confused me, because if you look in the FAQ section, it says the following, but it just seems counterintuitive to me. Maybe it is just outdated or something.

Q. My college doesn’t have a premedical committee to write me a letter, but they will collect letters and send them as one packet. On your secondary application, do I say that is a committee letter or multiple letters?

A. You would indicate multiple letters.
Click to expand...

Even if you schools sends all of your letters in one packet, they are considered multiple letters. You would only consider it a premedical committee packet if you have a pre-med committee that writes their little evaluation and sends the individual letters along with it. The Q&A is pretty self-explanatory: no committee--indicate multiple letters.
 
Premedical Advisor or Letter Packet. Choose this option if your college is going to submit a premedical committee letter on your behalf, or if your premedical advisor will submit a letter on your behalf, or if your premedical advisor will submit a letter accompanied by a collection of letters by faculty and others on your behalf, or if a college or university will submit a packet of letters on your behalf.

I would select that option. Many other secondaries have had that option as well. I wouldn't trust the FAQ........ especially if you have to write each professors name in different boxes for the multiple letter option. They'll receive all the letters in 1 envelope. I'm picking Letter Packet.
 
Yeah, I got the Pritzker secondary today,
and this seems like one of those WHAT IS THIS moments.
I just want to ask some past applicants,
how do you think these essay answers swayed your application at Pritzker?
Did you actually fill up all 3500/2400 characters?
Do you think it's okay to leave about half the space empty?
 
schnauzr said:
Yeah, I got the Pritzker secondary today,
and this seems like one of those WHAT IS THIS moments.
I just want to ask some past applicants,
how do you think these essay answers swayed your application at Pritzker?
Did you actually fill up all 3500/2400 characters?
Do you think it's okay to leave about half the space empty?
Click to expand...

Yeah.
 
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Aw man, my personal challenge essay is complete... but it's 3000 characters

Also, why do people keep saying Chicago's essays are monstrous? 2 essays... 1 asking why you want to go there and another asking for a personal challenge. Seems pretty standard to me @_@
I personally find Columbia's way worse.
 
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schnauzr said:
Yeah, I got the Pritzker secondary today,
and this seems like one of those WHAT IS THIS moments.
I just want to ask some past applicants,
how do you think these essay answers swayed your application at Pritzker?
Did you actually fill up all 3500/2400 characters?
Do you think it's okay to leave about half the space empty?
Click to expand...

I used all the space given - and was accepted there last year. I thought I wrote really good essays that definitely helped me get in - they have to distinguish between candidates based on something. Their application was actually much easier to fill out than many others.

However, if you give well-written concise answers then there is no reason why you should want to use up all the characters allotted. As long as you said what you wanted to say it's fine.
 
I was really dreading the personal challenge essay, because I feel like the only adversities I have faced, I don't particularly feel like sharing with an admissions committee... But, despite that, I just sat down and wrote it, and I think it came together pretty nicely. It was actually easier than I was anticipating.

It's that first essay that really overwhelms me. That prompt is just so darn long!
 
Is anyone agonizing over the first essay as much as I am? Seems like it shouldn't be that hard, but I am really having difficulty. I have lots of stuff to say, but I can't figure out how to put it all together. :(
 
Oh just as an important warning to everybody, right before submitting I noticed that:

Pritzker does not ALLOW LINE BREAKS!

So you'll basically have 1 giant paragraph. I used symbols to separate mine though :D
Feels good to be done with this one. Moving on to the next!
 
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Druzie said:
Is anyone agonizing over the first essay as much as I am? Seems like it shouldn't be that hard, but I am really having difficulty. I have lots of stuff to say, but I can't figure out how to put it all together. :(
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I can't believe I just devoted my entire day sitting on my couch trying to write and finally eventually writing ONE of two essays for a school that just reduced their class size from 112 to 88.

And to answer your question, I guess that was a yes.
 
Kaydubz said:
I can't believe I just devoted my entire day sitting on my couch trying to write and finally eventually writing ONE of two essays for a school that just reduced their class size from 112 to 88.

And to answer your question, I guess that was a yes.
Click to expand...


I can. Makes sense. If a school accepted 5,000 out of 5,000 applicants you wouldn't need to work as hard to define yourself thru essays or to put your best image forward as when writing an essay for a school that accepted 100 out of 5,000 applicants. Such is life. Most residency programs only have 2-4 spots....think about that. Good luck with the application!
 
Kaydubz said:
I can't believe I just devoted my entire day sitting on my couch trying to write and finally eventually writing ONE of two essays...
Click to expand...

It's definitely not an easy essay to write, but I think it's critically important in getting an interview w/ Pritzker. They seemed to emphasize school/student compatibility more than any other place I visited, and that one question will probably bear more weight to the adcoms who read it than will any other question you answer this cycle. To second what EBI831 said, I think it's actually a really good thing that you just did spending so much time on the first question.
 
TigerSoup said:
It's definitely not an easy essay to write, but I think it's critically important in getting an interview w/ Pritzker. They seemed to emphasize school/student compatibility more than any other place I visited, and that one question will probably bear more weight to the adcoms who read it than will any other question you answer this cycle. To second what EBI831 said, I think it's actually a really good thing that you just did spending so much time on the first question.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Pritzker definitely emphasizes "fit" more than other schools, so the secondary essays are critically important for U.Chicago. There are plenty of high stats individuals who are not granted interviews each year, for this reason. If you really want to go to Pritzker, it really is worth it to make the extra effort for their secondary. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about their secondary.
 
Kaydubz said:
I can't believe I just devoted my entire day sitting on my couch trying to write and finally eventually writing ONE of two essays for a school that just reduced their class size from 112 to 88.

And to answer your question, I guess that was a yes.
Click to expand...

Holy eff. I didn't know they reduced their class size. Glad I didn't rush through these essays. I'm definitely going to put more work into them now... if I can get past the writer's block.

Congrats on finishing one! Good luck with the rest.
 
EBI831 said:
I can. Makes sense. If a school accepted 5,000 out of 5,000 applicants you wouldn't need to work as hard to define yourself thru essays or to put your best image forward as when writing an essay for a school that accepted 100 out of 5,000 applicants. Such is life. Most residency programs only have 2-4 spots....think about that. Good luck with the application!
Click to expand...

I guess I embraced that philosophy, though when time is a factor, I could see some people choose to put more effort in the school that accepts 1000 out of 5000 than in the school that accepts 100 out of 5000.

TigerSoup said:
It's definitely not an easy essay to write, but I think it's critically important in getting an interview w/ Pritzker. They seemed to emphasize school/student compatibility more than any other place I visited, and that one question will probably bear more weight to the adcoms who read it than will any other question you answer this cycle. To second what EBI831 said, I think it's actually a really good thing that you just did spending so much time on the first question.
Click to expand...

I got the impression (with their intro about wanting to hear our experiences and reflections) that this wasn't the typical "Why School X" essay. So I spent more time talking about me than the school. Is this a mistake?
 
Kaydubz said:
I got the impression (with their intro about wanting to hear our experiences and reflections) that this wasn't the typical "Why School X" essay. So I spent more time talking about me than the school. Is this a mistake?
Click to expand...

No, definitely not, I think you're absolutely on the right track. You do want to show that you know the basic beliefs and educational goals of the school, stuff like that, but demonstrate that understanding by saying how it relates to you/your goals/your experiences, whatever. For example, one of the things I discussed was my undergrad's thesis requirement and the positive effect that it had on my time there, and I related that back to environment offered at Pritzker. Reading your essay, I think one should be able to tell that you really know what Pritzker's all about, but the content should really be what *you* are all about and how you will fit with what Pritzker is looking to achieve through their students.
 
shemarty said:
9. Additional Information Please feel free to use this space to convey any additional information that you might wish the Committee to know. There is a limit of 1000 characters including spaces.
Click to expand...

This is an optional essay right? Do you think it looks bad to leave it blank?
 
How personal and difficult do you think these challenges need to be? Do you think it should be super personal and serious like a death in the family or major life event, or that you can just talk about a problem you had in a class or work environment?
 
scarletgirl777 said:
How personal and difficult do you think these challenges need to be? Do you think it should be super personal and serious like a death in the family or major life event, or that you can just talk about a problem you had in a class or work environment?
Click to expand...

There's no way of knowing exactly what the adcoms are looking for on an open-ended question like this, but the way they phrased it with all those side questions and the considerable space they give you, I always figured it implied a pretty difficult challenge, though it probably wouldn't *need* to be a personal thing the way that a death in the family would be, though I wouldn't think that it *shouldn't* neccessarily be that either. The thing that I would really focus on would be finding something significant enough that you really had to reach beyond your typical behavior and thinking in order to overcome and as a result gave you some valuable knowledge to take into the future. Something that you resolved but didn't retain any lasting effects from could answer the question just fine, but how much info would it really tell the adcoms about you? The more you're willing to show of your inner workings and core beliefs, the better off you'll be.
 
shemarty said:
9. Additional Information Please feel free to use this space to convey any additional information that you might wish the Committee to know. There is a limit of 1000 characters including spaces.
Click to expand...

Are any of you NOT answering this question or is everyone writing something?
 
Calf said:
Are any of you NOT answering this question or is everyone writing something?
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't mean to ignore you there, but I can't remember if I answered them or not.
 
The question seems like it was mainly geared towards people who need to explain away a bad semester or something. But I do remember there was one school that asked "If applicable, described a situation where you were in the minority" and I took that to mean they wanted to know if I felt I was a URM or a similarly disadvantaged category. Then in my interview, my interviewer called me out on not answering it and told me that it could have been answered by anyone about any situation. Didn't get in there, but there were other factors working against me too. On the other hand, I also left some optional essays on other applications unanswered and had no problems at all.
 
I'm giving more past examples for the first question and talking about why I like their curriculum in the third/optional one.
 
Is there an official deadline for this secondary? Would it be ok to submit it mid-august?
 
so I'm not the only one whose application was transformed into one big block of text? lol
 
rowerlauren said:
Yeah my five short paragraphs became one big ugly block!!! Very sad. :(
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Yeah :/ I had 3 paragraphs for the first essay. I was happy with how I transitioned from one to the next. Apparently that doesn't matter anymore.
 
Schwerbert said:
Yeah :/ I had 3 paragraphs for the first essay. I was happy with how I transitioned from one to the next. Apparently that doesn't matter anymore.
Click to expand...

I know - it's kinda silly. It seems like separate paragraphs would be more pleasant for adcoms to read than one huge block too.
 
copingmethods said:
I know - it's kinda silly. It seems like separate paragraphs would be more pleasant for adcoms to read than one huge block too.
Click to expand...

Is there any way to preview the damn thing or do you only get to see how your block of text looks after you submit?
 
Am I the first one submitted?

Rowerlauren: Submitted: 7/15, Letters rec'd: Way before 7/15, Complete: ???
 
Rowerlauren: Submitted: 7/15, Letters rec'd: Way before 7/15, Complete:
seven87: Submitted: 7/2, Letters rec'd: 7/10, Complete: 7/10
 
Rowerlauren: Submitted: 7/15, Letters rec'd: Way before 7/15, Complete:
seven87: Submitted: 7/2, Letters rec'd: 7/10, Complete: 7/10
Schwerbert: Submitted: 7/11, Letters rec'd: 7/11, Complete: 7/14
 
Rowerlauren: Submitted: 7/15, Letters rec'd: Way before 7/15, Complete:
seven87: Submitted: 7/2, Letters rec'd: 7/10, Complete: 7/10
Schwerbert: Submitted: 7/11, Letters rec'd: 7/11, Complete: 7/14
copingmethods: Submitted: 7/14, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
 
Did any of you guys insert paragraph dividers, like (P) and (/P) into your massive blocks of text? Seems like an easy way of dividing up our responses.
 
Rowerlauren: Submitted: 7/15, Letters rec'd: Before 7/15, Complete: 7/18
seven87: Submitted: 7/2, Letters rec'd: 7/10, Complete: 7/10
Schwerbert: Submitted: 7/11, Letters rec'd: 7/11, Complete: 7/14
copingmethods: Submitted: 7/14, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

And I didn't think to use computer formatting to insert paragraph divisions. I'm over it, but stupid me.
 
pazan said:
Did any of you guys insert paragraph dividers, like (P) and (/P) into your massive blocks of text? Seems like an easy way of dividing up our responses.
Click to expand...

Pleeeease let us know how that makes your final response look like (and if it works, describe exactly what you did) =D

I haven't submitted my essays yet, and one of the reasons is this whole "your essay gets clumped into one big paragraph" thing. In my opinion, having coherently separated paragraphs is a huge part of how an essay reads.
 
Kaydubz said:
Pleeeease let us know how that makes your final response look like (and if it works, describe exactly what you did) =D

I haven't submitted my essays yet, and one of the reasons is this whole "your essay gets clumped into one big paragraph" thing. In my opinion, having coherently separated paragraphs is a huge part of how an essay reads.
Click to expand...

I agree! meh
 
I was verified by AMCAS on June 15th and still haven't received this secondary. Weird, no?
 
Kaydubz said:
Pleeeease let us know how that makes your final response look like (and if it works, describe exactly what you did) =D

I haven't submitted my essays yet, and one of the reasons is this whole "your essay gets clumped into one big paragraph" thing. In my opinion, having coherently separated paragraphs is a huge part of how an essay reads.
Click to expand...

I don't think (P) and (/P) will format the text (it seems like they would tell us if there was a way to divide up the essays into paragraphs), but at least the reader will have some idea of where the paragraphs are supposed to be.
 
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