the "would you like our adcom to know anything else about you" question.

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tachyon34

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This has probably been asked before, but i couldn't find it via search.

Just curious as to how many of you guys actually respond to these questions and what you guys tend to put on them.

It seems pretty open-ended and I'm not really sure what to put if anything at all for fear of adding fluff.

Has anybody gotten interviews after submitting secondaries w/ basically blank essay (meaning blank optional essays)? e.g schools like Wash U / drexel/ saint louis where the only essay is the open-ended optional one)
 
Hah! That sounds familiar. I actually had that one asked to me in my interview. Basically I just said I wanted them to express how genuinely I wanted to come to their school. (I mean, I actually do, that wasn't a lie haha) I even said something about how I would "turn down an acceptance" and some "big name" school or something to get my point across. I guess just try and say something genuine and honest. I think buttering them up a bit couldn't hurt 😀 Good luck!
 
Yikes! I left it blank for Drexel. Am I screwed?
 
lol no, you aren't screwed. As long as you were honest everywhere else on the application then you are ok. That's really all you can do. Trust me, these addcoms see through BS in about 0.02 seconds. Just try and keep the faith and be confident!
 
bump to this old thread. can we come to some kind of a conclusion here? I'd really like to hear from LizzyM and Catalystik (the adcoms).

I mean...i guess it depends on personal opinion, but i feel like it's not "terrible" that applicants put something there...even if it's fluff. it shows that the applicant is trying and not lazy. on the other hand, i'm torn btwn
1. putting a normal essay on why i want to go to the school that all the other applicants who are trying to prove they've been to the website have written
or
2. adding a probably better and more unique essay on culture, background, hobbies, or grades

btw, what gpa would you need to have before you felt the need to address them? thanksssss
 
I agree with the first posts, I would probably use this to close with some genuine form of "This is my top choice" without being trite.
 
KLycos said:
I agree with the first posts, I would probably use this to close with some genuine form of "This is my top choice" without being trite.
Click to expand...

I was thinking this too...but then again, isn't the question saying "about you" so would talking about how much I want to go to the school really fit in this section? Maybe I'm reading too much into it...
 
I always thought its main purpose was to allow applicants with unusual/unfortunate/disadvantaged situations in their life which caused aberrations in their academic/personal records to explain their circumstances...OR if there is something else special or extraordinary about you that doesn't fit neatly into the application. But I guess now pretty much everyone tries to use it as just another opportunity to sell yourself. Not sure if this essay will really make or break your application since they already have so much info about you. Personal preference really.
 
The experience section doesn't provide much space to describe activities and the personal statement is about "why medicine" so this is another opportunity to describe yourself with fewer constraints on length.

What if you approached it as a letter of recommendation about yourself?

Another approach would be to use it to describe a formative childhood experience that didn't fit in your essay -- not necessarily a hardship but maybe how much you grew through the challenges experienced on a back country camping trip in HS, or how many different grade schools you attended (or countries you lived in) while your dad serve in the military or what you learned about customer service thanks to your parents' small business.

If it is a hard-core research-focused school and you've been engaged in research, you might open with a sentence that you have been in the [PI name] lab since [date] and then go on to describe the type of research being done there, what techniques are being used and what your role has been in the work and what the results have been and how those have been publicized (presentations, publications). If there is a clinical relevance to the work (e.g. understanding liver regeneration in zebrafish may make it possible to better understand fatty liver disease in humans) then you might work that in, too.
 
LizzyM said:
The experience section doesn't provide much space to describe activities and the personal statement is about "why medicine" so this is another opportunity to describe yourself with fewer constraints on length.

What if you approached it as a letter of recommendation about yourself?

Another approach would be to use it to describe a formative childhood experience that didn't fit in your essay -- not necessarily a hardship but maybe how much you grew through the challenges experienced on a back country camping trip in HS, or how many different grade schools you attended (or countries you lived in) while your dad serve in the military or what you learned about customer service thanks to your parents' small business.

If it is a hard-core research-focused school and you've been engaged in research, you might open with a sentence that you have been in the [PI name] lab since [date] and then go on to describe the type of research being done there, what techniques are being used and what your role has been in the work and what the results have been and how those have been publicized (presentations, publications). If there is a clinical relevance to the work (e.g. understanding liver regeneration in zebrafish may make it possible to better understand fatty liver disease in humans) then you might work that in, too.
Click to expand...

This is such a helpful post! I've been wondering myself the same thing for a while, and now I exactly know what I should write about. Thanks!

Btw, such a helpful post is a little stranger coming from someone with a Sue Sylvester avatar.. she wouldn't be helpful at all hahaha
 
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Flamen04 said:
This is such a helpful post! I've been wondering myself the same thing for a while, and now I exactly know what I should write about. Thanks!

Btw, such a helpful post is a little stranger coming from someone with a Sue Sylvester avatar.. she wouldn't be helpful at all hahaha
Click to expand...

You are my Cheerios!
 
LizzyM said:
The experience section doesn't provide much space to describe activities and the personal statement is about "why medicine" so this is another opportunity to describe yourself with fewer constraints on length.

What if you approached it as a letter of recommendation about yourself?

Another approach would be to use it to describe a formative childhood experience that didn't fit in your essay -- not necessarily a hardship but maybe how much you grew through the challenges experienced on a back country camping trip in HS, or how many different grade schools you attended (or countries you lived in) while your dad serve in the military or what you learned about customer service thanks to your parents' small business.

If it is a hard-core research-focused school and you've been engaged in research, you might open with a sentence that you have been in the [PI name] lab since [date] and then go on to describe the type of research being done there, what techniques are being used and what your role has been in the work and what the results have been and how those have been publicized (presentations, publications). If there is a clinical relevance to the work (e.g. understanding liver regeneration in zebrafish may make it possible to better understand fatty liver disease in humans) then you might work that in, too.
Click to expand...

Hm... I was almost set on leaving these blank (because I felt that anything I write in addition would be fluff space-filler) but now you got me thinking again!!

I am not applying to MD-PhD programs but do have significant full-time research experience (and will be applying to some research-oriented schools). However, I already did briefly mention the project I'm working on and a whole slew of things I learned in both the personal statement and part of my "most meaningful activities." Do you think it would significantly add to my application to talk about the details of research work even more? I wasn't sure if adcoms reading would be familiar with the specific techniques or the detailed science behind it, and I didn't want to bore anyone or make them feel like they had to google up things to understand my essay...
 
luckyducky87 said:
I wasn't sure if adcoms reading would be familiar with the specific techniques or the detailed science behind it, and I didn't want to bore anyone or make them feel like they had to google up things to understand my essay...
Click to expand...

I've had this question too. When asked to describe our research, how much knowledge are we assuming our audience has? When I describe my duties, it will inevitably contain techniques most aren't familiar with. And I would obviously explain my project much differently to a Dev Bio prof than I would an English prof...

:idea:
 
strawberifields said:
I've had this question too. When asked to describe our research, how much knowledge are we assuming our audience has? When I describe my duties, it will inevitably contain techniques most aren't familiar with. And I would obviously explain my project much differently to a Dev Bio prof than I would an English prof...

:idea:
Click to expand...

no english profs will read your app.
 
Good thing I left one of my ECs off my primary for this.
 
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