secondaries

My approach to secondaries has been, write a sensible draft, have one or two people I trust read over, make some adjustments, and if I still feel good enough a few days later I would submit. I think there’s diminishing returns to over editing and writing too many drafts for every secondary...

Hey everyone, I’m applying for the 2021 cycle and when I did my AMCAS app, I selected “no” when asked if i believed I was a disadvantaged student. To my surprise, AAMC designated me as disadvantaged when my app was verified. Although I am a first-generation American born to immigrant...

Hi there, I am working through secondaries right now and am curious about other perspectives on whether to acknowledge or not acknowledge C grades? I have already submitted one essay from a school that specifically asked to comment on any STEM grades below a "B" so I feel like I have a good...

I.e. Yale has a section on its secondary application to upload abstracts, a resume, etc. I want to send in the abstract of a paper where I am a co-author. How would I go about doing so? Can I simply upload a word document file with a copy and pasted version of the abstract? What is the norm...

Hello, I am stumped when trying to decide if I qualify as a first-generation student based on how some of the secondary questions are written. My situation is that my father has some college, but no degree, and my mother got her associate's degree this past year, after previously having no...

I'm trying to figure out what to write for my adversity/challenge essay on secondaries. The biggest thing that happened this year was that I started a treatment for a medical problem that caused a lot of mood changes. It's mostly fixed now, and I think I learned a lot from it (learning a lot...

Hi there! I'm attempting to pre-write a secondary for the question: "Describe the effect that your experiences with engaging diversity have had on your own growth and development. Provide an example and describe how it will impact your career in the medical profession." I'm wondering if y'all...

I am thinking of addressing the adversity/challenge prompt with one or more from the following topics: The immigrant experience, overcoming language and cultural barriers. I had a unique upbringing in that I was born in China, my family moved to Japan when I was six, moved back to China after...

Hi everyone! So I'm pre-writing secondaries. Should I mention that I'm third author on a manuscript that has been submitted to a journal? Or do they only care about papers that have already been published?

For secondaries that ask question in the vein of "how do you plan to impact medicine in the future?" I feel like as a pre-med I am still limited in my knowledge of the medical landscape, and although I have a lot of clinical and non-clinical experience, I find myself stumbling to find concrete...

I've submitted quite a few DO secondaries, but I'm taking the MCAT in July. Which schools, if any, will be interviewing before receiving MCAT scores?

The med school application process is truly a marathon. Just when you’re feeling relief after submitting your primary application, it’s time to shift focus to your secondaries. While your primary application was largely focused on your fit for medical school in a more general sense, the...

Hi all, Here is what I am thinking about writing and I would greatly appreciate feedback. I have read on here that immigrant diversity essays are very common but I wanted to see if mine made a case to be unique. I moved to the US when I was 7 from the middle east and did not know any English...

Hi all, First, please don't quote any more than you need to. This is all kind of personal, so I'd like to be able to go back and edit/remove what people see if for whatever reason I feel it's necessary (although I've made sure not to include anything that I couldn't live with if a troll decided...

I grew up in a very Catholic, southern household, and both my parents came from rural areas. I have no ill feelings towards Christianity or towards rural areas, and wouldn't change anything about myself or where I grew up. I feel like my orientation and the experiences I've had because of it...

Hi all, I have a retail fraud misdemeanor from high school that will be expunged so I don’t have to report in primary. I’m wondering which schools’ secondaries don’t ask about criminal histories and misdemeanors. Mainly I’m trying to narrow down my school list. I’ll still apply to schools that...

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Hi everyone! I'm struggling to pick the topic I should write about for the standard 'diversity' essay. I'm between a "safe" option that may sound cliché or something that's unique, but a little bit riskier? I'd really appreciate any feedback. My first option, talking about growing in a...

Pardon my novice question, I know one should always check beforehand before applying, but I was wondering when applying to US MD/DO Schools, if an applicant were not to meet the pre-requisites for entry, would they ever still proceed to the secondaries round? Anyone here know of what MD/DO...

Hi all, I've really appreciated the feedback I've received from this community thus far, and I was hoping for insight once again. I’m struggling to figure out whether my diversity essay topic is appropriate. It seems more interesting than talking about my time being a high school oboist or...

Hi everyone! I'm a current M1 working with our LGBTQ+ student group and some faculty on revamping our secondary app. For the first time last year we asked about LGBTQ+ identities (1 q about sexual orientation, another about gender identity), both with several options (I don't know specifics, but...

Hello! I am new to posting on sdn but have been browsing forums throughout this whole application process. I am almost done all of my secondaries but have been struggling with the basic diversity essay. I completed undergrad in the US but I am not a US resident/citizen and are planning to do med...

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I've sent secondaries to all of my schools earlier this month, and 3 of my research papers (2 primaries, 1 secondary authorship) have been accepted for publication. Is this reason to reach out right now to schools accepting updates? Any help would be much appreciated!

I'm terrified. I'm in this alone, and I feel like I don't have enough community service hours! Rural and Underserved birthplace and residence. West Virginia Degree: Chemistry, State University MCAT: 512 GPA: 3.68 BCPM, 4.0 AO, 3.77 Total Clinical Volunteer: 104 hours at hospital, but counting on...

So I have 1 "W" on my transcript from dropping out of calculus based physics to just taking the algebra based. My reasoning isn't that great in the medical school eyes, as I was just basically getting lost in the math and didn't feel like I was learning that well, so I wanted to focus more on...

Hey guys, One of the questions for UTSW's MSTP secondary is: If you wish, please describe major hardships or adversity you have overcome to reach this point in your life (if none, please state “none”). I was wondering if I could reuse my hardship essay topic from my TMDSAS primary...

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Hello everyone! What is your approach to answering this question for secondaries and/or interviews? I personally struggle with selling myself, and have no idea how to even start to answer this question

Since the number of secondary applications that you receive can be overwhelming, you may be tempted to take a few shortcuts. Some shortcuts are warranted while others are just too risky to consider using. To ensure that you are one of the “lucky” few who receive a medical school interview, avoid...

One of the most popular secondary questions asked by medical schools is “why our program?” Saying why you’re attracted to a particular school can be a hard thing to explain, especially when you’ve looked at so many programs that they’ve all begun to blur. I think that’s why I so often see the...

Hey guys, I'm applying this coming cycle and was brainstorming a couple ideas for the failure/unsuccessful experience secondary essays. I have two ideas I've kinda narrowed down to: Talk about my tutoring experience and how I failed to get through to one of my first students and motivate/help...

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Use the following strategies to get organized and to help you write better secondary essays. Taking the time to think about how you will approach your secondaries can give you the “big picture” perspective you need to do your best work. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, trying a new approach can...

I am a white female, but I think I have been exposed to slightly different environment than applicants with a similar profile to me. They are all related to blue collar, low middle class income: 1. Deep understanding of how addiciton impacts every aspect of life: my brother battled alcohol...

After you have submitted your primary application, the real fun begins! Depending on how many schools you are applying to and the number of school systems, it can be challenging to keep track of all of your secondary applications and deadlines. To help you get organized, I’m sharing a...

For the diversity question: I was raised Jewish and still practice Judaism but I went to a catholic high school because it was much better then my public high school and I wanted to go, we took religious study classes and I routinely went to masses, was taught by nuns and brothers and their was...

Who, on this list, is considered URM? Black/African American Hispanic/Latino Native American Hawaiian Asian White (European Descent) White (Middle Eastern Descent) What do you guys think?

Hey guys, So I was just accused of plagiarizing a summary of a research article. This research article had a lot of scientific terms that could not be changed and I did paraphrase a lot of the aims and discussion to summarize. Apparently I misunderstood the assignment and we were supposed to go...