2009-2010 University of Chicago (Pritzker) Application Thread

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For Essay 3B would it be OK to write about a health problem I had in high school that really impacted me personally (this problem no longer persists), and then write about how I dealt with the problem personally? Or is this asking for something like an ethical/moral dilemma as in Pittsburgh's essay?

...by the way, this was actually legitimately a health problem that I had no control over, nothing like a mental problem or eating disorder or drug problem or anything like that.
 
...by the way, this was actually legitimately a health problem that I had no control over, nothing like a mental problem or eating disorder or drug problem or anything like that.[/QUOTE]

Mental illness is often as much out of one's control as a broken hand, leg, etc.
 
zizou232 said:
...by the way, this was actually legitimately a health problem that I had no control over, nothing like a mental problem or eating disorder or drug problem or anything like that.

Mental illness is often as much out of one's control as a broken hand, leg, etc.
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My apologies, I should have thought about that before writing it. My point is that it was a health problem that won't make them doubt my abilities as a physician. sorry!
 
Hello. I have a question that might sound silly but is very important to me. I was wondering what is the best word(s) to use if I want to use a short-hand version of the school's name. Writing out "University of Chicogo Pritzker School of Medicine" every time in my essay (especially in the first one) uses up way too much characters but I'm not sure what else to call it. Should I use "Pritzker" or "University of Chicogo"?
Thanks in advance!
 
bambi girl said:
Hello. I have a question that might sound silly but is very important to me. I was wondering what is the best word(s) to use if I want to use a short-hand version of the school's name. Writing out "University of Chicogo Pritzker School of Medicine" every time in my essay (especially in the first one) uses up way too much characters but I'm not sure what else to call it. Should I use "Pritzker" or "University of Chicogo"?
Thanks in advance!
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Don't use "University of Chicogo"...if you incorrectly spell the name of the school, you're toast!

I would say the whole thing at the start to define it and then just use University of Chicago after that.
 
bambi girl said:
Hello. I have a question that might sound silly but is very important to me. I was wondering what is the best word(s) to use if I want to use a short-hand version of the school's name. Writing out "University of Chicogo Pritzker School of Medicine" every time in my essay (especially in the first one) uses up way too much characters but I'm not sure what else to call it. Should I use "Pritzker" or "University of Chicogo"?
Thanks in advance!
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I vote Pritzker - it's what I used.
 
Alvarez13 said:
Don't use "University of Chicogo"...if you incorrectly spell the name of the school, you're toast!

I would say the whole thing at the start to define it and then just use University of Chicago after that.
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Haha! Seriously, Chicogo would be terrible- oops!
Does anybody else have any opinions for University of ChicAgo vs. Pritzker? What do current students and faculty call their school - does anybody know?
 
bambi girl said:
Haha! Seriously, Chicogo would be terrible- oops!
Does anybody else have any opinions for University of ChicAgo vs. Pritzker? What do current students and faculty call their school - does anybody know?
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I don't think its such a big deal, either way they know you are talking about their school. If you are over the word limit then use the shorter one.
 
osumc2014 said:
I don't think its such a big deal, either way they know you are talking about their school. If you are over the word limit then use the shorter one.
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ditto this. they understand the word limit. it's not going to confuse them. they know what school you're talking about if you say pritzker or Chicago. I generally use the shorthand form that they refer to themselves as (i.e. for Michigan, I don't think I ever said "university of michigan" in my essays, but I just wrote "UMMS" because that's how they refer to themselves on their website)
 
Did anyone apply with a fee waiver? I am, and it says to click on the fee waiver option when paying the secondary fee, but i don't see the link for it. Does anyone else?
 
One of the more challenging dilemmas I have faced has been deciding what to write for this secondary essay.

Does that count? Hah.
 
In terms of what to call the school, in my essays I just varied it as to not sound repetitive. I used Pritzker, University of Chicago, and University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine interchangeably just making sure to not have the same one of those three two times in a row.
 
Snurping said:
One of the more challenging dilemmas I have faced has been deciding what to write for this secondary essay.

Does that count? Hah.
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if you decide not to use that one, can I use it?
 
Did anyone else have issues with paragraph spacing on the secondary application? I just submitted, but then looked at a printable version - there were no paragraph breaks!! I am s***ting a brick right now
 
WaryWildcat said:
Did anyone else have issues with paragraph spacing on the secondary application? I just submitted, but then looked at a printable version - there were no paragraph breaks!! I am s***ting a brick right now
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Yeah, they say in the instructions that enter/return spacing won't show up in the final version. They'll figure it out though, don't worry. I'm sure I lot of people do that.
 
WaryWildcat said:
Did anyone else have issues with paragraph spacing on the secondary application? I just submitted, but then looked at a printable version - there were no paragraph breaks!! I am s***ting a brick right now
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It was the same last year. Don't worry, they see the version that you think you submitted (with proper line breaks and such).
 
Hi all,
I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to share what they wrote about for the additional info essay? Do you think it's meant to explain weaknesses in your application (bad grades etc.), or showing them more about your personality and who you are? Just kind of confused as to what they're looking for here. Thanks in advance!
 
tallandshort said:
Hi all,
I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to share what they wrote about for the additional info essay? Do you think it's meant to explain weaknesses in your application (bad grades etc.), or showing them more about your personality and who you are? Just kind of confused as to what they're looking for here. Thanks in advance!
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I did not write anything there- everything should be in your primary app or in the other two essays
 
tallandshort said:
Hi all,
I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to share what they wrote about for the additional info essay? Do you think it's meant to explain weaknesses in your application (bad grades etc.), or showing them more about your personality and who you are? Just kind of confused as to what they're looking for here. Thanks in advance!
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I would just put updates here for schools.
 
osumc2014 said:
I would just put updates here for schools.
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you mean like summer plans and whatnot?
Or are those better for letters of updates?


Also, for the challenging situation essay-- is it supposed to be like a moral/ethical dilemma (like Dartmouth's)? Or do they want us to present a situation that we actually worked through, so that they can see our problem solving skills?
 
Hey so I'm approaching the 2 week mark from getting my Chicago secondary submitted (its summer...so I've been having a bit too much fun to do 6 secondaries at once). I was gonna try and write it this weekend, but realized I want to spend a lot of time on it. Is it OK to break that rule because things are still early anyway? My LORs are complete and submitted. Should I bust it out completely this weekend and get in by Monday (2 week due date) or spend an extra few days and feel better about it?
 
mdeast said:
Hey so I'm approaching the 2 week mark from getting my Chicago secondary submitted (its summer...so I've been having a bit too much fun to do 6 secondaries at once). I was gonna try and write it this weekend, but realized I want to spend a lot of time on it. Is it OK to break that rule because things are still early anyway? My LORs are complete and submitted. Should I bust it out completely this weekend and get in by Monday (2 week due date) or spend an extra few days and feel better about it?
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It's up to you. If you feel like an extra few days are going to make your essays that much better then for sure wait.

On that note, I am having a lot of difficulty with this secondary. I just don't know what to write. Everything sounds cliche. Do you think getting lost in a foreign country counts as a challenge??
 
neuromcdoctor said:
It's up to you. If you feel like an extra few days are going to make your essays that much better then for sure wait.

On that note, I am having a lot of difficulty with this secondary. I just don't know what to write. Everything sounds cliche. Do you think getting lost in a foreign country counts as a challenge??
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Not if you have a GPS & a cell phone & a foreign maiden on your arms who speaks the native language!!!!!
Otherwise -- sure.
 
I totally hear you on everything sounding cliche and overused. That's been the most frustrating part of this secondary for me, and I'm not sure there's a way I'll feel pretty good about it after I send it in.

For the second essay, I discussed attending the same college at which BOTH of my parents work, and how I handled the insecurity and skepticism that bred. Not particularly brilliant or earth-shaking, but I'm pretty much your basic girl form the suburbs, so what do they want?

So it that the rule: get the secondary and you have 2 weeks to get it back while remaining in good form (aka not looking lazy)?
 
I JUST saw the "is there anything extra you would like to tell the admissions committee" section at the bottom of the secondary. Is it ill-advised to leave this space blank?
 
I actually received this secondary on June 24th but I only started working on it today just because I could not think of what to write for this secondary. I am finished with first draft of essay 3B but I have having the same problem as everyone else on 3A. Everything i write just sound cliche and shallow. I have so much love for this school yet I can't find a way to portray the essay topic in a unique way. definitely have the writer's block right about now.....

Is it really that big of deal to exceed 2 weeks? my committee letter won't be ready until past July 15th anyways so I figured I will spend more time on this essay. This is definitely one of my most difficult and most important essay right now.
 
I would definitely spend time on this secondary. Pritzker puts significant weight in identifying students that would fit well with their school. When I applied last year, I received the secondary in the end of July, and didn't turn it back in until (eek) December 1st (partly out of laziness, partly cause it's a hard secondary). Well, I still managed to get an interview invite a few days later and later an acceptance. I wouldn't advise you to wait this long, but just know that it's not the end of the world if you don't return it within 2 weeks.
 
for essay 3A, I'm kinda confused as to some people's problems about it. What I did is break down the mission statement into about 5 characteristics that they look for in students, and then demonstrated how I fit each of those characteristics through the activities I have done in college. I figured this is how most would approach it. Is there something wrong with this approach? If not, why do people consider this to be so tough? I mean, it obviously requires more thinking than other secondaries, but not substantially more...
 
For 3A, I handled the mission statement holistically. I didn't really reference it much explicitly, but talked about some of my experiences in a very personal way that I believe reflects the values of the statement. I think if you're confused you're reading too much into it. I don't think it's meant to be this rigid process of analyzing... I'm pretty sure they'd be fine with however you interpret the prompt.
 
clifftacopter said:
For 3A, I handled the mission statement holistically. I didn't really reference it much explicitly, but talked about some of my experiences in a very personal way that I believe reflects the values of the statement. I think if you're confused you're reading too much into it. I don't think it's meant to be this rigid process of analyzing... I'm pretty sure they'd be fine with however you interpret the prompt.
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ah yeah I'm not confused about the prompt, just confused about why everyone's having so much trouble with it. I just answered it straightforwardly and didn't do anything incredibly unique. oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.
 
man I've had this for two weeks now, for some reason I'm not motivated to write it...
 
LAman10 said:
ah yeah I'm not confused about the prompt, just confused about why everyone's having so much trouble with it. I just answered it straightforwardly and didn't do anything incredibly unique. oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.
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Same here. I answered it pretty much the same way I've answered any "Why are you interested in coming to X med school"-type questions and mentioned some of my life experiences that relate to their themes (research, diversity, etc).

On another note, has anyone submitted yet? What did you guys end up putting in the extra essay section? I feel bad just leaving it blank but can't really think of anything more that needs to be said.
 
Can we put updates from the summer there?
 
I submitted last Monday, and got the confirmation that I am totally complete today, and my secondary is under review. Hopefully I will hear something (one way or the other) soon.
 
just did my Essay 3B. high school story is OK right?
 
Status page. I still haven't gotten an email.
 
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