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Do they send secondaries basically instantly if you add them later? Considering adding this school if I have time/energy later
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How political is everyone getting with the racial health inequalities prompt? I try to avoid political discussion in my secondaries typically, but I feel its hard to have a strong answer and discuss it without taking a stance here and there.
 
Patient0sPlus1 said:
How political is everyone getting with the racial health inequalities prompt? I try to avoid political discussion in my secondaries typically, but I feel its hard to have a strong answer and discuss it without taking a stance here and there.
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I’m having the same issue!
 
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Patient0sPlus1 said:
How political is everyone getting with the racial health inequalities prompt? I try to avoid political discussion in my secondaries typically, but I feel its hard to have a strong answer and discuss it without taking a stance here and there.
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I took a strong stance, while also remaining objective and factual throughout and backing up my statements with personal experiences. I think it would be extremely difficult to write a strong essay that doesn't take any stand, and would also do a disservice to the issues at hand. I feel like there are risks to not being bold enough, and also risks of being bold with the response, so I opted to be honest about my understanding of the topic.
 
TabbyTuxy said:
I took a strong stance, while also remaining objective and factual throughout and backing up my statements with personal experiences. I think it would be extremely difficult to write a strong essay that doesn't take any stand, and would also do a disservice to the issues at hand. I feel like there are risks to not being bold enough, and also risks of being bold with the response, so I opted to be honest about my understanding of the topic.
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My honest opinion is that a strong stance shouldn't even be considered bold for this prompt. There are numerous, well done studies that make the connection between race (more so racISM) and health inequities abundantly clear. I genuinely believe not being cognizant of this contibutes to the problem.
 
Gentle_Scientist said:
My honest opinion is that a strong stance shouldn't even be considered bold for this prompt. There are numerous, well done studies that make the connection between race (more so racISM) and health inequities abundantly clear. I genuinely believe not being cognizant of this contibutes to the problem.
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I wouldn’t say there is anything political about that though. Of course there is a relationship between race and health inequities, that’s why they asked that question. Taking a political stance would be advocating for social medicine, etc. I believe there are plenty of ways to answer this question with a strong stance about that relationship and not getting political, which is what I chose to do.
 
Gentle_Scientist said:
My honest opinion is that a strong stance shouldn't even be considered bold for this prompt. There are numerous, well done studies that make the connection between race (more so racISM) and health inequities abundantly clear. I genuinely believe not being cognizant of this contibutes to the problem.
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I mean yes agreeing that there is racial health inequality isn't the debatable part, but I think the prompt leave it open-ended purposefully for students to either state their understanding of the problem and leave it at that, or go further to try to explore ways in which you think change can be made. If you choose the latter, I believe it may be hard not to take a stance on change of policies etc
 
Patient0sPlus1 said:
How political is everyone getting with the racial health inequalities prompt? I try to avoid political discussion in my secondaries typically, but I feel its hard to have a strong answer and discuss it without taking a stance here and there.
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It should be fine to go political with your essay as long as it isn't centered around bashing certain political parties or politicians.
 
Abcdefghijklmno1 said:
I wouldn’t say there is anything political about that though. Of course there is a relationship between race and health inequities, that’s why they asked that question. Taking a political stance would be advocating for social medicine, etc. I believe there are plenty of ways to answer this question with a strong stance about that relationship and not getting political, which is what I chose to do.
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For sure, and to be clear I wasn't disagreeing with your approach...I was trying to convey that you shouldn't be concerned about coming across too strongly. Also, I really don't think there's such a thing as not being political. All of our beliefs and decisions are, and I think that's okay.
 
Patient0sPlus1 said:
I mean yes agreeing that there is racial health inequality isn't the debatable part, but I think the prompt leave it open-ended purposefully for students to either state their understanding of the problem and leave it at that, or go further to try to explore ways in which you think change can be made. If you choose the latter, I believe it may be hard not to take a stance on change of policies etc
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I agree!
 
I just submitted my secondary application and paid the fee, but all I got was a payment confirmation email. Did anyone else get an application submitted email? When I log back into my portal it still says to pay the fee.
 
swimrun99 said:
I just submitted my secondary application and paid the fee, but all I got was a payment confirmation email. Did anyone else get an application submitted email? When I log back into my portal it still says to pay the fee.
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You should have gotten an email that the fee had been paid. Maybe email them?
 
Did you guys fill out the optional academic courses section? I never took a psychology course (and they say it's recommended not required so should still be ok to apply), but I don't want to draw attention to that missing prereq. At the same time, I don't want to seem lazy by not filling out that section... Does anyone have an idea about what to do here?
 
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elliot_G said:
Did you guys fill out the optional academic courses section? I never took a psychology course (and they say it's recommended not required so should still be ok to apply), but I don't want to draw attention to that missing prereq. At the same time, I don't want to seem lazy by not filling out that section... Does anyone have an idea about what to do here?
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I filled out the courses that I did have. Only one I was missing was cellular biology. Just add it there; they have access to your transcript so they'll know anyways and you probably don't want to annoy the ADCOMs by forcing them to hunt it down.
 
Homunculus150 said:
I filled out the courses that I did have. Only one I was missing was cellular biology. Just add it there; they have access to your transcript so they'll know anyways and you probably don't want to annoy the ADCOMs by forcing them to hunt it down.
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+1; I also filled out mine (missing sociology) for the same reasons
 
Gentle_Scientist said:
My honest opinion is that a strong stance shouldn't even be considered bold for this prompt. There are numerous, well done studies that make the connection between race (more so racISM) and health inequities abundantly clear. I genuinely believe not being cognizant of this contibutes to the problem.
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Definitely! There are also multiple ways to approach the essay and what time you're allotting for description vs. proposing solutions. I personally spent more time talking in-depth about my understanding and backing that up with things I've experienced. Only a small part of mine talked about proposed solutions.
 
TabbyTuxy said:
Definitely! There are also multiple ways to approach the essay and what time you're allotting for description vs. proposing solutions. I personally spent more time talking in-depth about my understanding and backing that up with things I've experienced. Only a small part of mine talked about proposed solutions.
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Yeah same, and to be honest it kinda seems like they wanted us to spend more time explaining our understanding.
 
Just wondering if anyone has had there letters of rec. delivered yet from AMCAS, or if they are still having technical issues?
 
mpmp3233 said:
Just wondering if anyone has had there letters of rec. delivered yet from AMCAS, or if they are still having technical issues?
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Where on the application portal would we see that? My status says "Application Screening - Your supplemental application has been completed. Your application is now being reviewed by a set of independent screeners on our admissions committee." I don't see a place to see "Document Status" unlike most other portals.
 
Went to submit my secondary and notice the first "prompt" I missed - "Tell us more about who you are. You may provide additional information that expands your self-identity where gender identification, racial and/or ethnic self description, geographic origin, socioeconomic, academic, and/or other characteristics that define who you are as you contemplate a career that will interface with people who are similar AND dissimilar to you. You will have the opportunity below to tell us how you wish to be addressed, recognized and treated."

How are y'all answering this?
 
Duke's secondary questions are not terrible in substance, but their wording is atrocious. Simply unintelligible. Either someone thought they were being cute; or, more likely, they were written "by committee" in which multiple people had input and each added their own preferred wording, thereby resulting in questions with run-on sentences and multiple sub-questions.
 
On the race question, I answered thoroughly how races and health care inequity is a thing but idk how to approach the first part of “describe your understanding of race” do they want us to provide them with our definition of what race is?
 
Havelock Vetinari said:
I’m so burnt out with secondary writing that all I can manage is one of these essays every three or four days.
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Same here! Don't feel bad. They are supposedly not reviewing secondaries until 8/14 so I am being nice to myself and letting myself take a deep breath/take my time with this secondary. You got this
 
jemesel said:
Same here! Don't feel bad. They are supposedly not reviewing secondaries until 8/14 so I am being nice to myself and letting myself take a deep breath/take my time with this secondary. You got this
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Where’d you hear that?
 
Can anyone help with the advocacy essay— I am struggling a bit with the question about the risks associated with your choice to be an advocate? What route did people go here?
 
Anyone else using the "additional info" section for a few "why Duke?" points?
 
frenchfries7 said:
Anyone else using the "additional info" section for a few "why Duke?" points?
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Haven't decided yet, but I don't think I will. They already have an ocean of information, between AMCAS and their nine secondary essays I'm writing, so I (a) don't feel inclined to do more writing, and (b) don't think it would move the needle much.
 
Do we have to talk about research for the critical thinking/research essay? This year's prompt compared to last year's only mentioning critical thinking is making me think twice whether they want to lean us towards talking about research but I also have a good essay that was about helping a friend through a tough time
 
AegonTargaryenVI said:
Do we have to talk about research for the critical thinking/research essay? This year's prompt compared to last year's only mentioning critical thinking is making me think twice whether they want to lean us towards talking about research but I also have a good essay that was about helping a friend through a tough time
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Yeah, I had a similar issue (original essay was also about helping friend through mental health crisis).

I decided to go to the research route because I talked about my mental health advocacy in other essays while research was untouched.

If you talked about research in other essays (like on your PS) but not so much about your 1v1 interactions, then I think your current topic could be good.
 
jemesel said:
Can anyone help with the advocacy essay— I am struggling a bit with the question about the risks associated with your choice to be an advocate? What route did people go here?
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I talked about my goals as a physician-advocate and elaborated on some of my concerns. Many physicians shy away from anything remotely political, so I reflected on what may be discouraging them from advocating for structural changes. I think this would be harder to talk about if you mention advocating for a specific person rather than a group. But what fears might be preventing others from going the extra mile or taking a firm stand in support of a person/group? How do you weigh those fears when you decide to advocate?
 
Is there email confirmation after you submit your secondary and/or pay? Haven't received anything.

Also, are people still seeing the "Application Incomplete - Waiting for LORs" banner or does that resolve itself at some point?

Edit: Banner now says my app is completed and being screened.
 
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If i talked about a lot of my racial/ethnic/socioeconomic stuff in the tell us about yourself essay, should i rewrite that in the optional 200 word essay or just leave it blank?
 
happymoney123 said:
If i talked about a lot of my racial/ethnic/socioeconomic stuff in the tell us about yourself essay, should i rewrite that in the optional 200 word essay or just leave it blank?
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I used it to talk about stuff I didn't have room for in my diversity essay.
 
For the critical thinking prompt, would it be better to talk about something research related since it’s specifically stated in the prompt or a non research topic? I have research but I feel like I have a more unique non research example
 
will scott said:
For the critical thinking prompt, would it be better to talk about something research related since it’s specifically stated in the prompt or a non research topic? I have research but I feel like I have a more unique non research example
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People asked this a while back. I think the consensus was research-based, but could be outside of research if you feel especially tied to it. It also matters about your personal statement— go for what's missing!
 
Will applying to PCLT affect my chances for the regular MD program? Like would my regular MD app be considered "late" if I get rejected from PCLT?
 
If I’m using the “any additional information” question as a “why duke” would it be appropriate to include that although I’m OOS I have family there (aunt/uncle/cousins) and that being near family /support system is important to me? Or should I stick to just why duke and their curriculum?
 
will scott said:
If I’m using the “any additional information” question as a “why duke” would it be appropriate to include that although I’m OOS I have family there (aunt/uncle/cousins) and that being near family /support system is important to me? Or should I stick to just why duke and their curriculum?
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Definitely add that! Any connections to the school and area are very important!
 
Does anyone have any clarifications for the Science faculty letters? It seems pretty open considering other schools specify professors who must have taught you or awarded you a grade. I am wondering if my two research supervisors who are science faculty qualify for this? Thank you in advance for any insight! I figured I would start here before emailing admissions to ask!
 
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