2021-2022 Virginia Tech Carilion

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Thank you to @burrito-consumer for sharing this year's questions!

2021-2022 Virginia Tech Carilion Secondary Essay Prompts: (600 words each)

A. Tell us about constructive criticism you have received, or a personal challenge you have experienced, that you found particularly impactful. Please describe how that experience has advanced your development as a future physician thought leader.


B. Explain how interactions with people who are different from you have shaped your world view and relate how you would enrich the VTC community.

C. Describe three aspects of VTCSOM and how those align with your philosophy of medicine.


D. Please describe a research passion: If funding were no object, what scientific study would you design? Please also describe a non-research passion.

Good luck to everyone applying!

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Got an email saying my app was received today, but will go through their screening first. I really appreciate when schools do this. OOS.
 
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I got the email saying that they had received my AMCAS app this morning and were doing a preliminary screening. I just got the invitation for the secondary! Very excited, thought it was possible I wouldn't make it past the screen (OOS)
 
I got the email saying that they had received my AMCAS app this morning and were doing a preliminary screening. I just got the invitation for the secondary! Very excited, thought it was possible I wouldn't make it past the screen (OOS)
same here! OOS
 
Secondary prompts for this cycle, each with a 600 word limit:

A. Tell us about constructive criticism you have received, or a personal challenge you have experienced, that you found particularly impactful. Please describe how that experience has advanced your development as a future physician thought leader.

B. Explain how interactions with people who are different from you have shaped your world view and relate how you would enrich the VTC community.

C. Describe three aspects of VTCSOM and how those align with your philosophy of medicine.

D. Please describe a research passion: If funding were no object, what scientific study would you design? Please also describe a non-research passion.
 
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Is prompt D essentially asking two different questions? For example, would it be acceptable to talk about a hypothetical scientific research question that you want to investigate for half of the essay and then talk about your passion for basketball for the other half?
 
Is prompt D essentially asking two different questions? For example, would it be acceptable to talk about a hypothetical scientific research question that you want to investigate for half of the essay and then talk about your passion for basketball for the other half?
I believe this is more about a study that doesn't have an independent or dependent variable...more like an observational study maybe?
 
Got declined a secondary application but my stats were low so it was a long shot anyway, good luck to the rest of you all applying!
 
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How do you know this already?
Got this email:

Your 2022 AMCAS application has arrived at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine; however, our admissions committee has declined to invite you to submit a secondary application. Our decision to not extend a secondary invitation is simply a reflection of the relatively small number of medical school seats available, the large number of AMCAS applications that we receive, and the high standards set by the faculty for admission.

On behalf of the Admissions Committee, we want to thank you for your interest in the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and wish you the best of luck with applications you may have pending at other medical schools.
 
Is prompt D essentially asking two different questions? For example, would it be acceptable to talk about a hypothetical scientific research question that you want to investigate for half of the essay and then talk about your passion for basketball for the other half?

I've got the question as you. I have an essay for a personal hobby/passion of mine but it's completely unrelated to my research passions. I'm wondering if I should try to transition the two or just make my non-research passion more connected...idk. If you don't mind me asking, what did you all end up doing for this?
 
I've got the question as you. I have an essay for a personal hobby/passion of mine but it's completely unrelated to my research passions. I'm wondering if I should try to transition the two or just make my non-research passion more connected...idk. If you don't mind me asking, what did you all end up doing for this?
I'm also wondering this. Right now I have a paragraph explaining an area of research I would be interested in as a physician and then another paragraph explaining my non-research passion, but I'm not sure if this would be acceptable.

Also, i talked about a research passion I have based on life experiences, and a little bit from the research I did for my honors thesis. Does this address the prompt, or does it need to be a research passion you have already had experience with while researching?
 
Are you guys writing close to 600 words for each? It seems quite long.
 
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Is anyone else really struggling with prompt 4? That would be interested in brainstorming with me and bouncing ideas off of each other. Or is any other kind soul who may have already submitted willing to see if my ideas are stupid or answer my questions.
 
That's what I planned on doing. Does anyone else have any input?
So for the second part (non-research passion) are you guys going with like a fun hobby? Or are you giving a response still related to medicine, like maybe a passion to serve latinx populations?
 
I straight up talked about a hobby I was really passionate about
Did you design a research project on your hobby like the first question asked us to do about an academic passion? or you literally just talked about how much you liked doing x, y, and z, unrelated to the first question? idk why this is tripping me up so much lol
 
Secondary submitted 07/19. OOS. Good luck everybody!
 
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It's not just you... it tripped me up too. I'm sure the school will get a variety of response types haha. Eventually I had to make a decision and just go for it.

I used most of my space talking about a potential medical research project I would like to design. I wrote intro, middle, conclusion, etc. Then for the next part of the question I was like "In terms of a non-research passion, I'd like to use this opportunity to discus xxxxx"

I treated them as two questions within one
I did the same thing!
 
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Did everyone who received a secondary already have their Casper in already? I haven't received one yet but feel that I should make it through the screen.
 
Did everyone who received a secondary already have their Casper in already? I haven't received one yet but feel that I should make it through the screen.
No i got my secondary before i even registered for the Casper. They may just be overwhelmed with the number of apps to screen?
 
Anyone know how much weight this school puts on casper?
 
Almost certain its a stats screen. Received the secondary review and invite within minutes of each other.
 
Did everyone who received a secondary already have their Casper in already? I haven't received one yet but feel that I should make it through the screen.
Yes, I sent my CASPER to all schools. I later added VTC and the secondary came maybe in 1-3 days!
 
Also FYI VTC's secondary literally took me minutes. Loved it!
 
Genuinely curious how you did the research question in minutes. It took me like a week 😅
Actually, I'm so sorry! I meant VCU, not for this VTC. I think if VTC took me minutes, my application would have some significant flaws... :oops:
 
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Anyone know what "your application is ready" status means
 
Is there another status besides ready?
 
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... class size <50. Nothing else like that.
What do you guys think are the pros and cons of such a small class?
 
I'm gonna invite them to invite me.
 
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