2022-2023 Vanderbilt

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Thank you to @immaterialgirls for sharing this year's questions!

2022-2023 Vanderbilt Secondary Essay Prompts

1. If applicable, please describe how the COVID-19 pandemic affected your pathway to medical school. You may discuss any academic, personal, financial, or professional alterations to your plans. NOTE: Disclosing certain hardships or obstacles that have been faced during this time will not negatively affect an application. (500 words)

2. If you have completed your undergraduate education, please comment on what you have done or have been doing since graduation. (200 words)

3. Please reflect on the upbringing, background, and experiences in your life that have shaped who you are as a person and will help define the person you want to be in the future. In other words, what makes you who you are? (800 words)

4. Tell us about a time when you interacted with someone who is different than you. What did you learn? What would you do differently? (600 words)

5. Everyone needs help at various times in their lives. Describe a time you asked for help and what you gained from that experience that has influenced your approach to asking for help. (600 words)

Good luck to everyone applying!

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anyone know if they're changing the prompts? they updated their admission page for the 2023 cycle but the prompts are still the same as last year's
 
I believe the prompts are the same from last year per the website.

moderator note: I took down this list of questions because while similar to last year's questions, the order and the word limits have changed.
wysdoc

@wysdoc
medschool.vanderbilt.edu

Admission Process

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine participates in the American Medical College Application Service. All application materials may be obtained through AMCAS. As you are getting ready to start applying we recommend you review and reference the AMCAS Application Guide throughout the cycle...
medschool.vanderbilt.edu medschool.vanderbilt.edu
 
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Got an email saying they have received my primary but “the admissions committee is responsible for selecting who will be invited to complete a secondary” I didn’t realize they do a holistic pre secondary screen?
 
Boltman526 said:
Got an email saying they have received my primary but “the admissions committee is responsible for selecting who will be invited to complete a secondary” I didn’t realize they do a holistic pre secondary screen?
Click to expand...
Yeah last year they screened out about 1/3 of their applicants pre-secondary
Screen Shot 2022-07-06 at 3.02.25 PM.png
 
Does anyone know if the people who don't receive secondaries get rejections immediately, or do they just ghost you?
 
Also do we know what Vandy screens for? I’m OOS + ORM, LM 77, so I feel like stat-wise I should be fine?
 
Wait, I'm a little confused. According to the websites, secondaries don't start going out until July 15th and they haven't sent any yet. Is the website just not updating? I am really hoping for this school so I'm praying I wasn't already screened out!

Screen Shot 2022-07-08 at 2.48.01 PM.png
 
dafluffysamoyed said:
Also do we know what Vandy screens for? I’m OOS + ORM, LM 77, so I feel like stat-wise I should be fine?
Click to expand...
From their website: The School does not require a minimum GPA or minimum MCAT score, but intense competition tends to eliminate applicants with low GPA’s and/or MCAT scores. The GPA range for the 2021 entering class was 3.5-4.0 and the MCAT range was 74th-100th percentile.
 
pinkpack1234 said:
Wait, I'm a little confused. According to the websites, secondaries don't start going out until July 15th and they haven't sent any yet. Is the website just not updating? I am really hoping for this school so I'm praying I wasn't already screened out!

View attachment 357002
Click to expand...
I m sure you didn't get screened out, my LM is 78 and I hav't got it either. I think they send it by batches
 
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MSTP secondary received.

Based on last year's thread, it seems the MSTP secondaries are sent out first, with MD only secondaries beginning July 15. So I wouldn't worry too much!
 
AshNanook said:
MSTP secondary received.

Based on last year's thread, it seems the MSTP secondaries are sent out first, with MD only secondaries beginning July 15. So I wouldn't worry too much!
Click to expand...
bigtimebummer said:
Sorry I should have added, I received the MSTP secondary, didn't mean to cause panic!
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Do there happen to be any MSTP-specific questions (in addition to the 4 on Admission Process)?
 
MSTP applicant here...some of these prompts are super long (800 words!). I have some 400-600 word essays that fit the prompts, but not sure how important length is. Can I submit a 500 word essay for an 800 word prompt, or try to pad it out?
Edit: Also, do we *have* to upload our publications? E.g. even manuscripts in revision?
 
panexm22 said:
MSTP applicant here...some of these prompts are super long (800 words!). I have some 400-600 word essays that fit the prompts, but not sure how important length is. Can I submit a 500 word essay for an 800 word prompt, or try to pad it out?
Edit: Also, do we *have* to upload our publications? E.g. even manuscripts in revision?
Click to expand...
Length is important to allow enough thoughtful reflection but not so important to make necessary using all the word count. Trying to pad out your essay may encourage further reflection or enhance storytelling but if you are struggling to add then it is fine to leave as is. For reference, I was accepted to MD last cycle and all my responses were 100–300 words below the word limit.
 
scioly said:
Length is important to allow enough thoughtful reflection but not so important to make necessary using all the word count. Trying to pad out your essay may encourage further reflection or enhance storytelling but if you are struggling to add then it is fine to leave as is. For reference, I was accepted to MD last cycle and all my responses were 100–300 words below the word limit.
Click to expand...
Yes and to emphasize, don't add length just to get closer to the word limit: if you can answer the prompt perfectly and have space left over that's fine! App reviewer fatigue is real.
 
big_chonker said:
Yes and to emphasize, don't add length just to get closer to the word limit: if you can answer the prompt perfectly and have space left over that's fine! App reviewer fatigue is real.
Click to expand...
scioly said:
Length is important to allow enough thoughtful reflection but not so important to make necessary using all the word count. Trying to pad out your essay may encourage further reflection or enhance storytelling but if you are struggling to add then it is fine to leave as is. For reference, I was accepted to MD last cycle and all my responses were 100–300 words below the word limit.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much – I have app writer fatigue lol. I'll see if I can be more reflective but glad to know it's not a huge issue.
 
Prompts:

1. If applicable, please describe how the COVID-19 pandemic affected your pathway to medical school. You may discuss any academic, personal, financial, or professional alterations to your plans. NOTE: Disclosing certain hardships or obstacles that have been faced during this time will not negatively affect an application. (500 word maximum)

2. If you have completed your undergraduate education, please comment on what you have done or have been doing since graduation. (200 word maximum)

3. Please reflect on the upbringing, background, and experiences in your life that have shaped who you are as a person and will help define the person you want to be in the future. In other words, what makes you who you are? (800 word maximum)

4. Tell us about a time when you interacted with someone who is different than you. What did you learn? What would you do differently? (600 word maximum)

5. Everyone needs help at various times in their lives. Describe a time you asked for help and what you gained from that experience that has influenced your approach to asking for help. (600 word maximum)

@wysdoc
 
If we had minor inconveniences due to COVID but no big alterations to our plans it is ok to leave to COVID question blank? I know some schools consider their optional “fake optional”. Just trying to gauge whether or not this is the case.
 
Damn the tracker says almost 2500 invitations have gone out already RIP me
 
dafluffysamoyed said:
I could not bring myself to send Duke a primary after previewing their secondary prompts from last year... props to you!!
Click to expand...
I pre-wrote theirs, otherwise I couldnt either! I did it while I was still fresh though lmao and only 1 of the prompts that I hadnt written was kept
 
Does Vanderbilt send the email that you are in the queue to all applicants? Or should I consider myself screened out if I haven't received that email yet...
 
screwedpremed999 said:
Submitted 6/15, verified 7/17, but I have not even received email from them acknowledging that they have received my primary. My friend submitted and was verified a week later than I did but already received word from them.

Does this mean I've been screened out or is my application still somehow in the pile to be reviewed for the first time?
Click to expand...
Possibly, but don't lose hope yet! I was verified 7/6 and I got my vanderbilt secondary on friday 7/22. They did not send an email acknowledging my primary.
 
Does anyone know if Vanderbilt med is pass/fail without internal rank for pre-clinical, and whether it's pass/fail for clerkships too now (I heard they were considering making clinicals pass/fail last year- what happened with that?)
 
I sent them my primary on July 16th and still haven't heard back about a secondary. Is this a soft R or pretty typical?
 
Is anyone else unable to schedule their interview? All of the dates on the calendar are greyed out for me all the way through January lol.
 
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