2025-2026 UT Rio Grande Valley

[wysdoc]

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2025-2026 UT Rio Grande Valley Secondary Essays & video (question 1 has changed from last year)

Part 1 (two required essays)
1. Many applicants express a desire to serve underserved communities, but true commitment goes beyond good intentions. What is a specific healthcare challenge disproportionately affecting the Rio Grande Valley, or a similar underserved area? Why do current solutions remain insufficient in addressing this issue? Given the constraints of limited resources, what practical and innovative approach could you propose to address this challenge, and how might it be implemented effectively?. (1500 words or less)

2. Why are you interested in UTRGV SOM? (500 words or less max; bullet points are acceptable).

Optional Essay (truly optional)
1. Please describe any extenuating circumstances that may have affected your medical or non-medical service experiences, including any circumstances that impacted your engagement in activities, academics, and MCAT that would have helped to prepare you for medical school. (1500 words or less)

Part 2: REQUIRED [VIDEO Response] (In the past they have had you record your own video & upload the file)
Submit a 2-minute video that answers the questions below.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine prepares future physicians in accordance with the following values:
-patient advocacy
-community focus
-cultural awareness,
-collaborative leadership style
-lifelong problem solving
Select TWO (2) of these values and discuss what you have done in the past that resonates with them. How will you support and strengthen these two values when you practice medicine?

Good luck to all applying!

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[premedmom2026]

@wysdoc son received secondary today. Submitted 5/15 8 AM

Part 1
1. Many applicants express a desire to serve underserved communities, but true commitment goes beyond good intentions. What is a specific healthcare challenge disproportionately affecting the Rio Grande Valley, or a similar underserved area? Why do current solutions remain insufficient in addressing this issue? Given the constraints of limited resources, what practical and innovative approach could you propose to address this challenge, and how might it be implemented effectively?. (1500 words or less)
2. Why are you interested in UTRGV SOM? (500 words or less max; bullet points are acceptable).

Optional Essays
1. Please describe any extenuating circumstances that may have affected your medical or non-medical service experiences, including any circumstances that impacted your engagement in activities, academics, and MCAT that would have helped to prepare you for medical school. (1500 words or less)

Part 2: REQUIRED [VIDEO Response]

Submit a 2-minute video that answers the questions below.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine prepares future physicians in accordance with the following values: patient advocacy, community focus, cultural awareness, collaborative leadership style, and lifelong problem solving. Select TWO (2) of these values and discuss what you have done in the past that resonates with them. How will you support and strengthen these two values when you practice medicine?

 

[fatcammal1]

1500 words? wow.

 

[wysdoc]

1500 words? wow.

"or less" 😉

 

[mynamejef]

I have a question about the optional essay if anyone is willing to share their opinion.

I don't have any major extenuating circumstances that impacted my hours or academics (no major systemic or financial challenges that others have faced that I think this essay is mostly for). However, I would consider myself to have a different experience as a premed student because 1. I came from a small town where the focus was to have kids graduate high school (huge drop out rate bc they would start families or have to work full time to provide for themselves or their family) rather than trying to make us attend college. We had a college and career center but it was tiny and horribly implemented. So I really had no guidance for college and didn't even know I wanted to attend college until like 1 month before I got in, which I think is different from many of the students that I talked to at my university who have known exactly how to do everything within both college and the premed track since 9th grade. I would say this affected my hours and ability to gain opportunities once in college because I had no idea how to navigate the premedical field I was interested in, affecting the amount of hours (clinical and nonclinical) I have. My undergraduate university also didn't have a pre-health advisor or real committee, and although my concentration was premed, there was no major service or program to help me navigate like I think other universities had. Therefore I didn't start volunteering until like my junior or senior year and even then it was only like 10 clinical hours and maybe 20 nonclinical. I had no idea how to go about my aspiring career in medicine and i felt like I didn't have access to resources the way other premed students had.

However I still have okay volunteering hours (400 or so) that I gained after graduating college and 1500+ clinical hours now and don't want it to come off like I'm complaining that other students had access to a better premed track than me when I was still able to obtain those hours (to an extent) in the end. Does anyone have any insight? Should I write about this in the optional or is it too woe is me and doesnt really matter?

 

[wysdoc]

I have a question about the optional essay if anyone is willing to share their opinion.

I don't have any major extenuating circumstances that impacted my hours or academics (no major systemic or financial challenges that others have faced that I think this essay is mostly for). However, I would consider myself to have a different experience as a premed student because 1. I came from a small town where the focus was to have kids graduate high school (huge drop out rate bc they would start families or have to work full time to provide for themselves or their family) rather than trying to make us attend college. We had a college and career center but it was tiny and horribly implemented. So I really had no guidance for college and didn't even know I wanted to attend college until like 1 month before I got in, which I think is different from many of the students that I talked to at my university who have known exactly how to do everything within both college and the premed track since 9th grade. I would say this affected my hours and ability to gain opportunities once in college because I had no idea how to navigate the premedical field I was interested in, affecting the amount of hours (clinical and nonclinical) I have. My undergraduate university also didn't have a pre-health advisor or real committee, and although my concentration was premed, there was no major service or program to help me navigate like I think other universities had. Therefore I didn't start volunteering until like my junior or senior year and even then it was only like 10 clinical hours and maybe 20 nonclinical. I had no idea how to go about my aspiring career in medicine and i felt like I didn't have access to resources the way other premed students had.

However I still have okay volunteering hours (400 or so) that I gained after graduating college and 1500+ clinical hours now and don't want it to come off like I'm complaining that other students had access to a better premed track than me when I was still able to obtain those hours (to an extent) in the end. Does anyone have any insight? Should I write about this in the optional or is it too woe is me and doesnt really matter?

If you decide to write this essay you would need to work on making it more compact and organized.What you have written above seems to be mostly complaining about how small your college was?
There are 3 essays in the TMDSAS primary application- if you used one of those to talk about your upbringing and barriers to education, it’s not necessary to write it again here.