2025-2026 Yale

[wysdoc]

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2025-2026 Yale Secondary Essay Prompts (2 required, 3 optional)

Required Essay 1:
Yale School of Medicine is committed to improving the health of all people. How have your background and experiences prepared you to care for all people including those unlike yourself? (500 words)

Required Essay 2 (please select one of the following): (500 words)
-MD applicants: Please answer either one of the following questions.
-MD/PhD applicants: Please answer question 2 as it pertains to your proposed PhD research.
1- While there is great emphasis on the physician-patient relationship, Yale School of Medicine also emphasizes the importance of training future physicians to care for communities and populations. Describe how your experiences would contribute to this aspect of the mission of the Yale School of Medicine.
2- Research is essential to patient care, and all students at Yale School of Medicine complete a research thesis. Tell us how your research interests, skills and experiences would contribute to scholarship at Yale School of Medicine.


Current and Future Plans: (Optional)
If you are not enrolled in college or graduate school classes for the duration of the current academic year, please tell us how you are spending your time. Include both your current and any planned activities prior to enrolling in medical school. (500 words)

Additional Information (Optional)
This section is optional. It should be used to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee any important information (personal, academic, or professional) not discussed in other sections of your Yale Secondary Application. (500 words)

Background and Identity (Optional)
Is there anything else about your background or identity you wish to share? (500 words)



Good luck to all applying!

Interview Feedback:

Yale School of Medicine - Admission, Tuition, Ranking & Overview | Student Doctor Network

Detail information of Yale School of Medicine including admission, tuition, ranking, and overview.

www.studentdoctor.net

 

[tweedledumb]

Hi! Starting the thread for next cycle (this cycle already? good lord) with some important information for anyone (like myself) who knows they will need to make their decisions based on the financial aid they receive. Yale's financial aid system is based on a unit loan. In the 2024-2025 application year, the unit loan was $10,000.
Fin Aid is very clear in saying that everybody must take the loan out. If you, like me, end up having a full offer somewhere else, you might think well damn why even apply to financial aid at Yale. But if you are like me and can expect to get a good amount of aid (family income under 125K), please know there is an additional merit scholarship (the YSM access scholarship) you can be selected for, from the pool of people getting full financial aid, that waives the unit loan and replaces it with a grant. (this is separate from the dean's scholarship selection. idk anything abt that)
Apply for aid the week you get in.
TLDR a complete COA award at Yale is possible, despite the emphasis on the unit loan from financial aid! if financial aid is important to you, you should apply asap after getting in.

(Please do not ask me about this until you have been accepted to Yale. It is not something you apply for separate from the normal financial aid process.)

 

[beepbeepboopbop02]

Upcoming Zoom sessions for interested students:

Student Research at Yale – Learn about how our students make discoveries (Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at 6:00 pm ET)

Academics – Curriculum and the Yale System (Thursday, June 5, 2025, at 5:00 pm ET)

Student Experience – Support Resources, Life in New Haven (Thursday, June 12, 2025, at 5:00 pm ET)

Admissions & Financial Aid (Wednesday, June 18, 2025, at 3:00 pm ET)

Link: Connect With Us

 

[fiepye]

@wysdoc +1 OOS secondary received:

Essays (Required)​

Please submit answers to the following questions. Please limit your responses to approximately 500 words each.

Required Essay 1:

Yale School of Medicine is committed to improving the health of all people. How have your background and experiences prepared you to care for all people including those unlike yourself?

Required Essay 2 (please select one of the following):

MD applicants: Please answer either one of the following questions.
MD/PhD applicants: Please answer question 2 as it pertains to your proposed PhD research.

1- While there is great emphasis on the physician-patient relationship, Yale School of Medicine also emphasizes the importance of training future physicians to care for communities and populations. Describe how your experiences would contribute to this aspect of the mission of the Yale School of Medicine.
2- Research is essential to patient care, and all students at Yale School of Medicine complete a research thesis. Tell us how your research interests, skills and experiences would contribute to scholarship at Yale School of Medicine.

Current and Future Plans (Optional)​

If you are not enrolled in college or graduate school classes for the duration of the current academic year, please tell us how you are spending your time. Include both your current and any planned activities prior to enrolling in medical school.

Additional Information (Optional)​

This section is optional. It should be used to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee any important information (personal, academic, or professional) not discussed in other sections of your Yale Secondary Application.

Please limit your response to 500 words.

 

[mfan11]

+1 OOS secondary received. MD-only.

Same prompts as above post, but there is an additional essay under "Background and Identity (Optional)":

"Is there anything else about your background or identity you wish to share?"

No apparent word count for this one.

@wysdoc

 

[wysdoc]

+1 OOS secondary received. MD-only.

Same prompts as above post, but there is an additional essay under "Background and Identity (Optional)":

"Is there anything else about your background or identity you wish to share?"

No apparent word count for this one.

@wysdoc

thanks @mfan11

 

[AlliesStardust]

Does anyone know if Yale responds well to using the "anything else you'd like to share" as a Why This School type essay? They don't ask it anywhere else, and they're my top choice, but I don't want to ruin any chances of doing something wrong.

 

[user123456123]

+1 oos reg md

 

[blonolo]

+1 OOS MD/PhD. Same questions as MD plus the question: "Write a statement concerning your reasons for wishing to undertake the combined MD/PhD program, rather than the MD program alone, the specific PhD program that you propose to follow at Yale, and the strengths of that Yale graduate program and its faculty as they relate to your career goals." Also, not sure if this is the case for anyone else, but the Background & Identity (Optional) Question will not be used in evaluating applicants, @wysdoc.

 

[SilentCavalier]

+1 OOS MD only

 

[shortietiger]

+1 OOS secondary received MD only.

I'd also like to add that for the Background and Identity (Optional) Section, it says "By checking this box, I understand that the optional information provided on this form will not be included in my admissions file and will not factor into the admissions decision. I agree that my information may be shared in aggregate within Yale School of Medicine so that we understand the composition of our student body and strengthen programs that provide support both for our students and for the larger School of Medicine community, and may be used to facilitate connecting admitted students with current students for recruiting purposes."

So a response to this question won't be considered for admissions purposes: "Is there anything else about your background or identity you wish to share?"

@wysdoc

 

[mallcat]

+1 OOS MD PhD

 

[johnzhng]

+1 OOS MD PhD
my prewriting here was for (mostly) nothin 😭

 

[dunkcat]

Does anyone know if Yale responds well to using the "anything else you'd like to share" as a Why This School type essay? They don't ask it anywhere else, and they're my top choice, but I don't want to ruin any chances of doing something wrong.

Absolutely do NOT do this, per LizzyM's advice.

 

[AlliesStardust]

Absolutely do NOT do this, per LizzyM's advice.

Amazing, thank you!!

 

[mallcat]

For the "academic and research positions" section does anyone know what exactly is meant by that? Like would undergraduate researcher count as a position? Also what does the "research intensive: Yes/No" option mean?

 

[dunkcat]

Is it fine to leave the "Is there anything else about your background or identity you wish to share?" prompt blank, especially if you've already talked about your background extensively in one of your prior essays? In other words, is this one of the truly optional essays?

 

[wysdoc]

Is it fine to leave the "Is there anything else about your background or identity you wish to share?" prompt blank, especially if you've already talked about your background extensively in one of your prior essays? In other words, is this one of the truly optional essays?

you don't have to answer it, sounds like you answered it in other parts of your app.

 

[severelyburntout]

+1 OOS MD PhD
my prewriting here was for (mostly) nothin 😭

just curious, wdym? are the prompts different for mdphd?

 

[dunkcat]

For the required coursework, are they asking for two semesters of lab for biology and gen chem? Or do they just require two semesters of lecture + one semester of lab (which is what I've seen more commonly)?

 

[imsogonnagetrejected]

just curious, wdym? are the prompts different for mdphd?

yup, there's another prompt:

MD PhD Essay​

Write a statement (approximately 500 words) concerning:

• Your reasons for wishing to undertake the combined MD PhD program, rather than the MD program alone.
• The specific PhD program that you propose to follow at Yale.
• The strengths of that Yale graduate program and its faculty as they relate to your career goals..

 

[quirkybric2040]

I took the MCAT twice, and i was wondering how they evaluate the retakes? It's not listed on the MSAR or the website, and I don't want to email them LOL. I got a score in the low 510s the first time, and then increased by 10 pts the second time.

 

[chilly_md]

I took the MCAT twice, and i was wondering how they evaluate the retakes? It's not listed on the MSAR or the website, and I don't want to email them LOL. I got a score in the low 510s the first time, and then increased by 10 pts the second time.

Your question was specific for Yale, so I have moved it to this cycle's application thread in case some current students know the answer. This is a very competitive school, so do not expect a lot of leeway here.

 

[Timetocrunch]

Absolutely do NOT do this, per LizzyM's advice.

I did this on like 20 schools....