AdComs, how much do secondary essays really count to be invited for interviews?

[ayjaystudent]

Considering applicants already have very detailed primary applications, how much do secondary essays account for?

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[deleted996731]

Delete and move this pls

 

[71650]

curious about this as well

 

[HomeSkool]

They're huge. At my school, the primary application gets you through the initial screen and into the pool the adcoms personally evaluate. The secondary gets you out of that pool and into the interview one.

 

[gyngyn]

If a school goes to the trouble of writing prompts, knowing that they will have to read the answers, you bet they are important.
Primaries are becoming so homogenized, they are hardly worth reading.

 

[907914]

If a school goes to the trouble of writing prompts, knowing that they will have to read the answers, you bet they are important.
Primaries are becoming so homogenized, they are hardly worth reading.

Will a truly stand-out primary still yield good results?

 

[gyngyn]

Will a truly stand-out primary still yield good results?

Mostly at the places that don't have secondaries and the places that screen for them.

 

[GloballyMed]

Will a truly stand-out primary still yield good results?

Definitely will at UI and Rochester.

 

[907914]

Mostly at the places that don't have secondaries and the places that screen for them.

How do the primary and secondaries tie in with interview performance for admissions decisions (school specific...I know, I know).

 

[gyngyn]

How do the primary and secondaries tie in with interview performance for admissions decisions (school specific...I know, I know).

Schools rarely waste interview slots on folks who don't look like a good fit (to stay OT, we can discuss why we might do this another time).
The interview determines if our hunch about you is correct.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

God tier writers exist; top tier medical schools likely matriculate Pulitzer winners or at least world-class writers. If you’ve written a NYTimes bestseller, you’re a pretty skilled writer and likely can craft a very compelling narrative. Likewise if you were, say, a speechwriter for Obama or something. There are some insanely talented people at top tier medical schools.

For mere mortals: don’t blow off the secondaries.

 

[Goro]

How do the primary and secondaries tie in with interview performance for admissions decisions (school specific...I know, I know).

One can be a fabulous writer and still bomb an interview.

Good essays will not save one if the interview goes south.

 

[Goro]

God tier writers exist; top tier medical schools likely matriculate Pulitzer winners or at least world-class writers. If you’ve written a NYTimes bestseller, you’re a pretty skilled writer and likely can craft a very compelling narrative. Likewise if you were, say, a speechwriter for Obama or something. There are some insanely talented people at top tier medical schools.

For mere mortals: don’t blow off the secondaries.

Still true to form, I see.

 

[993444]

While we are on the topic, I’d like to mention some common mistakes I’ve seen when looking over secondaries for my friends and classmates:

1) Jumping straight into talking about something without giving some kind of introduction details. Such as talking about a hospital experience without even mentioning the hospital, your role, or a time frame.

2) Not giving examples. “I showed leadership” is much weaker than explaining a situation and what you did and learned.

3) Grammar and spelling

 

[ayjaystudent]

While we are on the topic, I’d like to mention some common mistakes I’ve seen when looking over secondaries for my friends and classmates:

1) Jumping straight into talking about something without giving some kind of introduction details. Such as talking about a hospital experience without even mentioning the hospital, your role, or a time frame.

For #1, sometimes I feel there's not enough characters, and I'd be relying that the AdCom would have context after going through my Primary application.

 

[993444]

For #1, sometimes I feel there's not enough characters, and I'd be relying that the AdCom would have context after going through my Primary application.

You can tactfully weave it in by just mentioning a couple words.

Consider this:

One day I saw a patient fall down in the hallway due to his lack of balance. I quickly ran over and asked the nurse if I can help get the patient safely to bed.

Versus this:

One day during my junior year at Mercy Hospital, I saw a patient lose balance and fall down in the ED. I asked the nurse if I could help get the patient safely to his bed.

Both sentences say the same thing and have similar length, but the second one offers more details. You just have to be tactful about the verbiage. It doesn't matter if the patient was in a "hallway" or if you "quickly ran over". Those are implied.

 

[Seihai]

Still true to form, I see.

I can't believe he was so determined to be like that to the point that he managed to get banned within a few hours of having come back.

Considering applicants already have very detailed primary applications, how much do secondary essays account for?

Quite a bit. Primaries tend to blend together after a bit, and schools often want vastly different things from applicants (one school might want more info on community service, while another might want more info on research). Their secondaries allow them to mine the specific information they want from each applicant without having to parse the generalized primary for each and every one of them.

 

[mwsapphire]

Are primaries and secondaries always read by the same person?
Some schools have secondaries that are hard to make different from the primary ( The last question on the Albany secondary is literally a most meaningful experience essay, like , how do I make that different from my primary)?!
I can imagine a situation where separate people read both , and then if two people both like a primary/secondary from the same person, then that person is invited in?

 

[mwsapphire]

Primaries and secondaries may or may not read by same people, parts of each may be read by different people, it can be a slew of people reading and evaluating bits and pieces of each

But if a prompt is literally a repeat from the primary, do I need to worry about making it different than what I have in the primary? Or would it be fine that they be the same ( maybe not copy pasta, but similar).

 

[sadpremed121]

Maybe just my experience but so far my all my interviews have come from schools where I sorta half-assed my secondaries hahah.

 

[ayjaystudent]

Maybe just my experience but so far my all my interviews have come from schools where I sorta half-assed my secondaries hahah.

Maybe your stats speak highly of you. I know someone who forgot to replace the school name when he copy/paste'd a response for another school, and still got an interview invite.

 

[mwsapphire]

Maybe just my experience but so far my all my interviews have come from schools where I sorta half-assed my secondaries hahah.

Yeah, would you mind sharing what your stats were? This is just comforting to me bc I'm wondering how much effort and time secondaries require , if it needs to be as polished as my PS, etc. I'm only doing 9 MD and the rest DO but still.

 

[sadpremed121]

Yeah, would you mind sharing what your stats were? This is just comforting to me bc I'm wondering how much effort and time secondaries require , if it needs to be as polished as my PS, etc. I'm only doing 9 MD and the rest DO but still.

Added to my sig

 

[deleted996731]

Added to my sig

So you’re the 1%

 

[907914]

So you’re the 1%

526 is like 0.08%...but who is counting.