answering secondaries

[anonymous350933]

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Hello!

I had some questions for how to go about answering secondaries. Is it bad if I reuse activities I have mentioned in my activities list/personal statement in these secondary questions? I would go into more detail or include another situation/story but will it look bad?

For ones like this "Did you have a Pre-Health Advisor at your undergraduate institution? If so, please tell us about your experience.", if I didn't use Pre-health advising at all, can I answer this as NA?

Also for questions like "Is there anything you would like the Admissions Committee to know that is not reflected elsewhere in your application?", can I include hobbies in here? I feel like i mentioned everything I would like to mention and am not sure what more I could add. What are some examples of what people include?

Additionally for these questions: " Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person.", how personal do these have to be? i'm having trouble finding some difficult adversities that i've had to overcome. Or for questions like "Have you ever had difficulty accessing quality education or healthcare?", I am very grateful and haven't faced serious barriers before but should I leave it as N/A or like discussing how I have worked with communities facing these issues. I feel like that's a stretch though.

also for questions regarding research, if I didn't do a thesis or a capstone project, can I simply discuss the research I have done? in my activities section, I include more of a story of how I overcame a difficult experiment in my research project so I have an opportunity to discuss my actual research project in my secondaries. could i discuss it in these types of questions: " if you have participated in research or other scholarly project (capstone project, honors thesis, etc.), please reflect on the experience, including how you learned from it, what challenged you, and how it may have impacted you educationally and professionally"?

when asked questions including "What are two causes or activities you are most passionate about?", can we restate some of the activities in our activities list?

 

[LelouchLamperouge]

Hello!

I had some questions for how to go about answering secondaries. Is it bad if I reuse activities I have mentioned in my activities list/personal statement in these secondary questions? I would go into more detail or include another situation/story but will it look bad?

I don't think it would look bad. Share a different insight as to what you learned from that activity that is not related to your personal statement. Doesn't have to always tie into medicine either, just something that you learned that made you grow as a person.

For ones like this "Did you have a Pre-Health Advisor at your undergraduate institution? If so, please tell us about your experience.", if I didn't use Pre-health advising at all, can I answer this as NA?

Yes

Also for questions like "Is there anything you would like the Admissions Committee to know that is not reflected elsewhere in your application?", can I include hobbies in here? I feel like i mentioned everything I would like to mention and am not sure what more I could add. What are some examples of what people include?

Here, I used this to reiterate why I felt that I was a fit for their program. I suppose you can talk about hobbies. Don't try to spin it into "this is what makes me unique". You can also use this section to give insight into any lapses in your journey (ie, they see a bad grade, you give context as to what was going on in your life at that time, and how you grew past it)

Additionally for these questions: " Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person.", how personal do these have to be? i'm having trouble finding some difficult adversities that i've had to overcome. Or for questions like "Have you ever had difficulty accessing quality education or healthcare?", I am very grateful and haven't faced serious barriers before but should I leave it as N/A or like discussing how I have worked with communities facing these issues. I feel like that's a stretch though.

It doesn't have to be a devastating, life-altering experience. If you haven't struggled a lot, then it may mean you haven't needed to get out of your comfort zone very much. Try thinking about times where you were pushed to do something challenging the steps you took to overcome that challenge.

also for questions regarding research, if I didn't do a thesis or a capstone project, can I simply discuss the research I have done? in my activities section, I include more of a story of how I overcame a difficult experiment in my research project so I have an opportunity to discuss my actual research project in my secondaries. could i discuss it in these types of questions: " if you have participated in research or other scholarly project (capstone project, honors thesis, etc.), please reflect on the experience, including how you learned from it, what challenged you, and how it may have impacted you educationally and professionally"?

You can tell a story, but make sure it's very succinct. Talk about research in a way where you can depict why you got into that project, your responsibilities, what you learned, how you view research in your career, and what you wish to do with said research later on once in school/training

when asked questions including "What are two causes or activities you are most passionate about?", can we restate some of the activities in our activities list?

You have to. Don't come up with new activities not listed in your WA section

 

[LizzyM]

If your school had pre-health advising and you didn't use it, don't answer "not applicable". The adcoms know which schools have pre-health advising and will see your answer as unresponsive. You can say, "although my school offers pre-health advising, I did not avail myself of its services"

If there isn't anything that would be useful that is not otherwise reflected in your application, leave it blank. Don't waste our time with something that is repetitive. Hobbies belong in the Activities section of AMCAS.

If you've been fortunate not to have struggled to obtain health care and quality education, then leave it blank. That section is for people who grew up with underfunded schools and/or shuttered hospitals.

Did you ever work hard for something other than grades? How did it shape you? Maybe it is as banal as learning to play a musical instrument that at first was painful to the ear but was eventually mastered. What did you learn from that experience? Maybe it was about continued practice, or accepting coaching, or how the teamwork of a group helped you get better....

Your research should be in the AMCAS application. If there is a secondary question about it, reflect on what you learned, what challenged you, etc. It is unlikely that your AMCAS entry will go into that much detail.

I agree that anything you are passionate about should be in the WA section of the AMCAS and a secondary question about passions should be an expansion on one of those entries.