can i do this?

[Sweet Tea]

I'm in the middle of trying to write an essay for a secondary application, and it's asking a question that I answered in my personal statement... the infamous "why do you wanna be a doc?" question.

Is it okay to refer to my personal statement to answer this question? I know the GW secondary says not to refer to your AMCAS app, but this secondary makes no such specifications. Obviously, I'm not going to write "see personal statement"... but is it alright to say "As I stated in my personal statement...blah blah blah", and then further develop my essay? I just find it boring to have the same essay in my application twice, so I'm sure it's going to be boring to read. "Boring" isn't exactly the impression I'm trying to make...

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[vyc]

i wouldn't recommend it.
your essays should be separate entities, able to stand each on their own.

 

[Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]]

Your 2ndary should be a stand alone one. A person who is reading the essay should be able to make some conslusions without refering to any other materials. It may happen that the reader does not have access to your personal for some reason which would make it difficult for him/her to see your main point. I know that it is easier to say than to do.

 

[Sweet Tea]

Thanks, Spiderman and vyc!! That's what I was thinking, too.

 

[Premed2003]

What about on a secondary with a lot of questions that refer to the same thing.

One secondary for example asks you to describe a major extracurricular activity, but also asks you to describe your clinical experiences. My major extracurricular is a clinical experience. Can I say something like "in addition to ____ cliinical experience described in question 1, my other major extracurricular is blah blah..." instead of repeating the same stuff?

thanks

 

[Dr. Dodger Dog]

Originally posted by Sweet Tea
I'm in the middle of trying to write an essay for a secondary application, and it's asking a question that I answered in my personal statement... the infamous "why do you wanna be a doc?" question.

Is it okay to refer to my personal statement to answer this question? I know the GW secondary says not to refer to your AMCAS app, but this secondary makes no such specifications. Obviously, I'm not going to write "see personal statement"... but is it alright to say "As I stated in my personal statement...blah blah blah", and then further develop my essay? I just find it boring to have the same essay in my application twice, so I'm sure it's going to be boring to read. "Boring" isn't exactly the impression I'm trying to make...

Unfortunately, I ran into this same problem. My personal statement was largely autobiographical, detailing the events in my life that have directed me towards a career in medicine. It becomes extremely difficult to write a secondary response on why you want to be a doctor without alluding to this topic. So far, what I've done is write about the same topic, but take a different tangent on the secondaries.

Although I don't want to dwell on this topic too much, it is really really significant in my life and pretty much is the whole reason I want to go into medicine and why my brother is in medical school now. I think by taking a different approach to the same topic without being redundant, it should be ok. Now, the thing is to make sure that your "why" really is significant enough to merit such attention... (I hope mine is...or I'm screwed )

 

[lilorchid]

Sigh. Everyone is so well organized and on top of all the things they need to do. I really am far behind in this process. But to the orginial poster, I agree with everyone in that your essays should be able to stand alone but you can always develop tangents to ideas you wrote previously.