Diversity and Adversity Secondary Essays, or Just One of the Two?

[aalamruad]

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On secondaries, do med schools ever have both adversity and diversity essay prompts (2 distinct essays), or do they usually choose one or the other? Those prompts seem to be pretty closely related (at least a lot of the time), and I feel like adversity is often what makes applicants diverse, since it gives them new perspectives, so it seems like it would be redundant to require essays on both topics.

 

[neekzg]

Can't remember any off the top of my head but I would not doubt that a school could ask for both. While it is true that someone's adversity contributes to the diverse perspective they bring, it is not true that these are always related. If you were planning on using the same essay for both of these topics, I would have a back up story for either diversity/adversity in the event they ask both. You can worry about that once you see the secondary prompts for the schools you apply to.

 

[neekzg]

There are ways that you could subtly adjust the same essay to fit either prompt.

 

[Crayola227]

On secondaries, do med schools ever have both adversity and diversity essay prompts (2 distinct essays), or do they usually choose one or the other? Those prompts seem to be pretty closely related (at least a lot of the time), and I feel like adversity is often what makes applicants diverse, since it gives them new perspectives, so it seems like it would be redundant to require essays on both topics.

I have seen them as two separate prompts and I think that's totally fair.

I don't think it's necessarily redundant. Wrack your brain!

 

[freak7]

*Light necrobump* (At least I used the search function!)

What about a situation where an applicant grew up SES-disadvantaged/URM? Growing up in that sort of environment would definitely speak to both diversity and adversity very well so it may be hard to pull the two apart.

Additionally, how would you address significant financial adversity without reiterating the "disadvantaged status" essay?

 

[liquidsodium]

U Chicago Pritzker has both a challenge and diversity essay. Gave very different answers for each


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