Do admissions staff read personal statements prior to secondaries?
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
I don't.
Better question. When you have a completed app, do you read the PS before reading other essays, most memorable, etc
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
This is good to know - I have referenced something I discussed somewhat in depth in my PS. I'm thinking i need to make it even clearer in my secondary when I bring it up or else it may cause confusion. But I don't want to repeat my PS. Decisions...
The PS is one of the last things I read.
Please don't repeat sections of the PS.
This is hard to explain without going into details, but a life-changing experience led to my decision to go into medicine and I included the details in my PS. I have briefly referenced that life-changing experience in response to secondary essays that ask to explain traits or characteristics that would influence how I approach medicine, but I don't go into any details. I'm afraid that such a brief reference may leave some questions, but the details are provided in the PS. But now I'm concerned I'm leaving too many questions unanswered for the person who is NOT reading the PS.
This is nearly impossible to describe without giving examples. Is it okay to briefly mention a major life-changing event in secondaries in a completely different way from the PS as long as you don't actually repeat your PS? On the other hand, should you give a few details to clarify assuming that the person didn't read the PS?
This would be fine.
Safe to say that your schools don't prescreen? Or do schools that do prescreen still save personal statements for last? I was thinking for prescreening, everything is evaluated (including the personal statement) and based on that, secondaries are given.
Even when pre-screening, I read the PS next to last.
But that still means the PS is read during prescreening before sending out the secondaries right? So if everything is received and application is marked complete, is the PS read again?
Not by me!
This explains why so many schools make you repeat half your primary in your secondary
I've always wondered why they do this...
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Oh god I was hoping my PS would be the reason you wouldn't throw my application away 
Follow up question, How do you goro and gyngyn weight PS vs Secondaries? The rest of Adcoms in general? As I plug through these, I often wonder if these are important or even more since they are school specific.
There is at least a fighting chance that the secondary was actually written by the applicant.
What a sad state of affairs.
We get no marching orders regarding how we read applications. We get no direction regarding how we choose to read the application before an interview. We get no instructions on reviewing the application and interviewers' notes before we score the application and made a decision regarding admission. Everyone can take the approach that they find most comfortable and efficient.
Do not assume that everyone will read everything. I suspect that some schools limit some reviewers to only a portion of the application to avoid the halo effect (having the reviewer think more highly of an applicant due to something unrelated to what is being evaluated).
Do not assume that everyone will read everything. I suspect that some schools limit some reviewers to only a portion of the application to avoid the halo effect (having the reviewer think more highly of an applicant due to something unrelated to what is being evaluated).
I pay more attention to secondaries. At least they're tailored to our school's prompts.
In our Adcom meetings, our DO faculty will frequently ask to see what the applicants have written about Osteopathy in the secondary.
PS's all gel after awhile.
Most pre-meds place magical powers in PS's as if they alone will somehow get someone an accept.
They don't.
A PS can break you if it's poorly written, has many typos, is full of clichés, has the name of another school in place of ours (I barbecue interviewees over something like this), or telegraph elitism, ego, entitlement or some other pathology. There are people who write it's their destiny to become a doctor, that God ordained it, or that they will engage in some sort of self-harm if not accepted. I am NOT making this up!
I'm sure @gonnif, @LizzyM or @gyngyn can add to this list.
Another bit of evidence that PS's really aren't the central pillar of the app like so many seem to think
So essentially, what we should take away from this is that we need to write a PS that is grammatically correct, at least partially addresses the questions "who am I" and "why medicine", and is free from glaring personality/mental health flaws and our PS will be more than sufficient!
I take away we need to try as hard as the PS on our secondaries
Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Yes. We've been saying this for years, too.
I've read on some places that you guys are required to read all LORs even if the amount passes the min. requirement of letters. Is this true or do some letters not get read?
Required? By whom? We'd be fools not to have someone put eyeballs on every letter just in case the one letter that is over the minimum says the applicant is a total tool who would step over his own grandmother to get even a slight advantage over other students, chews with his mouth open, and laughs at students who make mistakes in lab. We'd hate to admit someone like that and only find out later that we had this information and didn't use it before making an offer.
So I guess it's more of an unspoken requirement then. Thank you!
how do these people even get an interview?!
Whoever wrote that is wrong. See LizzyM's post.
Well, at my school, we don't pre-screen, much to the annoyance of the Faculty.
how do these people even get an interview?!
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
If the application makes it all the way to an interview, committee members will have to read all the letters so as not to miss the one that warns us of serious problems.
The screener doesn't have to read them all if he has already made a decision not to advance the application before getting to the letters.
I am glad you grill them
Is this not true for most PSs? I never assumed I was in some sort of minority for writing my own...
