Failure Secondary Essay

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

babykarat

Full Member
2+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2019
Messages
287
Reaction score
335
I am considering 2 ideas for "describe a time you failed" secondary essays, and would appreciate your thoughts on which would be more interesting!

1) Applied for a bunch of research fellowships, but my scientific writing was far too dense and I ignored advice from my reviewers. The experience taught me to value peer feedback, write for a target audience rather than myself, and persevere through failure. I took these lessons to heart, refined my writing, and eventually earned a fellowship.

2) An especially difficult research project where I made essentially no progress for a year, but through various modifications to my protocols I finally got informative results (I already described this in my "significant research experience" essay for AMCAS though)

My struggles with #1 and #2 actually happened at the same time, so could I work them both in?

Members don't see this ad.
 
1 makes you sound super pretentious and full of yourself. 2 is the safer option. Try to think of new ways to approach it or new problems you faced that you didn't put int he significant research experience essay
 
Members don't see this ad :)
1 makes you sound super pretentious and full of yourself. 2 is the safer option. Try to think of new ways to approach it or new problems you faced that you didn't put int he significant research experience essay

Hmm... yikes. I used something similar to #1... I think it shows perseverance despite setbacks.
 
I think it could come off poorly if you frame it like I did briefly. It is not as if I put ear plugs in and ignored everyone; rather, I thought my writing was good, my readers suggested significant edits, but I only made small ones. If you frame it as a failure you actually grew from I don't see how it could make Current Day Me look bad
 
I think it could come off poorly if you frame it like I did briefly. It is not as if I put ear plugs in and ignored everyone; rather, I thought my writing was good, my readers suggested significant edits, but I only made small ones. If you frame it as a failure you actually grew from I don't see how it could make Current Day Me look bad

Or you could leave the part out about you ignoring advice... I guess that’s what makes our experiences different. Just say you kept trying and trying until you succeeded.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I'll go against the grain here and say that #1 can work as it does show significant growth and receptiveness to feedback. I also appreciate that you described an actual failure, and not a strength masquerading as one ("I care too much"). However, I also agree with others here that you should not inadvertently portray yourself in a bad light by suggesting that you outright ignored suggestions by mentors.

As part of the brainstorming process, I would challenge you to think of situations outside of academics when you failed as well. I would avoid talking about #2 if you have already addressed the exact same scenarios in your primary application.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
I would avoid talking about #2 if you have already addressed the exact same scenarios in your primary application.

Would your advice be the same if I only briefly mentioned it in primaries and then further elaborated the situation in the "failure" prompt? Or still a bad idea?
 
Would your advice be the same if I only briefly mentioned it in primaries and then further elaborated the situation in the "failure" prompt? Or still a bad idea?
That's different. As long as it's actually adding something new then it's fine. But it shouldn't simply be a rewording
 
Top