General secondary essay questions

[beattheprocess]

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1. What is the best writing style? I have a pretty straightforward style that answers the question and have a policy of "if they didn't ask, don't answer." However I've had a couple people tell me my responses are "list-y" for questions that ask you to "describe examples of _____." So for questions similar to - I don't know - "describe your clinical experiences and how they made you want to be a doctor" is it better to have many examples that are a bit vague or 1 or 2 that are really specific? The former is what my essay looks like right now.

(if anyone is willing to peer review it I can send it over)

2. For the "what are you doing during the application cycle?" questions is it preferable to just state what you are doing with a brief description and not elaborate on how meaningful it is? I've done some peer reviewing for people on reddit and I see a bunch of people that really try to milk meaningfulness from jobs like fast food deep fryer and walmart cashier. I personally think it's gratuitous but I want to hear more opinions.

3. Does living 15 minutes from the border of a state count as "ties to a state?"

 

[premed20172017]

n=1, but here are things I’ve noticed while writing these.

1)I think a lot of people are so used to writing that way after college. Profs never want fluff! I found that while writing mine, I was getting the facts out, but I needed to paint the picture a bit more (while not being too flowery). Try talking about “experiences” as they help bring out personality and show what you’re like in various situations.

2) I have a few versions of this essay. One basically states what I’m doing. The other expands on my activities a bit. I use whichever one best fits the whole app/space constraints.

3) There’s a thread about state ties. I’d check / ask your question there.