HELP with secondaries!!!

[GTP]

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Hello,

This is my first time receiving secondaries and I am absolutely lost.

What do you guys do about schools who send secondaries with absolutely no guidelines (both content and length) and expect us to write essays?

What should I focus on?

why couldn't the amcas essay be enough 😡

thanks for your help!!

 

[Asyouwereatrio]

Hello,

This is my first time receiving secondaries and I am absolutely lost.

What do you guys do about schools who send secondaries with absolutely no guidelines (both content and length) and expect us to write essays?

What should I focus on?

why couldn't the amcas essay be enough 😡

thanks for your help!!

What secondary is this? I haven't seen one that has "absolutely no guidelines"...

 

[elyswim]

Ok, first of all, take a deep breath. It's going to be OK.
Secondaries usually have a prompt and a word limit (if they didn't people would write pages and pages and they don't have time for that).
Look at the school specific threads from last year to get an idea of the questions you will be asked.

 

[PennFranklin]

Your best option would be to look at the school specific discussion thread. There are a lot of guidelines and useful tips for writing a specific school's secondary in those threads.

 

[GTP]

thanks everyone 😳

its for meharry med school. all they said was to write about why we wish to attend that school. since this is not the same "why do you want to be a doctor essay", there is only so much you can write about the school.

do you guys have any pointers? I dont want my essay to be two paragraphs long 😕

I tried taking your advice pennfranklin and looking for previous threads about the secondary, but there is soooooooo much clutter and thousands of posts. its hard to find what i am looking for even when I filter using "meharry secondary"

 

[TommyJohnMD]

I have a question regarding school-specific secondaries, for when a school asks why us?

Is it ok to mention things about the school that are pretty commonplace to all medical schools. For instance, if I mention some of the student interest group and how I want to share my interests and passions with similar people. Is that fine to discuss or should be avoided.

In the end I don't think there is a lot to discuss in a few thousand characters "why a certain school" without touching upon these things. Especially with curriculum, most are fairly similar.

Thanks.

 

[PennFranklin]

thanks everyone 😳

its for meharry med school. all they said was to write about why we wish to attend that school. since this is not the same "why do you want to be a doctor essay", there is only so much you can write about the school.

do you guys have any pointers? I dont want my essay to be two paragraphs long 😕

I would go to their website and read first and foremost the schools mission statement, then read about their type of curriculum...lecture, PBL, whatever and come up with reasons why you are a good fit for their school. Never lose sight of the fact that you are selling yourself as an applicant to their school.

 

[Asyouwereatrio]

thanks everyone 😳

its for meharry med school. all they said was to write about why we wish to attend that school. since this is not the same "why do you want to be a doctor essay", there is only so much you can write about the school.

do you guys have any pointers? I dont want my essay to be two paragraphs long 😕

I'm not familiar with Meharry...but I would suggest simply answering the question....as thoughtful as you possibly can without going too long or too short. Quality>Quantity....

Sorry it's not helpful, but it's the general rule of thumb. Write everything you can concisely and sincerely, and then send it off!

 

[frescoengano]

I would go to their website and read first and foremost the schools mission statement, then read about their type of curriculum...lecture, PBL, whatever and come up with reasons why you are a good fit for their school. Never lose sight of the fact that you are selling yourself as an applicant to their school.

👍
i did the same thing. it seems like all my "why X school" essays look and sound the same except for the little details

 

[GTP]

thanks for all your help everyone. 🙂 sorry for the ignorance. i am used to writing only canadian applications. we dont have primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary applications here

thanks 🙂