Help with TMDSAS Optional Essay

[confusedpremed01]

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Hey y’all!

I’m a little confused on what to write about for the "optional" essay for TMDSAS and have been told pretty contradictory things about the purpose of this essay. One TMDSAS ADCOM told me that it was a truly “free for all” essay where you could talk about literally anything, including unrelated hobbies or expanding on ECs, but everyone else seems to be telling me that it’s basically a challenge essay :/. Here’s the options I was considering for my essay:

1. Telling a story about how I encountered a grizzly bear, then talking about how I got free flights growing up because my mom works for an airline, and how traveling sometimes forced me to adaptable. I worry this one will make me come off as privileged/red flag-y.
2. Talking about how I was discouraged to pursue a higher education by my traditional extended family. While this felt impactful, it’s hard for me to expand on how this actually made me grow as a person.
3. Talking about being a reapplicant. But I don’t know if I should avoid bringing attention to this.

Thanks for the help!

 

[wysdoc]

Hey y’all!

I’m a little confused on what to write about for the "optional" essay for TMDSAS and have been told pretty contradictory things about the purpose of this essay. One TMDSAS ADCOM told me that it was a truly “free for all” essay where you could talk about literally anything, including unrelated hobbies or expanding on ECs, but everyone else seems to be telling me that it’s basically a challenge essay :/. Here’s the options I was considering for my essay:

1. Telling a story about how I encountered a grizzly bear, then talking about how I got free flights growing up because my mom works for an airline, and how traveling sometimes forced me to adaptable. I worry this one will make me come off as privileged/red flag-y.
2. Talking about how I was discouraged to pursue a higher education by my traditional extended family. While this felt impactful, it’s hard for me to expand on how this actually made me grow as a person.
3. Talking about being a reapplicant. But I don’t know if I should avoid bringing attention to this.

Thanks for the help!

It could be a challenge essay, but there are a lot of secondary essay prompts that ask that so you don’t have to write about it here too.
If you are a reapplicant you will be given a short essay space to tell what you have added since last time.
What would you like them to know about you that the rest of the app didn’t ask?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Essays

www.tmdsas.com

Consider: Other Impactful Experiences.

Grizzly bear story... uh, no. Save it for the "two truths and a lie" icebreaker game. I also don't know how that ties in to your mom working for an airline.

 

[confusedpremed01]

It could be a challenge essay, but there are a lot of secondary essay prompts that ask that so you don’t have to write about it here too.
If you are a reapplicant you will be given a short essay space to tell what you have added since last time.
What would you like them to know about you that the rest of the app didn’t ask?

I would probably want them to know about #2 (being discouraged to pursue a higher education) the most. I was just hesitant about this one because I used it last cycle, and I feel like I didn't frame it right to showcase how this would make me a better physician, but I'm planning on improving on that if I use this topic. Someone also told me that this isn't what medical schools are looking for with this prompt :/