finishing up some volunteer gigs so ill have a bit more free time between now and the big june plunge... figure i might as well get started on some secondaries if possible. do secondary prompts change a lot each year or are they fairly consistent? i mean the generic 'discuss a personal adversity and how you overcame' is probably a staple. but the 10,000 character autobiography UCSD wants is something i dont want to write in advance if they are gonna flip it at the last minute.
Things stay pretty stable from year to year. Some schools seem to have a set they rotate through, though. Vandy also asks for an autobiography, so I'd go ahead and have that handy.
Others to have readily c/p-able:
What makes you different (read: diversity--variations on this include a split into academic vs. social offerings you might bring to the incoming class)
How do you cope with diversity? (The question generally ends up sounding like this, but what they really want is for you to demonstrate how well you deal with others from different backgrounds.)
Describe post-graduation activities/summer plans.
Make us feel like you understand what we have to offer you: why us?
Describe any hurdles/difficulties and how you've grown/learned from them.
Future practice scenario. (Beware the difficult
personal situation and moral dilemma, non-academic variants!)
Describe your most important exposure to clinical medicine.
Describe your best-evar volunteer experience.
What's a profession?
What is ____ and how have you demonstrated it?
Where do you see yourself in insertarbitrarylengthoftimehere?
Are you a leader? If so, how have you demonstrated this?
etc.
