How important are secondaries?

[trpng0bily]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

How important are the essays on secondaries? Do we need to put as much into them as we did for our personal statements?

 

[HemaOncoDoc]

How important are the essays on secondaries? Do we need to put as much into them as we did for our personal statements?

Pretty important. The questions are more directed towards why you want to go to that specific medical school.

 

[kenmc3]

Yeah I think that the secondaries are fairly important, they are probably one of the most important things ADCOMS look at when inviting people for interviews. They most important question is probably “why do you want to come here?” The rest are less important but you should still spend a decent about of time on them – and prepare to discuss them during your interviews. Also, you will find that many of the questions are similar on the different secondaries and you will be able to use the essays more than once.

 

[BerkeleyMD]

They are hella important, but the thing is that most of the questions are similar. So after 10-15 secondaries you will have basic templates you can use other schools.

The secondaries are very important and should be taken very seriously, but it should still be something you can complete in a couple of days for each school.

 

[BaylorGuy]

Aside from your GPA, MCAT, application, personal statement, etc, etc, your secondaries are very important.

Pretty much every step in the whole process is important, which makes me wonder why people alwasy stress GPA and MCAT...however, everything you do is pretty important. If you have an excellent GPA and MCAT, but write to save your life, then you better fix that situation. Each step in the process is an evaluation of your whole self, all of it needs to be top notch.....but it also all has to be in early.

 

[tifa]

vital to the sucess of your appliction.

 

[TheMightyAngus]

Ultimately it depends on whoever is reviewing your application, but I think that for many schools secondaries are relatively unimportant compared to your AMCAS, GPA, and MCAT. Secondaries are just a way to discourage students from applying to medical schools they aren't really interested in, hence the high application costs and the lengthy required essays. Interviewers at BU and Mt. Sinai have even alluded to the fact that many optional secondary essays are never even read.

 

[shuey123]

The secondary essays are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. Take them seriously....They can/will make the difference between a rejection letter and an interview invitation.

 

[LizzyM]

Don't cut & paste bits of your PS into the secondary. Some adcom members read both and the "cut & paste" variety suggest laziness and a lack of thought.

The PS goes to all the schools & has to be generic, so to speak. The secondary is your chance to tell the adcom why you love Hogwarts School of Medicine (or whatever school you are applying to) and why you would be delighted to matriculate there. You can write it up-front or you can write it in a dozen letters & e-mails after you are waitlisted. Choose wisely.

 

[Dr. Giggles]

The worst secondary essays are the ones where we're asked about our motivations to go into medicine (generally speaking). I mean, how can we not be repetitive of our PS for that? I guess that's when it helps to have written multiple PS's to choose from initially.

 

[star22]

At some schools the interviewers only see the essays that you write for the secondary..... it is the only place where every applicant writes an essay on the same topic. However, many schools ask the same questions, so you can just recycle several of your responses.