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Applying to medical school is a long, grueling process. Every single component of the application matters. However, it’s your secondaries that can have a big impact on getting your foot into the interview door. Here are some tips on how to strategize your secondary essays.
Timeline Strategy
After submitting your primaries (hopefully on the first of June!), secondaries will start to trickle into your inbox throughout summer. Since most every school automatically sends secondaries back, you will likely become overwhelmed with the amount of writing that needs to be accomplished! Returning secondaries within two weeks of receiving them is the best method. So how do you choose which schools you attack first?
There are a couple of strategies that you can implement while completing your secondaries. Since the medical school admissions process is rolling, you will have a better chance with the secondaries that you submit first. You can answer your top school’s secondaries first to give you a better chance. But we also recommend that you prioritize a few safeties to show your increased interest. After creating a school list, spend some time thinking critically about which secondaries you should prioritize.
Writing Strategy
Strategizing your secondary timeline is the easy part. Actually writing them is a lot more draining. Here are some tips you should implement while writing your secondaries.
Think like an Admissions Committee
Many adcoms are made up of professors and students. You must write to please that particular audience. If you suspect that one of your would-be peers would read your application and say, “I would hate to be with this person in class,” you’re in trouble. No amount of qualification or credentialing can save you if your prospective peers and professors think you would be a pain in the butt in class.
Moreover, these people have to read hundreds of essays, so keep your vocabulary simple and your sentences short. Try to keep sentences under 15 words, where possible. Don’t use big words if a smaller word will suffice.
Finally, these are humans reading your essays, and as such, they will get insanely bored reading applications, 75% of which sound identical. Their eyes will inevitably glaze over. Thus, you need to grab their attention, particularly with your opening sentences.
Do Not Repeat Yourself
The adcom already has your AMCAS application. Repetition will not help you at all. You need to be providing new information. That doesn’t mean that you cannot talk about the same activities or experiences—you certainly can. It means that you need to discuss another angle of that particular experience.
For instance, if you previously discussed the ways your humanitarian work changed your priorities, perhaps you could now discuss the ways your humanitarian work influenced your interest in a particular practice area, such as epidemiology or plastic surgery.
Answer the Prompt Directly
Too many people get caught up in what they want to say, and completely fail to answer the question. Make sure your answer is directly responsive to the question and doesn’t take any significant detours.
Be Consistent with your AMCAS Application
I don’t just mean your theme. I mean don’t write anything that contradicts or otherwise calls into question something you wrote on your AMCAS. And off of that point, don’t write about anything you can’t speak about in depth during your interviews. Be consistent.
Need help strategizing your medical school application? Schedule a consultation with one of our admissions experts to receive some concrete, detailed feedback!
Timeline Strategy
After submitting your primaries (hopefully on the first of June!), secondaries will start to trickle into your inbox throughout summer. Since most every school automatically sends secondaries back, you will likely become overwhelmed with the amount of writing that needs to be accomplished! Returning secondaries within two weeks of receiving them is the best method. So how do you choose which schools you attack first?
There are a couple of strategies that you can implement while completing your secondaries. Since the medical school admissions process is rolling, you will have a better chance with the secondaries that you submit first. You can answer your top school’s secondaries first to give you a better chance. But we also recommend that you prioritize a few safeties to show your increased interest. After creating a school list, spend some time thinking critically about which secondaries you should prioritize.
Writing Strategy
Strategizing your secondary timeline is the easy part. Actually writing them is a lot more draining. Here are some tips you should implement while writing your secondaries.
Think like an Admissions Committee
Many adcoms are made up of professors and students. You must write to please that particular audience. If you suspect that one of your would-be peers would read your application and say, “I would hate to be with this person in class,” you’re in trouble. No amount of qualification or credentialing can save you if your prospective peers and professors think you would be a pain in the butt in class.
Moreover, these people have to read hundreds of essays, so keep your vocabulary simple and your sentences short. Try to keep sentences under 15 words, where possible. Don’t use big words if a smaller word will suffice.
Finally, these are humans reading your essays, and as such, they will get insanely bored reading applications, 75% of which sound identical. Their eyes will inevitably glaze over. Thus, you need to grab their attention, particularly with your opening sentences.
Do Not Repeat Yourself
The adcom already has your AMCAS application. Repetition will not help you at all. You need to be providing new information. That doesn’t mean that you cannot talk about the same activities or experiences—you certainly can. It means that you need to discuss another angle of that particular experience.
For instance, if you previously discussed the ways your humanitarian work changed your priorities, perhaps you could now discuss the ways your humanitarian work influenced your interest in a particular practice area, such as epidemiology or plastic surgery.
Answer the Prompt Directly
Too many people get caught up in what they want to say, and completely fail to answer the question. Make sure your answer is directly responsive to the question and doesn’t take any significant detours.
Be Consistent with your AMCAS Application
I don’t just mean your theme. I mean don’t write anything that contradicts or otherwise calls into question something you wrote on your AMCAS. And off of that point, don’t write about anything you can’t speak about in depth during your interviews. Be consistent.
Need help strategizing your medical school application? Schedule a consultation with one of our admissions experts to receive some concrete, detailed feedback!
