"Optional" essay for reapplicants

[premed2000]

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For re-applicants to certain medical schools, does it make sense, or would it be a good idea for me to use the "optional" essays or "additional information" part of the secondary to address what I have done in the past year since my first unsuccessful application cycle and what I have learned from it to make myself a better applicant?

 

[Doctor Strange]

I feel like I saw this exact same thread last week, but the answer again is yes, this would be an appropriate space for such an essay.

 

[medschool2016]

what if it is a school you didn't apply to the last round?

 

[Lya]

I feel like I saw this exact same thread last week, but the answer again is yes, this would be an appropriate space for such an essay.

I would respectfully disagree.

I feel that all recent activities during gap years should be on AMCAS anyways and simply reiterating the same activity descriptions (often times, med schools will specifically say, "Is there anything else, outside what's on your AMCAS, you would like to let us know?") is not an extraordinary idea, in my opinion.

Unless you are talking much more in depth about recent activities instead of repeating your activity descriptions, I would discuss other things.


For me, I talked about how my 15+ years of musical experiences relate to medicine because I didn't have enough space to talk about them in AMCAS at all and didn't want schools to think that it was just my extracurricular without any meaning. Just to give you an example, if it helps at all.