Can someone list the two optional essay prompts from the TMDSAS app? I am planning on applying this upcoming cycle and would like to get a headstart. I heard there are two other essays besides the PS.
Optional Essay Prompts for TMDSAS
- Thread starter rubisco88
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IF they are are the same as last year's essays...:
Essay 1 (required):
Personal Essay for the Medical School Application
Explain your motivation to seek a career in MEDICINE. Be sure to include the value of your experiences that prepare you to be a physician. (5000 characters max--notice that this is shorter than the AMCAS character limit)
Essay 2 (optional):
Optional Essay - Unique Experience
Briefly discuss any unique circumstances or life experiences that are relevant to your application which have not previously been presented. (2500 characters max)
Essay 3 (optional):
Optional Essay - Personal Characteristics
Please describe any personal characteristics and/or important or challenging experiences you have had that will contribute to the diversity (broadly defined) of or provide educational benefits to the student body. (2500 max characters)
Also, don't forget that characters include every letter, digit, punctuation mark, and space. Hitting "Enter" twice to make a new paragraph counts as one character.
I only did one of the optional essays (the personal characteristics one) because I didn't feel like I had any truly exceptional experiences that were not already adequately discussed in my personal statement and application. Judging from other SDNers on the school-specific pages, that's what a lot of people did. It worked out just fine for me (3 acceptance offers, 2 prematches and match to my #1).
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What if the theme of your personal statement revolves around a personal characteristic that you think is beneficial to a medical school? Should I change my PS so that I can use that in the second optional essay, or just not write that essay to avoid being repetitive?
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The personal statement is by far the most important. Write that as though it's the only thing admission committee members will read about you. They still look at your optionals, and some will read those more carefully than others, but they will almost certainly read the PS first, making it their first and most important subjective impression of you.
So no, I would not recommend "holding back" on content in the PS in order to save something for the optional. For me my 5000 went pretty quick, so the optional was a good place to basically extend my PS. In my optional I told an extended story from an experience that I was only able to talk about generally in my PS. Then I talked about how that EC, as illustrated by the story, demonstrated my character traits and learning experience.
And don't forget that the second optional essay isn't just about personal characteristics, but also "important or challenging experiences".
I was going to write my optional essay about working alongside my dad at our store and learning the importance of working hard and treating customers/patients like people and friends rather than pocketbooks. I'm just not so sure which optional essay this would be better for. Any thoughts?
