Penn State Secondary

[Papillon11]

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Hi everyone,
I have a question about this Penn State Secondary question:
2. Explain the negative aspects of medicine that you considered in making this career decision. (Maximum 50 words)

I'm not sure what it means. Should it be positive aspects? Is there a typo there? Or I misunderstand the question somehow? Would someone please help me to read the question differently.
Thank you so much!

 

[Robizzle]

negative! like what are bad parts of medicine you have considered and are willing to work with because the positive is so much better. all in 50 words lol good luck.

 

[DoctorPardi]

Long hours during residency, possibly lots of beaucracy involved in your job depending on what type of practice you have, less ability to make a family/have kids. You can turn this into a positive essay I would think, if you discuss the things that you would call bad and then talk about how you don't find them be as negative as some and you look forward to meeting these challenges etc.

 

[spygal]

Anyone else having trouble answering this question in just 50 words?? It seems ridiculously short.

On a side note, for question #3, why are you applying to Penn State, I'd love to put "for the student football tickets, of course." Wonder how well that would go over with some adcom members....

 

[Robizzle]

yup. it's like after you're done listin why you wana go, and u want to start explaining further, you're already 30 words over the limit. it sucks.

 

[jillibean]

Anyone else having trouble answering this question in just 50 words?? It seems ridiculously short.

I just submitted mine, and it was exactly 50, but when I went back to read it, it sounded really negative.... oh well, thats what they asked for. I didn't elaborate at all just said two things I thought were negative about medicine.

 

[swim2md]

Anyone else having trouble answering this question in just 50 words?? It seems ridiculously short.

On a side note, for question #3, why are you applying to Penn State, I'd love to put "for the student football tickets, of course." Wonder how well that would go over with some adcom members....

chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate.

49 words. done!

 

[xanthomondo]

chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate, joe pa, chocolate.

49 words. done!

lol I was definitely going to include the copious amounts of chocolate in my essay

 

[Severus]

I put something in there about the time commitment, issues of physician error and human life, and the possibility of blood borne pathogen infection via needle sticks and cuts.

I didn't mind the question, but wished there had been more space.

 

[reecie89]

What about the second question about unique aspects? Are they asking for you to explain how you stand out or explain that bad grade that you got freshman year?

 

[spygal]

Anything that makes you unique in a positive aspect. I wouldn't explain any negative aspects of your application here.

 

[strawberryfield]

last year I answered this question as to what the negative aspects I considered w/ deciding to get a medical education, most notably, high cost of education, possibility of future compromise in pt care w/ insurance regulations, ect (it was worded better w/ in those 50 words, lol) and compromise in my personal life w/ regards to timing w/ marriage and wanting to have a family (I am female)

I'm sure this question could be answered many ways...good luck y'all... hope you don't end up on the waitlist like I did this year, which has had NO movement whatsoever 🙁

 

[ClosetNerd]

Did everyone say what was negative about medicine then try to spin it positive?

The 50 word limit is killing me

Did anyone answer "No" to the unique question?

 

[xanthomondo]

Did everyone say what was negative about medicine then try to spin it positive?

The 50 word limit is killing me

Did anyone answer "No" to the unique question?

you could answer "im unique in that i wont waste your time with fluffy BS in this section like the other applicants"

 

[ClosetNerd]

you could answer "im unique in that i wont waste your time with fluffy BS in this section like the other applicants"

hmmm.. maybe I should write that for all of my essays

I'm trying to rationlize how could I possibly be unique from every other applicant applying to the school? Jeeze I thought they said applying to med school was easy 😱

 

[xanthomondo]

hmmm.. maybe I should write that for all of my essays

I'm trying to rationlize how could I possibly be unique from every other applicant applying to the school? Jeeze I thought they said applying to med school was easy 😱

yeah this sucks, im glad this is only 50 words though

for those who have submitted, which credit cards is PSU willing to steal our $100 from?

 

[Robizzle]

you could answer "im unique in that i wont waste your time with fluffy BS in this section like the other applicants"

My response was "No."

 

[strawberryfield]

For the "unique" thing I put something about working full-time during undergrad, I studied Spanish and got a minor....and I was born in PA (although OOSer), my parents went to PSU (not med though)... something like that...I got an interview at least, though no acceptance 🙄 🙁

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

for the unique thing: My son has a rare metabollic disorder (galactosemia) that prevents his body from breaking down the sugar galactose which is abundant in milk chocolate. I would therefore need to live far far away from the chocolate river that flows through Hershey. I feel this fear of your Chocolate River makes me unique. Thank You.

I'm in 👍

 

[sf1991]

this was my reply last fall, and i am starting at penn state in a couple of weeks. so f#$kin' happy to be starting! best of luck.

I considered the cost of education, the time and dedication involved in a medical education, the sacrifice involved in the daily life of a physician, and the potential impact this all can have on family life. I am confident I can maintain balance in life and pursue my dream. (49 words)



Penn State University COM class of 2010

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

Am I the only one who listed having to give painful tests to little kids? That's my #1 negative. I watched my son get a spinal tap and almost gave up medicine right then...

 

[Severus]

Looking at everyone else's responses is making me a bit antsy about my own.

Nice... I totally flubbed that one up. 🙄

 

[swim2md]

How come I can bang out 1000 words in an hour.... but 3 little 50 word essays are still annoying me 2 days later??????

 

[Robizzle]

How come I can bang out 1000 words in an hour.... but 3 little 50 word essays are still annoying me 2 days later??????

perhaps because "The reason I want to attend Penn State College of Medicine.." is already more than 1/5 of your alotted words.

 

[strawberryfield]

gotta condense guys, no frills!

 

[swim2md]

Explain the negative aspects of medicine that you considered in making this career decision.

"I have considered that fact that I will be stuck inside filling out secondaries and spending most of last year's salary on application fees while all of my friends are drinking their faces off at the beach. Thank you for taking the literal moment to read this."

 

[StiGuyNY]

Anyone notice the discrepancy with Penn State's word limit? In the quetions, they say 50 words max, but if you look at the application confirmation section, the bottom titled Personal Statements, they say response must be less than 4000 characters. 4000 characters would be like a 500 word essay, don't you think????😕

 

[njmd55]

How many of you put down your SAT score? I'm guessing all of you did since this is SDN and everyone here got nothing less than 1500.😉

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

How many of you put down your SAT score? I'm guessing all of you did since this is SDN and everyone here got nothing less than 1500.😉

i put mine down. it was less than 1500. it was also when I peaked. all downhill since then...

 

[spygal]

Anyone notice the discrepancy with Penn State's word limit? In the quetions, they say 50 words max, but if you look at the application confirmation section, the bottom titled Personal Statements, they say response must be less than 4000 characters. 4000 characters would be like a 500 word essay, don't you think????😕

I submitted my secondary awhile back, so I don't remember the application confirmation section, but I'm guessing that they're referring to AMCAS personal statements...that they won't read any less than 4000 characters. The 3 essays for their secondary definitely have 50 word limits.

 

[StiGuyNY]

"Personal Statements
13. You must provide an answer to this question. The response must be less than 4000 characters.

14. You must provide an answer to this question. The response must be less than 4000 characters.

15. You must provide an answer to this question. The response must be less than 4000 characters. "

13-15 refers to the Penn State secondary essay questions.

I'm just confused...I e-mailed Penn State, hopefully they'll have a response.

 

[Trismegistus4]

"Personal Statements
13. You must provide an answer to this question. The response must be less than 4000 characters.

14. You must provide an answer to this question. The response must be less than 4000 characters.

15. You must provide an answer to this question. The response must be less than 4000 characters. "

13-15 refers to the Penn State secondary essay questions.

I'm just confused...I e-mailed Penn State, hopefully they'll have a response.

I'd bet anything the 4000 character limit is meaningless. I used to work in software/database development and I've seen situations like this all the time, where a warning message was left in from a previous version, or the programmers were told this field was for storing a response that would be 50 words max so they gave the field a size of 4000 characters in case it expanded later or just to make sure there was always enough room.

Although, if you're worried it's real and that they'll think less of you for writing far fewer than 4000 characters, I found an 80-character word. It's Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft. 80*50=4000. So, just make your response "Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeatengesellschaft" written 50 times over and you'll be good to go. 🙂 (for some reason, vBulletin is sticking a space in the middle of the word.)

 

[LT2]

unless they drastically changed something between last year and this year, the 50 word limit stands. as far as negative aspects of medicine, you can answer from a personal standpoint or from a broader perspective. Many people put things like "no time for family/personal life". I put something about the lack of access to healthcare some populations experience and how i would like to participate in finding solutions to these problems.

Good luck with Hershey, i'm really happy to be here 🙂 .

 

[Trismegistus4]

unless they drastically changed something between last year and this year, the 50 word limit stands. as far as negative aspects of medicine, you can answer from a personal standpoint or from a broader perspective. Many people put things like "no time for family/personal life". I put something about the lack of access to healthcare some populations experience and how i would like to participate in finding solutions to these problems.

Ahh, so even with a simple question like this, one has to take the opportunity to kiss up to liberals.

 

[njmd55]

For the prerequisite quetion, it asks if you took one year of math (calculus, basic statistical methods, and probability). Do you have to take these courses? I did have one year of math but it was statistics, and applied precalculus. Should i asnwer "no" to the question and explain that i took precalculus instead of calculus?

Please help!!

 

[njmd55]

Bump!!

 

[evade]

Am I the only one who listed having to give painful tests to little kids? That's my #1 negative. I watched my son get a spinal tap and almost gave up medicine right then...

I actually think that's an incredibly good reason to list, and it's one of the things that I don't relish about medicine. A lot of other docs feel the same way. One of my dermatology profs this last quarter refuses to do skin biopsies on children unless it is absolutely, 100% necessary, because she thinks it's traumatic. When she says, "I don't cut on kids," you can tell she means it.

Having observed a punch biopsy done on a 15-month-old, I'd have to say I agree with her.