Prewriting secondaries

[themoonman2]

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Hi everyone,

I'd like to know the general consensus on prewriting secondary essays. Is it worth doing? Do schools often change their prompts from year to year?

Thanks!

 

[HybridEarth]

You can bet you're going to get diversity essays on about a third to a half of all secondaries. The word limits range from 100 to 500 in my experience so far. You can also expect a biggest challenge essay. You can't really tell when a school is going to change their essays, it just happens sometimes.

 

[Jimmy Jones]

after diversity and biggestchallenge i saw was tell me bout at time you failed

 

[largelyuntrustworthy]

Write about a time someone didn't pull their weight on a group project with a length of <250 words is a common one for my list as well. If you have taken a gap year or are a reapplicant, a lot of schools ask for a <100 word piece on what you have done in the time or what you have improved.

 

[Jimmy Jones]

Write about a time someone didn't pull their weight on a group project with a length of <250 words is a common one for my list as well. If you have taken a gap year or are a reapplicant, a lot of schools ask for a <100 word piece on what you have done in the time or what you have improved.

2 be fair that is more abhout tell us about a time you had difficulty working with another person

wouldnt want Op to confine himself to trite group orject examples

 

[HybridEarth]

I guess we can make this a secondary thread. Anyone know for those essays that say to add any extra info you would like to share, is it ok to just use this space to add meaningful experiences you couldn't fit, or do they rather prefer to say why that school would be a good fit for you? I don't know which way to go

 

[Cotterpin]

I guess we can make this a secondary thread. Anyone know for those essays that say to add any extra info you would like to share, is it ok to just use this space to add meaningful experiences you couldn't fit, or do they rather prefer to say why that school would be a good fit for you? I don't know which way to go

My premed advisor told me that when they ask you that ("Is there anything else you want to share?") in an interview, more often than not it's a trick question. Applicants can end up shooting themselves in the foot by bringing up something totally unnecessary. So unless you have something important and specific that somehow fell through the cracks in the rest of your application, don't feel obligated to say something just to fill that empty space. That's for interviews and not secondaries, but I feel like it still applies a bit.

 

[NeuResurgens]

It's generally recommended by the SDN community to prewrite some secondaries, particularly the very high-yield topics (diversity, challenges, a time in your life you used teamwork, etc.) Just make sure not to use school names so that you don't inadvertently copy and paste the one for one school into another school's secondary.

 

[nwts]

My premed advisor told me that when they ask you that ("Is there anything else you want to share?") in an interview, more often than not it's a trick question. Applicants can end up shooting themselves in the foot by bringing up something totally unnecessary. So unless you have something important and specific that somehow fell through the cracks in the rest of your application, don't feel obligated to say something just to fill that empty space. That's for interviews and not secondaries, but I feel like it still applies a bit.

Along these lines, it is important how the question/prompt is worded. Some will specifically tell you that they do not want you to write about things that were included in your primary. In this case, you should only provide an answer if you have something to say that wasn't in the primary (as stated in the prompt) and that thing is meaningful. It would really not be in your favor to look for something to say. I view this as a medical school's kind way of saying: "This prompt actually IS optional. Please do not respond just because you feel like you have to. We will not be happy with you if you make us read a few hundred words of pointless fluff."

 

[themoonman2]

Thanks for your responses, everyone! I'm also wondering what people focus on when asked school specific questions. Personally, I don't know what to look for other than location, class size, PBL or lecture based learning. Might anyone be able to offer examples of what they look for in the schools?

 

[PatrickStarMDPHD]

Thanks for your responses, everyone! I'm also wondering what people focus on when asked school specific questions. Personally, I don't know what to look for other than location, class size, PBL or lecture based learning. Might anyone be able to offer examples of what they look for in the schools?

I focused on the quality of clinical rotations, research strengths at the institution if they matched my background, elective opportunities (Like medical spanish), PBL, and some unique combined masters programs.

 

[Alejandro]

Having a handful of general ideas of what you're going to write about, helps. If you know you're going to get a secondary from 'x' school, do that too. I think a lot of applicants underestimate how draining secondaries are, and how their sporadic timing (all at once, followed by trickle, then all at once again, etc) can contribute to the chaos with them.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

It is absolutely worth it. Even if 20% of schools change their questions (it's less than that). If anything, it is a great exercise for learning how to answer questions during interviews.

 

[emraldragon]

Thanks for your responses, everyone! I'm also wondering what people focus on when asked school specific questions. Personally, I don't know what to look for other than location, class size, PBL or lecture based learning. Might anyone be able to offer examples of what they look for in the schools?

In answer to your first question, absolutely pre-write (but I think you got that general gist so far). In trying to answer "Why this school?" I would scour their website to try and find different aspects of the school that I liked. I also played devil's advocate with myself frequently. For example, if I was going to cite PBL as a reason, I would then argue with myself and say "Lot's of schools have PBL, what makes this school better?" That way, even if I cited PBL as one of my reasons, it was usually supported by or juxtaposed with something that was unique to the school. Where possible I also cited strong family connections in the area or a deep personal connection to the area. These strategies didn't always work of course, but all you need is one.

 

[Oranges2]

@emraldragon do you think citing personal connections (i.e. relationship with long-term partner/sig other) is a compelling or convincing enough reason to want to attend a certain school? In secondaries where there is limited space, I'm torn between citing this as the reason why I want to attend the school (actual reason) vs. writing about an aspect of the school that I like (semi-made up reason).

 

[emraldragon]

@emraldragon do you think citing personal connections (i.e. relationship with long-term partner/sig other) is a compelling or convincing enough reason to want to attend a certain school? In secondaries where there is limited space, I'm torn between citing this as the reason why I want to attend the school (actual reason) vs. writing about an aspect of the school that I like (semi-made up reason).

I think that is a question best addressed by an adcom who reads the applications for a living. @Goro @gyngyn @LizzyM would you please be willing to weigh in on his/her question?

My own two cents (if I happened to be a student reader) would be that if your partner was a legal spouse it would hold more weight than boyfriend/girlfriend, even if it was a long-term relationship. It would also depend on their profession and mobility of said profession. I believe if they are already a student/faculty at the school you are applying that would be worth mentioning. At the risk of repeating myself, I would turn devil's advocate again--If the two of you were to break up, would you still want to go to that school above others? If so, why? Is it the only school in that city/region?

Ultimately I am a horrible cynic who likes moving from place to place; I might be more difficult to convince than others that a significant other is a good reason to be in a place. However I know many school's do not wish to train someone up and have them move across the country to somewhere "more desirable." If you truly wish to build a life in your school's city/region, it can't hurt to mention that.

 

[Goro]

Are you referring to something like this:

Q: Why our school?
A: My GF lives in your city.

Some of my Adcom colleagues tend to be more leery of people who want to come here from far away, no matter what the reason.

I think that is a question best addressed by an adcom who reads the applications for a living. @Goro @gyngyn @LizzyM would you please be willing to weigh in on his/her question?

My own two cents (if I happened to be a student reader) would be that if your partner was a legal spouse it would hold more weight than boyfriend/girlfriend, even if it was a long-term relationship. It would also depend on their profession and mobility of said profession. I believe if they are already a student/faculty at the school you are applying that would be worth mentioning. At the risk of repeating myself, I would turn devil's advocate again--If the two of you were to break up, would you still want to go to that school above others? If so, why? Is it the only school in that city/region?

Ultimately I am a horrible cynic who likes moving from place to place; I might be more difficult to convince than others that a significant other is a good reason to be in a place. However I know many school's do not wish to train someone up and have them move across the country to somewhere "more desirable." If you truly wish to build a life in your school's city/region, it can't hurt to mention that.

 

[Oranges2]

I think that is a question best addressed by an adcom who reads the applications for a living. @Goro @gyngyn @LizzyM would you please be willing to weigh in on his/her question?

My own two cents (if I happened to be a student reader) would be that if your partner was a legal spouse it would hold more weight than boyfriend/girlfriend, even if it was a long-term relationship. It would also depend on their profession and mobility of said profession. I believe if they are already a student/faculty at the school you are applying that would be worth mentioning. At the risk of repeating myself, I would turn devil's advocate again--If the two of you were to break up, would you still want to go to that school above others? If so, why? Is it the only school in that city/region?

Ultimately I am a horrible cynic who likes moving from place to place; I might be more difficult to convince than others that a significant other is a good reason to be in a place. However I know many school's do not wish to train someone up and have them move across the country to somewhere "more desirable." If you truly wish to build a life in your school's city/region, it can't hurt to mention that.

Yeah you're right, it seems like stating a gf/bf lives in the same city doesn't carry that much weight. Perhaps it's something I can just discuss as an additional point of why I would like to attend that school briefly during interviews, but I will leave out of secondaries.

 

[BurghMed]

Not to hijack the thread OP, but any thoughts on the consideration of a long-term relationship with gf/bf that goes to the medical school (if competitive applicant, of course)?

 

[crossingthefingers]

Along these lines, it is important how the question/prompt is worded. Some will specifically tell you that they do not want you to write about things that were included in your primary. In this case, you should only provide an answer if you have something to say that wasn't in the primary (as stated in the prompt) and that thing is meaningful. It would really not be in your favor to look for something to say. I view this as a medical school's kind way of saying: "This prompt actually IS optional. Please do not respond just because you feel like you have to. We will not be happy with you if you make us read a few hundred words of pointless fluff."

When I was writing my application, it felt really stressful to leave boxes blank if I didn't have anything to say BUT THEN when I interviewed and realized that it was extra work for my interviewer to read (some would flip through your application as you sat there), I was pleased with myself for not mindlessly repeating.