Secondaries

[Ari.2390]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello,

I am currently working on my secondaries for medical schools and I needed a 2nd opinion on a certain prompt. The prompt asks: Tell us about a personal challenge you have faced in your life thus far and how you demonstrated resilience and grit to overcome it.

A topic I had in mind was my living experience several years ago (2018-2022). Both my cousin's family and mine have been very close and therefore, we all moved from NorCal to SoCal together once my uncle finally recieved a job offer after being jobless for 6 years. However, we temporarily stayed in an apartment for a couple years due to financial instability. In total, it was 8 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment (each family got 1). Generally, I consider this a challenge because of our school situation (no privacy/quiet space to study, especially during COVID with online classes) and having to adjust to the new area.

Is this a reasonable challenge to discuss? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Define what is the "challenge"; is it the move to SoCal? Is it living in an apartment for 2 years? Is it sleeping as an entire family in 1 bedroom? Is it the financial instability? Is it COVID?

How did YOU demonstrate resilience and grit to overcome this challenge?

 

[LizzyM]

I'd be looking at how old you were at that time. I do think that the response should reflect your coping skills as an adult and not how you handled things when you were a young teen.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I also can add: did you discuss this housing situation in your Other Impactful Experience or other application essays? I agree the presumption is that you provide an answer that reflects who you are now, but the prompt does allow for challenges "faced in your life." This is why it helps us to know whose secondary is being answered and think strategically about what you have already written.

 

[Ari.2390]

I also can add: did you discuss this housing situation in your Other Impactful Experience or other application essays? I agree the presumption is that you provide an answer that reflects who you are now, but the prompt does allow for challenges "faced in your life." This is why it helps us to know whose secondary is being answered and think strategically about what you have already written.

I didn't discuss this topic elsewhere and wanted to mention it now in my secondaries. Also, would it be better to narrow it down for example, specifically talk about sharing the apartment with another family or just the move to SoCal?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I didn't discuss this topic elsewhere and wanted to mention it now in my secondaries. Also, would it be better to narrow it down for example, specifically talk about sharing the apartment with another family or just the move to SoCal?

Did you peruse the secondary essay prompts database (and current schools threads)? It's hard to give you a specific answer in a vacuum because each program you could apply to may have a better space for you to put in this response. For me, I would narrow it down to minimize your writing becoming interpreted as a trauma dump. The prompt you placed asked for A (meaning one) challenge.