Secondary Advice

[Med2018]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum. I posting because I'm seeking advice regarding a secondary. The prompt deals with meaningful (or most rewarding) experiences. I've struggled with this a little and I decided I wanted to talk about my self-esteem. Basically I use to have low self-esteem, but after I started dating my best-friend (now ex!) I gained confidence. I consider this meaningful because I've never had a girlfriend until my junior year of college. Of course there were other benefits that came along 😀 but overall confidence is what I've gained from the experience. I believe in writing truthfully and not what adcoms want to hear, but I feel this idea may come across a little silly. 😳

Opinions

 

[slopes23]

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum. I posting because I'm seeking advice regarding a secondary. The prompt deals with meaningful (or most rewarding) experiences. I've struggled with this a little and I decided I wanted to talk about my self-esteem. Basically I use to have low self-esteem, but after I started dating my best-friend (now ex!) I gained confidence. I consider this meaningful because I've never had a girlfriend until my junior year of college. Of course there were other benefits that came along 😀 but overall confidence is what I've gained from the experience. I believe in writing truthfully and not what adcoms want to hear, but I feel this idea may come across a little silly. 😳

Opinions

If you are going to go this route you should probably start off by painting a picture of how you weren't always confident. You know with other kids teasing you about how you were a virgin for so long, and how this all finally changed when you started dating your best friend (now ex) at 40 and finally DID it! But don't say you got too much confidence after your first time, cause no adcom will believe you gained back a lifetime worth of confidence after a 30 second experience. Make sure you keep it realistic and say it wasn't until you re-lived the experience a few times in the privacy of your home (also describe how you made sure to sanitize well every time after re-living the experience) that you really felt like a changed man, and ready for a career in medicine.

But really... Did you think this out? Try harder.

 

[Med2018]

If you are going to go this route you should probably start off by painting a picture of how you weren't always confident. You know with other kids teasing you about how you were a virgin for so long, and how this all finally changed when you started dating your best friend (now ex) at 40 and finally DID it! But don't say you got too much confidence after your first time, cause no adcom will believe you gained back a lifetime worth of confidence after a 30 second experience. Make sure you keep it realistic and say it wasn't until you re-lived the experience a few times in the privacy of your home (also describe how you made sure to sanitize well every time after re-living the experience).

But really... Did you think this out? Try harder.

Haha, I didn't understand what you were referring to until I reread your post.

My bad I guess I didn't provide enough detail to warrant an appropriate response.

I was planning to describe how my low self-esteem resulted in me comparing myself to others, lacking confidence in my abilities and a lots of self-criticizing. Upon entering my junior year I stepped outside of my comfort zone and asked my friend out. I realized my low self-esteem stemmed from my inability to overcome how others perceived me. I felt like I would say or do the wrong thing. I realized that if I don't have confidence in myself, then how can I expect others to have confidence in me.

Yay or nay? Or am I trying to hard?

 

[slopes23]

Haha, I didn't understand what you were referring to until I reread your post.

My bad I guess I didn't provide enough detail to warrant an appropriate response.

I was planning to describe how my low self-esteem resulted in me comparing myself to others, lacking confidence in my abilities and a lots of self-criticizing. Upon entering my junior year I stepped outside of my comfort zone and asked my friend out. I realized my low self-esteem stemmed from my inability to overcome how others perceived me. I felt like I would say or do the wrong thing. I realized that if I don't have confidence in myself, then how can I expect others to have confidence in me.

Yay or nay? Or am I trying to hard?

Nay. If you write this, adcoms will think one of two things. Either you have not taken enough time to really think about your experiences and highlight a really meaningful one, or that you are not taking it seriously enough. The prompt asks you what is your most meaningful experience. But what it is tacitly implying is what is your most meaningful experience in regards to medicine. If I were to write that my most meaningful experience was the day that I asked my fiance to marry me and she said yes because now I felt fulfilled in my life and I knew after so many years of searching I finally found my soul mate. This is not a reason for me to get accepted to medical school. If that was the criteria then anyone could qualify.

 

[Med2018]

I guess it is a bad idea.

I was planning to relate to medicine in regards to confidence. I was planning to say something to effect of physicians need to be confident in themselves, in order to provide effective care and for patients to have confidence in their doctor.

Thank you!

 

[slopes23]

I guess it is a bad idea.

I was planning to relate to medicine in regards to confidence. I was planning to say something to effect of physicians need to be confident in themselves, in order to provide effective care and for patients to have confidence in their doctor.

Thank you!

Problem is I think it goes with out saying that that is what is expected. Don't get discouraged, everyone has a meaningful experience they can write about that would be good. Where people differ is the time they spend thinking about it, and how well they are able to describe/convey that experience in their essay. Keep at it and you will know it when you think of it.