For a lot of these secondaries, the allotted length seem pretty long... is it recommended to use all the space? Will it count against me if I don't write incredibly length answers to every single question?
Secondary Essay Length
- Thread starter futuregyn
- Start date
I feel like the “correct” answer is write exactly how much you need to answer the question well, but tbh that hasn’t been very useful advice for me in practice. You shouldn’t fill space with fluff just for the purpose of getting to the max length, but I think most of these prompts are deep and/or open ended enough that if continue thinking about the question, you should be able to come up with enough meaningful information to fill most of the space. I just figure that if you don’t that, other applicants will be taking full advantage of the space by including additional points, deeper self-reflection, etc.
9
907914
My strategy has been to write as much as I can on a subject without feeling overzelous, then to go back through and shrink it. Starting out long and then shortening really helps make the thing as concise as you can while also ensuring you provide as much relevant detail as you need. If you do this, every sentence will have some sort of significance by the end.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2019
- Messages
- 63
- Reaction score
- 30
I found this page to be really useful when I was writing my secondaries: How to Make Your Medical School Secondary Essays Stand Out
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2015
- Messages
- 2,338
- Reaction score
- 11,033
No, not recommended. If you have something more to write, then include it. Otherwise, don't just fill the space with words for the sake of having a longer essay. It will dilute out your core message, and annoy reviewers.
