secondary essays on life-changing situations or special educational history...

[justapremed]

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So on secondary app essays, where it asks about special educational history or "anything else" we'd like to mention, I've been writing about my international experience - I was born in a different country than where I attended middle school, which is also different from the US (where I attended high school and now college). So I talked about the difficulties of cultural and lingual shifts and how I've learned to appreciate other cultures more from the experience, with the middle school being my highlight (mainly because that was the toughest time for me, learning English for the first time and all, and some unusual schooling resulted).

But now I'm getting a little worried that the middle school story won't cut it; now I'm feeling a little silly for bringing out my middle school years, when I probably wasn't that mature anyway. I guess for "educational history" essays, it's appropriate, but for "anything else" essays? Any ideas?

I guess I can't do anything now for the essays I've turned in already, but if it just sounds like a silly middle school story to everyone else (except for me!), I guess I'll leave it out from future essays... 😏


PS: I started getting worried about learning that it wouldn't be a good idea to talk about situations from something before high school (or even college) for essays prompts that deal with adversities and challenging moments and whatnot (which, I have not done yet...)

 

[justapremed]

anyone? I'd really like some objective views from those who are also familiar with the med school apps...!

 

[Maxwell Edison]

So on secondary app essays, where it asks about special educational history or "anything else" we'd like to mention, I've been writing about my international experience - I was born in a different country than where I attended middle school, which is also different from the US (where I attended high school and now college). So I talked about the difficulties of cultural and lingual shifts and how I've learned to appreciate other cultures more from the experience, with the middle school being my highlight (mainly because that was the toughest time for me, learning English for the first time and all, and some unusual schooling resulted).

But now I'm getting a little worried that the middle school story won't cut it; now I'm feeling a little silly for bringing out my middle school years, when I probably wasn't that mature anyway. I guess for "educational history" essays, it's appropriate, but for "anything else" essays? Any ideas?

I guess I can't do anything now for the essays I've turned in already, but if it just sounds like a silly middle school story to everyone else (except for me!), I guess I'll leave it out from future essays... 😏


PS: I started getting worried about learning that it wouldn't be a good idea to talk about situations from something before high school (or even college) for essays prompts that deal with adversities and challenging moments and whatnot (which, I have not done yet...)

Honestly, it is a bit weak and here's why: the person applying to MD programs is the "modern" you; that is, the person who has weathered high school/college/etc. The story you're telling is from your personal prehistory, before you became who you are today. Consequently, the bearing it may have on your life now (as well as how it may be regarded as germane to MD admissions processes) is probably a little tenuous.

On the other hand, it's a far cry better than completely irrelevant stuff that just sounds self-aggrandizing. If this is the material you have to work with, work it. If you've got something better, maybe save this stuff for interviews.

 

[justapremed]

Hm, what if I had said it like: here's my experience in middle school and what i learned from it. but then i moved to the united states for high school, where i learned this and that from the yet another culture and this being the second cultural jump in a row...