secondary essays

[rainmkre]

For those who mentioned (in the personal statement of the primary application) something about overcoming an illness, family tragedy, etc... which led you to be interested in the medical field. Would you mention this again in the secondary essay if applicable? I don't know what to do because the UCONN secondary has a question which states something like "what led to become interested in medicine". I already talked about this in my PS (overcoming a childhood illness) so I don't know if I should mention the samething over again (fear of being redundant). Or should I milk it for what's it worth. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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[Cydney Foote]

The whole point of the secondary essays, combined with the rest of your application, is to present as sharp and clear a picture of you as possible. The secondary essays should not only flesh out the school's image of you, but seamlessly complement the other parts of the application without overlap. Don't rehash what you wrote earlier -- it'll look like you just have one story to tell. Instead, use the secondary to build on the story that you started in your initial essay and fill in any gaps that you had to cut for space. If you talked about a family illness motivating your interest in medicine, for instance, now you could talk more about what you did about your interest (volunteer work, clinical experiences, etc.).

There's more advice on secondaries at http://www.accepted.com/medical/secondaryessay.aspx

Good luck!