One of the secondaries I'm filling out has several different optional essays. One asks about past careers and the other asks about diversity. My diversity essay is turning into a near duplicate of the career change essay. Think it's safe to skip the diversity question?
I wouldn't skip a secondary essay question, but perhaps some of the adcoms can chime in. It may seem tedious, but this is your chance to give them just a little bit more of an idea before they decide to invite for interview or not. Why risk it?
I just completed a secondary where I wrote about an experience in two different questions. That experience was also the focus on my ps. Try to find a different angle, something else you got out of it and make the essays different
^^That's essentially my thinking, but there are only so many ways I can say the same thing. Sometimes less is more and I don't really want to bore them by rehashing the same topic three times.
You wouldn't want to be defined by your past career or to only show one side of you. Diversity - What makes you interesting: extreme sportsman, classical instrumentalist, artist, etc.?
Can you think about any other unique/interesting aspect about your character, development, or ambitions that doesn't have to do with your career change? Since most schools value diversity I wouldn't want to skip that question. You're totally right about not wanting to hash out the same topic several times in different ways. Seems like a quick way to lose your readers' interest.
I have a feeling that the whole application process is a series of hoops to jump through. If these are optional questions, I would use the question choice as a way to round out your application. If you are not an underrepresented minority, maybe it would be best to do the diversity question. If you had past career with skills that translate to medicine, that could be valuable too.
These are two of the questions I'm talking about. They are essentially identical. I'll work to get them all filled up though. @Goro , what is your view on talking about being a parent in these essays? I'm in the camp that feels that this could be viewed as more of a liability than an asset. What traits, experiences, challenges, interests, etc. make you unique and would bring added value to the learning environment.? Describe any past achievements, experiences, special family or personal circumstances that you believe make you a unique student, able to bring diversity to the class (32,000 characters same problem as above with the character count)
Even though (or maybe because) I'm a parent, I think that this is like trying to say that you have a unique perspective because you breathe.
These are badly worded These are supposed to be two different questions with the first being "Internal" (Character, values, standards, philosophy) in inherent in you that you bring to the school. You can described what you have inside you and what you have done with it/because of it. Think of it in terms of traits (disciplined, tenacious, curious, caring, hardworking, etc). Examples might be 1) athletic and disciplined that lead to being the Captain of the team; 2) tenacious and curious so you worked hard for 2 years on a research project; 3) Musical and creative and wrote some songs for guitar. The second is "External" as in what have you experienced, accomplished, situation, etc that has shaped you. Were you raised in a single parent household? went on a 3 week backpack, joined a sports team, had a disabled sibling, etc. And what did you learn, acquire, realize, develop because of those things. Examples might be 1) working on class play taught you how to keep going, working hard for getting the sets built by opening night; 2) Having a job in a busy deli at lunch hour taught you dealing with a crush of people, multitasking, while interacting with people in a professional way; 3) joining a running team and learning that with hard work you can master a half marathon.
Do keep in mind that some schools want to shield interviewers from your stats and so have questions on the secondary that appear to overlap with what you might have written on the primary (AMCAS).
