Supplemental Application Essays

[Chigga]

It's interesting how pre-dental forum don't have a section for supplemental essays. I have searched across the whole pre-dental forum and couldn't find anything, so I decided to start a thread on my own.

As you probably know already, many schools does not require supplemental essays, but just your money, before they give you an interview. About half of all dental schools still require you to write many short essays to supplement the very limited spaces on the AADSAS experience section.

For a list of schools that requires essays and those that don't, refer to the following link: AADSAS Supplemental Information

Using my application as an example, I applied 13 schools (a bit too many). Among them, 3 (UNLV, U Penn, Western) have supplemental application pdf online for anyone to download and submit AT THE SAME TIME you submit your AADSAS application. Among those 3, only 2 (U Penn & Western) have essays, while UNLV only has basic background and requirement questions.

On the other hand, UCLA, UCSF, Harvard & NYU all require supplemental essay, but you won't have access to those essays until the schools notify you. For those of you who have already received the email from these schools and known the questions they ask in the supplemental application, would you please care to share with the rest of us the questions in the supplemental application? For last year's applicants who received supplemental apps from those schools, you may also share with us the essay questions from last year and possible your response to those questions.

I am a slow (and not very good) writer and it sometimes takes me up to a week to complete the essays for just 1 school. It would be very helpful to be able to prepare beforehand. If anyone have any insight on the essay questions for UCLA, UCSF, Harvard and NYU, I would greatly appreciate it. Any essay questions from other schools are welcomed to be posted here as well. Let me start by posting the questions for U Penn and Western.

University of Pennsylvania

Western University of Health Sciences

Thank you and good luck to everyone!


-------------------Update 8/6/09---------------------

UCSF has secondary application online for anyone to download, but do not send it until you get an email invitation.

University of California, San Francisco

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[preOMFS]

Call me old fashion, but I think posting these essay questions on SDN is wrong. There is reason some schools don't make the questions available to everyone: they want to see if you can think about, write, and send in the questions in a timely manner. I know UCSF gives you 21 days to send in your responses. If you can't answer the 6-8 questions in 3 weeks, I think that may say something to them about you as an applicant. Afterall, the point of the essays are to evaluate your written communication skills. It's unfair if some people are given a head start or extra time.

-My 2 cents.

 

[Chigga]

I believe that reason some university don't give out supplemental essay is because they don't want to read all the essays from every single applicant. Way too much work. They want to be able to screen out some applicants so that people don't waste time writing something no one's gonna read. I think the point is to save time and effort from both sides.

Some people might argue that most schools don't even screen their applicants. As long as they pay the application fee, they'll get the supplemental application. In that case, I don't understand why waiting a month to get those essays. Some schools are kind enough to post their supplemental application to the public in a pdf file online. Personally, I think this method expedites the application process from both sides, giving applicants plenty of time to prepare their thoughts.

To be honest with you, I am a failed MD applicant last year. I am envious of the generosity some of the pre-med students have put out, namely Shemarty. She and other SNDers compiled a comprehensive list of all secondary essays of all medical schools from the previous year. Below is the link to her sticky. I wish we can all be more altruistic even in this highly competitive environment.

.2009-2010 MD Secondary Application Thread.

Since I am waiting for UCLA, UCSF, NYU and Harvard to give me the supplemental application, I will be posting the essays as soon as I get them. I will keep you guys posted.

 

[kitejunky27]

I am looking at Penns supplemental and it seems extremely redundant to me

I answered two of the questions in my AADSAS app.

annoying

 

[preOMFS]

giving applicants plenty of time to prepare their thoughts.

3 weeks isn't enough time to prepare your thoughts?

 

[DDMess]

I am looking at Penns supplemental and it seems extremely redundant to me

I answered two of the questions in my AADSAS app.

annoying

yea same with the unc app. the point is to answer the questions in the supp by explaining in vastly obscene amounts of detail. most supp app's don't have word limits like the aadsas app so it shouldn't be a problem right?

 

[preOMFS]

I don't know about that. You still want to make it clear and concise.

 

[DDMess]

I don't know about that. You still want to make it clear and concise.

well yea it has to flow of course but you can't just regurgitate what you put on the aadsas app. you need to more narrative and detail into it. make it come alive.

 

[preOMFS]

I suppose. I tried to do that with my ps also though. I know UCSF's supp app asks you to only use the space provided for each question (a bit less than a page).

 

[DDMess]

I suppose. I tried to do that with my ps also though. I know UCSF's supp app asks you to only use the space provided for each question (a bit less than a page).

IMO the PS is a bit more open-ended and you can go about it any way you want, ie more room to be creative.

 

[Chigga]

3 weeks isn't enough time to prepare your thoughts?

3 weeks is definitely enough time to prepare an essay for one school. What if you have to prepare 4 or 5 schools in 3 weeks in addition to making a living out of 2 jobs. It could be very difficult. For some people, it would be nice to put together one paragraph at a time until they're happy with the entire essay, my thought.

 

[Chigga]

I am looking at Penns supplemental and it seems extremely redundant to me

You're right. The first question is pretty redundant. People can list about 20 different experiences on AADSAS, so it is difficult to write something that is NOT listed on AADSAS app. Let's say if someone does have 21 different experiences. How interesting can that 21st experience be? I think the first question is really asking you what you gonna do next, your future plan.

The rest of the questions are decent.