The "do you have any other information" section of the secondary

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musings

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I have read on the forums that this place is mostly for people who have lower stats etc.

For me, I felt that I didn't have enough room to explain the depth of some of my activities in the primary. I planned many community service events as part of an organization but I have also done many other things. I took the work/activities section of the primary more as a place for me to explain my overall role in the organization, my experiences etc.

Would it be appropriate in the secondary to explain more about the specific events that I planned? Would they prefer this kind of explanation in more of a "story" format like the PS or more of a list format? I'm not sure if the med school committees are more interested in just seeing what you've done or not in regards to this question. (IE: they just want you to list stuff so they can get a quick overview, which seems to be the case in some secondary questions) or whether this question should be another personal insight into the type of person you are.

In fact, some school give a secondary with ONLY this question.

So I guess... my question is... do med schools want
1) cut and dry list
2) a well worked piece of writing that includes only a small part of the list but also lessons learned.
 
I honestly don't know, and my guess would be it depends on the specific adcom doing the reading. My two cents though:

My instinct would be to keep your thoughts short and sweet. If I've just waded through your entire primary, then the secondary (especially if it had mandatory essays) then I might not be super-psyched to get to another essay that you decided to write that is semi-redundant with information that can be found elsewhere. I think that if you decide to provide additional information make sure that it isn't already somewhere else and that it actually adds something to the application.

But of course, I'm not an adcom, and it's their opinions that count 🙂
 
You bring up a good point. My personal essay addressed 2 activities in particular, but there was a service group that I had a leadership role in which I did not have room to discuss. I think that I am going to use this space to discuss my opportunities and experiences in a more in-depth manner regarding this activity.

I'd say anything that you are passionate about but did not have room to express due to constraints should be placed in that prompt. I had planned to discuss this service group in my interviews, but stressing it in the secondary will probably make it a more prominent discussion point in any interviews. Just don't beat a dead horse. If you have discussed it fully already, don't put it here. You can judge whether you've said enough about each activity in relation to your commitment to each.

(I am by no means an authority on this issue.)
 
Yea, I'm going to take a wild guess and say they may not want a:

One of the biggest things I've done in college is... and I learned from it is... kind of essay

I think I may elaborate on some of the bigger activities I planned for the organization but will not try to fit it in to some larger "I learned xyz" format.
 
I always thought that question was another "why do you want to go to this school" or "explain bad grades/scores?" or "why should we interview you".

If all the aforementioned questions are already on the secondary, then you might want to write about your activities (imho)
 
I always thought that question was another "why do you want to go to this school" or "explain bad grades/scores?" or "why should we interview you".

If all the aforementioned questions are already on the secondary, then you might want to write about your activities (imho)
Right. I use a cascading series of responses depending on other questions asked. My default is "why this school" and my secondary is "why these grades" or "why me"
 
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