The Purpose of Secondary Essays

[Maxwell Edison]

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So we all know that the AMCAS PS is generally meant to describe why you want to be a doctor. The interview process is used to seal the deal and ascertain what, if any, degree to which you are competent/thoughtful/quick on your feet/an *******.

But in between these two points, you've got the secondary. I - like most of you, I'm sure - am drafting about a half dozen at the moment, and while most of them are coming together pretty well, I just don't feel like I understand what I'm trying to accomplish. Am I trying to sell myself? Am I trying to elaborate on why I want to be an MD? Obviously some of the questions are self-explanatory (including your generic "why is this school the one you want to have as the benefactor of your postgraduate student loans?"), but even then, it's a bit of a question as to who is chasing who.

Any ideas?

 

[chad5871]

I think the point of secondaries is to sell yourself to that particular school. For example, if a school with a huge focus on rural medicine/primary care asked for a supplemental essay, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to write about all of the prestigious research you've done and how important that is to you.

With your secondary essays the admissions committees should see how you've learned from your experiences, what makes you unique, and why you'd be a great fit at that particular school. The secondary responses should also lead the admissions committee to say, "this applicant seems really interesting - I'd love to meet them in person and see if they're as great as they sound on paper."

Perhaps LizzyM could offer some advice here? I feel at a loss with some of my secondaries - I feel they're so short and I have so much to say that I "lose myself" a bit in the process of drafting them. My responses turn out a bit generic despite my efforts to infuse my unique background into them.

 

[Protoss]

Honestly, I think secondaries are used to make more money off applicants. Most questions I think are redundant and/or pointless.

 

[LikeClockWork]

I'd hate to think that so much of my med school hopes (outside of GPA/MCAT) would rest on a measley 5,300 characters. I'm glad I get a little extra space to talk about myself. Granted, I'm not doing dozens of these things so maybe I'm not sick of them yet.

 

[UVAbme2009]

I'd hate to think that so much of my med school hopes (outside of GPA/MCAT) would rest on a measley 5,300 characters. I'm glad I get a little extra space to talk about myself. Granted, I'm not doing dozens of these things so maybe I'm not sick of them yet.

I agree. I mean, these are pretty easy if you're applying to schools you can actually see yourself at. Have a reason for why you want to go to every school, and you should breeze through them. Most of my secondaries are redundant anyways.

 

[Mobius1985]

Schools will also be checking to see if there is a mismatch in writing styles between the PS and Secondary essays. Those who had their PS polished by a professional agency are unlikely to have the time and money to do the same with the many, many essays they have to rush to complete for individual schools. If you did your own careful editing the first time around, you'll have no problem. Try not to be one of those guys who makes a homophone error, notes it a week after submitting the copy, and posts here in agony wondering if the school will ever take him seriously.

 

[chad5871]

Schools will also be checking to see if there is a mismatch in writing styles between the PS and Secondary essays. Those who had their PS polished by a professional agency are unlikely to have the time and money to do the same with the many, many essays they have to rush to complete for individual schools. If you did your own careful editing the first time around, you'll have no problem. Try not to be one of those guys who makes a homophone error, notes it a week after submitting the copy, and posts here in agony wondering if the school will ever take him seriously.

Really? Because the writing style in my secondaries is pretty different from my PS (which I did all on my own). When you've only got 300 words (versus 1000+), you've got to be a lot more succinct. Hope it doesn't hurt me...

 

[whateva07]

you know how in the PS most of use have an anecdote of some sort, but u probly should put that in a secondary right??

 

[LikeClockWork]

you know how in the PS most of use have an anecdote of some sort, but u probly should put that in a secondary right??

Ummm....what?


I'm going to guess you're saying something about repeating information in your PS in a secondary. I don't see the need to go out of your way to do this since the school will already have your PS in the application and you only get so much space to talk about yourself and your activities. Why waste space by doubling up?

 

[Mobius1985]

Really? Because the writing style in my secondaries is pretty different from my PS (which I did all on my own). When you've only got 300 words (versus 1000+), you've got to be a lot more succinct. Hope it doesn't hurt me...

You can be succinct and still spell and punctuate correctly, have complete sentences, and be grammatically correct. I'm not referring to whether you have an introduction and conclusion, which might not be used in a very brief essay.

 

[MichiganEMTInt]

Theory 1: They want to make money.
Theory 2: They want to see how your background / motivation for a medical career fits with their "mission statement".
Theory 3: They're doing it because they are conformists, "every other med school is doing it".

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Theory 4: To piss applicants off and add more stress to the admissions process.

 

[Mobius1985]

you know how in the PS most of use have an anecdote of some sort, but u probly should put that in a secondary right??

Essays requested in a secondary are unlikely to be of the length where you would incorporate an long anecdote in a story-like fashion as one might in a PS, but at times one needs to refer to a situation one dealt with, experience, etc., though in a more succinct manner.

 

[whateva07]

just kidding...I actually meant u shouldn't put that in secondary essay...

 

[chad5871]

You can be succinct and still spell and punctuate correctly, have complete sentences, and be grammatically correct. I'm not referring to whether you have an introduction and conclusion, which might not be used in a very brief essay.

Ah, OK. You had me worried there for a second. Thanks for clarifying!

 

[Mobius1985]

just kidding...I actually meant u shouldn't put that in secondary essay...

An illustration that proofreading is a good thing.

 

[Mobius1985]

Ah, OK. You had me worried there for a second. Thanks for clarifying!

Sorry I was too vague.

 

[Orbo]

I'm of the opinion that most secondaries are not so much essays that the admissions use to promote an applicant, but rather essays the admissions use to weed out people.


It was pretty effective against me. By the second half of my secondaries, I was so tired of writing meaningless crap that my writing devolved in to usual premed BS and so I managed to weed myself out of a good number of schools.

 

[ar2388]

i thought a big reason was to see whether you knew what made the schools different. for many of the schools im applying to, they ask why i want to apply to that school and i usually talk about what makes that school unique and sort of try to tie that to my experiences (although it doesnt always feel as substantial as it should).

 

[Orbo]

i thought a big reason was to see whether you knew what made the schools different. for many of the schools im applying to, they ask why i want to apply to that school and i usually talk about what makes that school unique and sort of try to tie that to my experiences (although it doesnt always feel as substantial as it should).

That's great and all, but I only found out what was so different about the schools AFTER interviewing at them. A website can only tell you so much.

 

[LizzyM]

That's great and all, but I only found out what was so different about the schools AFTER interviewing at them. A website can only tell you so much.

You should know something about the school and be able to articulate why you are attracted to this school and why you think that it is a good fit. If you are attracted to the opportunity to do some original research & write a thesis and the school is big on that activity then you should play that up. if you are interested in being a primary care doc in your hometown in a rural or otherwise underserved area (meaning that there aren't many primary care providers and people wait months to get an appointment) and you are applying to schools that have a mission of preparing docs for practice in rural areas, then play that up. Don't apply to NYU and say that you are interested in preparing for a career in rural medicine or the adcom will be laughing so hard they'll forget to invite you for an interview.

 

[Orbo]

You should know something about the school and be able to articulate why you are attracted to this school and why you think that it is a good fit. If you are attracted to the opportunity to do some original research & write a thesis and the school is big on that activity then you should play that up. if you are interested in being a primary care doc in your hometown in a rural or otherwise underserved area (meaning that there aren't many primary care providers and people wait months to get an appointment) and you are applying to schools that have a mission of preparing docs for practice in rural areas, then play that up. Don't apply to NYU and say that you are interested in preparing for a career in rural medicine or the adcom will be laughing so hard they'll forget to invite you for an interview.

Yes, agreed. But without knowing anything in real detail about a particular school, one can only be as general as "I want to go academic" or "I want to go rural." At best, you can stretch that out to a 3 sentence essay.

Sorry if I'm being pessimistic on this subject matter however it was essay questions like these that were the most useless and tedious to do. I would hope that someone who is applying to whatever med school would know the very basics of that school, which is about the only information you'll get out of a website.

Now don't get me wrong. There are some schools that have an easily advertisable unique feature. Some schools also have more informative websites. That at least gives us something to work with. But for at least a few schools I applied to that asked "why our school" that simply wasn't the case. Then the essay inevitably tends to drag out into everyone's favorite premed B.S.

 

[jyw003]

Honestly, I think secondaries are used to make more money off applicants. Most questions I think are redundant and/or pointless.

i wonder how much schools make every application season...

 

[Maxwell Edison]

You should know something about the school and be able to articulate why you are attracted to this school and why you think that it is a good fit. If you are attracted to the opportunity to do some original research & write a thesis and the school is big on that activity then you should play that up. if you are interested in being a primary care doc in your hometown in a rural or otherwise underserved area (meaning that there aren't many primary care providers and people wait months to get an appointment) and you are applying to schools that have a mission of preparing docs for practice in rural areas, then play that up. Don't apply to NYU and say that you are interested in preparing for a career in rural medicine or the adcom will be laughing so hard they'll forget to invite you for an interview.

The question I have is whether in doing this I am meant to be selling myself, or describing why I'm "buying" the school.

Example:
Sell myself: "I believe that the University of Research would be a good fit for me, as I have spent 45 hours per week over the past three years studying a molecule I designed that will cure cancer, AIDS, and acne."

Buy the school: "For the past few years, I have found myself unable to breathe without regular volunteering at a underserved children's clinic, and so the opportunities presented at the PoorBabyCare College of Medicine not only intrigue me they will be necessary for my survival.

I suspect that rather than being more one than another it will be a mix of the two, but nonetheless, one must be the overriding aim. Which one is it?

 

[LizzyM]

The question I have is whether in doing this I am meant to be selling myself, or describing why I'm "buying" the school.

Example:
Sell myself: "I believe that the University of Research would be a good fit for me, as I have spent 45 hours per week over the past three years studying a molecule I designed that will cure cancer, AIDS, and acne."

Buy the school: "For the past few years, I have found myself unable to breathe without regular volunteering at a underserved children's clinic, and so the opportunities presented at the PoorBabyCare College of Medicine not only intrigue me they will be necessary for my survival.

I suspect that rather than being more one than another it will be a mix of the two, but nonetheless, one must be the overriding aim. Which one is it?

If they are asking "tell us something about yourself" and you know that the school is a major research powerhouse and requires/strongly encourages students to do research you tell the school all about your research and how much you want to combine clinical care with reseach in your career rather than talk about your summers on grandpa's farm trying to repair the milking machines (something your engineering degree didn't exactly prepare you to do but it has been fun and rewarding). The grandpa's dairy farm essay goes to the school that is big on serving the rural folks. Let the school connect the dots and say "you're our kind of guy!'

If the school specifically asks you to describe why you want to apply there then you have to connect the dots for them and say that your experiences on the farm have hightened your awareness of access to care issues for rural folks and you admire the efforts being made and Downhome School of Medicine to provide blah blah blah. Meanwhile you tell Bigtime Research Powerhouse Medical College that you have been working in xyz and have become familiar with the work being done at BRPMC in that field of study (or a related field) and that you are hoping to have an opportunity to continue acquiring research experience in med school.

 

[veaselhaufen]

If they are asking "tell us something about yourself" and you know that the school is a major research powerhouse and requires/strongly encourages students to do research you tell the school all about your research and how much you want to combine clinical care with reseach in your career rather than talk about your summers on grandpa's farm trying to repair the milking machines (something your engineering degree didn't exactly prepare you to do but it has been fun and rewarding). The grandpa's dairy farm essay goes to the school that is big on serving the rural folks. Let the school connect the dots and say "you're our kind of guy!'

If the school specifically asks you to describe why you want to apply there then you have to connect the dots for them and say that your experiences on the farm have hightened your awareness of access to care issues for rural folks and you admire the efforts being made and Downhome School of Medicine to provide blah blah blah. Meanwhile you tell Bigtime Research Powerhouse Medical College that you have been working in xyz and have become familiar with the work being done at BRPMC in that field of study (or a related field) and that you are hoping to have an opportunity to continue acquiring research experience in med school.

It almost sounds as if you are encouraging dishonesty. The guy who wants to practice rural medicine almost inevitably will need to attend a medical school in a large urban center. Whatever happened to the philosophy of "being yourself" in this process? Guess it doesn't work, eh?

 

[LizzyM]

It almost sounds as if you are encouraging dishonesty. The guy who wants to practice rural medicine almost inevitably will need to attend a medical school in a large urban center. Whatever happened to the philosophy of "being yourself" in this process? Guess it doesn't work, eh?

No, there are a number of schools that have a mission of educating men and women to serve the needs of the local people and in particular the rural folks. If you want to practice rural medicine, you might seek out such a school and you might describe your experiences of rural life (even if it is just summer visits from the big city to grandpa's farm) so that the adcom can see that you aren't some city slicker who is just blowing smoke.

You need to know and be able to describe : 1) what you want, 2)what you've done to test your interest in item 1, and 3) how this school is going to help you meet your goal. That is the ultimate in being yourself.

 

[riceman04]

It almost sounds as if you are encouraging dishonesty. The guy who wants to practice rural medicine almost inevitably will need to attend a medical school in a large urban center. Whatever happened to the philosophy of "being yourself" in this process? Guess it doesn't work, eh?

There are several schools around the country located in big cities, yet they have have implemented rural medicine programs:

2 e.g's I think of immediately are U. Wash and Suny Upstate

 

[chad5871]

There are several schools around the country located in big cities, yet they have have implemented rural medicine programs:

2 e.g's I think of immediately are U. Wash and Suny Upstate

VCU has one as well, although I'm not sure if it's an official "program" or something you do extracurricularly.