tone in secondaries

[echoyjeff222]

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Hey all,

I decided to just do a personality dump on one of my secondaries for Miami (prompt =
Please provide a description of your most memorable TRAVEL experience.). I felt like it would be a pretty fun prompt, so I went into all out narrative mode and injected quite a bit of humor in the writing. Thoughts on this? Do adcoms get turned off by this?

 

[Meeehai]

Hey all,

I decided to just do a personality dump on one of my secondaries for Miami (prompt =
Please provide a description of your most memorable TRAVEL experience.). I felt like it would be a pretty fun prompt, so I went into all out narrative mode and injected quite a bit of humor in the writing. Thoughts on this? Do adcoms get turned off by this?

Judging by the prompt, it sounds like they would want you to have a little fun with it. I like to believe some adcoms want to see their applicants lead normal lives and experience joy in casual activities like the rest of the world, as opposed to being robots programmed to only talk about medicine related things.

 

[steelersfan1243]

Hey all,

I decided to just do a personality dump on one of my secondaries for Miami (prompt =
Please provide a description of your most memorable TRAVEL experience.). I felt like it would be a pretty fun prompt, so I went into all out narrative mode and injected quite a bit of humor in the writing. Thoughts on this? Do adcoms get turned off by this?

HUMOR???? What about professionalism don't you get

 

[IlyaR]

HUMOR???? What about professionalism don't you get

Are the two mutually exclusive?

 

[ChillDawg]

I'm liking the presumably sarcastic post above me.

USC's are in a similar vein, I'm sure its fine as long as its tasteful

 

[medic86]

HUMOR???? What about professionalism don't you get

Eh?

It's asking about a memorable travel experience.

 

[steelersfan1243]

Are the two mutually exclusive?

Oops, I was being totally sarcastic

UMiami is going for personality in their secondary though so I believe humor can be expected

 

[Meeehai]

I'm not an ADCOM nor do I really have any idea what the hell I'm talking about but I would imagine that humor would be a very subjective topic. While one social butterfly ortho adcom-bro might get a kick out of your humor, I can totally see the 80 year old Grinch old-fashioned, conservative adcom finding no place for that kind of tone in a professional school application. I wouldn't want to risk it.

The prompt is "most memorable travel experience," expecting strict professionalism with that kind of topic is absurd... On the contrary, I would risk it (not that there's really anything to risk in my opinion) because it will make you stand out more among other applicants and compliment your surely "professional" personal statement and other secondary responses.

 

[Pusheen]

To use a good buzz word, what kind of a privileged secondary is that? Shoot, I hope traveling on the public bus counts.

*kidding..sort of*

 

[Easonred57]

To use a good buzz word, what kind of a privileged secondary is that? Shoot, I hope traveling on the public bus counts.

*kidding..sort of*

 

[partypantss]

Eh?

It's asking about a memorable travel experience.

Sarcasm.

 

[Pusheen]

Sarcasm.

I love how this entire thread is people either failing at sarcasm or not catching onto sarcasm

 

[aegistitan]

What do you write for this if you've never traveled?

 

[Meeehai]

What do you write for this if you've never traveled?

That is when your fiction and creative writing skills come in handy.

 

[Pusheen]

That is when your fiction and creative writing skills come in handy.

Pull out your essays from elementary school about "My dream vacation"?

 

[Goro]

Yes. Don't try to be clever. Stuff like this leads to rejections.

Hey all,

I decided to just do a personality dump on one of my secondaries for Miami (prompt =
Please provide a description of your most memorable TRAVEL experience.). I felt like it would be a pretty fun prompt, so I went into all out narrative mode and injected quite a bit of humor in the writing. Thoughts on this? Do adcoms get turned off by this?

 

[IlyaR]

Yes. Don't try to be clever. Stuff like this leads to rejections.

I had some fun writing Columbia's "how will you meet the challenges living in NYC" since I've been here for 20 years. The rest of the essays were more serious, but as long as I answer the question without saying "NYC amirite?", wouldn't it be ok for some lighthearted humor?

 

[Goro]

Ilya, it can easily blow up in your face because humorous to you might simply look stupid to another reader.

I had some fun writing Columbia's "how will you meet the challenges living in NYC" since I've been here for 20 years. The rest of the essays were more serious, but as long as I answer the question without saying "NYC amirite?", wouldn't it be ok for some lighthearted humor?

 

[IlyaR]

Ilya, it can easily blow up in your face because humorous to you might simply look stupid to another reader.

Gotcha

 

[Easonred57]

Ilya, it can easily blow up in your face because humorous to you might simply look stupid to another reader.

And considering the strange sense of humor I've seen from some SDN posters...

 

[gannicus89]

I'm not an ADCOM nor do I really have any idea what the hell I'm talking about but I would imagine that humor would be a very subjective topic. While one social butterfly ortho adcom-bro might get a kick out of your humor, I can totally see the 80 year old Grinch old-fashioned, conservative adcom finding no place for that kind of tone in a professional school application. I wouldn't want to risk it.

lol@ ortho adcom-bro.

 

[Meeehai]

Ilya, it can easily blow up in your face because humorous to you might simply look stupid to another reader.

I don't know who in particular is responsible for choosing essay prompts, but if what you say is true even in cases where more fun prompts are presented then this is a failure on the part of the adcoms.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

I am taking a less guided approach to my secondaries, some of them tend to turn a bit more flowery, or casual, mostly just because there are so many prompts that I can't afford to give each the same treatment as I did in my primary. Overall, I think it comes out as more honest and less edited.