What's your biggest tip for writing secondaries?

[Jdp00921]

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And to piggy back off of this: should one redo all of their essays/personal statements or is it better to alter them (especially the PS) a bit but keep the content pretty similar?

When I reapplied, I rewrote all my secondaries. With regard to my personal statement, I believe I changed 1 or 2 sentences due to grammatical improvement. However, after speaking to numerous friends/mentors who have read my PS and re-reading it myself a billion times, I realized I was so happy with it that I found no reason to re-write. From my first cycle, my PS was probably the one thing that I really loved. Why fix what isn't broken??

 

[radiculating spines]

Does it sound like "the real you"? This goes hand in hand with the "Don't overthink" advice. If you've got 'SAT words' in there, take them out. Don't be 'enthralled' when you could simply be 'excited'.

Try reading it aloud to a friend who isn't a pre-med and give them permission to gag. If you're not sure they'll be honest with you, throw in a deliberate gag phrase just to make sure their being straight --

I'm not sure I entirely agree. I think the key is to know how to use more colorful vocabulary in moderation and to know what those words mean and how they're used beyond what you could learn from just reading the dictionary definition. If you're plucking something esoteric from the thesaurus for every more commonplace word that comes to mind first, you're definitely doing it wrong and it will show. If you're commonly using words that you think even educated readers (e.g. adcoms) are unlikely to know that's downright obnoxious.

Subtly different synonyms allow for depth and variation in expression and tone, and, when appropriate, we should capitalize on this. A word like "exciting" should appear multiple times for every appearance of a word like "enthralling," but why else should we continue to include such words in dictionaries/thesauruses (whether print or online) if using them is automatically to be dismissed as showing off regardless of the writer's specific usage?

 

[aldol16]

How long did you spend on yours in terms of hours? And that’s a really good point about the gut feeling part.

I don't remember exactly how long and it depended on how long the secondary itself was, but I obviously spent much longer on schools I really cared about.

 

[JonathanHusky]

Does anyone have tips on like, answering the prompts?

For example, I'm really bad at answering the question "why our school?" I just can't get myself to write "Heyyyyy guys, LOVE your curriculum!1!1! Think it would be a ~great~ fit for me 😉" Just because it seems so forced..also how do I know if their curriculum is something that will fit me? These questions are always so tough

Also, I'm a horrible story teller. If you asked me to tell you about a time I failed at work, I wouldn't know how to answer you. I'm really bad at recalling moments in my life. Like I'm sure there's been moments I've failed, but I would have to think about it for a week or two before I could answer you.

I don't know. I feel like I'm not answering the prompts correctly.

lie... fake it till you make it...

but actually though I can't tell you the number of times I wrote "I really wanna go to a small school b/c blah blah blah" and then on the next secondary wrote "I really wanna go to a big school b/c blah blah blah" when tbh I could care less what size school I went to lol the honest answer is probably always "b/c my stats are around your averages so my chance of being rejected here is likely less than elsewhere and that is why I want to go to your school"

 

[DokterMom]

I'm not sure I entirely agree. I think the key is to know how to use more colorful vocabulary in moderation and to know what those words mean and how they're used beyond what you could learn from just reading the dictionary definition. If you're plucking something esoteric from the thesaurus for every more commonplace word that comes to mind first, you're definitely doing it wrong and it will show. If you're commonly using words that you think even educated readers (e.g. adcoms) are unlikely to know that's downright obnoxious.

Subtly different synonyms allow for depth and variation in expression and tone, and, when appropriate, we should capitalize on this. A word like "exciting" should appear multiple times for every appearance of a word like "enthralling," but why else should we continue to include such words in dictionaries/thesauruses (whether print or online) if using them is automatically to be dismissed as showing off regardless of the writer's specific usage?

I think we're actually saying the same thing. Sometimes 'enthralled' is exactly the right word, and when it is, you should definitely use it. What I'm warning against is the tendency to overuse dramatic and uncommon words when a more ordinary word is perfectly appropriate.

 

[MedScat]

Took a screenshot of this! Thank you!! Awesome advice!

I whole heartedly agree with @BombsAway. I filled out so many secondaries, there was no time to have people editing them so I just made it my mission to be honest and I applied to schools that I knew would be accepting of that. It's funny because the II I received were all from schools that had secondaries that were FUN to fill out. I feel as though I had this feeling because I could easily answer the question "why this school" based upon their mission and extracurriculars they had to offer. SO regardless of the fact that you'd be grateful to get in ANYWHERE, apply mostly to schools that you really like because they will most definitely be able to sense your passion in your secondary. Before I filled out any secondary, I would read the school's mission and write a quick note of how it applied to me and what in it was important to me which I think really helped.

Also, unlike other people in this thread, I wrote my secondaries, did a quick read through for grammatical errors, and then just hit submit and never looked back. I didn't do much editing to anything because I felt that what I wrote first was what was true to me. People editing it don't know what's in your heart so how can they edit your work? Grammar is one thing but ideas are another.

This is what worked for me but remember that everyone is different and what works for one may not work for another! It's all about what makes you most comfortable.

Good luck!

 

[radiculating spines]

I think we're actually saying the same thing. Sometimes 'enthralled' is exactly the right word, and when it is, you should definitely use it. What I'm warning against is the tendency to overuse dramatic and uncommon words when a more ordinary word is perfectly appropriate.

I agree with what you've said here completely. But I took "If you've got 'SAT words' in there, take them out. Don't be 'enthralled' when you could simply be 'excited'" in your earlier post to be more absolute. "Exactly the right word" is usually a pretty ordinary word, and only occasionally will it be something more exotic.

 

[Donna Moss]

Can someone provide a good example of showing, not telling? Is there a good way to practice this? I feel like I am not a good story teller and it's going to be apparent on my applications.

 

[pikagyu]

Something else I found helpful when I was in a pinch, read your secondaries aloud in a different font than you used OR have Google translate read back your essay to you in sections. I've caught many small errors that way and I was able to rely on friends to focus on the big picture/abstract ideas rather than grammar/spellcheck. It sounds cringey when you hear it back but once you get to a point where it doesn't sound that bad, you can send it off.

 

[Coltuna]

Scour the school's website. Pay particular attention to the mission, values, and curriculum of the school. Also research the city, area, and rotations sites of the school. It's little things like using buzzwords from their mission statement, siting impressive statistics from one of the rotation sites, or even using the nickname of the city in your secondary that can set you apart. Also, be sure you're answering the question they're asking. I found myself (more than once) having to rewrite whole responses because I got caught up in my head.

 

[HuskyMD Emeritus]

If you work or volunteer at a teaching hospital, talk to the housestaff, find out where they went to medical school, ask them about that school, their experiences there, etc. If you are applying to that school, you have 1) inside information of the school, 2) you demonstrated interest in the school by talking to its graduates, 3) the medical students were successful in their application process (obviously) so you can learn from them what made their application successful--their advice may be more insightful than other premeds.
I often sent the premeds who shadowed me to go to the residents' morning report for this purpose.