secondaries

Should you answer the optional or additional information secondaries? If you ask certain advisors, they will tell you not to write anything unless you need to explain some red flag in your application. I would say that I partially agree with this take, but I also don't think it's that simple, so I came up with an "Order of Operations" to help pre-meds decide whether it was worth answering these troubling secondary prompts.

Many students apply to 30+ medical schools in order to play the numbers game, and this fact is no secret to the medical schools themselves.‍ The medical schools aren’t stupid; they know they’re not your only choice. But it’s your job to convince them that they’re the best choice for you, which hopefully has a reciprocal effect.‍ With about 47% of medical schools asking the “Why Our Medical School?” essay question, you’ll want to make this essay a focal point in your secondary writing.‍ This article will help you better conceptualize this popular medical school secondary essay prompt and complete the essays in both an efficient and compelling way!

USC Keck replaced its "charitable donations" secondary prompt with a question that asks pre-meds to "name three things they don't care about at all." This replacement is more interesting, but it's also a lot more challenging. We're here to provide a breakdown of this new prompt, including the do's and don'ts and several examples of good and bad responses, to help you come up with something authentic and compelling.

Senior Advisor Sam Wheeler shares helpful ways to survive your secondary essays! Watch the video now and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more helpful content on your journey to med school acceptance.

If you’re working ahead (which you should be), you’re probably already pre-writing secondary essays, including the challenging “Why our medical school?” question. We’re here to help with that. Savvy Pre-Med will be publishing a multiple-part series to provide you with a “cheat sheet” for answering “Why our medical school?” in your secondaries and interviews. Our goal is to provide a list of five noteworthy aspects of each medical school program (including links) to help you expedite the process of researching, writing, and formulating interview answers. Today we’re covering all the Texas medical schools!

If you’re working ahead (which you should be), you’re probably already pre-writing secondary essays, including the challenging “Why our medical school?” question. We’re here to help with that. Savvy Pre-Med will be publishing a multiple-part series to provide you with a “cheat sheet” for answering “Why our medical school?” in your secondaries and interviews. Our goal is to provide a list of five noteworthy aspects of each medical school program (including links) to help you expedite the process of researching, writing, and formulating interview answers. Today we’re covering all the California medical schools.

If you’re working ahead (which you should be), you’re probably already pre-writing secondary essays, including the challenging “Why our medical school?” question. We’re here to help with that. Savvy Pre-Med will be publishing a multiple-part series to provide you with a “cheat sheet” for answering “Why our medical school?” in your secondaries and interviews. Our goal is to provide a list of five noteworthy aspects of each medical school program (including links) to help you expedite the process of researching, writing, and formulating interview answers.

You probably have plenty of questions about medical school secondaries, and there’s a good chance that we’ve answered them somewhere in our archive of articles. This comprehensive guide will point you in the right direction for whatever secondary essay task or question you’re currently facing. Hope it helps you navigate this daunting task!

That’s right - for a new RFUMS secondary essay, you have to create your own superhero. But that’s the easy part - the harder task is figuring out a problem that your superhero can combat in your current city or town. Sure, it’s a little inconvenient that RFUMS is asking for secondary essay material that will be difficult to repurpose for other schools. BUT on the bright side, it’s only 150 words, and it lets you showcase a cause you’re passionate about and what you value most about your hometown. What are the do’s and don’ts of answering this RFUMS secondary essay? Are there some good examples you can follow? Don’t worry - I got you covered.

In response to the growing concern over systemic racism, certain medical schools, like Miller School of Medicine - University of Miami, added new secondary essay prompts last cycle (2020-2021) that specifically addressed the problems of inequities and how to solve them. Let’s take a look at Miller’s new prompt and consider some good and bad approaches to answering it in your secondary essays.

Other than the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest news topics in 2020 were police brutality, systemic racism, and the need for greater equity in the United States. The medical school admissions world has joined this conversation, notably through a slew of AAMC webinars and events that focus around the concept of equity in healthcare and medical education. Certain medical schools, like Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, added new secondary essay prompts last cycle (2020-2021) that specifically addressed the problems of inequities and how to solve them. It's likely that these prompts will be featured again in 2021-2022. Let’s take a look at these new prompts and consider some do’s and don’ts about how to answer them in your secondary essays.

Do's and Don'ts for Writing About Coronavirus in Your Personal Statement

Last week, we looked at how to research med schools properly in order to help improve your chances of getting in. To recap, med schools only want to accept you if you would choose their medical school, even if you’re accepted to another school on your list.

If you're like most applicants to medical school, you're just not that diverse. You are racially or ethnically over-represented. You didn't face many particular hardships growing up, and you haven't had enough life experiences to make you different from the thousands of others applying to med school. That means you'll have to get creative in how you answer this question.

If you’ve ever watched The Office, you’ve likely cringed your way through certain scenes (for me, it was Scott’s Tots). Even if you typically enjoy awkward, dry humor, the show’s oblivious characters and their socially obtuse actions can make anyone a bit uncomfortable.

For a small group of pre-meds, military medicine has been on their minds for years, possibly due to a family history in the armed forces, and some are even active duty already.

Are you a Central Valley or California resident who’s dedicated to the underserved and looking for a local osteopathic school for your list? Well, we’ve got some good news for you. There’s a new osteopathic medical school, and it’s the first program of its kind in the Central Valley.

Imagine if a medical school ignored your MCAT and GPA when evaluating you and granting you an interview?

“They all sound the same!” When you’re researching different medical schools on your list, in search of those “Why Our School” reasons for your secondaries, the schools can easily blend together.

“The only constant is change.” You’re probably familiar with this phrase, but you probably don’t know how it relates to the University of Michigan Medical School.

Are you looking for a last-minute application for the 2018-2019 medical school cycle? Are you interested in primary care and have some degree of ties to New York? Do you want to write secondary essays that are 2500 words each?

“What are they looking for?” Pre-meds find themselves asking this question a lot as they complete their secondaries.

“What are they looking for?” Pre-meds find themselves asking this question a lot as they complete their secondaries.

Why so much focus on secondaries? Well, we’ve seen students struggle with secondaries year after year, and we recognize their potential to undermine someone’s entire application.

We analyzed the secondary essays for all US allopathic medical schools and US osteopathic medical schools to see which common essays you can expect to receive this coming 2023-2024 application cycle. Check out our advice for each of these secondary "greatest hits" so that you can streamline your writing and be optimally prepared!

You've heard us stress the importance of good writing in your medical school application, and being a good writer, just like staying in shape, takes training and practice.

You may have heard that there's a new test required by a growing list of medical schools: the CASPer. The spread of its use has been fairly fast. A few years ago, it was only required by Tulane and New York Medical College (in the US), and now the list is 20 schools strong and growing.

Part of what makes ethical dilemma questions tricky is their missing information. They don’t usually give you everything you need to know to make a clear decision.

Yep, you read that correctly: a secondary application video. If you didn’t already know, Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine (BCOM) encourages its medical school applicants to submit a two-minute video for its secondary prompt:

The word ‘Casper’ might evoke an image of the personable cartoon ghost from tv and comic books. But is the CASPer as student-friendly as our beloved ghost?

“It’s alive!” Pre-meds might find themselves repeating Dr. Frankenstein’s catchphrase as they work on UCSD Medical School’s secondary essay. There’s no doubt; it’s a bonafide monster.

Most people know the writing adage, “show, don’t tell.” Whether you’re writing a novel or a medical school personal statement, this approach is a tried-and-true way of getting your message across.

Last week, we revealed the five most overused sentences in medical school personal statements. This week we’re going a little deeper, down to the level of individual words.In our experience, these 10 words and phrases are often beaten to death in pre-med essays. Use them sparingly, if at all.

Like grammar, punctuation helps to ensure clarity in your writing. It’s also a bit like dressing up for an interview--it’s part of your presentation and professionalism, a way to show the reader that you care about how your message is conveyed.

Many would call it a stretch to compare poor grammar to “envy,” “wrath,” “greed,” or any one of the seven deadly sins. It’s true that grammatical errors could result from a writer succumbing to “pride” or “sloth,” but more likely, it’s just ignorance.

Ernest Hemingway once famously claimed, “the first draft of anything is sh*t.” And if you run your own first drafts through the Hemingway App, you’re bound to agree with him.According to its website, the Hemingway App is designed to “make your writing bold and clear.” But what does that mean?

Loma Linda is one of the rare medical schools with a religious affiliation (Seventh-day Adventist). Although other schools have a religious bent (see: Georgetown and Creighton), no other school’s secondaries have as much ideological commitment to the Christian lifestyle.

Many students apply to 30+ schools in order to play the numbers game, and this is no secret to the schools themselves.They’re not stupid; they know they’re not your only choice. But it’s your job to convince them that they’re the best choice for you in, which hopefully has a reciprocal effect.

Half the battle with secondaries is generating reusable content, and Touro Medical School (California) is the perfect place to start for hopeful osteopaths. By completing Touro’s longer prompts, you can prepare yourself with most of the needed material for other DO secondaries.IN TERMS OF GEN

Who wouldn’t want to go to medical school at UCLA? Top-ranked, exceptional match list, nearby beaches (not that you’ll have time to frequent them during medical school). There’s a reason UCLA gets nearly 10,000 applicants each year.

Most of the time, the secondary process feels endlessly redundant. Reiterating your volunteering and work experiences. Listing your honors and awards. Writing yet another buzzword essay about diversity or leadership.But sometimes a school will throw you a curveball, and if you’ve been lulled into complacency, it can be tough to nail such a tricky pitch. But never fear. The Savvy Pre-Med is here to coach you back into hitting form.

We must first acknowledge just how hard it is to be a doctor these days. Why is it so hard? Most doctors are burned out. Pressure is increasing to see more patients in less time (undermining the patient-physician relationship). Many doctors (and many pre-meds) are perfectionists who refuse to admit mistakes but inevitably make them anyway. Add to that a huge debt load from medical school and precious little time with family and friends, and it’s easy to see why doctors want out of their profession.

The Resume Rehash. Admissions officers have read this type of essay all the time. It happens so often that it’s one of the biggest personal statement cliches. The way it goes is something like this: the applicant says why medicine but feels she needs to cram every single activity since she turned 18 into the 5300 characters. She touches upon so many experiences that she doesn’t take the time to elaborate well on any of them.