By: Savvy Pre-Med

How much of your medical school secondaries can you reuse across schools?

That’s a question we hear all the time, and this week it’s the subject of Admissions Mondays with Passport Admissions President Rob Humbracht. Check out his sage advice from our YouTube channel:

‍

So what’s the gist?

• Always “tee up” anything you say about a medical school with something about yourself first

• Reuse writing about your own experiences, values, goals, since who YOU are is consistent and doesn’t hinge on any particular medical school - this is the acceptable form of “templating”

• But DON’T reuse material verbatim when discussing the schools themselves, since that type of transparent templating will be a major turn-off for schools

• A good rule of thumb: if you can swap out any medical school’s name with another and have the sentence/paragraph make sense, you’re not being specific or individualized enough

You probably have other 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! 

The Savvy Pre-Med Comprehensive Guide to Medical School Secondary Essays

How many secondary essays do you have to write? How long will it take to finish them?

You Won’t Believe the Amount of Pages You’ll Need to Write for Medical School

This article presents some (admittedly) daunting numbers, but also provides advice about an ideal secondary writing timeline and tips on how to pre-write your essays.

What’s the best broad strategy for tackling your high volume of secondary essays?

Summer is Coming: Medical School Secondary Essay Survival Guide

This article provides five key strategies for tackling secondaries on a broad scale, helping you contextualize and frame the process in your mind.

What’s the best way to get started on generating content for your medical school secondary essays?

The Five Most Common Medical School Secondary Essay Prompts

The diversity prompt. The challenge prompt. The “why our school” prompt. The gap year prompt. The “anything else?” prompt. This article helps you jumpstart your secondary essays by covering the five most commonly asked questions.

How do you answer the secondary essays that ask “why are you interested in our medical school?”

Why Our School? How to Knock Out 12 Medical School Secondaries with One Essay

How to Answer "Why Our School" Essays

These articles will teach you how to conquer one of the most common secondary prompts and align yourself with a medical school’s mission, values, and opportunities. And best of all, they’ll show you how to reuse content across schools.

But what about all those anomalous, school-specific secondary essays that you can’t reuse something for?

First of all, you can probably reuse more than it initially seems, especially if you’re creative enough in re-tweaking or re-purposing parts of essays.

But we get it - there are schools that make you give yourself your own nickname, ones that have you create a superhero, ones that ask you to describe yourself in only 1000 characters. 

With all this variety, we’ve tried to cover as many specific schools as possible:

Rosalind Franklin University Medical School:

Creating Your Own Superhero for a New Rosalind Franklin (RFUMS) Secondary Essay

Miller School of Medicine - University of Miami:

New Secondary Essays to Be Prepared for in 2021-2022, Part II (Miami Miller)

Loyola Stritch School of Medicine:

New Secondary Essays to Be Prepared for in 2021-2022, Part I (Loyola Stritch)

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences:

A Guide to the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) Secondary Essays

California Health Sciences University College of Osteopathic Medicine:

A Guide to California Health Sciences University College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (CHSU COM) Secondary Essays

University of Utah School of Medicine:

A Guide to University of Utah School of Medicine’s (UUSOM) Secondary Essays

University of California Riverside School of Medicine:

How to Answer UC Riverside School of Medicine’s Secondary Essays

Texas Christian University and University of North Texas Health Science Center:

How to Prepare for TCU and UNTHSC Medical School's Audio Secondary

University of Michigan Medical School:

A Guide to the University of Michigan Medical School’s (UMMS) Secondary Essays

New York University Long Island School of Medicine:

How to Answer NYU Long Island School of Medicine’s New Secondary Essays

George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences:

How to Answer George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Secondary Essays

Tufts University School of Medicine:

How to Answer Tufts University School of Medicine’s Secondary Essays

Boston University School of Medicine:

How to Answer Boston University School of Medicine’s Secondary Essays

Burrell College of Medicine:

5 tips to shine in your Burrell College (BCOM) Secondary Video Essay

Top 8 Funniest Strangest Secondary Application Videos for Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine

Albany Medical College:

3 Strategies for Describing Yourself in 1,000 Characters for Albany Medical College's Secondary

University of California San Diego Medical School:

4 Steps for Assembling UCSD's Autobiographical Secondary Essay

‍

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine:

Answer Any Ethics Question in 4 Easy Steps: A Look at VCU’s Secondaries

Loma Linda University School of Medicine:

7 Tactful Ways To Answer Loma Linda Secondaries Regardless of Your Faith/Religion

Touro Medical School:

Kickstart Your AACOMAS Secondaries: A Guide to Touro Medical School Essay Prompts

David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA:

The Hardest Secondary? How to Conquer the 10 Secondary Essays for UCLA (Geffen) School of Medicine

Keck School of Medicine of USC:

Thinking Outside the Trojan Horse: A Creative Guide to Writing USC’s (Keck) Medical School Secondaries

What should you do when you’re finally done with secondary essays?

Well, for starters, you should probably take a break and celebrate that milestone. But if you’re looking for something to do before and after interviews, we’ve written extensively about update letters, letters of intent, and waitlists.

How to Write a Med School Update Letter That Actually Works

Every Question You Have About Medical School Update Letters

Every Question You Have About Medical School Waitlists

How to Write an Effective Letter of Intent for Medical School

‍

Have any questions about medical school secondary essays? Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll respond to you personally!