So for months now, literally months, my days have been filled with writing essays upon essays for the application process. How woefully naive I was to believe that my personal statement would be the last important piece of writing. Writing essays though has almost become a source of relief, breaking the monotony of the never-ending application process. There is good news though! There may be a light at the end of the tunnel after all.
Last night I received my first interview invite from a medical school in the North East. I was actually finishing another secondary around midnight, when I received an email congratulating me and detailing the process for an interview. I was shocked, stunned, relieved. And then it hit me. My work paid off. OK, so I haven’t actually received an acceptance anywhere, but when you work for months on end, unsure if everything will come together, any validation from schools about your application provides you with a sense of overwhelming relief. I’ve heard people described the admissions process as a roller coaster ride. I guess up to now, my journey has been the slow, creeping ascent as I desperately try to build enough momentum for the ride. Here is my journey thus far:
April: I took the MCAT on April 5th, and received my scores sometime in May. Major hurdle #1 – Check. At this time, I also begin requesting letters of recommendation
May: AMCAS application opens. I begin working on AMCAS. This includes Work and Activities section with 3 most meaningful entries, personal statement, coursework and letters of recommendation
June: AMCAS opens for submission on June 1st. I submitted my application within the first four minutes and receive AMCAS verification earlier the next day. I spend the entire month of June pre-writing secondaries (more on this later).
July: On July 1st I begin receiving a slew of secondary applications. For each school, I go back to my prewritten responses, view the school website one more time, and have a person or two proof read the essays. I began submitting secondary applications July 1st, and received my first interview invite on July 10th. This interview is scheduled in September. So far I’ve submitted around 11 secondaries out of the 25 schools I’ve applied to.
Ok. Lets get on to what this blog post is really about….Secondaries. Here is what I’ve learned so far:
- Pre-Writing Secondaries is worth it. So what is pre-writing? Well, as it stands, if you are verified EARLY (I suggest applying early, but that is a topic for another time) then you will start to be inundated with secondaries around the beginning of July. In my case, I knew within a few short weeks I would have 20-something secondary applications to fill out. Not only is this an immense amount of work that requires a significant amount of time, but it is also physically and mentally draining. The process of beginning to write secondaries before secondaries are released is called pre-writing. In my case, I began pre-writing secondaries the moment my AMCAS was submitted. So how did I know what questions were going to be asked? Well, I didn’t necessarily, but it’s a pretty good bet that schools will reuse the essay prompts from the last application cycle. Go on to SDN and look up last year’s application thread. Here is Boston University’s 2013-2014 Application thread as an example. Notice that the essay prompt from last year’s application cycle is located right at the top. Begin answering this prompt early. In most cases ~90% this will be the essay prompt for this year as well. The earlier you submit your application, the earlier you will be complete (all parts of application including letters), and ultimately, the earlier you will be able to get an interview. At some schools, students at the first interview spots have around a 70% chance of being accepted. Don’t underestimate the importance of pre-writing to have an early application.
- Curtail your Essays to be School Specific. At each and every step along the way, you should be asking yourself: How can I show a particular school that I’m interested in them? Schools want to know that you honestly want to attend that institution. Come up with specific reasons why that school matches your interests. Be genuine. If you like research – talk about their research opportunities. If you don’t like research – focus on other aspects of the program you’re interested in. Also, beware of giving specific details about the program you like without having something in your personal background to backup this claim. Don’t say you want to attend X school because of their research opportunities without having done some sort of significant research in undergrad. All of this obviously requires a significant amount of research on each individual school. I highly suggest you invest in the MSAR for a centralized source of medical school information. In addition, you’ll also want to visit each school website. Take notes on each school!! What you like, what you don’t like. Make a word document detailing how your past experiences relate to their medical environment. Look at each schools Mission Statement and see if it lines up with yours. As an aside, you should look at the MSAR BEFORE you apply to schools in your AMCAS to get a feel for if you would actually want to go there. DO NOT apply to a school you would NOT attend. Finally, if a school has an Optional Essay fill it out. Leaving blank optional sections of an application makes it seem like the applicant is not doing everything in his or her power to sell themselves to the school. In every way you can you must sell yourself. Optional = NOT optional.
- Balance Submitting Secondaries Early with Quality Work. It’s nearly useless to rush through your secondaries if the quality of the writing is poor. Pre-writing secondaries can help with this. By writing your secondaries in advance you can then review them, clean them up, or rewrite them. Also, by pre-writing a TON of secondaries, many questions will be similar, however, I urge you to NOT recycle essays in your pre-writing. By forcing yourself to write information in a different way, you discover new ways of writing. For example, I wrote 5 different versions of a diversity essay for 5 different schools. Which essay do you think was best? Well, the last one of course. By then I had learned how to rehash information, and with each new essay I was able to take only bits and pieces of the last one while improving upon weaker areas. In a way, this is sort of like a step up from editing or revising. Give yourself every single opportunity to write. The more you write, the better your writing will become.
To wrap it up, I’ll leave everyone with an example of one of my secondary writing prompts. Take note of how I chose to curtail the essay towards the particular school. I’ve left out identifying information about the school. Under no circumstances should you copy any portion of my writing below. I answered these questions in a personal manner. Your writing should reflect your own work and your particular writing style. Research the school and develop your own personal mission while filling out the AMCAS.
Secondary Prompt Example: If there is any additional information you would like to provide please do so below. Please limit your response to 4,000 characters.
I was a high school student when I was accepted to the University of Florida’s summer research program. I remember the cultural shock of experiencing for the first time the dynamics of a science laboratory. That summer brought many struggles: tending to a dysfunctional PCR machine, deciding which method I should use for western blotting, and realizing just how little I knew. Research experiences such as this have merged with my inclination to touch people’s lives, instilling within me a strong personal directive. My mission is to be a life-long learner, who consistently stands on the brink of scientific discovery to innovate in health and medicine, transgresses the ethnocentric realms of lecture halls to embrace the wider community, and touches that which is truly human. I am applying to “School Name” with an unparalleled enthusiasm, for the conglomeration of a new expansive curriculum, vast research resources, international ventures, and myriad avenues for community service promise to assist me in these aspirations.
“School Name” undoubtedly has a scholarly mission, as evidenced by specialized clinical translational tracks, summer research programs, immense funding, and over 2,750 ongoing biomedical projects. It is this scholarly focus that draws me towards “School Name”. New life has been given to “School Name’s” research environment through School Program. This exciting new program distinguishes “School Name” from other institutions, where research occurs throughout a semester or two. These opportunities, combined with the fact that 45% of students participate in biomedical research, indicate that “School Name” nurtures individuals who share my passion for scientific innovation. It is within an atmosphere such as this, that I hope to grow.
Science and humanism coalesce within “School Name” to create the next generation of physicians who excel in both the art and science of medicine. From a young age, I have envisioned working with the impoverished and marginalized. As I gained more clinical experience this vision evolved into my dream of working for Medicins Sans Frontieres. Programs such as “School Program” and special funding for traveling abroad would help me reach these dreams. Likewise, community service opportunities are numerous, and “School Program” and “Another School Program” would serve as an extension of my volunteer efforts with the underserved. Additionally, the city of *********, with its thriving culture and diverse patient population, allows students to connect to patients from all walks of life.
I yearn for an intense and rigorous education that satisfies my intellectual curiosity and allows me to realize a new scholastic potential. The interdisciplinary curriculum, small group PBL sessions in the second year, a bedside approach to the clinical sciences and vast clinical exposure provided by ** affiliated hospitals, make “School Name” the epitome of what I am seeking in a medical education. Lastly, a multitude of student organizations undeniably allows students to take charge of their own education. In all aspects “School Name” fosters budding physicians towards a life of discovery and service.
I want to do more than help people. I want to touch lives, cure the sick, heal the wounded, and help mend the disparities within our healthcare system. From the bench to the bedside, I am aiming to translate scientific discovery into clinical action. I desire to be a skilled and compassionate physician who embraces patients as his own, and I am convinced that “School Name” would best prepare me to realize these goals. I hope that “School Name” will be the platform that helps bring these ambitions to fruition.
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Well, there you have it everyone. Thanks for reading, and good luck!
by Brian Covello
