Four tips for writing great secondary applications to medical schools

You have already finished all of your pre-med requirements and sent in your primary application. The only thing left between you and that ever so sweet interview at your dream medical school is the secondary application. You are so close to getting interviewed and potentially accepted! So how do you make the most out of your secondary application and not mess it up?

1. Keep your answers professional

Just because you are so close to getting invited to that interview does not mean that you can stop being professional. Some of the essay questions you may be asked in a secondary application could include questions that ask about your personal life or how you can contribute to their school. Don’t try to make any jokes, even if it is in good humor, or do anything that makes you seem like you are not taking your secondary application completely serious. Your best chance as an applicant comes when you present yourself as a professional and very serious about pursuing a career in medicine. Absolutely do not come across as if you are not taking the questions seriously.

2. Try to max out the character limit for your essay responses

Writing a lot in each of your essay questions shows that you spent time coming up with your response and that you put thought into it. In general, it will always look better if you have an essay that reaches the character limit than a response to the essay prompt that is only three sentences long. This does not mean to fill your answers with fluff to just make it longer. Instead, spend some extra time and think about personal examples that relate to the essay prompt. You can go into extra detail about how meaningful it was to you. Of course you do not have to max out the character limit for your responses, but just try to do your best to write as much quality content as you can. At the very least make sure you have at least a solid paragraph for each answer. You don’t want to be judged for writing too little, so make sure to avoid this easy mistake!

3. Make your answers personal

This is the difference between the average and mediocre essay response and the high-quality ones. The people who can relate each essay response with real experiences they have had always do the best. Do not give generic answers that sound like they could have been written by anyone. Your answers should be one that no one else could replicate because it comes from your personal experiences and reasons that have motivated you to pursue a career in medicine. Everyone has different experiences and reasons that have motivated them to pursue this path. Focus your essays on identifying these. The more genuine and personal you can make your responses the more you will stand out as an applicant who is serious. Don’t tell people why you would be a great physician. Show them why you would be by giving personal reasons and experiences.

4. Make your answers specific to that school whenever possible

This is a great way to set yourself apart from most of the other applicants. A lot of applicants will come up with a generic answer to common medical school essay prompts and then send that exact same answer to every school. The result is that every school gets some generic answer that looks like it was sent to 20 other schools! You need to take the time to write a different answer to every medical school! Even if they ask the exact same essay questions. If you can relate your answer to why that specific medical school would be a good fit for you then those schools will take you much more seriously as an applicant. Giving specific reasons why that medical school is the perfect match for you and how aspects of its curriculum serve your need as a medical student shows you have done your research and you are serious about their school.

I hope these tips helped! Remember, make sure you spend all the time you need to make your secondary applications count. You are so close to getting interviewed and accepted. Be professional in your responses, write as much as you can, and relate your answers to personal experiences and the medical school you are applying to. If you take the time to make a rock-solid application you will surely get those interview invitations!

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Nine Tips to write a personal statement that captivates your reader

The personal statement is one of the most important aspects of your medical school application and one of your best opportunities to separate yourself from other applicants. Your personal statement is your chance to convince medical schools that you would be a great physician. Do not underestimate the value of having a good personal statement. There are many medical schools that accept students who don’t have the highest GPA or MCAT, but have excellent personal statements. And it is often the personal statement that plays a major role in encouraging the medical school to invite you to an interview. Please take your time to review the tips I wrote down below, these tips come from personal experience as well as advice from medical school admission officers. So what are some tips to help you write a spectacular medical school essay that no school can resist?

1.Treat the essay as if you are writing a novel. Tell a story.

One of the most important things you can do when writing a personal statement is to write it as if it were a novel. You want to start the essay strong with something that catches the readers attention, use suspense, build up to major events, and give the reader closure at the end. It is important that you are able to maintain the readers interest in your story.

2. Use powerful language.

An easy way to improve your essay is to use strong and emotionally powerful adjectives. When describing events use metaphors. You want all of the language that you use to really leave an impression. This ties in with the first tip about writing a novel, you really want to use strong and symbolic language that will captivate your reader.

3. Make a list of several key points and themes you want your personal statement to include

This also goes back to the idea of writing a story and is honestly one of the best ways you can guarantee you say everything you want to and give the right impression to your reader. By having themes and key points in your essay you are both implicitly and explicitly emphasizing why you would be a great addition to their medical school program. Make a list of all of the major points you want to emphasize and the main themes that will define your essay. This list will be a valuable asset as you write your essay.

Heres a list of some things you might want to focus on: Showing you really care about helping other people, illustrating your hands on experience with patients, showing that you love to volunteer, showing all the different struggles you have overcome and how you have grown from them, showing your growth and evolution as a person over time, showing that you understand the rigors and realities of medicine, showing strong and resilient character, and showing that you are humble.

4. Make sure to subtly repeat your key points and themes throughout your personal statement

It is important to be able to subtly remind your reader of your key points as you write your essay. You want to be able to tell them that you are awesome without having to say it directly. Having consistency in your key points and themes makes it more authentic. For example: If you want to get the key point across that you have learned a lot from patient interaction, mention in the beginning of the essay how one patient was memorable to you. And then later in the essay bring up how the lessons you learned from that patient played in an impact in a separate situation. Once your essay is able to show consistency in your key points they become themes of your essay. And having a theme is much more powerful than trying to tell your reader explicitly why you are awesome. Being consistent and subtly repeating your key points and themes makes your essay more genuine.

5. Give examples for your claims

Having examples for each of your key points will greatly increase how believable your essay is and also the impact it leaves on your reader. Make sure you have good examples for your key points. Also make sure to use strong and emotional language, see tip #2, when describing that example. For example: If you are trying to show your reader that you are compassionate for others, then have an example where it shows you are compassionate.

6. Stay humble.

This is one of the most common pitfalls that many pre-med students fall into. Many medical school admission officers emphasize the importance of being modest and humble when writing your personal statement. Often one of the biggest turn off’s to medical school is being too full of yourself. That is why it is best to imply rather than directly state that you are good at something. Remember, being subtle and consistent is key.

7. Make sure not to go over the character limit

This one is actually really important for saving you lots of time and annoyance. The character limit is only 5300 characters! That is only about one page long. When I wrote my essay I accidentally misread it as 5300 words! That was a big mistake. Because when I copied my essay into the AMCAS essay box, it was literally twice as long. Then I had to go back and try and cut certain things out to make it fit. It was a very painful and upsetting process. So make sure you are constantly checking that you don’t go over the character limit. If it helps, you should write the essay in the essay box instead of a word processor.

8. Don’t have any grammar mistakes

This is an obvious one but also one that is easy to avoid. Having grammar mistakes is one of the easiest ways to show a lack of professionalism. So just make sure to double-check that.

9. Have multiple people proofread your essay and give feedback

This tip is a must. It is critical that you get other people’s opinion on your essay. Other people will see things that you won’t and have advice that you wouldn’t have ever considered. You will most likely have to go through several drafts of your essay before it is truly ready. I went through 6 drafts before I submitted my essay.

Follow these tips and you will have an essay that truly stands out and makes medical schools interested in you. The main key points to take from this article is: Write a story that will captivate your reader and keeps their attention, develop major themes and key points that your essay is based around, and to have others check your essay. Remember, the personal statement is your biggest opportunity to let you stand out. Write a powerful essay that will blow the socks off your reader! I believe in you! You can do this!

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