According to google, the average med school applicant applies to 18 schools, and the average number of secondary prompts can range from 2-9 per school. So, at minimum, the average applicant is confronted with 36 prompts, and at most 162.
Just looking at these numbers are overwhelming, but when you add on the recommended timeline of a 2-week turnaround upon receiving the secondary application invite, this feat can seem near impossible.
Here are some tips and tricks for how I managed to tackle and get ahead of my secondaries:
1. Gather the essay prompts early
Prompts are often recycled year-to-year, so you can get a jump start by scouring the internet for the previous cycle’s secondary prompts and word/character counts for the schools that you are applying to. I stored my prompts in an excel sheet, but feel free to use whatever medium works best for you.
2. Categorize your essays
Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to. There are several themes/categories of essays that are often shared amongst schools. These include:
- The diversity essay
- The challenge essay
- The "Why us" essay
- The leadership essay
- The gap year essay
- "Anything else you’d like us to know?"
I then went through my excel sheet of prompts and color coded them based on the type of essay theme they matched best. In this way, I could easily visualize which essays could be repurposed across different schools.
3. Start with the Longest Prompts
Start with answering the themed essay prompts with the highest word/character counts. By having these starting sets of essay answers, you can then easily whittle down to fit prompts with lower character counts or customize to answer more specific questions.
4. Convey the different dimensions of who you are.
Your secondary prompts actually are read BEFORE your personal essay, so they provide admissions officers an important first impression of who you are. Try to showcase that different aspects, qualities, and interests that make you who you are!
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