What Are Secondary Applications?
After submitting your primary application to the application service and the schools, each medical school will likely send you another application: the secondary application. The main components you'll deal with are essays and courses. Most schools will send you a handful of essays to complete within a certain period and ask you to fill out past courses to show you’ve met their requirements. Additionally, you will need to provide demographic info, a picture of yourself, specify which program you’re applying to, and indicate your interest in their primary care track. Some schools accept only a certain number of letters of recommendation, so they’ll ask you to decide which ones you’d like them to consider. Also, expect an extra fee, typically around one hundred dollars.
Secondary applications help schools gauge how well you fit with their mission. For example, when I was preparing for an interview at Temple, I reviewed my secondaries to see what they had asked. It was clear that they value community most. During my interview, many of their questions focused on what I’ve done for my community, who I identify with, and what I would do in their community.
When Do Secondaries Get Sent Out?
If you submit your primary application as soon as the services open, expect a wait. Medical schools don’t receive your application until mid to late June, depending on the service. After June, secondaries will usually arrive within a day of your primary application submission. While some schools screen your application beforehand, most prefer to accept everyone and take your money. If you haven’t received a secondary yet, don’t worry; it can take a couple of weeks. During this time, it’s advisable to pre-write as many of your anticipated secondaries as possible to speed up your turnaround. Although it may seem daunting initially if you have many applications, you’ll typically encounter many of the same questions phrased differently.
What Are the Most Common Questions?
Here are some common questions you might encounter. Each one should be answered specifically for that school, considering their mission, values, and the population they serve.
Tell me about yourself (I know, I know, but I got this question multiple times).
Why are you interested in attending our school?
Here is our mission: [mission statement]. How do you fit into this mission? What can you bring to the table?
How will you add to the diversity of the class? (Hint: Don’t say, “I’ll be the token white/Asian girl.”)
What was one time you had to overcome adversity? What did you do?
Describe a situation where you failed.
Describe a time when you hurt someone. What did you do to fix it?
Describe a time when you advocated for someone other than yourself.
Explain a time when you worked as a team to get something done.
Many questions will be about teams, being a team player, or leading a team.
What are your motivations for medicine?
Why medicine?
Why our school?
Why do you want to be a doctor rather than a PA or nurse?
Many of these “Why” questions will be asked in interviews as well.
Describe an event in your life that motivated you to pursue medicine. What about the situation made you want to be a doctor?
What will you bring to our medical school? What will you bring to your class?
What has been your greatest challenge?
Avoid mentioning mental health battles. While it's relatable and a real challenge, it’s still stigmatized, and mentioning it can hurt your chances. They might worry you could relapse and harm their reputation.
Describe a time when you witnessed or experienced an injustice.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Why do you want to go into osteopathic medicine?
This list isn’t exhaustive, but it should give you an idea of what to expect. Additionally, most secondary applications state that you are not allowed to use AI to write your essays. There are plenty of trackers out there, and if they decide to copy and paste an essay from your application into an AI detector, you don’t want to be one of the many people who get disregarded for not following instructions. If you tend to write in a very organized, perhaps robotic fashion, consider running your essay through an AI detector to ensure it doesn’t appear generated.
As with any of these essays, it is essential to have others review and edit them. You should also read them aloud before submitting. If you don’t have anyone you trust to edit or give you actionable advice on improving your essay, we offer editing and review services from people who have successfully navigated the application process.
If you have any urgent questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us using the contact page or support@premedits.com.
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