Prewriting Secondaries: 7 Common Responses to Prepare

Is prewriting secondaries worth it? Now that application services are open to submissions, secondaries will start flooding your inbox once your application has been verified! Writing never came easy to me. As a premed, most of the writing I did in college were lab reports. So when it came to narrative writing, I definitely needed to put in extra time to write a few more drafts.

It can be pretty overwhelming when you’re notified you have a bunch of secondary invitations sitting in your inbox. To avoid this stress, I highly recommend prewriting some secondary prompts. “Prewriting” secondaries refers to writing the essays you anticipate you will get from a school prior to actually receiving the secondary invitation. While schools may phrase a question in a different way, a lot of them are the same at the core. Because of this, it definitely wouldn’t hurt to prewrite some common prompts. After all, submitting your secondaries quickly definitely gives your application an advantage (similar to submitting your primary application early).

This post is all about prewriting secondaries. Here, I’ll detail the seven prompts that you’ll see repeatedly throughout your medical school applications in one form or another.

“Prewriting” secondaries refers to writing the essays you anticipate you will get from a school prior to actually receiving the secondary invitation.

Prewriting Secondaries: 7 Common Medical School Secondary Prompts

If you have already graduated, explain what you have been doing since graduation.

Here you can summarize the activities you have taken part in since you graduated. This will sound similar to the Work & Activities section of the primary application but obviously shorter given the character restrictions.

Explain how your background, interests, or experiences will add to our school’s community.

This question is the “diversity” question. I personally think it’s a good idea to pick one thing that makes you unique and explain it in greater depth here rather than discuss multiple aspects of your application. Do not forget to also explain how your diverse attributes will add to the school’s community.

Are there any inconsistencies in your application? If so, please explain here.

If there’s any part of your application that needs more explaining this is the place to do it. Maybe it’s a bad grade, a withdrawal from a class or semester, really anything that you think might be a “red flag” to admissions committees.

Describe a challenge or conflict that you have experienced and how you overcame it.

I recommend picking something non-academic here. Make sure you explain the situation, the steps you took to resolve it, the solution, AND how you will use these experiences or lessons you learned in the future.

Why this school?

This question is one of the most important in both the secondary application and interview, in my opinion. Schools are searching for students to add and support their mission. For this question, look up your top school choices, read their mission and vision statements, watch any videos they may have posted on Youtube, and search through their website. Explain, through examples, why you will be a good fit for the school and why the school is a good fit for you and your goals.

Describe how COVID-19 has impacted your application.

This question can be presented in a variety of ways on applications. Some are asking how COVID-19 impacted your academics, extracurriculars, life in general, etc. While others are asking about how it influenced your view of medicine. Make sure you read this question carefully on each application, don’t just copy and paste (you shouldn’t do this for ANY question)!

What hobbies do you have outside of medicine?

As admissions committees are looking for well-rounded applicants, this is a great place for individuals to discuss their interests outside of medicine. Make sure that you are being genuine here. Do not write about your passion for working out because it helps decrease your stress levels if you don’t actually enjoy exercising. Write about hobbies you love and show you are passionate about them by discussing your accomplishments in them and your goals for them. For example, maybe you enjoy playing piano and you play for your church’s worship team every Sunday or maybe you love to run and are currently training for a marathon.

Many schools’ secondary prompts don’t vary greatly from year to year. If you’re interested in a school’s specific prompts, simply Google the school’s name + “secondary essay prompts” and you can start writing them ahead of time!