When you're applying to medical school, your story matters. Admissions committees really do look at the obstacles you've overcome. If you've faced adversity or struggled on your path to medical school, you may feel like you don't want the admissions committee to pity you. But you need to tell your story. That's what we talk about today.
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Our student this week, Telisha, is asking how to write about obstacles in her medical school secondary essays. It's a common question because if you've overcome struggles on your path to medical school, you may feel like you don't want the admissions committee to pity you.
Another difficult part of writing about the obstacles you've overcome is that you don't want to play the comparison game with other students. But still you need to tell your story.
Between two students who both got a 3.5 GPA, admissions committees are generally going to favor the student who has overcome struggles and still achieved that outcome. It's about what you've done with what you've been given.
Telisha had some bad grades in college because she was working a lot to support herself through college and was also a student athlete. Telling that story is key because it gives context to those weaker points in her application.
Telisha also had a question about perfectionism with writing her secondary essays. My advice is basically to check over the essay 3 times, not 5 times. Cut down your perfectionism a BIT. But you'll probably get faster at writing your secondary essays as the process goes on because many of the schools have very similar essay prompts anyway.
We also talk about how to prioritize which secondary essays you write first, considering both your preference of schools and also the two-week turnaround guideline.
Lastly, we discuss how to include explanations in your secondary essays about your ties to the geographical area of the specific medical school. Should you mention that you have family nearby and you've visited for the past 15 years?
Hopefully this episode of Ask Dr. Gray: Premed Q&A helped you with knowing how to write about adversity and overcoming obstacles in your secondary essays and your med school application in general!
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