Questions?

Do you have burning questions about the pre-med, medical school admission, and residency process? Post a comment, and I will happily answer any and all questions.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Medical School Secondary Applications: Qualities/Characteristics

Medical schools love to ask you about what qualities you possess that will make you a great physician:

Describe the distinguishable characteristics you possess and tell us how you think these characteristics will enhance your success as a medical student and future physician.

Start by brainstorming a list of characteristics that you think great physicians possess. Here’s a short list from the top of my head in no particular order:

Psychological maturity
Character and integrity
Self-discipline
Judgment
Compassion and empathy
Communication skills
Concern for helping others
Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm
Analytical and problem-solving ability
Motivation and persistence
Reliability and dependability
Resilience and adaptability
Accountability
Leadership skills
Teamwork skills
Experience with and knowledge of medicine

Choose the qualities that you possess and that can be backed up with examples from your own life. For example, if you that you have leadership skills, be sure that you have leadership experiences to prove it.

Looking for help on how to answer secondary essay questions? E-mail info@MDadmit.com to put a Harvard/Stanford MD and medical school admissions expert to work for you!

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Medical School Secondary Applications: Research

Some secondary questions focus specifically on research or scholarly activities:

Although research is not a pre-requisite requirement for the University Program, if you have participated in a scholarly project please tell us about it. Describe your experience, including the question you pursued and how you approached it, your results and interpretation of the results, and most importantly, any thoughts about what this experience meant to you. Remember that research is broad-based and can include such projects as a senior capstone or a thesis and can include both medical and non medically-related investigations.

Don’t panic if you have not published in Nature or performed amazing bench research. “Research” is a broad term and can include investigations in public health, health policy, and international health. You can even include non-medically oriented research.

Exhausted? Overwhelmed with secondaries? E-mail info@MDadmit.com to put a Harvard/Stanford MD and medical school admissions insider to work for you!

Check out www.MDadmit.com for more information.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Medical School Secondary Applications: Most Important Activity

Many secondary applications ask you to highlight one particular experience listed on the AMCAS. They often want to hear about clinical exposure. Examples of most important activity questions include:

From among the activities and experiences listed in your AMCAS application, please select one activity or experience that has most impacted your decision to undertake a career in health care. Please describe your role in the activity/experience and how this activity helped you make the decision to apply to medical school.

Though it may feel repetitive, you will often be describing activities already listed in the application. This is a chance to explain these activities more fully and highlight those most important to you. Focus on experiences that show dedication, leadership, or unique skills.

Overwhelmed by secondary applications? E-mail info@MDadmit.com to put a Harvard/Stanford MD, published author, and expert editor to work for you!

Check out www.MDadmit.com for more information.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Medical School Secondary Applications: Personal Challenge

Medicine is a challenging profession. Admission committees want to ensure you know how to meet challenges and handle ethical dilemmas. For example:

Please describe an experience or situation that you found personally challenging and discuss how it helped to shape you as a person. You may discuss a moral or ethical dilemma, situation of personal adversity, or other life-event you believe to have been important in your personal development.

Everyone has overcome a challenge. It is not acceptable to state that your life has been peachy keen and nothing has ever gone wrong. In others words, you can’t leave this one blank. You can provide an answer from any area of your life – personal, professional, extracurricular, etc. The key is to show how you came to a decision during a challenging situation and what you learned from it.

Don’t know where to start with secondaries? E-mail info@MDadmit.com to put a Harvard/Stanford MD, published author, and expert editor to work for you!

Check out www.MDadmit.com for more information.