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Why Us Medical School Essay Example with Writing Tips

Our team of editors have put together a step by step process on how to approach the most common secondary essays . Below is a why us medical school essay example along with the steps to take when writing an effective “why us” response. 

Writing Tips for the “Why Us” Essay

Why Us Essay Example Prompts 

Why Us Medical School Essay Example

Introduction .

While one of the most common medical school secondary prompts, it is also one of the most important. This is your opportunity to convince admissions committees at the med schools of which you applied how or why your values align with theirs . As you can imagine, a well-written essay can potentially influence admissions committees to accept an applicant while a poorly written essay may persuade the reader otherwise. Here are a few tips in order to meticulously demonstrate your medical school candidacy:

Tip #1 Answer the Why Us Prompt

Not all “Why Our School” secondary prompts are created equal. Some prompts will ask how you will contribute to their school while others ask about qualities you have that would further their medical school’s mission. Similarly, while you may have prepared a response for the “Why Our School” question for another school, you must tailor it to what the school is asking specifically . If you do not do so, the school does not have answers to the question they are explicitly asking. Remember, they are asking the question for a specific reason! Also, a general response may lead admissions committees to assume you have one response you use for “Why Our School” secondary essays, forcing them to believe you are not as interested or knowledgeable about their med school.  

Tip #2 Do Your Research and Brainstorming

It is one thing to know what interests you about this school but another to pinpoint the specifics of the school that make it unique . Doing so can show your genuine interest in that school and that you have correspondingly done your research. You may use their website but do some deep digging as well – use YouTube videos, alumni or medical student outreach, or research the geographic location/community for aspects that interest you. Consider the following questions when doing your own search:

• What aspects are important to you when considering a medical school?
• Is there a particular learning structure or curriculum that benefits your learning style? If so, why?
• Is this school near home or family? You might articulate how or why this is important to you and your future medical education.
• What unique aspects interest you about this school? Why?
• Why do you perceive an education at this school would be best for your training? 

Tip #3 Be Specific 

Commonly, students fall into the pitfall of discussing  how the mission statement resonates with them . If the mission statement does, in fact, resonate with you, be sure to discuss why as well as show evidence or examples for how this is true . Often, it is important to be specific about what interests you about the school to demonstrate your enthusiasm and interest. Doing so will increase your likelihood of acceptance as admissions committees are interested in accepting students knowledgeable about the school and willing to represent their school enthusiastically. Is there a club or aspect of the curriculum that interests you? Talk about it! 

Tip #4 Reference Aspects of The Medical School (but do not tell them about their own institution!)

There is certainly a difference between the following:

School X values underserved populations and commitment to community health.

Of particular interest, School X emphasizes underserved communities which has been a passion of mine, evidenced by my involvement in Healthcare for the Homeless.

As you can see, this latter example emphasizes what interests the student about the school while avoiding outright telling the admissions committee a fact about their school.

Takeaways Surrounding the “Why Our School” Medical School Secondary Prompt

Therefore, like any other written aspect of your application, it is important to demonstrate additional details about you as a candidate to paint a vivid picture of who you are. As a result, it is essential to marry what interests you about the school and your own personal qualities or characteristics as opposed to solely discussing one or the other. Here, we want to strive to have the best of both worlds. Be honest and genuine – this is the key. Allowing the reader insight into who you are will give them more information to make a decision about your candidacy for acceptance into medical school. 

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“Why Us” Secondary Essay Example Prompts

Example 1: “Why have you selected the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for your medical education? Please be as specific as possible.” ( Miami Miller School of Medicine )

Example 2: “Why do you wish to attend Meharry Medical College, School of Medicine?” ( Meharry Medical College )

Example 3: “If you are not a Kansas resident, what is your specific interest in applying to the University of Kansas School of Medicine?” ( KU School of Medicine )

Example 4: “In 500 words or fewer, please explain your reasons for applying to the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine. Please be specific.” ( Jacobs School of Medicine )

Example 5: “Why have you chosen to apply to the Georgetown University School of Medicine and how do you think your education at Georgetown will prepare you to become a physician for the future? (1 page, formatted at your discretion)” ( Georgetown University School of Medicine )

Example 6: “ How will you contribute to the diversity of your medical school class and the University of Virginia School of Medicine?” (Virginia School of Medicine)

Example 7:  “Why have you chosen to apply to CNUCOM? (250 words maximum)” ( California Northstate University )

Example 8: “Please write a s hort essay about why you are applying to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.” ( Pritzker School of Medicine )

When I signed up for the trip, I never imagined that I would hold a human heart in my hands. My high school field trip to the Hackensack University Medical Center in 2013 was a unique experience to tour different departments in the hospital and ultimately learn about medicine. After setting foot in one of the best hospitals in the New Jersey / New York Metropolitan area, I knew this one-day visit was not enough, and I longed to continue learning here. Six years later, I found myself without a job after the scribe program was closed at Englewood Health by the end of August 2019. However, it was this initial disappointment that led to me finding my current job at Hackensack University Medical Center and returning to an excellent learning environment. By working as a scribe at Hackensack University Medical Center and rotating in the surgical ICU and surgical step-down unit, I was able to work with and learn from top-ranked physicians such as Dr. Sanjeev Kaul, Dr. Javier Martin Perez, and Dr. Saraswati Dayal. What draws me to the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine is the opportunity to learn at some of the best hospitals serving northern, central, and southern New Jersey and from one of the most diverse populations in the nation. By beginning my medical education through Hackensack Meridian Health, the largest healthcare network of the state, and being exposed to an extraordinary range of patients, disorders, and challenges, I believe I can develop the ability to serve and provide high-quality care to patients from different backgrounds and with a variety of needs.

In addition to the excellent clinical opportunities, I am also interested in the unique curriculum of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. During high school, I developed an interest in preventive health and became more mindful of aspects such as nutrition, posture, sleep hygiene, and physical activity. I want to train to be a physician who can effectively educate others to also take control of their own health. For this reason, I am especially interested in the Human Dimension course. Through building relationships and interacting with families in the community, I will better understand the social, socioeconomic, and environmental determinants of health and ultimately learn how to proactively improve others’ lives.  I am also excited about the special 3+1 curriculum that will enable me to customize my fourth year with many possibilities, including research projects, additional clinical experience, early entry into residencies, community service initiatives, and several dual-degree options. Additionally, the smaller class size will cultivate a close-knit community and enhance my learning experience and training overall. I am fortunate that the school is only a 20-minute drive from home, which would enable me to remain close to my support network and thrive in a familiar environment while attending medical school.

Through this response, the student ties in personal experiences and interests initially within not only Hackensack University but the location. Needless to say, the student does not just include the experience or facts about the school without also making it personal to their journey. The student then progresses to discuss specific elements of the curriculum and class size as well as why it interests them. Therefore, from this response, it is immensely clear why this student is applying to this school specifically as well as what unique aspects interest them about this school.

View more Medical School “Why Us” Examples Here.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, examples of 'why this medical school' essays.

I've started to prepare for college applications, and I'm feeling a bit stressed about writing essays for medical school applications. Can anyone share some examples or tips for the 'Why this medical school' essay? It would really help me out, thanks!

It's important to remember that the 'Why this medical school' essay should focus on the specific aspects that make a medical school unique and how they align with your interests, experiences, and goals. Instead of providing an example, I'll give you some helpful tips on how to write an effective 'Why this medical school' essay:

1. Research the medical school: Begin by researching the medical school's mission statement, curriculum, teaching methods, faculty, research opportunities, and clinical experiences. Identify the aspects that resonate with you and take note of any unique offerings that you feel drawn to.

2. Reflect on your experiences and goals: Consider how your background, experiences, and career goals connect to the medical school's offerings and values. What aspects of your life have prepared you for this school, and how do they align with the institution's focus?

3. Be specific: In your essay, specifically mention the programs, initiatives, or opportunities at the medical school that match your interests and goals. This shows that you've done your research and are genuinely interested in attending that particular institution. Avoid general statements or clichés that could apply to any medical school.

4. Make it personal: Share personal anecdotes or experiences that demonstrate why you're a good fit for the medical school and how attending will help you achieve your goals. This makes your essay more engaging and helps the reader understand why the school is the right choice for you.

5. Explain the impact: Discuss how you plan to make the most of the opportunities the medical school offers and the impact you hope to have on the school, your peers, and the community during and after your time there.

6. Be concise and focused: Keep in mind that your essay should be focused and not exceed the word limit or page limit set by the medical school. Offer a clear, succinct explanation of why you're drawn to the institution and convey your enthusiasm throughout the essay.

By incorporating these tips, you'll be better equipped to write a strong 'Why this medical school' essay that makes a compelling case for both why you're interested in the school and why you're an ideal candidate for their program. Good luck with your applications!

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Best Ways to Answer the “Why Our Medical School?” Essay

Many students apply to 30+ medical schools in order to play the numbers game, and this fact is no secret to the medical schools themselves.

The medical schools aren’t stupid; they know they’re not your only choice. But it’s your job to convince them that they’re the best choice for you, which hopefully has a reciprocal effect.

With about 47% of medical schools asking the “Why Our Medical School?” essay question, you’ll want to make this essay a focal point in your secondary writing.

This article will help you better conceptualize this popular medical school secondary essay prompt and complete them in both an efficient and compelling way!

What are Some Other Ways of Asking the “Why Our Medical School?” Essay Prompt

Sometimes it’s useful to reframe the question in new ways to help you determine what to address in your answer:

How do you align with the school’s mission and values?

What opportunities or programs would you take advantage of at the school?

How does the school help to bridge your past and your future?

What makes the school a uniquely good fit for you?

What makes the school stand out from others, and why does that appeal to you?

Some Examples of “Why Our Medical School?” Essay Prompts from Medical Schools

You can find all school-specific secondaries through our Savvy Pre-Med School Search Tool !

• “Given the distinctive educational philosophy and integrated curriculum at FSM, describe how your personal characteristics and learning style would fit the institution.” (200 words) - Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine
• “Please write a short essay about why you are applying to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.” - Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
• “What makes LLUSM particularly attractive to you?” (275 words) - Loma Linda University School of Medicine
• “Throughout your application you have given us a sense of how you intend to contribute to the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix. We would now like to know about how you anticipate the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix will contribute to your goals and passion for medicine. What aspects of our program and community appeals most to you, and how do you plan to make use of specific resources and opportunities here?” (1000 characters) - UA College of Medicine – Phoenix
• “When considering medical schools, what criteria are important to you and how does TUCOM align with those criteria?” (500 words) - Touro University California College of Osteopathic Medicine
• “Why have you selected the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for your medical education? Please be as specific as possible.” (500 words) - University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
• “If you are not a Kansas resident, what is your specific interest in applying to the University of Kansas School of Medicine?” (1,000 characters) - University of Kansas School of Medicine

What Should You Research for Your “Why Our Medical School?” Essays?

1. Mission Statements: The first place to start would be looking at the medical school’s mission statement. The mission statement usually reflects the values and ideologies that the medical school upholds.

2. Specific Opportunities: Go to the school’s website and find an extracurricular, a part of the curriculum, or a program/project that catches your eye and is unique to the medical school.

3. Location: You could also talk about how the location of the medical school suits your lifestyle well and is a great place to explore your other interests.

4. Faculty or Research Mentors: You could pick a faculty member whom you’d be excited to work with and how important of an opportunity that could be for you.

5. Service and Outreach Avenues: You could mention your interest in the outreach programs that the school is involved in and how these are important to your beliefs.

Want help expediting the research process for “Why Our Medical School?” Essays? Check out our comprehensive “Cheat Sheet” articles:

“Why Our Medical School?” - Cheat Sheet for the Top 25 MD Schools

“Why Our Medical School?” - Cheat Sheet for All California Medical Schools

“Why Our Medical School?” - Cheat Sheet for All Texas Medical Schools

How Different Applicants Can Approach the "Why Our Medical School?" Essay

The first applicant: intrigued by research in the field of oncology

• A family member has been affected by some form of cancer, and through interactions with medical/healthcare professionals they became particularly interested in the field. To return the favor by helping many more families, they proceeded to find universities and medical schools that are equally as passionate about the field as their applicants. 
• The applicant pursued a lot of extracurriculars and volunteer opportunities in their undergraduate years that allowed them to get much more emotionally attached to the field of medicine, specifically oncology. This motivated/compelled them to apply to medical schools that have ample cancer research and renowned cancer centers with the hope of graduating and working in the field as an oncologist.

The second applicant: interested in the study of health and the delivery of health in rural environments

• The applicant incorporated a personal story about how their passions came about and emphasized their observed healthcare disparities in rural areas and how they wanted to do their part to improve accessibility and deliver care to people living in rural environments and bridge the gaps existing in healthcare.
• The applicant explained how they will advantage of the opportunities offered by the medical schools and what they plan to do to fulfill their goals and satisfy their  interests. For example, they emphasized how  entering said medical school will let them take advantage of the Rural Health and Health Disparities course offered by the school and how they plan on taking their learning and understanding to the next level, while also emphasizing what motivated them to pursue this goal in particular and providing examples.

Best Ways to Write a “Why Our Medical School?” Essay Template 

Writing 30 completely original secondaries is a scary thought. To save yourself time, focus on writing great essays for top-priority medical schools, and then use these as templates for all the other secondaries.

Before diving into your prioritized schools, you should definitely check out HOW TO ANSWER “WHY OUR SCHOOL” ESSAYS .

Then use your best answers as formulas for quickly completing the less desired medical schools on your list. The goal will be to create a template that doesn’t look like a template. Try to reuse the material you share about yourself, so that all you have to do is swap in new information about the individual programs.

Let’s say you have 1000 characters. Here’s how you might handle the initial challenge:

Due to my passion for oncology research, I appreciate BLANK MEDICAL SCHOOL’s (BMS) Exploratory Program, which allows new students to incorporate personal benchside pursuits into their curriculum. Under the guidance of Dr. Dream in the Wonderful Lab, I can build off my previous cancer studies while also volunteering in my future specialty of pediatric oncology at BMS Children’s Hospital. After witnessing the dire needs of the poor and homeless at free clinics in college, I would feel honored to work at BMS’s Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured. Many of my experiences have been with terminal patients or in end-of-life care, so I am thrilled at the chance to have a more direct impact through acute, immediate treatments. As an eager, hands-on learner, I value BMS’s early clinical exposure and Specialist Mentoring in the first two years. BMS will allow me to apply my growing expertise toward a new community in need, while also giving me novel opportunities that can hone my future practice. (995 characters)

How to Reuse Your “Why Our Medical School?” Essay Template

In a longer essay, 2-3 sentences can be added to show your personal ties to the location, your relation to alumni, or your interest in continuing an important non-medical activity they offer that matches your background, personality, or prior experiences.

Let’s say you’re writing for a school with a longer limit, maybe 1500 characters. Here’s how you could use your previous answer as a secondaries template :

Due to my passion for oncology research, I appreciate TOKEN MEDICAL SCHOOL’s (TMS) Cancer Center, which houses breakthrough studies in T-cell isolation and customized vaccines. Under the guidance of Dr. Smart in the Brainiac Lab, I can build off my previous cancer studies while also volunteering in my future specialty of pediatric oncology at TMS Youth Hospital. After witnessing the dire needs of the poor and homeless at free clinics in college, I would feel honored to work at TMS’s Student-Run Clinic for the Underserved. Many of my experiences have been with terminal patients or in end-of-life care, so I am thrilled at the chance to have a more direct impact through acute, immediate treatments.

As an eager, hands-on learner, I value TMS’s early clinical exposure and Equal Partner Teaching during the first two years . TMS is located in Tokenville, a community near my hometown, and I would be honored to return there and serve the populations who helped raise me. Being near extended family will provide a great support system for me while adjusting to the rigors of medical school. Since I have always used my athletic hobbies to destress and stay sharp, I am excited to partake in the TMS Fitness Club during my rare free time. TMS will allow me to apply my growing expertise toward a familiar community in need, while also giving me novel opportunities that can hone my future practice. (1398 characters)

Always think about what you can reuse across schools to make the overall application process easier. If you utilize a secondary template, then the only real burden is doing research for each school and making a list of what to include about them in your essays.

For more guidance, check out our 5 TIME-SAVING STRATEGIES FOR WRITING MEDICAL SCHOOL SECONDARY ESSAYS .

We hope this guide has been helpful!

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School-Specific Med Secondary Essay Tips

Explore the tips below to learn how to compose a medical school secondary essay that not only explains why you want to go to med school, but that clearly indicates why your chosen program is perfect for you…and why you are perfect for it as well.

For one-on-one guidance on your med school secondaries, check out our  Medical School Essay Services .

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Why this Medical School? Secondary Essay Example

• Cracking Med School Admissions Team

Medical schools want to recruit students who embody their institution’s values and would quickly thrive once accepted. One way to prove that you fit this criterion is by writing an outstanding “why this medical school” secondary essay. This prompt asks you to explain why you are applying to a specific medical school and how you would take advantage of unique opportunities at that school. Alternatively, you can think of this prompt as asking you “why would you attend our school over others if we accepted you?” Or, you can think about this prompt asking, “Why would you be a great fit for our medical school over the thousands of other applicants applying?” Need help? Contact us down below. 

This “Why This Medical School?” blog post covers:

• How to answer why this medical school essay prompt, and how to answer it well
• Process of researching different medical schools

Why this medical school secondary essay example

• Essay analysis and success tips

Recognizing the “why this medical school” secondary essay

The “why this medical school” secondary essay can take many forms.

For example, consider the following secondary prompts, which can all be approached as a “why us” secondary:

• Stanford School of Medicine: How will you take advantage of the Stanford Medicine Discovery Curriculum and scholarly concentration requirement to achieve your personal career goals? (1000 characters)
• University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine: Please explain your reasons for applying to the Perelman School of Medicine and limit your response to 1,000 characters.
• Weill Cornell Medical College: Please write a brief statement giving your reasons for applying to Weill Cornell Medical College. (200 words)
• Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine: Given the distinctive educational philosophy and integrated curriculum at FSM, describe how your personal characteristics and learning style would fit the institution. (Limit your response to 200 words)
• University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine: Please write a short essay about why you are applying to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.

Even an open-ended “is there anything else you would like us to know” prompt could be used to write a “why do you want to go to this medical school” secondary essay! 

Getting started: do your research for each medical school

Questions to consider for each medical school:.

• Are there any programs or organizations unique to that school which you are interested in?
• Are there any faculty members with whom you hope to do research?
• How is the curriculum set up? How many years are pre-clinical versus clinical on clerkships? Is there early clinical exposure? Integration of research into the curriculum?
• Are there any electives or classes you may be interested in? Dual-degree options?
• How is the mentorship for medical students from faculty and the administration?
• What is the “culture” of the school and its student body? Are students known to be involved with research? Social justice? Community service?
• Do you have any personal connections to the school/area?

Where to look:

• Cracking Med School Admissions Pro Tip: Go deep into the school’s website. You should learn about the curriculum, but if there are any specific fields within medicine that you are interested in, look for professors and research opportunities in that field. Additionally, many medical schools are interdisciplinary. If you are interested in public health, then research the Public Health school for that university and other public health opportunities.
• Cracking Med School Admissions Pro Tip: Email faculty members who you have mutual interests with. When you email them, tell them about your previous experiences and why you are interested in their work.

Let’s take a look at a why this medical school secondary essay example for the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Prompt: Please write a short essay about why you are applying to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.

A resident at our homeless shelter frequently spent nights studying while others slept. Concerned about his health, I asked about his sleeping schedule and how I could help. As I began assisting him with his classwork and professional goals during downtimes volunteering, I understood how, despite us both attending [SCHOOL], our life circumstances were worlds apart. To him, professional success was an escape and intense academic devotion was a way to avoid previously harmful habits. And unlike him, I never had to prioritize my livelihood over academics or extracurriculars like many others had at our shelter. Yet we also had much in common despite our differing circumstances. I recall many late-night conversations with him with topics ranging from healthcare and medicine to intense debates about our favorite NBA players.

Shaped by my experiences with these students, my values compel me to shape healthcare policies and conduct research to address problems that broadly affect others. At Pritzker, I will continue researching disease treatment and health policy through the Scholarship & Discovery program, learning from innovators like Dr. David Meltzer. His work about the cost effectiveness of prostate cancer treatments highlights waste in healthcare costs; my own research about shared decision making in prostate cancer patients also inspired me to expose these issues with research and encourage policy changes.

I am particularly interested in how changes in disease treatment inform wider care guidelines. Heading a trial that investigates early sepsis resuscitation, I appreciate how complexities in treating illness are intertwined with policy as standards of care and health policies have immediate impacts on patients and physicians. And when larger policies are misaligned with these individual needs, I believe it is my responsibility to correct them and bridge the gap. An institution which values medical student inquiry, Pritzker will provide me unique opportunities to disseminate my research through its Senior Scientific Session and numerous fellowships to fund presentations at national conferences. My teaching background will help me convey research results in context and connect them to policy implications and drive action from stakeholders.

Pritzker’s unique organizations also reflect the student body’s passion for helping the underserved, mirroring my own values as I aspire to create new programs for these patients. In the student shelter, I revamped our food training to account for variations in volunteers’ cooking experience to feed 10 homeless students. Hearing positive feedback from residents reaffirmed how my ideas could be translated into impactful practices by leading a group toward a shared mission. At Pritzker, I will continue working with underserved populations through student organizations like Chicago Street Medicine. Their work delivering healthcare to homeless patients particularly interests me as I have seen the unique challenges faced by this population in volunteering with homeless students. I want to continue exploring these issues and develop my leadership skills in Chicago Street Medicine. Student organizations at Pritzker will uniquely supplement my medical training with early, hands-on experience caring for these patients and applying my growing medical knowledge to benefit others.

Opportunities to conduct clinical/policy research with faculty leaders and unique student organizations align with my values, motivating me to pursue my medical training at Pritzker.”

Why this medical school secondary essay example: analysis and tips for success

#1. mention specific programs and organizations at the school.

One thing this essay does well is its specific inclusion of different programs and organizations at Pritzker. For example, the writer mentions the “Scholarship & Discovery program,” “Senior Scientific Session” event, and a student organization (“Chicago Street Medicine”) to substantiate their interests. This shows your reader that you have done your research on the school and will be able to take readily take advantage of any opportunities once you are accepted. It will always reflect well on you to do your research and “show off” your understanding of the program.

#2. Talk about faculty members you want to work with

Notice that the writer specifically mentions a faculty member by name, “Dr. David Meltzer,” and talks about why they find their research interesting as well as its relation to the writer’s own research goals. Once again, this shows your reader that you have done your research and that you are someone who takes the initiative to get the most out of opportunities. Think about mentioning specific faculty members, in addition to including specific programs and organizations, as analogous to “citations” in a research paper—they substantiate and strengthen your claims for “why this school.”

#3. Connect the school to your background and experiences

One mistake students frequently make in writing a “why this medical school” secondary essay is that they talk too much about the school without focusing on themselves. Remember, at the end of the day your reader still wants to know about you . Explicitly connect your former background and experiences to the different opportunities at the school and convince your reader that you would be a good fit. In this case, the writer connects their prior experiences working with homeless students and clinical research about disease treatment to service-oriented organizations at Pritzker (e.g. Chicago Street Medicine) and research opportunities (funded fellowships, specific programs/faculty). Seamlessly connecting your background/experiences with the school is an excellent strategy!

#4.Tell stories

As with any secondary, it is extremely important to give anecdotes that naturally lead readers to a conclusion rather than stating the conclusion outright. In this case, the writer talks about their experiences with a specific resident at a homeless shelter they volunteered with. This allows reader to infer that the writer easily connects with individuals from different backgrounds, a conclusion that is more convincing when conveyed through a story rather than stated outright. Imagine if the writer had written “I am someone that easily connects with students from different backgrounds as shown by my previous experience working with homeless students.” This is far less convincing than telling a story.

#5. Dream big

Finally, this essay effectively showcases the writer’s ambitions numerous times throughout. Whether it is “to shape healthcare policies” by conducting research to “bridge the gap” between individuals and policies or “create new programs” for “underserved populations,” the writer strikes you as an individual with a clear idea of what they hope to accomplish in medical school and how they will specifically do so. Don’t be afraid to convey your ambitions and relate them to the school!

FREE Medical School Secondary Essay Examples and Brainstorm Tool [PLACEHOLDER]

Use this workbook to write STELLAR AMCAS descriptions. This section is as important as your personal statement.

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More Excellent Secondary Essay Examples

While reading about how to write a secondary essay for medical school makes doing so seem easy, it is much harder to put this into practice. As such, we have compiled a list of personal statements and secondary essays. Each one of these essays were written by premeds who successfully got accepted to medical schools across the United States. We think these essays demonstrate successful models.

The best resource for example secondary essays is our Cracking Med School Admissions book! We have over 50 personal statements and secondary essay from successful medical school applicants, including essays from our authors! 🙂

Blog post written by Kevin Li and Dr. Rachel Rizal

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How to Answer the “Why Us?” Medical School Interview Question

• By Med School Insiders
• August 22, 2022

While no medical school interview will be completely the same, there are a few questions you are guaranteed to be asked. The medical school interview “Why us?” question is one of them. You may think this is one of the easier questions to answer; after all, you know why you want to attend the program, right? But beware of this question’s deceptive simplicity; a surface-level or vague response can sink your interview.

This question is an opportunity for you to demonstrate to your interviewer how enthusiastic you are about joining their medical school. You know all that the school has to offer you, and what’s more, you know how much you have to offer it. In this post, we’ll break down how to prepare the best possible answer to the common “Why us?” interview question.

The Medical School Interview Process

After taking MCAT , submitting your primary application (which includes your personal statement , letters of recommendation , Work and Activities , etc.,) and submitting your secondary applications , the final step to medical school acceptance is medical school interviews.

Depending on how early you submit your application(s), you may receive an interview invite as early as August. However, most schools won’t send out invitations until September. While they can show up as early as the summer, invitations will continue to arrive throughout the fall and winter, concluding in the spring of the following year, typically around April or May.

It is also important to note that the final deadline for applications and secondary materials is not the timeline you should follow. It is vital to your success that you apply as soon as applications open. Applying early is one of the most critical medical school admission strategies.

For more information about ideal scheduling, read our Medical School Application Timeline Guide .

Between the fall of the year you submit your application materials and the spring of the following year, you will (hopefully!) receive several emails inviting you to interview at the schools you applied to. Typically, these emails include a selection of dates to choose from.

It is absolutely vital to respond to your interview invitations as soon as possible, as the available dates will fill up fast. Rolling admissions means schools only offer spots while they’re available—you are actively lowering your chances of acceptance the longer you wait to schedule your interviews.

While you shouldn’t procrastinate, it is important to be strategic about how you schedule your interviews . Do not, for example, schedule your top choice schools before you’ve had a chance to practice. Interviewing at your lower priority schools first gives you a few opportunities to hone your interview skills before you dive into the interviews you care about most.

It doesn’t matter if you scored a perfect 528 on the MCAT or have an otherwise flawless application; if you give a poor interview, it will squander your chance of acceptance. You must prepare for your interviews throughout the entire application process.**

Read our comprehensive Medical School Interview Guide for a complete overview of common interview questions, preparation advice, and mistakes to avoid.

The Purpose of the Medical School Interview “Why Us?” Question

Medical schools ask the “Why us?” question to evaluate an applicant’s genuine interest in joining their program. Admissions committees do not want to accept someone if that person isn’t wholeheartedly enthusiastic about their school. Interviewers will pay close attention to how you respond to this question, as they only want to accept applicants who they believe will enrich the student body and make an effective and worthwhile contribution to the program.

If your response is vague or could be applied to any medical school, the interviewer will certainly take note. Repeating the school’s mission statement or saying you love the city will not wow them in any way—it will only show that you haven’t put proper thought into your decision or consider them to be a backup school. If you give the interviewer the impression that their program is a backup option for you, you can kiss your chance of acceptance to that program goodbye.

While it may seem like this is a generic or simple-to-answer question, it is anything but. Interviewers are looking for the nitty-gritty details. They want to see that you’ve put a great deal of thought into this decision and have determined through ample research that their program is the best fit for you, and you’re the best fit for it.

How to Answer the “Why Us?” Question

1 | Complete Plenty of Research for Each School

You can’t give an effective answer to the “Why us?” question without first completing plenty of research. You must deeply research each program you’re interviewing for. The more important the program is to you or the more competitive it is, the more time you need to spend researching it.

This question is evaluating how intimately you’re familiar with the program. The interviewer wants details. Why is this school the best fit for you specifically? You can’t answer this question effectively without thoroughly understanding the school’s values and all the program has to offer.

Dig deeper than the kind of surface-level information you can find from the school’s brochure and website pages. Ask former students about their campus experience, check online message boards, and, if you’re able to, visit the campus yourself to get a feel for it. Speak to the students there. How well do you get along with them? Where can you imagine yourself studying? Which professor are you most excited to learn from?

The more you know, the more you can use. Demonstrate your enthusiasm for the program by leaving no stone unturned. Wow your interviewer with the breadth and comprehensiveness of your knowledge.

2 | Avoid Generalizations They’ve Heard Before—Be Specific

Your interviewer is quite familiar with their program’s mission statement as well as the values of the school they’re representing. If you want to impress them, you’re going to have to dig deep and apply the school’s values and mission statement to your own life.

How have you lived up to the program’s values in your personal and professional life? Find a way to tie the school’s values to your own by using specific examples from your past. When have you lived those values? Has your dedication to those values affected your relationships, for better or worse? What actions have your values inspired you to take? How much adversity have you faced for your unflinching integrity and commitment to the values you (and the school) believe in?

Why are you excited to join the program? What strengths does it have over other schools? What’s unique about their offerings? What haven’t you found anywhere else? Which professor are you most excited to study under?

Blend the strengths, values, and focus of the program with your own to demonstrate how you’re a great fit. Why do you specifically belong there based on your past experiences, personal and professional strengths, and future goals?

3 | Practice Hitting Key Points Rather Than Memorizing

Answering this question, as with any common interview question, is a bit of a balancing act. You must complete plenty of research and commit the program’s values and offerings to memory, but your answer can’t seem forced or overly rehearsed. The interviewer wants to see your genuine enthusiasm; they’re not evaluating your ability to write and memorize a script.

As you practice your answer, do not memorize it completely. If the interviewer asks a quick follow-up question or phrases it in a way you haven’t planned for, you’ll get tripped up. If you forget your next line or lose your place, you’ll have trouble recovering. You’ll seem more like a malfunctioning robot than an enthusiastic, professional, and determined future doctor.

Instead of memorizing your answer, practice hitting key points. What points do you absolutely want to get across? What do you need the interviewer to know? How can you hit these points organically?

Remember: you want to attend this program. What genuinely excites you about it?

You may not get this exact question, so be prepared to rework your answer on the spot. You might be asked something like:

• Why do you want to attend our school over the other schools you applied to?
• What made you apply to our program?
• What values do you believe you share with our school?

Having key points in mind rather than a memorized script will help you evolve your answer on the fly to suit how the question is worded and how the rest of the interview has gone so far.

As you practice answering interview questions, try different versions of a similar answer to get more comfortable adapting your response.

Practice With Mock Interviews

Mock interviews provide an opportunity to put your interview skills to the test in an environment and format that simulates interview day. Med School Insiders offers mock interviews with former interviewers who will provide you with direct, insightful feedback on your performance.

We also offer a comprehensive course on How to Ace the Medical School Interview that gives thorough and thoughtful training that covers the entire interview process. We’ve painstakingly covered everything you need to know, from your packing checklist to thank you notes to body language to example answers, and much more.

Med School Insiders

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How To: Master the Med School Secondary Essay (with examples) 2023

After you submit your primary applications , medical schools will ask you to submit secondary applications (most automatically) the majority of which require you to write secondary essays of varying lengths.

The essay prompts should serve as clues to the culture of the medical school and indicate what kind of information is important for them to know about applicants. As you research each school to apply to, begin to make notes about what draws you to that school so you can use these thoughts in your secondary essays.

You can prepare for these in advance by organizing notes in these areas: my accomplishments, obstacles I have overcome, challenges I have had and how I’ve handled these, why I want to attend this school, what kind of physician I want to be, what activities I’ve been most intimately involved with and what have I learned.

Secondary Essay Basic Guidelines

• Write essays for your top choice and target schools first! You are likely to be overwhelmed by the tidal wave of secondary applications you will receive so don’t make the mistake of completing, for example, all of your reach schools first!
• Do not rush your work. Unless a medical school specifies a return date, there is no “deadline” to complete your essays. Complete all of your essays, if possible by August 1st or by Labor Day at the latest.
• Answer the essay prompts carefully. The biggest mistake students make is trying to squeeze a prewritten essay for an inappropriate prompt.
• Some prompts will force you to repeat information that is in your primary application. This is okay!
• Don’t feel that every topic you write about should be momentous. Sometimes writing about more personal details of your life can offer more insight into your values, ideals, and life decisions.

Most Common Essay Prompts

Several common secondary essay topics that are listed below.

Greatest Challenge/Failure/Adversity Essay

Essays that ask about personal challenges, failures or adversities are seeking information about your ability to manage conflict and challenge. They also want to know how you cope with conflict and that you can be objective when things don’t go your way.

Medical schools want to know that you are level headed, and that you won’t crumble when feeling vulnerable or faced with less than ideal situations. Students often immediately gravitate to academic or scholarly subjects for these essays, but, sometimes the most compelling topics are those that are personal. Why? These topics can often say much more about your character, values, ideals, and decision making. Ideally, you should also write about what you learned and how you grew or changed as a result of the challenge, failure, or adversity. 

Students also consider writing about red flags for this topic such as a class failure, poor MCAT exam or institutional action. Generally speaking, we find that these topics are usually less interesting and don’t offer enough information about who you are as a person.

Essay Example:

I had worked on my presentation for weeks. I knew it was so important, not only for me, but for my principal investigator (PI), that I present the work we had done succinctly and clearly since I would be speaking in front of the entire biochemistry department. Public speaking has never been a strength and I was very nervous. Before it was my time to speak, I could feel my heart racing and my palms sweating. When I got to the podium, I was literally unable to speak; I was shaking uncontrollably and had to sit down while my PI took over. It was the most humiliating experience of my life. I was able to calm down, and, rather than leaving the auditorium, I waited until the conference was over and apologized to my PI who was kind and forgiving. I then resolved to improve my public speaking skills. The the next day I signed up for a Toastmaster’s course and have taken every opportunity since this incident to speak in public. Although I still get nervous before I have to speak, I have learned to actually enjoy speaking in public.

I saw the Microsoft Word document on the screen of my roommate’s computer. It looked familiar. I realized that this essay my roommate had written on the works and life of Jane Austen contained the exact language I had seen elsewhere. Where had I seen it? Why was this so familiar? I also asked myself, “Do I have a right to be looking at  this document?”

Then it dawned on me. When my roommate got this assignment for her literature class, we discussed it with our housemates from down the hall.  One girl offered to give my roommate a paper she had written on this topic for an AP class in high school. She printed out the paper and gave it to me to give to my roommate. Curious about the topic, since I am a Jane Austen fan, I read it before handing it to my roommate. The document on the computer in front of me contained parts of this paper that were copied, verbatim.

The issues here were complicated. First of all, I was invading my roommate’s privacy. I should not have been looking at her computer even though we often shared our computers. But now that I was aware of what she had done, I felt an obligation to confront her.

That night, when my roommate returned home from studying, I first apologized for invading her privacy and explained that I had read the document on the screen. I then told her that I realized she had plagiarized and told her I thought this was wrong. She explained that she felt under tremendous pressure since she also had a big organic chemistry mid-term that week and it just seemed so easy to copy the paper even though she recognized it was not right to do so. With my urging, since she had not yet handed the paper in, she stayed up late into the night to compose an original essay and, in the end, she thanked me for noticing and for encouraging her to do the right thing. I realized that even confronting my roommate, which was uncomfortable and awkward for me, encouraged her to make a better choice and reinforced for me the importance of acting ethically even if these easier choice would have been to look away.

Diversity Essay

Medical schools have broadened their definitions of diversity and for essays like this you can write about your unique interests, talents, or experiences. Maybe you have a distinctive background, perspective, or outlook. Think outside the box when writing about diversity. Do you have a special hobby or accomplishment that sets you apart?

Or, you can also choose to write about your own experiences with diverse or minority populations to illustrate your cultural competence which most people think of as the more “traditional” approach to questions about diversity. We find that most applicants do not currently write about these more traditional topics. Sometimes it can be more impressive to write about topics that are more distinctive to you and your background.

I grew up in a diverse community even though my undergraduate college was quite homogeneous. During college, I sought out  experiences beyond campus to immerse myself in more diverse communities. I volunteered in a free clinic, tutored children in Africa, and traveled during my vacations, when possible. I gained insights into the challenges facing  others and how their backgrounds and experiences influenced their perspectives and attitudes. On a medical mission abroad the summer after my junior year, I worked in medical clinics helping to care for Mexican families, which helped me understand that such challenges and unfair inequalities in education and health care also exist internationally.

Through my experiences, I came to realize that all patients, regardless of their background, fare better when their unique circumstances, cultures, and outlooks are considered. To improve my ability to communicate with some of these populations, I minored in Spanish and became more proficient in  the language through my studies in Spain. I have learned the importance of listening and seeing situations through the eyes of those I help. Throughout such experiences, apart from realizing that I hope to work with these populations as a future physician, I was continually reminded of the pervasive societal inequalities and injustices both locally and internationally.

Another Example:

Whether playing a Beethoven or Brahms sonata, playing music has always been an outlet for me. Since the age of seven, I have emulated my mother, a professional cellist. In fact, even during college, my goal was to practice medicine while working as a professional pianist. While doing my premedical coursework and majoring in biology, I also minored in music and composed my own work. The year following college, while playing piano professionally, I realized this wasn’t what I wanted to pursue for my lifetime. However, my musical interests will always be more than a hobby and serve as my escape from the stresses of daily life.

Why XXXXX School Essay

Medical schools want to know that you have the qualities and characteristics they are seeking. Before writing these essays, read the medical school’s mission statement and review their student biographies (if offered) to get a sense of what the school values in applicants.

The key in writing “Why our School Essays” is to offer as many specifics as possible. You want to show you will take advantage of the medical school’s opportunities and that you will make valuable contributions as a medical student. Do this by showcasing how your interests and experiences are aligned with opportunities at the medical school, that you can benefit from what the medical school offers and that you will contribute to the medical school community.

Also, many students fail to look beyond the first and second year curriculums when writing about why there are interested in a medical school. What you do during your third and fourth years of medical school, in clinical settings, is just as important. Show that you understand this!

Example Essay:

My interest in geriatrics and emergency medicine evolved as I worked clinically in these two departments last summer. Through my coursework in health policy, I also learned of the imminent need for geriatric specialized physicians to support the aging baby boomer generation. Through your hospital’s renowned telemedicine and information technology departments, I would be offered the unique opportunity to explore this interest further. I would also take advantage of the medical school’s summer research program to participate in research projects related to geriatrics or  emergency medicine.

At the clinic where I worked, I gained first hand exposure to disease complications, which often were  caused by lack of access to primary care. My travels and work in India have shown me how common these issues also are internationally. Your unique medical school program would allow me to continue my active community participation during my first year, while providing care to diverse populations who lack access to care. This endeavor also could be augmented through participation in research and study in South America, so I could pursue my interest in global health while caring for other underserved communities and  improving my language skills.

Of supreme importance, the urban location and suburban hospitals affiliated with the medical school as well as the Level I trauma center would offer unparalleled exposure to novel academic and clinical opportunities. Apart from the school’s location in my favorite city of Great City, it is the superior curriculum, supportive medical educational environment, opportunity for community involvement, and team-oriented culture that would make your medical school a perfect fit for me.

What are you doing next year or what have you done since graduating from college?

Answer these questions in a straight forward fashion. Typically, medical schools require that only applicants who are not full-time students answer the question. In answering these questions, write about what you will be doing, but also include information about what you hope to learn and how this will prepare you for medical school.

For the upcoming academic year, I will continue my research on breast cancer at Outstanding Oncology Center, where I have been working for one year. Our findings last year have already provided evidence for the etiology of what receptor is involved in  the development of tiny cell cancer, and we hope to build on these findings to continue our work. I have already become proficient in using the literature to design experiments, and I hope that this year I will learn how to analyze our findings. My hope is that our findings will be significant enough to lead to a publication on which I would be an author.

I  will also shadow several doctors throughout the year to broaden my understanding of clinical medicine. Right now I have plans to shadow an internist, a surgeon, and an ophthalmologist.

My Saturday mornings will be spent volunteering at Inner City Clinic, where I will be promoted to the level of triage. I will be responsible for taking vital signs and basic intake histories on patients.

This year will be productive and, I hope, will provide the foundation I need to be an excellent medical student.

Secondary Essay Writing Tips

For each essay prompt you receive, pay attention to the character and word limits and use them as cues for how much information a medical school is seeking. A medical school that limits your responses to only 50 words, for example, is asking you for a simple, straightforward response. On the other hand, the school that allows 1,000 words per essay wants you to elaborate and go into some detail.

Secondary prompts vary, and I find that students can often recycle essays for multiple schools. But reading secondary prompts carefully is important. The most common mistake students make is providing a response that does not really address what is being asked. Even though writing secondary essays can get laborious, don’t try to make an essay you have already written “fit” for a prompt if it just doesn’t work. Remember, good secondary essays can help you earn a  medical school interview.

Sometimes, especially if your primary application is comprehensive, responding to a secondary essay may force you to repeat information that is already in your primary application. That not only is  okay but also suggests that you are in good shape; many schools determine prompts by identifying topics that applicants frequently leave out of primary applications.

I discourage  applicants from  writing a “one size  fits all document” for various secondary essay themes. Since the character/word limit for secondary essays is so variable (50 – 3,000 words) it would be a waste of time to write an essay before knowing specific character limits for each prompt. Having an idea of what you would write about for  each of the common themes is wise, however. Some schools’ secondary essay prompts do not vary from year to year, and you can often find these essay prompts and start working on them in advance. But, be warned, schools do change secondary essay prompts on occasion.

Above all, just as you did with your personal statement, write authentically and honestly and don’t try to spin your responses to tell admissions committees what you think they want to read. 

A couple of additional tips: 

• Never quote others; your essays should be about you!
• Optional secondary essays are truly optional. Don’t fill a space or recycle an essay unless you have a good reason to do so.
• Unless medical schools specify a secondary essay “due date,” there are no real turn around rules. Submit your essays when they are ready and ideally within two to three weeks after receiving the secondary application.

Secondary Essay Editing Services

MedEdits’ secondary essay review and editing services will ensure that your secondary essays address what is being asked by the prompt while ensuring you highlight what is necessary to distinguish your candidacy.

About MedEdits

MedEdits helps students get admitted to medical school and residency programs. Our consultants have years of experience serving on medical school admissions committees, and as faculty members at the top medical schools in the country.

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Secondary Essay Prompts By School

*Data collected from MSAR 2022-2023, 2022 Osteopathic Medical College Information Book, and institution website.

Disclaimer: The information on this page was shared by students and/or can be found on each medical school’s website. MedEdits does not guarantee it’s accuracy or authenticity.

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Medical School Personal Statement Examples That Got 6 Acceptances

Featured Admissions Expert: Dr. Monica Taneja, MD

These 30 exemplary medical school personal statement examples come from our students who enrolled in one of our application review programs. Most of these examples led to multiple acceptance for our students. For instance, the first example got our student accepted into SIX medical schools. Here's what you'll find in this article: We'll first go over 30 medical school personal statement samples, then we'll provide you a step-by-step guide for composing your own outstanding statement from scratch. If you follow this strategy, you're going to have a stellar statement whether you apply to the most competitive or the easiest medical schools to get into .

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

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Article Contents 36 min read

Stellar medical school personal statement examples that got multiple acceptances, medical school personal statement example #1.

I made my way to Hillary’s house after hearing about her alcoholic father’s incarceration. Seeing her tearfulness and at a loss for words, I took her hand and held it, hoping to make things more bearable. She squeezed back gently in reply, “thank you.” My silent gesture seemed to confer a soundless message of comfort, encouragement and support.

Through mentoring, I have developed meaningful relationships with individuals of all ages, including seven-year-old Hillary. Many of my mentees come from disadvantaged backgrounds; working with them has challenged me to become more understanding and compassionate. Although Hillary was not able to control her father’s alcoholism and I had no immediate solution to her problems, I felt truly fortunate to be able to comfort her with my presence. Though not always tangible, my small victories, such as the support I offered Hillary, hold great personal meaning. Similarly, medicine encompasses more than an understanding of tangible entities such as the science of disease and treatment—to be an excellent physician requires empathy, dedication, curiosity and love of problem solving. These are skills I have developed through my experiences both teaching and shadowing inspiring physicians.

Medicine encompasses more than hard science. My experience as a teaching assistant nurtured my passion for medicine; I found that helping students required more than knowledge of organic chemistry. Rather, I was only able to address their difficulties when I sought out their underlying fears and feelings. One student, Azra, struggled despite regularly attending office hours. She approached me, asking for help. As we worked together, I noticed that her frustration stemmed from how intimidated she was by problems. I helped her by listening to her as a fellow student and normalizing her struggles. “I remember doing badly on my first organic chem test, despite studying really hard,” I said to Azra while working on a problem. “Really? You’re a TA, shouldn’t you be perfect?” I looked up and explained that I had improved my grades through hard work. I could tell she instantly felt more hopeful, she said, “If you could do it, then I can too!” When she passed, receiving a B+;I felt as if I had passed too. That B+ meant so much: it was a tangible result of Azra’s hard work, but it was also symbol of our dedication to one another and the bond we forged working together.

My passion for teaching others and sharing knowledge emanates from my curiosity and love for learning. My shadowing experiences in particular have stimulated my curiosity and desire to learn more about the world around me. How does platelet rich plasma stimulate tissue growth? How does diabetes affect the proximal convoluted tubule? My questions never stopped. I wanted to know everything and it felt very satisfying to apply my knowledge to clinical problems.

Shadowing physicians further taught me that medicine not only fuels my curiosity; it also challenges my problem solving skills. I enjoy the connections found in medicine, how things learned in one area can aid in coming up with a solution in another. For instance, while shadowing Dr. Steel I was asked, “What causes varicose veins and what are the complications?” I thought to myself, what could it be? I knew that veins have valves and thought back to my shadowing experience with Dr. Smith in the operating room. She had amputated a patient’s foot due to ulcers obstructing the venous circulation. I replied, “veins have valves and valve problems could lead to ulcers.” Dr. Steel smiled, “you’re right, but it doesn’t end there!” Medicine is not disconnected; it is not about interventional cardiology or orthopedic surgery. In fact, medicine is intertwined and collaborative. The ability to gather knowledge from many specialties and put seemingly distinct concepts together to form a coherent picture truly attracts me to medicine.

It is hard to separate science from medicine; in fact, medicine is science. However, medicine is also about people—their feelings, struggles and concerns. Humans are not pre-programmed robots that all face the same problems. Humans deserve sensitive and understanding physicians. Humans deserve doctors who are infinitely curious, constantly questioning new advents in medicine. They deserve someone who loves the challenge of problem solving and coming up with innovative individualized solutions. I want to be that physician. I want to be able to approach each case as a unique entity and incorporate my strengths into providing personalized care for my patients. Until that time, I may be found Friday mornings in the operating room, peering over shoulders, dreaming about the day I get to hold the drill.

Let's take a step back to consider what this medical school personal statement example does, not just what it says. It begins with an engaging hook in the first paragraph and ends with a compelling conclusion. The introduction draws you in, making the essay almost impossible to put down, while the conclusion paints a picture of someone who is both passionate and dedicated to the profession. In between the introduction and conclusion, this student makes excellent use of personal narrative. The anecdotes chosen demonstrate this individual's response to the common question, " Why do you want to be a doctor ?" while simultaneously making them come across as compassionate, curious, and reflective. The essay articulates a number of key qualities and competencies, which go far beyond the common trope, I want to be a doctor because I want to help people.

This person is clearly a talented writer, but this was the result of several rounds of edits with one of our medical school admissions consulting team members and a lot of hard work on the student's part. If your essay is not quite there yet, or if you're just getting started, don't sweat it. Do take note that writing a good personal essay takes advanced planning and significant effort.

I was one of those kids who always wanted to be doctor. I didn’t understand the responsibilities and heartbreaks, the difficult decisions, and the years of study and training that go with the title, but I did understand that the person in the white coat stood for knowledge, professionalism, and compassion. As a child, visits to the pediatrician were important events. I’d attend to my hair and clothes, and travel to the appointment in anticipation. I loved the interaction with my doctor. I loved that whoever I was in the larger world, I could enter the safe space of the doctor’s office, and for a moment my concerns were heard and evaluated. I listened as my mother communicated with the doctor. I’d be asked questions, respectfully examined, treatments and options would be weighed, and we would be on our way. My mother had been supported in her efforts to raise a well child, and I’d had a meaningful interaction with an adult who cared for my body and development. I understood medicine as an act of service, which aligned with my values, and became a dream.

I was hospitalized for several months as a teenager and was inspired by the experience, despite the illness. In the time of diagnosis, treatment and recovery, I met truly sick children. Children who were much more ill than me. Children who wouldn’t recover. We shared a four-bed room, and we shared our medical stories. Because of the old hospital building, there was little privacy in our room, and we couldn’t help but listen-in during rounds, learning the medical details, becoming “experts” in our four distinct cases. I had more mobility than some of the patients, and when the medical team and family members were unavailable, I’d run simple errands for my roommates, liaise informally with staff, and attend to needs. To bring physical relief, a cold compress, a warmed blanket, a message to a nurse, filled me with such an intense joy and sense of purpose that I applied for a volunteer position at the hospital even before my release.

I have since been volunteering in emergency departments, out-patient clinics, and long term care facilities. While the depth of human suffering is at times shocking and the iterations of illness astounding, it is in the long-term care facility that I had the most meaningful experiences by virtue of my responsibilities and the nature of the patients’ illnesses. Charles was 55 when he died. He had early onset Parkinson’s Disease with dementia that revealed itself with a small tremor when he was in his late twenties. Charles had a wife and three daughters who visited regularly, but whom he didn’t often remember. Over four years as a volunteer, my role with the family was to fill in the spaces left by Charles’ periodic inability to project his voice as well as his growing cognitive lapses. I would tell the family of his activities between their visits, and I would remind him of their visits and their news. This was a hard experience for me. I watched as 3 daughters, around my own age, incrementally lost their father. I became angry, and then I grew even more determined.

In the summer of third year of my Health Sciences degree, I was chosen to participate in an undergraduate research fellowship in biomedical research at my university. As part of this experience, I worked alongside graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, medical students, physicians, and faculty in Alzheimer’s research into biomarkers that might predict future disease. We collaborated in teams, and by way of the principal investigator’s careful leadership, I learned wherever one falls in terms of rank, each contribution is vital to the outcome. None of the work is in isolation. For instance, I was closely mentored by Will, a graduate student who had been in my role the previous summer. He, in turn, collaborated with post docs and medical students, turning to faculty when roadblocks were met. While one person’s knowledge and skill may be deeper than another’s, individual efforts make up the whole. Working in this team, aside from developing research skills, I realized that practicing medicine is not an individual pursuit, but a collaborative commitment to excellence in scholarship and leadership, which all begins with mentorship.

Building on this experience with teamwork in the lab, I participated in a global health initiative in Nepal for four months, where I worked alongside nurses, doctors, and translators. I worked in mobile rural health camps that offered tuberculosis care, monitored the health and development of babies and children under 5, and tended to minor injuries. We worked 11-hour days helping hundreds of people in the 3 days we spent in each location. Patients would already be in line before we woke each morning. I spent each day recording basic demographic information, blood pressure, pulse, temperature, weight, height, as well as random blood sugar levels, for each patient, before they lined up to see a doctor. Each day was exhausting and satisfying. We helped so many people. But this satisfaction was quickly displaced by a developing understanding of issues in health equity.

My desire to be doctor as a young person was not misguided, but simply naïve. I’ve since learned the role of empathy and compassion through my experiences as a patient and volunteer. I’ve broadened my contextual understanding of medicine in the lab and in Nepal. My purpose hasn’t changed, but what has developed is my understanding that to be a physician is to help people live healthy, dignified lives by practicing both medicine and social justice.

28 More Medical School Personal Statement Examples That Got Accepted

What my sister went through pushed me to strengthen my knowledge in medical education, patient care, and research. These events have influenced who I am today and helped me determine my own passions. I aspire to be a doctor because I want to make miracles, like my sister, happen. Life is something to cherish; it would not be the same if I did not have one of my four sisters to spend it with. As all stories have endings, I hope that mine ends with me fulfilling my dream of being a doctor, which has been the sole focus of my life to this point. I would love nothing more than to dedicate myself to such a rewarding career, where I achieve what those doctors did for my family. Their expertise allowed my sister to get all the care she needed for her heart, eyes, lungs, and overall growth. Those physicians gave me more than just my little sister, they gave me the determination and focus needed to succeed in the medical field, and for that, I am forever grateful. ","label":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #3","title":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #3"}]" code="tab4" template="BlogArticle">

I came to America, leaving my parents and friends behind, to grasp my chance at a better future. I believe this chance is now in front of me. Medicine is the only path I truly desire because it satisfies my curiosity about the human body and it allows me to directly interact with patients. I do not want to miss this chance to further hone my skills and knowledge, in order to provide better care for my patients. ","label":"Medical School Personal Statement #4","title":"Medical School Personal Statement #4"}]" code="tab5" template="BlogArticle">

The time I have spent in various medical settings has confirmed my love for the field. Regardless of the environment, I am drawn to patients and their stories, like that scared young boy at AMC. I am aware that medicine is a constantly changing landscape; however, one thing that has remained steadfast over the years is putting the patient first, and I plan on doing this as a physician. All of my experiences have taught me a great deal about patient interaction and global health, however, I am left wanting more. I crave more knowledge to help patients and become more useful in the healthcare sector. I am certain medical school is the path that will help me reach my goal. One day, I hope to use my experiences to become an amazing doctor like the doctors that treated my sister, so I can help other children like her. ","label":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #5","title":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #5"}]" code="tab6" template="BlogArticle">

My interest in the field of medicine has developed overtime, with a common theme surrounding the importance of personal health and wellness. Through my journey in sports, travelling, and meeting some incredible individuals such as Michael, I have shifted my focus from thinking solely about the physical well-being, to understanding the importance of mental, spiritual, and social health as well. Being part of a profession that emphasizes continuous education, and application of knowledge to help people is very rewarding, and I will bring compassion, a hard work ethic and an attitude that is always focused on bettering patient outcomes. ","label":"Medical School Personal Statement Example # 7","title":"Medical School Personal Statement Example # 7"}]" code="tab8" template="BlogArticle">

Medicine embodies a hard science, but it is ultimately a profession that treats people. I have seen firsthand that medicine is not a \u201cone-treatment-fits-all\u201d practice, as an effective physician takes a holistic approach. This is the type of physician I aspire to be: one who refuses to shy away from the humanity of patients and their social context, and one who uses research and innovation to improve the human condition. So, when I rethink \u201cwhy medicine?\u201d, I know it\u2019s for me \u2013 because it is a holistic discipline, because it demands all of me, because I am ready to absorb the fascinating knowledge and science that dictates human life, and engage with humanity in a way no other profession allows for. Until the day that I dawn the coveted white coat, you can find me in inpatient units, comforting the many John\u2019s to come, or perhaps at the back of an operating room observing a mitral valve repair \u2013 dreaming of the day the puck is in my zone. ","label":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #8","title":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #8"}]" code="tab9" template="BlogArticle">

When I signed up to be a live DJ, I didn't know that the oral skills I practiced on-air would influence all aspects of my life, let alone lead me to consider a career in the art of healing. I see now, though, the importance of these key events in my life that have allowed me to develop excellent communication skills--whether that be empathic listening, reading and giving non-verbal cues, or verbal communication. I realize I have always been on a path towards medicine. Ultimately, I aim to continue to strengthen my skills as I establish my role as a medical student and leader: trusting my choices, effectively communicating, and taking action for people in need. ","label":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #9","title":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #9"}]" code="tab10" template="BlogArticle">

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t I pursue medicine sooner?\u201d Is the question that now occupies my mind. Leila made me aware of the unprofessional treatment delivered by some doctors. My subsequent activities confirmed my desire to become a doctor who cares deeply for his patients and provides the highest quality care. My passion for research fuels my scientific curiosity. I will continue to advocate for patient equality and fairness. Combining these qualities will allow me to succeed as a physician. ","label":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #10","title":"Medical School Personal Statement Example #10"}]" code="tab11" template="BlogArticle">

Medical school personal statement example: #11

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Please note that all personal statements are the property of the students who wrote them, re-printed with permission. Names and identifying characteristics have been changed. Plagiarism detection software is used when evaluating personal statements. Plagiarism is grounds for disqualification from the application. ","label":"NOTE","title":"NOTE"}]" code="tab2" template="BlogArticle">

As one of the most important  medical school requirements , the personal statement tells your story of why you decided to pursue the medical profession. Keep in mind that personal statements are one of the key factors that affect medical school acceptance rates . This is why it's important to write a stellar essay!

“Personal statements are often emphasized in your application to medical school as this singular crucial factor that distinguishes you from every other applicant. Demonstrating the uniqueness of my qualities is precisely how I found myself getting multiple interviews and offers into medical school.” – Dr. Vincent Adeyemi, MD, Emory University school of Medicine

But this is easier said than done. In fact, medical school personal statements remain one of the most challenging parts of students' journeys to medical school. Here's our student Melissa sharing her experience of working on her personal statement:

"I struggled making my personal statement personal... I couldn't incorporate my feelings, motives and life stories that inspired me to pursue medicine into my personal statement" -Melissa, BeMo Student

Our student Rishi, who is now a student at the Carver College of Medicine , learned about the importance of the medical school personal statement the hard way:

"If you're a reapplicant like me, you know we all dread it but you have to get ready to answer what has changed about your application that we should accept you this time. I had an existing personal statement that did not get me in the first time so there was definitely work to be done." - Rishi, BeMo Student, current student at the Carver College of Medicine

The importance of the medical school personal statement can actually increase if you are applying to medical school with any red flags or setbacks, as our student Kannan did:

"I got 511 on my second MCAT try... My goal was anything over median of 510 so anything over that was honestly good with me because it's just about [creating] a good personal statement at that point... I read online about how important the personal statement [is]... making sure [it's] really polished and so that's when I decided to get some professional help." - Kannan, BeMo Student, current student at the Schulich School of Medicine  

As you can see from these testimonials, your medical school personal statement can really make a difference. So we are here to help you get started writing your own personal statement. Let's approach this step-by-step. Below you will see how we will outline the steps to creating your very best personal statement. And don't forget that if you need to see more examples, you can also check out our AMCAS personal statement examples, AACOMAS personal statement examples and TMDSAS personal statement examples to further inspire you!

Here's a quick run-down of what we'll cover in the article:

Now let's dive in deeper!

#1 Understanding the Qualities of a Strong Med School Personal Statement

Before discussing how to write a strong medical school personal statement, we first need to understand the qualities of a strong essay. Similar to crafting strong medical school secondary essays , writing a strong personal statement is a challenging, yet extremely important, part of your MD or MD-PhD programs applications. Your AMCAS Work and Activities section may show the reader what you have done, but the personal statement explains why. This is how Dr. Neel Mistry, MD and our admissions expert, prepared for his medical school personal statement writing:

"The personal statement is an opportunity for you to shine and really impress the committee to invite you for an interview. The personal statement is your chance to be reflective and go beyond what is stated on your CV and [activities]. In order to stand out, it is important to answer the main questions [of medical school personal statements] well: a bit about yourself and what led you to medicine, why you would make an ideal medical student and future physician, what attracts you to [medicine], and what sets you apart from the other candidates. The key here is answering the last two questions well. Most candidates simply highlight what they have done, but do not reflect on it or mention how what they have done has prepared them for a future medical career." - Dr. Neel Mistry, MD

“my essay also focused on volunteering in the local health clinic during the many summer breaks. volunteering was more than just another activity to tick off my bucket list for my medical school … i volunteered because i wanted to view medical practice through the lenses of already qualified doctors, not because i needed a reason to be a doctor. i understood that the admissions committee would be more interested in how i was motivated.” – dr. vincent adeyemi..

A personal statement should be deeply personal, giving the admissions committee insight into your passions and your ultimate decision to pursue a career in medicine. A compelling and introspective personal statement can make the difference between getting an interview and facing medical school rejection . Review our blogs to find out how to prepare for med school interviews and learn the most common medical school interview questions .

As you contemplate the task in front of you, you may be wondering what composing an essay has to do with entering the field of medicine. Many of our students were surprised to learn that medical school personal statements are so valued by med schools. The two things are more closely related than you think. A compelling personal statement demonstrates your written communication skills and highlights your accomplishments, passions, and aspirations. The ability to communicate a complex idea in a short space is an important skill as a physician. You should demonstrate your communication skills by writing a concise and meaningful statement that illustrates your best attributes. Leaving a lasting impression on your reader is what will lead to interview invitations.

A quick note: if you are applying to schools that do not require the formal medical school personal statement, such as medical schools in Canada , you should still learn how to write such essays. Many medical schools in Ontario , for example, ask for short essays for supplementary questionnaires. These are very similar to the personal statement. Knowing how to brainstorm, write, and format your answers is key to your success!!!

You want to give yourself as much time as possible to write your statement. Do not think you can do this in an evening or even in a week. Some statements take months. My best statement took almost a year to get right. Allow yourself time and start early to avoid added stress. Think of the ideas you want to include and brainstorm possible ways to highlight these ideas. Ask your friends for ideas or even brainstorm your ideas with people you trust. Get some feedback early to make sure you are headed in the right direction.

“I wrote scores of essays at my desk in those few weeks leading up to application submission. I needed it to be perfect. Do not let anyone tell you to settle. There was no moment when I had this shining light from the sky filtering into my room to motivate me. The ultimate trick is to keep writing. It is impossible to get that perfect essay on the first try, and you may not even get it on your fifteenth attempt, but the goal is to keep at it, keep making those edits, and never back down.” – Dr. Vincent Adeyemi

All personal statements for medical school, often start by explaining why medicine is awesome; the admission committee already knows that. You should explain why you want a career in medicine. What is it about the practice of medicine that resonates with who you are? Naturally, this takes a lot of reflection around who you are. Here are some additional questions you can consider as you go about brainstorming for your essay:

• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What is something you want them to know about you that isn't in your application?
• Where were you born, how did you grow up, and what type of childhood did you have growing up (perhaps including interesting stories about your siblings, parents, grandparents)?
• What kinds of early exposure to the medical field left an impression on you as a child?
• Did you become familiar with and interested in the field of medicine at an early stage of your life? If so, why?
• What are your key strengths, and how have you developed these?
• What steps did you take to familiarize yourself with the medical profession?
• Did you shadow a physician? Did you volunteer or work in a clinical setting? Did you get involved in medical research?
• What challenges have you faced? Have these made an impact on what you chose to study?
• What are your favorite activities?
• What kinds of extracurriculars for medical school or volunteer work have you done, and how have these shaped who you are, your priorities, and or your perspectives on a career in medicine?
• What was your "Aha!" moment?
• When did your desire to become a doctor solidify?
• How did you make the decision to apply to medical school?

You shouldn't try to answer all of these in your essay. Try only a few main points that will carry over into the final draft. Use these to brainstorm and gather ideas. Start developing your narrative by prioritizing the most impactful responses to these prompts and the ideas that are most relevant to your own experiences and goals. The perfect personal statement not only shows the admissions committee that you have refined communication skills, but also conveys maturity and professionalism. It should also display your motivation and suitability for medical practice. Here's how our student Alison, who was a non-traditional applicant with a serious red flag in her application, used her brainstorming sessions with our admissions experts to get a theme going in her medical school personal statement and her overall application package:

"I think it was during my brainstorming session that we really started talking about... what the theme [was] going to be for my application. And I think that was really helpful in and of itself. Just [reflecting] 'Hey, what's your focus going to be like? How are we going to write this? What's the style going to be?' Just to create an element of consistency throughout..." Alison, BeMo Student, current student at Dell Medical School 

After brainstorming, you should be able to clearly see a few key ideas, skills, qualities, and intersections that you want to write about. Once you've isolated the elements you want to explore in your essay (usually 2-4 key ideas), you can begin building your outline. In terms of structure, this should follow the standard academic format, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

As you begin thinking about what to include in your personal essay, remember that you are writing for a specific audience with specific expectations. Your evaluator will be familiar with the key qualities desired by medical schools, as informed by the standards of the profession. But keep in mind that they too are human, and they respond well to well-crafted, engaging essays that tell a story. Here's what our student Alison had to share about keeping your audience in mind when writing your personal statement:

"Make it easy for the reader to be able to work [their] way through [your personal statement]. Because, at the end of the day, I think one thing that helped me a lot was being able to think about who was going to be reading this application and it's going to be these people that are sitting around a desk or sitting at a table and [go] through massive numbers of applications every single day. And the easier and more digestible that you can make it for them, gives you a little bit of a win." - Alison, BeMo student, current student at Dell Medical School

The admissions committee will be examining your essay through the lens of their particular school's mission, values, and priorities. You should think about your experiences with reference to the AAMC Core Competencies and to each school's mission statement so that you're working toward your narrative with the institution and broader discipline in mind.

Review AAMC Core Competencies : The AAMC Core Competencies are the key characteristics and skills sought by U.S. medical schools. These are separated into three general categories:

You are not expected to have mastered all of these competencies at this stage of your education. Display those that are relevant to your experiences will help demonstrate your commitment to the medical profession.

Review the school's mission statement: Educational institutions put a lot of time and care into drafting their school's vision. The mission statement will articulate the overall values and priorities of each university, giving you insight into what they might seek in candidates, and thus what you should try to display in your personal statement. Echoing the values of the university helps illustrate that you are a good fit for their intellectual culture. The mission statement may help you identify other priorities of the university, for example, whether they prioritize research-based or experiential-based education. All this research into your chosen medical schools will help you tremendously not only when you write you personal statement, but also the rest of your medical school application components, including your medical school letter of intent if you ever need to write one later.

Just like the personal statement is, in essence, a prompt without a prompt. They give you free rein to write your own prompt to tell your story. This is often difficult for students as they find it hard to get started without having a true direction. Below is a list of ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Use these prompts as a starting point for your essay. Also, they are a great way of addressing why you want to be a doctor without saying something generic.

• The moment your passion for medicine crystallized
• The events that led you toward this path
• Specific instances in which you experienced opportunities
• Challenges that helped shape your worldview
• Your compassion, resilience, or enthusiastic collaboration
• Demonstrate your commitment to others
• Your dependability
• Your leadership skills
• Your ability to problem-solve or to resolve a conflict

These are personal, impactful experiences that only you have had. Focus on the personal, and connect that to the values of your future profession. Do that and you will avoid writing the same essay as everyone else. Dr. Monica Taneja, MD and our admissions expert, shares her tip that got her accepted to the University of Maryland School of Medicine :

"I focused on my journey to medicine and opportunities that I sought out along the way. Everyone’s path and validation is unique, so walking the reader through your growth to the point of application will naturally be different, but that's what I wanted to share in my personal statement." - Dr. Monica Taneja, MD

“the essay is not about what you have been through; it's about who it made you into.” – dr. vincent adeyemi.

Admissions committees don't want your resumé in narrative form. The most boring essays are those of applicants listing their accomplishments. Remember, all that stuff is already in the activities section of the application. This is where you should discuss interesting or important life events that shaped you and your interest in medicine (a service trip to rural Guatemala, a death in the family, a personal experience as a patient). One suggestion is to have an overarching theme to your essay to tie everything together, starting with an anecdote. Alternatively, you can use one big metaphor or analogy through the essay. Dr. Jaime Cazes, MD and experienced admissions committee member of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, encourages you to be creative when it comes to the theme of your personal statement:

"It is very easy to make the “cookie cutter” personal statement. To a reviewer who is reading tens of these at a time it can become quite boring. What I did was [tell] a story. Like any good novel, the stories' first lines are meant to hook the reader. This can be about anything if you can bring it back and relate it to your application. It could be about the time your friend was smashed up against the boards in hockey and you, with your limited first aid experience helped to treat him. It is important that the story be REAL." - Dr. Jaime Cazes, MD

Your personal statement must be well-organized, showing a clear, logical progression, as well as connections between ideas. It is generally best to use a chronological progression since this mirrors your progression into a mature adult and gives you the opportunity to illustrate how you learned from early mistakes later on. Carry the theme throughout the statement to achieve continuity and cohesion. Use the theme to links ideas from each paragraph to the next and to unite your piece.

Medical School Personal Statement Structure

When working toward the initial draft of your essay, it is important to keep the following in mind: The essay should read like a chronological narrative and have good structure and flow. Just like any academic essay, it will need an introduction, body content, and a conclusion. If you're wondering whether a medical school advisor can help you with your medical school application, check out our blog for the answer.

Check out our video to learn how to create a killer introduction to your medical school personal statement:

Introduction

The introductory paragraph and, even more importantly, the introductory sentence of your essay, will most certainly make or break your overall statement. Ensure that you have a creative and captivating opening sentence that draws the reader in. This is your first and only chance to make a first impression and really capture the attention of the committee. Starting with an event or an Aha! moment that inspired your decision to pursue a medical profession is one way to grab their attention. The kinds of things that inspire or motivate you can say a lot about who you are as a person.

The broader introductory paragraph itself should serve several functions. First, it must draw your reader in with an eye-catching first line and an engaging hook or anecdote. It should point toward the qualities that most effectively demonstrate your desire and suitability for becoming a physician (you will discuss these qualities further in the body paragraphs). The thesis of the introduction is that you have certain skills, experiences, and characteristics and that these skills, experiences, and characteristics will lead you to thrive in the field of medicine. Finally, it must also serve as a roadmap to the reader, allowing them to understand where the remainder of the story is headed.

That is a lot of work for a single paragraph to do. To better help you envision what this looks like in practice, here is a sample introduction that hits these main points.

I was convinced I was going to grow up to be a professional chef. This was not just another far-fetched idealistic childhood dream that many of us had growing up. There was a sense of certainty about this dream that motivated me to devote countless hours to its practice. It was mostly the wonder that it brought to others and the way they were left in awe after they tried a dish that I recall enjoying the most creating as a young chef. But, when I was 13, my grandfather was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, and I realized that sometimes cooking is not enough, as I quickly learned about the vital role physicians play in the life of everyday people like my family and myself. Although my grandfather ended up passing away from his illness, the impact that the healthcare team had on him, my family, and I will always serve as the initial starting point of my fascination with the medical profession. Since that time, I have spent years learning more about the human sciences through my undergraduate studies and research, have developed a deeper understanding of the demands and challenges of the medical profession through my various volunteer and extra-curricular experiences, and although it has been difficult along the way, I have continued to forge a more intimate fascination with the medical field that has motivated me to apply to medical school at this juncture of my life. ","label":"Sample Introduction","title":"Sample Introduction"}]" code="tab3" template="BlogArticle">

In the body of your essay, you essentially want to elaborate on the ideas that you have introduced in your opening paragraph by drawing on your personal experiences to provide evidence. Major points from the above sample introduction could be: dedication and resilience (practicing cooking for hours, and devoting years to undergraduate studies in human sciences), passion and emotional connection (being able to create something that inspired awe in others, and personally connecting with the work of the grandfather's healthcare team), motivation and drive (being inspired by the role physicians play in their patients' lives, participating in volunteer work and extracurriculars, and an enduring fascination with the field of medicine). Depending on the details, a selection of volunteer and extra-curricular experiences might also be discussed in more detail, in order to emphasize other traits like collaboration, teamwork, perseverance, or a sense of social responsibility – all key characteristics sought by medical schools. Just like an academic essay, you will devote one paragraph to each major point, explaining this in detail, supporting your claims with experiences from your life, and reflecting on the meaning of each plot point in your personal narrative, with reference to why you want to pursue a medical career.

Your final statement should not be a simple summary of the things you have discussed. It should be insightful, captivating, and leave the reader with a lasting impression. Although you want to re-emphasize the major ideas of your essay, you should try to be creative and captivating, much like your opening paragraph. Sometimes if you can link your opening idea to your last paragraph it will really tie the whole essay together. The conclusion is just as important as the introduction. It is your last chance to express your medical aspirations. You want to impress the reader while also leaving them wanting more. In this case, more would mean getting an interview so they can learn more about who you are! Leave them thinking I have got to meet this person.

The narrative you construct should display some of your most tightly held values, principles, or ethical positions, along with key accomplishments and activities. If you see yourself as someone who is committed to community service, and you have a track record of such service, your story should feature this and provide insight into why you care about your community and what you learned from your experiences. Saying that you value community service when you've never volunteered a day in your life is pointless. Stating that your family is one where we support each other through challenge and loss (if this is indeed true), is excellent because it lays the groundwork for telling a story while showing that you are orientated towards close relationships. You would then go on to offer a brief anecdote that supports this. You are showing how you live such principles, rather than just telling your reader that you have such principles:

"Remember to use specific personal examples throughout your statement to make it more impactful and memorable for the readers. Often, painting a picture in the reader’s mind in the form of a story helps with this." - Dr. Neel Mistry, MD

A lot of students make the mistake of verbalizing their personal attributes with a bunch of adjectives, such as, "This experience taught me to be a self-reliant leader, with excellent communication skills, and empathy for others..." In reality, this does nothing to convey these qualities. It's a mistake to simply list your skills or characteristics without showing the reader an example of a time you used them to solve a problem. If you simply list your skills or characteristics (telling), without demonstrating the ways you have applied them (showing), you risk coming across as arrogant. The person reading the essay may not believe you, as you've not really given them a way to see such values in your actions. It is better to construct a narrative to show the reader that you possess the traits that medical schools are looking for, rather than explicitly stating that you are an empathetic individual or capable of deep self-reflection. Instead of listing adjectives, tell your personal story and allow the admissions committee to paint the picture for themselves. This step is very challenging for many students, but it's one of the most important strategies used in successful essays. Writing this way will absolutely make your statement stand out from the rest.

While it may be tempting to write in a high academic tone, using terminology or jargon that is often complex or discipline-specific, requiring a specialized vocabulary for comprehension. You should actually aim to write for a non-specialist audience. Remember, in the world of medicine, describing a complex, clinical condition to a patient requires using specific but clear words. This is why your personal statement should show that you can do the same thing. Using large words in unwieldy ways makes you sound like you are compensating for poor communication skills. Use words that you believe most people understand. Read your personal statement back to a 14-year-old, and then again to someone for whom English is not their first language, to see if you're on the right path.

Ultimately, fancy words do not make you a good communicator; listening and ensuring reader comprehension makes you a good communicator. Instead of using complex terminology to tell the admissions committee that you have strong communication skills, show them your communication skills through clear, accessible prose, written with non-specialists in mind. A common refrain among writing instructors is, never use a $10 word where a $2 word will suffice. If you can say it in plain, accessible language, then this is what you should do.

Display Professionalism

Professionalism may seem like a difficult quality to display when only composing a personal statement. After all, the reader can't see your mannerisms, your personal style, or any of those little qualities that allow someone to appear professional. Professionalism is about respect for the experience of others on your team or in your workplace. It is displayed when you are able to step back from your own individual position and think about what is best for your colleagues and peers, considering their needs alongside your own. If a story is relevant to why you want to be a physician and demonstrates an example of how you were professional in a workplace setting, then it is appropriate to include in your essay.

One easy way to destroy a sense of professionalism is to act in a judgmental way towards others, particularly if you perceived and ultimately resolved an error on someone else's part. Sometimes students blame another medical professional for something that went wrong with a patient.

They might say something to the effect of, "The nurse kept brushing off the patient's concerns, refusing to ask the attending to increase her pain medications. Luckily, being the empathetic individual that I am, I took the time to listen to sit with the patient, eventually bringing her concerns to the attending physician, who thanked me for letting him know."

There are a couple of things wrong with this example. It seems like this person is putting down someone else in an attempt to make themselves look better. They come across as un-empathetic and judgmental of the nurse. Maybe she was having a busy day, or maybe the attending had just seen the patient for this issue and the patient didn't really need re-assessment. Reading this kind of account in a personal statement makes the reader question the maturity of the applicant and their ability to move past blaming others and resolve problems in a meaningful way. Instead of allocating blame, identify what the problem was for the patient and then focus on what you did to resolve it and reflect on what you learned from the whole experience.

One last note on professionalism: Being professional does not mean being overly stoic, hiding your emotions, or cultivating a bland personality. A lot of students are afraid to talk about how a situation made them feel in their personal statement. They worry that discussing feelings is inappropriate and will appear unprofessional. Unfortunately for these students, emotional intelligence is hugely important to the practice of medicine. In order to be a good doctor, one must be aware of their own emotions as well as those of their patients. Good doctors are able to quickly identify their own emotions and understand how their emotional reactions may inform their actions, and the ability to deliver appropriate care, in a given situation. Someone who is incapable of identifying their emotions is also incapable of managing them effectively and will likely struggle to identify the emotions of others. So, when writing your personal statement, think about how each experience made you feel, and what you learned from those feelings and that experience.

How to Write About Discrepancies and Common Mistakes to Avoid

Part of your essay's body can include a discussion of any discrepancies or gaps in your education, or disruptions in your academic performance. If you had to take time off, or if you had a term or course with low grades, or if you had any other extenuating circumstances that impacted your education, you can take time to address these here. It is very important to address these strategically. Do not approach this section as space to plead your case. Offer a brief summary of the situation, and then emphasize what you learned from such hardships. Always focus on the positive, illustrating how such difficulties made you stronger, more resilient, or more compassionate. Connect your experiences to the qualities desired by medical schools. Here's how I student Alison address an academic discrepancy in her application:

I had an academic dishonesty during undergrad, which, at the time, ended up being this big misunderstanding. But I was going to appeal this and get it off my record. I was supposed to start nursing school two weeks after this whole ordeal had gone down and, at our university, if you try to appeal your academic dishonesty then you'd have to take an incomplete in that class and I needed this class in order to start nursing school. So I wasn't able to [appeal]. So when I talked with the people at the nursing school they were like ‘it's no big deal, it's fine’. [But] it came back and it haunted me very much. When I was applying [to medical school] I started looking online [to see] how big of a deal is it to have this ‘red flag’ on my application. I started reading all of these horror stories on Student Doctor Network and all of these other forums about how if you have an academic dishonesty you shouldn't even bother applying, that you'll never get in. Schools will blacklist you and I was [wondering] what am I going do. [My advisor suggested I use the essay to talk about my discrepancy]. 

First off, if anyone out there has an academic violation don't read student doctor network. don't listen to anybody. you absolutely are still a potential medical student and schools are not going to blacklist you just because of one mistake that you made. that's all lies. don't listen to them. i don't even think it came up a single time during any of my interviews. i think a lot of that came back to how i wrote that essay and the biggest advice that i can give that i got from the [bemo] team is explain what happened… just give the facts. be very objective about it. in the last two thirds [of the essay] you want to focus on what you learned from it and how it made you a better person and how it's going to make you a better physician.” – alison, bemo student, current student at dell medical school.

We hope many of you find a peace of mind when you read Alison's story. Because it shows that with the right approach to your medical school personal statement, you can overcome even red flags or setbacks that made you dread the application process. Use your personal statement to emphasize your ability to persevere through it all but do so in a positive way. Most of all, if you feel like you have to explain yourself, take accountability for the situation. State that it is unfortunate and then redirect it to what you learned and how it will make you a better doctor. Always focus on being positive and do not lament on the negative situation too much.

Additional Mistakes to Avoid in Personal Statements:

Check out this video on the top 5 errors to avoid in your personal statement!

Step 3: Writing Your First Draft

As you can see, there is a LOT of planning and consideration to be done before actually starting your first draft. Properly brainstorming, outlining, and considering the content and style of your essay prior to beginning the essay will make the writing process much smoother than it would be you to try to jump right to the draft-writing stage. Now, you're not just staring at a blank page wondering what you could possibly write to impress the admissions committee. Instead, you've researched what the school desires from its students and what the medical profession prioritizes in terms of personal characteristics, you've sketched out some key moments from your life that exemplify those traits, and you have a detailed outline that just needs filling in.

As you're getting started, focus on getting content on the page, filling in your outline and getting your ideas arranged on the page. Your essay will go through multiple drafts and re-writes, so the first step is to free write and start articulating connections between your experiences and the characteristics you're highlighting. You can worry about flow, transitions, and perfect grammar in later drafts. The first draft is always a working draft, written with the understanding that its purpose is to act as a starting point, not an ending point. Once you've completed a draft, you can begin the revising process. The next section will break down what to do once you have your first draft completed.

You can also begin looking at things like style, voice, transitions, and overall theme. The best way to do this is to read your essay aloud. This may sound strange, but it is one of the single most impactful bits of writing advice a student can receive. When we're reading in our heads (and particularly when we're reading our own words), it is easy to skip over parts that may be awkwardly worded, or where the grammar is off. As our brains process information differently, depending on whether we're taking in visual or auditory information, this can also help you understand where the connections between ideas aren't as evident as you would like. Reading the essay aloud will help you begin internalizing the narrative you've crafted, so that you can come to more easily express this both formally in writing and informally in conversation (for example, in an interview).

#1 Did You Distinguish Yourself From Others?

Does your narrative sound unique? Is it different than your peers or did you write in a generic manner? Our admissions expert Dr. Monica Taneja, MD, shares how she got the attention of the admissions committee with her personal statement:

"I also found it helpful to give schools a 'punch-line'. As in I wanted them to remember 1-2 things about me that are my differentiators and I reiterated those throughout [the personal statement]." - Dr. Monica Taneja, MD

Use your narrative to provide a compelling picture of who you are as a person, as a learner, as an advocate, and as a future medical professional. What can you offer? Remember, you will be getting a lot out of your med school experience, but the school will be getting a lot out of you, as well. You will be contributing your research efforts to your department, you will be participating in the academic community, and as you go on to become a successful medical professional you will impact the perception of your school's prestige. This is a mutually beneficial relationship, so use this opportunity to highlight what you bring to the table, and what you will contribute as a student at their institution. Let them know what it is about you that is an attribute to their program. Make them see you as a stand out from the crowd.

#2 Does My Essay Flow and is it Comprehensible?

Personal statements are a blessing and a curse for admission committees. They give them a better glimpse of who the applicant is than simple scores. Also, they are long and time-consuming to read. And often, they sound exactly alike. On occasion, a personal statement really makes an applicant shine. After reading page after page of redundant, cookie-cutter essays, an essay comes along with fluid prose and a compelling narrative, the reader snaps out of that feeling of monotony and gladly extends their enthusiastic attention.

Frankly, if the statement is pleasant to read, it will get read with more attention and appreciation. Flow is easier to craft through narrative, which is why you should root the statement in a story that demonstrates characteristics desirable to medical schools. Fluidity takes time to build, though, so your statement should be etched out through many drafts and should also be based on an outline. You need to brainstorm, then outline, then draft and re-draft, and then bring in editors and listeners for feedback (Note: You need someone to proofread your work. Bestselling authors have editors. Top scholars have editors. I need an editor. You need an editor. Everyone needs an editor). Then, check and double-check and fix anything that needs fixing. Then check again. Then submit. You want this to be a statement that captures the reader's interest by creating a fluid, comprehensible piece that leads the reader to not only read each paragraph but want to continue to the next sentence.

#3 Did You Check Your Grammar?

If you give yourself more than one night to write your statement, the chances of grammatical errors will decrease considerably. If you are pressed for time, upload your file into an online grammar website. Use the grammar checker on your word processor, but know that this, in itself, isn't enough. Use the eyes and ears of other people to check and double-check your grammar, punctuation, and syntax. Read your statement out loud to yourself and you will almost certainly find an error (and likely several errors). Use fresh eyes to review the statement several times before you actually submit it, by walking away from it for a day or so and then re-reading it. Start your essay early, so that you actually have time to do this. This step can make or break your essay. Do not waste all the effort you have put into writing, to only be discarded by the committee for using incorrect grammar and syntax.

#4 Did You Gather Feedback From Other People?

The most important tip in writing a strong application essay is this getting someone else to read your work. While the tips above are all very useful for writing a strong draft, nothing will benefit you more than getting an outside appraisal of your work. For example, it's very easy to overlook your own spelling or grammatical errors. You know your own story and you may think that your narrative and it's meaning make sense to your reader. You won't know that for sure without having someone else actually read it. This may sound obvious, but it's still an absolute necessity.

“It was very helpful for two of my mentors to review my statements before submitting my application. Ensure you trust the judgement and skills of the person to whom you would be giving your personal statement for review.” – Dr. Vincent Adeyemi

Have someone you trust to read the essay and ask them what they thought of it. What was their impression of you after reading it? Did it make sense? Was it confusing? Do they have any questions? What was the tone of the essay? Do they see the connections you're trying to make? What were their takeaways from your essay, and do these align with your intended takeaways for your reader? Ideally, this person should have some knowledge of the application process or the medical profession, so that they can say whether you were successful in demonstrating that you are a suitable candidate for medical school. However, any external reader is better than no external reader at all.

Avoid having people too close to you read your work. They may refrain from being too critical in an effort to spare your feelings. This is the time to get brutal, honest feedback. If you know someone who is an editor but do not feel that they can be objective, try and find someone else.

Want more examples? Check out our video below:

FAQs and Final Notes

Your personal statement should tell your story and highlight specific experiences or aspects of your journey that have led you to medicine. If your first exposure or interest in the medical field was sparked from your own medical struggles, then you can certainly include this in your statement. What is most important is that you write about what factors or experiences attributed to you deciding that medicine is the right career path for you.

Sometimes students shy away from including their own personal struggles and describing how they felt during difficult times but this is a great way for admissions committees to gain perspective into who you are as a person and where your motivations lie. Remember, this is your story, not someone else's, so your statement should revolve around you. If you choose to discuss a personal hardship, what's most important is that you don't cast yourself as the victim and that you discuss what the experience taught you. Also, medical schools are not allowed to discriminate against students for discussing medical issues, so it is not looked at as a red flag unless you are talking about an issue inappropriately. For example, making yourself appear as the victim or not taking responsibility.

All US medical schools require the completion of a personal statement with your AMCAS, TMDSAS or AACOMAS applications.

Medical schools in Canada on the other hand, do not require or accept personal statements. In lieu of the personal statement, a few of these schools may require you to address a prompt in the form of an essay, or allow you to submit an explanation essay to describe any extenuating circumstances, but this is not the same as the US personal statement. For example, when applying through  OMSAS , the  University of Toronto medical school  requires applicants to complete four short, 250 words or less, personal essays.

Many students struggle with whether or not they should address an unfavorable grade in their personal statement. What one student does isn't necessarily the right decision for you.

To help you decide, think about whether or not that bad grade might reflect on your poorly. If you think it will, then it's best to address the academic misstep head-on instead of having admissions committees dwell on possible areas of concern. If you're addressing a poor evaluation, ensure that you take responsibility for your grade, discuss what you learned and how your performance will be improved in the future - then move on. It's important that you don't play the victim and you must always reflect on what lessons you've learned moving forward.

Of course not, just because you didn't wake up one morning and notice a lightbulb flashing the words medicine, doesn't mean that your experiences and journey to medicine are inferior to those who did. Students arrive to medicine in all sorts of ways, some change career paths later in life, some always knew they wanted to pursue medicine, and others slowly became interested in medicine through their life interactions and experiences. Your personal statement should address your own unique story to how you first became interested in medicine and when and how that interest turned to a concrete desire.

While your entire statement is important, the opening sentence can often make or break your statement. This is because admission committee members are reviewing hundreds, if not thousands of personal statements. If your opening sentence is not eye-catching, interesting, and memorable, you risk your statement blending in with the large pile of other statements. Have a look at our video above for tips and strategies for creating a fantastic opening sentence.

Having your statement reviewed by family and friends can be a good place to start, but unfortunately, it's near-impossible for them to provide you with unbiased feedback. Often, friends and family members are going to support us and rave about our achievements. Even if they may truly think your statement needs work, they may feel uncomfortable giving you their honest feedback at the risk of hurting your feelings.

In addition, family and friends don't know exactly what admission committee members are looking for in a personal statement, nor do they have years of experience reviewing personal statements and helping students put the best version of themselves forward. For these reasons, many students choose to seek the help of a professional medical school advisor to make sure they have the absolute best chances of acceptance to medical school the first time around.

If you have enough time set aside to write your statement without juggling multiple other commitments, it normally takes at least four weeks to write your statement. If you are working, in school, or volunteering and have other commitments, be prepared to spend 6-8 weeks.

Your conclusion should have a summary of the main points you have made in your essay, but it should not just be a summary. You should also end with something that makes the reader want to learn more about you (i.e. call you for an interview). A good way to do this is to include a call-back to your opening anecdote: how have you grown or matured since then? How are you more prepared now to begin medical school?

The goal is to show as many of them as you can in the WHOLE application: this includes your personal statement, sketch, reference letters, secondary essays, and even your GPA and MCAT (which show critical thinking and reasoning already). So, it’s not an issue to focus on only a few select experiences and competencies in the personal statement.

Yes, you can. However, if you used an experience as a most meaningful entry, pick something else to talk about in your essay. Remember, you want to highlight as many core competencies across your whole application). Or, if you do pick the same experience: pick a different specific encounter or project with a different lesson learned.

Once your essay is in good shape, it's best to submit to ensure your application is reviewed as soon as possible. Remember, with rolling admissions, as more time passes before you submit your application, your chances of acceptance decreases. Nerves are normal and wanting to tinker is also normal, but over-analyzing and constant adjustments can actually weaken your essay.

So, if you're thinking about making more changes, it's important to really reflect and think about WHY you want to change something and if it will actually make the essay stronger. If not your changes won't actually make the essay stronger or if it's a very minor change you're thinking of making, then you should likely leave it as is.

The reality is, medical school admission is an extremely competitive process. In order to have the best chance of success, every part of your application must be stellar. Also, every year some students get in whose GPAs or  MCAT scores  are below the median. How? Simply because they must have stood out in other parts of the application, such as the personal statement.

The ones that honestly made the most impact on you. You'll need to reflect on your whole life and think about which experiences helped you grow and pushed you to pursue medicine. Ideally, experiences that show commitment and progression are better than one-off or short-term activities, as they usually contribute more to growth.

Final Notes

This Ultimate Guide has demonstrated all the work that needs to be done to compose a successful, engaging personal statement for your medical school application. While it would be wonderful if there was an easy way to write your personal statement in a day, the reality is that this kind of composition takes a lot of work. As daunting as this may seem, this guide lays out a clear path. In summary, the following 5 steps are the basis of what you should take away from this guide. These 5 steps are your guide and sort of cheat sheet to writing your best personal statement.

5 Main Takeaways For Personal Statement Writing:

• Brainstorming
• Content and Theme
• Multiple Drafts
• Revision With Attention to Grammar

While a strong personal statement alone will not guarantee admission to medical school, it could absolutely squeeze you onto a  medical school waitlist , off the waitlist, and onto the offer list, or give someone on the admissions committee a reason to go to battle for your candidacy. Use this as an opportunity to highlight the incredible skills you've worked and studied to refine, the remarkable life experiences you've had, and the key qualities you possess in your own unique way. Show the admissions committee that you are someone they want to meet. Remember, in this context, wanting to meet you means wanting to bring you in for an interview!

Dr. Lauren Prufer is an admissions expert at BeMo. Dr. Prufer is also a medical resident at McMaster University. Her medical degree is from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. During her time in medical school, she developed a passion for sharing her knowledge with others through medical writing, research, and peer mentoring.

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

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By submitting my email address. i certify that i am 13 years of age or older, agree to recieve marketing email messages from the princeton review, and agree to terms of use., 15 tips for your medical school personal statement.

Don't underestimate the power of the medical school personal statement to make a strong, positive impression on an admissions committee. Combined with your interview performance, your personal statement can account for 60% (or more) of your total admissions score!

Medical schools want to enroll bright, empathetic, communicative people. Here's how to write a compelling med school personal statement that shows schools who you are and what you're capable of.

Personal Statement Topics

Your medical school personal statement is a component of your primary application submitted via, TMDSAS (for Texas applications), or AACOMAS (NB: If you are applying to medical school in Canada, confirm the application process with your school, as not all application components may be submitted through AMCAS).

These applications offer broad topics to consider, and many essay approaches are acceptable. For example, you could write about:

• an experience that challenged or changed your perspective about medicine
• a relationship with a mentor or another inspiring individual
• a challenging personal experience
• unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits
• your motivation to seek a career in medicine

You'll write an additional essay (or two) when you submit secondary applications to individual schools. These essays require you to respond to a specific question. Admissions committees will review your entire application, so choose subject matter that complements your original essay .

Read More: Strategies for Secondary Applications

How to Write a Personal Statement for Medical School

Follow these personal statement tips to help the admissions committee better understand you as a candidate.

1. Write, re-write, let it sit, and write again!

Allow yourself 6 months of writing and revision to get your essay in submission-ready shape. This gives you the time to take your first pass, set your draft aside (for a minimum of 24 hours), review what you’ve written, and re-work your draft.

2. Stay focused.

Your personal statement should highlight interesting aspects of your journey—not tell your entire life story. Choose a theme, stick to it, and support it with specific examples.

3. Back off the cliches.

Loving science and wanting to help people might be your sincere passions, but they are also what everyone else is writing about. Instead, be personal and specific.

4. Find your unique angle.

What can you say about yourself that no one else can? Remember, everyone has trials, successes and failures. What's important and unique is how you reacted to those incidents. Bring your own voice and perspective to your personal statement to give it a truly memorable flavor. 

5. Be interesting.

Start with a “catch” that will create intrigue before launching into the story of who you are. Make the admissions committee want to read on!

6. Show don't tell.

Instead of telling the admissions committee about your unique qualities (like compassion, empathy, and organization), show them through the stories you tell about yourself. Don’t just say it—actually prove it.

7. Embrace the 5-point essay format.

Here's a trusty format that you can make your own:

• 1st paragraph: These four or five sentences should "catch" the reader's attention.
• 3-4 body paragraphs: Use these paragraphs to reveal who you are. Ideally, one of these paragraphs will reflect clinical understanding and one will reflect service.
• Concluding paragraph: The strongest conclusion reflects the beginning of your essay, gives a brief summary of you are, and ends with a challenge for the future.

8. Good writing is simple writing.

Good medical students—and good doctors—use clear, direct language. Your essays should not be a struggle to comprehend.

9. Be thoughtful about transitions.

Be sure to vary your sentence structure. You don’t want your essay to be boring! Pay attention to how your paragraphs connect to each other.

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10. Stick to the rules.

Watch your word count. That’s 5,300 characters (including spaces) for AMCAS applications, 5,000 characters for TMDSAS, and 4,500 characters for AACOMAS.

11. Stay on topic.

Rambling not only uses up your precious character limit, but it also causes confusion! Think about the three to five “sound bytes” you want admissions committee to know and remember you by.

12. Don't overdo it.

Beware of being too self-congratulatory or too self-deprecating.

13. Seek multiple opinions.

Before you hit “submit,” ask several people you trust for feedback on your personal statement. The more time you have spent writing your statement, the less likely you are to spot any errors. A professor or friend whose judgment and writing skills you trust is invaluable.

Read More: 12 Smart Tips for Your AMCAS Application

14. Double-check the details.

Always check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. This goes for the rest of your application (like your activities list), too. A common oversight is referencing the wrong school in your statement! Give yourself (and your proofreaders) the time this task truly requires.

15. Consult the experts about your personal statement strategy.

Our med school admissions counselors can diagnose the “health” of your overall application, including your personal statement. Get expert help and guidance to write an effective personal statement that showcases not only your accomplishments, but your passion and your journey.

Want to get an edge over the crowd?

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Medical School Secondary Essays: Your Full Guide

Mark Bradford

Getting into medical school is like solving a big mystery - full of ups, downs, and surprises. After conquering the MCAT and acing your main application, there's one more challenge waiting for you: secondary essays. Imagine them as tricky puzzles, asking for more than just book smarts. What do they want from you, and how can you tackle them successfully? Join us as we explore the world of these follow-up essays, uncovering their secrets and giving you the tools to ace this important part of your medical school journey.

Purpose of Med School Secondary Essays

So, what are secondary essays for medical school, and why do they matter? Well, med school secondary essays play a vital role in giving applicants a chance to shine beyond their academic credentials. These essays allow aspiring medical students to showcase their uniqueness and explain why they are an excellent fit for a specific program.

The main goal of these essays is to delve deeper into the applicants' personalities and motivations. While primary applications provide essential information, secondary essays offer a platform to highlight personal attributes and experiences that make candidates stand out. Admissions committees look for qualities aligning with the values of the medical program, making these essays a crucial step before the interview stage.

While prompts may differ, common types of secondary essays frequently appear:

Challenge Essay:

• Overcoming Adversity: Discuss a significant challenge, emphasizing resilience, problem-solving, and personal growth.

Diversity Essay:

• Embracing Differences: Share experiences that showcase unique perspectives, backgrounds, or contributions to inclusivity.

Gap Year Essay:

• Justifying Time Away: Explain how experiences during a gap year contribute to skills, understanding, and commitment to medicine.

‘ Anything Else You'd Like Us to Know?’ Essay:

• Open-Ended Reflection: Use this space to discuss hobbies, passions, or aspects of personality not covered elsewhere.

‘Why Us?’ Essay:

• Demonstrating Program Fit: Articulate why a specific medical program aligns with your goals, values, and experiences.

Don't forget that we're always here to lend a helping hand. Just ask us, ' Write essay for me ', and together, we'll create an authentic narrative that showcases the real you.

Medical School Diversity Essay

Now that we've uncovered the basics of secondary essays, let's shine a spotlight on a specific one - the Medical School Diversity Essay. This particular essay isn't just about showcasing your GPA or test scores; it's an opportunity to let your unique story and background shine. The purpose? Well, medical schools aren't just looking for cookie-cutter candidates. They want a diverse group of future doctors who bring different perspectives and experiences to the table.

The Medical School Diversity Essay gives you the chance to share how your background, culture, or life experiences have shaped you and will contribute to the rich tapestry of the medical community. It's your time to stand out and show that you're not just a student with good grades but a person with a valuable and unique perspective to offer.

Medical School Diversity Essay Prompts

Now that we understand the importance of the Medical School Diversity Essay, let's tackle the next challenge: the prompts. These essay prompts are like the roadmap guiding you to articulate your individuality and experiences effectively. The questions might vary, but they all share a common thread—inviting you to reflect on your background, culture, or experiences that make you stand out.

Here are some common prompts you might encounter:

• Share your unique background or experiences and how they will contribute to the diversity of the medical school community.
• Describe a situation where you faced adversity related to your background and how you overcame it.
• Discuss a time when you had to navigate and bridge a cultural gap, and how this experience influenced your journey to medicine.
• Reflect on a personal experience that shaped your perspective on diversity and inclusion in healthcare.
• How do your cultural, socioeconomic, or educational background and experiences contribute to your future role as a healthcare professional?

Medical School Diversity Essay Example

Medical school adversity essay.

In the maze of medical school applications, there's another essay that tests your storytelling prowess – the Medical School Adversity Essay. Unlike other sections, this one isn't about showcasing achievements; it's about resilience and growth. The purpose? Medical schools want to know how you handle challenges, setbacks, and obstacles because, let's face it, the journey to becoming a doctor isn't always smooth sailing.

The Adversity Essay prompts might ask you to recount a difficult experience, discuss how it impacted you, and reveal what you learned from it. This is your chance to demonstrate your ability to navigate adversity and emerge stronger. Whether it's a personal struggle, academic setback, or a professional challenge, use this essay to showcase your resilience and highlight the qualities that will make you a determined and capable future physician.

Medical School Adversity Essay Prompts

The Medical School Adversity Essay prompts are like keys that unlock your ability to handle life's curveballs. Here are some common prompts you might encounter, each inviting you to share your experiences of overcoming challenges:

• Discuss a significant personal challenge you have faced and how it has impacted your journey to medicine.
• Describe a time when you encountered a setback in your academic or professional life. How did you respond, and what did you learn from the experience?
• Share a difficult personal experience that tested your resilience. How did you cope, and what growth emerged from that adversity?
• Reflect on a situation where you faced ethical or moral dilemmas. How did you navigate through it, and what lessons did you take away?
• Discuss any obstacles you encountered on your path to medical school. How did you overcome them, and what did those challenges teach you about yourself?

Adversity Essay Medical School Examples

The medical school 'why us' essay.

As you navigate the intricate landscape of medical school applications, there's a pivotal essay that requires you to play matchmaker – the 'Why Us?' essay. This piece is your opportunity to demonstrate not just why you want to become a physician but specifically why you're drawn to a particular medical school. It's the moment to connect the dots between your aspirations and what the school uniquely offers.

The purpose of the Why Us Medical School Essay is twofold: medical schools want to know if you've done your homework about their institution and if you see yourself thriving within their academic and community environment. It's more than listing facilities or programs; it's about articulating a genuine and well-informed connection.

Why Us Medical School Essay Prompts

Here are some common prompts that might pop up, urging you to elaborate on your connection with the medical school:

• Explain why you are drawn to our medical school and how our mission aligns with your personal and professional goals.
• Share specific aspects of our curriculum, faculty, or research opportunities that resonate with your aspirations in medicine.
• Discuss any unique programs, initiatives, or community outreach efforts at our institution that you find particularly appealing. How do you see yourself contributing to these activities?
• Describe a firsthand experience or interaction with our medical school community that left a lasting impression on you. How did it influence your decision to apply here?
• Highlight any specific resources or support systems at our institution that you believe will contribute to your success as a medical student and future physician.

Approaching these prompts requires thorough research and a personal touch. Showcase your understanding of the medical school's distinct features and convey how these align with your goals and values. Remember, it's not just about why you want to be a doctor but specifically why you envision yourself thriving within the unique environment of that particular medical school.

Why Us Medical School Essay Example

Gap year essay medical school.

In the realm of medical school applications, the Gap Year Essay serves as a platform to explain the space between your undergraduate studies and embarking on your medical journey. Whether you spent that time gaining experience, pursuing a passion, or facing unforeseen challenges, this essay allows you to share the valuable lessons you've learned during this period.

The purpose of the Gap Year Essay is to illustrate that the time away from traditional academics was not a detour but rather a strategic and purposeful part of your journey towards becoming a healthcare professional. It's your opportunity to showcase personal and professional growth, highlighting how these experiences have uniquely equipped you for the challenges of medical school.

Gap Year Essay Medical School Prompts

The Gap Year Essay prompts for medical school applications are designed to help you articulate the purpose and value of the experiences you gained during your time away from traditional academia. Here are some common prompts that might invite you to reflect on your gap year:

• Explain the reasons behind taking a gap year and how this time contributed to your personal and professional development.
• Describe specific experiences or challenges encountered during your gap year and how they influenced your decision to pursue a career in medicine.
• Share any skills, perspectives, or insights gained during your time away that you believe will benefit you as a medical student and future physician.
• Discuss any unique opportunities or projects you undertook during your gap year that have shaped your understanding of healthcare or your commitment to the medical field.
• Explain how your gap year aligns with your long-term goals in medicine and how the experiences gained have prepared you for the demands of medical school.

Gap Year Essay Medical School Example

Medical school leadership essay.

Imagine the application process as a cool journey, and the Leadership Essay is like a special stop where you get to share times when you led the way. Medical schools aren't just looking for good grades; they want folks who know how to guide and inspire others in the world of healthcare.

This essay is your chance to tell stories about when you took charge, maybe in a formal role or just helping out when needed. It's about showing how you encouraged others, faced challenges, and made things better in your community or team.

Medical School Leadership Essay Prompts

The prompts for the Medical School Leadership Essay are like friendly invitations, asking you to share moments where you've taken charge and made a positive impact. Here are some common prompts that might prompt you to reflect on your leadership experiences:

• Describe a specific situation where you demonstrated leadership skills, formal or informal and the impact it had on those around you.
• Share an example of a challenge you faced as a leader and how you navigated through it. What did you learn from the experience?
• Discuss a time when you collaborated with others to achieve a common goal, highlighting your role in fostering teamwork and achieving success.
• Explain how you've contributed to the improvement of a community or organization, showcasing your leadership role in creating positive change.
• Reflect on your personal leadership style and how it aligns with your future goals in medicine. How do you envision incorporating leadership into your medical career?

Approach these prompts with openness and honesty, using them as an opportunity to highlight your unique leadership experiences and how they have shaped your journey toward becoming a healthcare professional.

Medical School Leadership Essay Example

How to write secondary essays for medical school.

Here's a guide on how to approach and master medical school secondary essays for a compelling and well-rounded application:

1. Understand the Purpose : Before diving into writing, grasp the purpose of each secondary essay. Whether it's about diversity, adversity, or why you're drawn to a particular school, each prompt serves a unique function in painting a complete picture of you as an applicant. Tailor your responses to showcase different facets of your personality, experiences, and motivations. For students seeking inspiration in crafting essays, exploring essay topics for nursing students can provide a starting point to reflect on their experiences and aspirations within the medical field.

2. Personalize Your Responses : Avoid generic responses and personalize each essay to reflect your individual journey. Share specific anecdotes, experiences, and reflections that offer depth and authenticity. Admissions committees are interested in understanding how your unique qualities will contribute to the diverse and collaborative environment of medical school.

3. Conduct Research on Each School : For 'Why Us?' essays, conduct thorough research on the medical school's values, programs, and community. Be specific about what attracts you to that particular institution. Mentioning unique features, initiatives, or faculty members shows that you've invested time in understanding the school's offerings and how they align with your aspirations.

4. Showcase Reflection and Growth : Adversity essays provide an opportunity to showcase resilience and personal growth. Discuss challenges you've faced, how you navigated through them, and the lessons learned. Emphasize how these experiences have uniquely prepared you for the demands of medical school and strengthened your commitment to a career in medicine.

5. Address Gaps in Your Application : If there are gaps or potential concerns in your application, such as a lower GPA or a gap year, address them proactively. Be honest and focus on how these aspects have contributed to your overall readiness for medical school.

6. Maintain Conciseness and Clarity : Admissions committees read through numerous applications, so clarity and conciseness are crucial. Be direct in your responses, avoiding unnecessary jargon or excessive details. Focus on conveying your message effectively without overwhelming the reader with information.

7. Seek Feedback : Before finalizing your essays, seek feedback from mentors, peers, or pre-health advisors. Outside perspectives can provide valuable insights and help ensure that your essays are clear, impactful, and free of errors.

Final Outlook

As you finish up your secondary essays, keep it simple and sincere. They are like snapshots, capturing unique parts of your story. Share your experiences, talk about challenges, and explain why a specific medical school feels like the right fit for you.

Think of each essay as a chance to show the real you beyond grades and achievements. Be yourself, be honest, and let your passion for medicine shine through. The medical school secondary essays examples are not just about getting into your dream school; they're about finding the place where you belong and can grow into the doctor you want to be!

Why Do Medical Schools Require Secondary Essays?

Can i reuse content from my primary application in secondary essays, how should i approach the diversity essay.

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Why It's Still Hard to Get Into Medical School Despite a Doctor Shortage

Doctor shortages are a growing concern, yet more than half of med school hopefuls don't get accepted.

Why It's Hard to Get Into Med School

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Medical schools need doctors to educate the next generation of doctors and a physician shortage doesn't help.

Key Takeaways

• A doctor shortage in the U.S. is projected to worsen in coming years.
• More medical school teachers and attending physicians are needed.
• There's a bottleneck between med school and graduate medical education.

Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, president of the American Medical Association, highlighted a doctor shortage crisis during a speech at the National Press Club in fall 2023.

“Imagine walking into an emergency room in your moment of crisis – in desperate need of a physician’s care – and finding no one there to take care of you,” he said.

A worsening doctor shortage in the U.S. is causing gaps in care across the country. Rural communities , which rely heavily on telemedicine, are most vulnerable. The shortage also directly affects medical schools nationwide, which rely on physicians to teach and mentor future doctors.

With demand for licensed physicians at an all-time high – and projected to be significantly higher by 2034, largely due to a growing and aging population – many observers wonder if admitting more students into medical schools will address the scarcity. Some say yes, but the complexities and demands of an effective medical school education present an uphill battle.

Not Enough Doctors or Med School Seats

In January 2024, there were just above 1.1 million professionally active doctors in the U.S., according to Statista, a worldwide data and business intelligence platform. And tens of thousands of those licensed physicians spend more time teaching, in research or in administrative roles than in patient care, according to the American Medical Association. Per the National Association of Community Health Centers, the physician shortage means 30% of Americans don't have a regular primary care doctor.

That's also a problem for medical schools: In short, you need doctors to make doctors. A shortage of them limits the number of mentors, teachers and attending physicians – for clinical hours – to engage with medical students. This is a consideration when increasing enrollment at medical schools, which number fewer than 200 in terms of accreditation to grant an M.D. or doctor of osteopathic medicine degree in the U.S.

A. Dexter Samuels, executive director of the Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, echoes concerns. Admitting more students would disrupt the ratio of faculty to students, he says.

For every med student, a slot should be available for training in a hospital setting. The doctor shortage can’t accommodate an increase in the number of students, Samuels says, and "hypercompetitiveness of recruiting and retaining faculty" is an ongoing challenge.

Already, fewer than half of all applicants to U.S. med schools are accepted each year, with the average hopeful applying to multiple schools.

Solving the doctor shortage in the U.S. will take more than just increasing the number of spots available in medical school, says Dr. Amy Waer, dean of Texas A&M University's School of Medicine . That’s because there’s a bottleneck between medical school and graduate medical education – that is, residencies and fellowships – also known as GME.

“While many medical schools would like to increase their admission numbers, finding appropriate clinical training sites and physician faculty are limiting factors, particularly for community-based medical schools like Texas A&M,” Waer wrote in an email.

Per the Association of American Medical Colleges, residency slots and clinical training sites haven’t kept pace with growing medical school enrollments – and without residency training, graduating doctors can’t be licensed to treat patients. Experts say the shortfall is largely due to a congressionally imposed cap on federal support for GME through the Medicare program, in place since 1997.

How Medical Schools Are Responding

Enrollment in M.D.-granting medical schools has grown steadily from 92,626 during the 2019-2020 school year to 97,903 in 2023-2024, according to AAMC data . That's up significantly from 69,718 med school students in 2002, per the AAMC.

However, the increases are unlikely to fully address the scarcity of doctors predicted through 2034. The class sizes, enrollment and number of medical schools are “not growing fast enough to meet the demand for physicians' services and health care across the nation,” Ehrenfeld says.

New medical schools are opening, aiming to produce more doctors. They will also benefit their surrounding communities, Ehrenfeld says.

“Schools have different missions and different goals they are trying to achieve," he says. "As there continue to be innovative solutions around medical education and meeting those demands, we will see more campuses and more schools trying to align the needs of the community with the mission of the program.”

This deliberate approach to opening new medical schools can help address the doctor shortage and improve quality of life for their local communities. For example, Texas A&M created the A&M Rural and Community Health Institute to reduce health care disparities in the region.

“Texas A&M's medical school is creating innovative partnerships with communities – particularly for underserved rural communities – to consider the expansion of residency placements and programs,” Waer says.

The doctor shortage in the U.S. will be solved in time, some experts predict. While increasing the number of medical schools and expanding enrollment will help address the shortage, they say, it will take more doctors choosing careers in teaching and mentoring to solve the problem.

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Guest Essay

In Medicine, the Morally Unthinkable Too Easily Comes to Seem Normal

By Carl Elliott

Dr. Elliott teaches medical ethics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No,” from which this essay is adapted.

Here is the way I remember it: The year is 1985, and a few medical students are gathered around an operating table where an anesthetized woman has been prepared for surgery. The attending physician, a gynecologist, asks the group: “Has everyone felt a cervix? Here’s your chance.” One after another, we take turns inserting two gloved fingers into the unconscious woman’s vagina.

Had the woman consented to a pelvic exam? Did she understand that when the lights went dim she would be treated like a clinical practice dummy, her genitalia palpated by a succession of untrained hands? I don’t know. Like most medical students, I just did as I was told.

Last month the Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidance requiring written informed consent for pelvic exams and other intimate procedures performed under anesthesia. Much of the force behind the new requirement came from distressed medical students who saw these pelvic exams as wrong and summoned the courage to speak out.

Whether the guidance will actually change clinical practice I don’t know. Medical traditions are notoriously difficult to uproot, and academic medicine does not easily tolerate ethical dissent. I doubt the medical profession can be trusted to reform itself.

What is it that leads a rare individual to say no to practices that are deceptive, exploitative or harmful when everyone else thinks they are fine? For a long time I assumed that saying no was mainly an issue of moral courage. The relevant question was: If you are a witness to wrongdoing, will you be brave enough to speak out?

But then I started talking to insiders who had blown the whistle on abusive medical research. Soon I realized that I had overlooked the importance of moral perception. Before you decide to speak out about wrongdoing, you have to recognize it for what it is.

This is not as simple as it seems. Part of what makes medical training so unsettling is how often you are thrust into situations in which you don’t really know how to behave. Nothing in your life up to that point has prepared you to dissect a cadaver, perform a rectal exam or deliver a baby. Never before have you seen a psychotic patient involuntarily sedated and strapped to a bed or a brain-dead body wheeled out of a hospital room to have its organs harvested for transplantation. Your initial reaction is often a combination of revulsion, anxiety and self-consciousness.

To embark on a career in medicine is like moving to a foreign country where you do not understand the customs, rituals, manners or language. Your main concern on arrival is how to fit in and avoid causing offense. This is true even if the local customs seem backward or cruel. What’s more, this particular country has an authoritarian government and a rigid status hierarchy where dissent is not just discouraged but also punished. Living happily in this country requires convincing yourself that whatever discomfort you feel comes from your own ignorance and lack of experience. Over time, you learn how to assimilate. You may even come to laugh at how naïve you were when you first arrived.

A rare few people hang onto that discomfort and learn from it. When Michael Wilkins and William Bronston started working at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island as young doctors in the early 1970s, they found thousands of mentally disabled children condemned to the most horrific conditions imaginable: naked children rocking and moaning on concrete floors in puddles of their own urine; an overpowering stench of illness and filth; a research unit where children were deliberately infected with hepatitis A and B.

“It was truly an American concentration camp,” Dr. Bronston told me. Yet when he and Dr. Wilkins tried to enlist Willowbrook doctors and nurses to reform the institution, they were met with indifference or hostility. It seemed as if no one else on the medical staff could see what they saw. It was only when Dr. Wilkins went to a reporter and showed the world what was happening behind the Willowbrook walls that anything began to change.

When I asked Dr. Bronston how it was possible for doctors and nurses to work at Willowbrook without seeing it as a crime scene, he told me it began with the way the institution was structured and organized. “Medically secured, medically managed, doctor-validated,” he said. Medical professionals just accommodated themselves to the status quo. “You get with the program because that’s what you’re being hired to do,” he said.

One of the great mysteries of human behavior is how institutions create social worlds where unthinkable practices come to seem normal. This is as true of academic medical centers as it is of prisons and military units. When we are told about a horrific medical research scandal, we assume that we would see it just as the whistle-blower Peter Buxtun saw the Tuskegee syphilis study : an abuse so shocking that only a sociopath could fail to perceive it.

Yet it rarely happens this way. It took Mr. Buxtun seven years to convince others to see the abuses for what they were. It has taken other whistle-blowers even longer. Even when the outside world condemns a practice, medical institutions typically insist that the outsiders don’t really understand.

According to Irving Janis, a Yale psychologist who popularized the notion of groupthink, the forces of social conformity are especially powerful in organizations that are driven by a deep sense of moral purpose. If the aims of the organization are righteous, its members feel, it is wrong to put barriers in the way.

This observation helps explain why academic medicine not only defends researchers accused of wrongdoing but also sometimes rewards them. Many of the researchers responsible for the most notorious abuses in recent medical history — the Tuskegee syphilis study, the Willowbrook hepatitis studies, the Cincinnati radiation studies , the Holmesburg prison studies — were celebrated with professional accolades even after the abuses were first called out.

The culture of medicine is notoriously resistant to change. During the 1970s, it was thought that the solution to medical misconduct was formal education in ethics. Major academic medical centers began establishing bioethics centers and programs throughout the 1980s and ’90s, and today virtually every medical school in the country requires ethics training.

Yet it is debatable whether that training has had any effect. Many of the most egregious ethical abuses in recent decades have taken place in medical centers with prominent bioethics programs, such as the University of Pennsylvania , Duke University , Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University , as well as my own institution, the University of Minnesota .

One could be forgiven for concluding that the only way the culture of medicine will change is if changes are forced on it from the outside — by oversight bodies, legislators or litigators. For example, many states have responded to the controversy over pelvic exams by passing laws banning the practice unless the patient has explicitly given consent.

You may find it hard to understand how pelvic exams on unconscious women without their consent could seem like anything but a terrible invasion. Yet a central aim of medical training is to transform your sensibility. You are taught to steel yourself against your natural emotional reactions to death and disfigurement; to set aside your customary views about privacy and shame; to see the human body as a thing to be examined, tested and studied.

One danger of this transformation is that you will see your colleagues and superiors do horrible things and be afraid to speak up. But the more subtle danger is that you will no longer see what they are doing as horrible. You will just think: This is the way it is done.

Carl Elliott ( @FearLoathingBTX ) teaches medical ethics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No,” from which this essay is adapted.

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