Medical School Secondary Application FAQ (9 Questions Answered)

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We compiled a list of medical school secondary application FAQs to answer the questions we hear most often.

It’s summertime. The sun is shining, and it’s a great time of year. But for an aspiring doctor working on medical school applications, this time of year signifies something else. It’s time for secondary applications!

Mid-to-late summer is when secondary applications will be sent out to the earliest applicants. Being prepared for them will give you the best chance of knocking your application out of the park and landing an interview come fall.

 

The Steps of the Medical School Application Process

First, to take a quick step back, the medical school application process contains a few key steps. First is the primary application, submitted via one of 3 services—AMCAS for most American medical schools; TMDSAS for Texan medical schools; AACOMAS for most osteopathic medical schools.

Learn more about the different application services: AMCAS vs. AACOMAS vs. TMDSAS.

After your primary application is submitted, medical schools will send secondary applications to be filled out and submitted by a deadline. Regardless of the deadline given by the school, you should aim to submit all secondary applications within 7-14 days of receiving them. Successful applicants will be offered an interview date anywhere from the fall to the following spring. Acceptances will come in during this period on a rolling basis.

 

1. What Is the Secondary Application?

The secondary application, as the name suggests, is the second component. It’s sent to an applicant after they submit their primary application. Each school has a unique secondary application, unlike the single primary application that was sent to several schools through the aforementioned services. The secondary is a chance for each school to get more information from the applicant.

Generally, the objective is to answer a series of questions to address these overarching themes: “Why this school? Why are you the right fit for our institution in particular? What makes you unique?”

Essentially, secondary applications are a series of short essay questions unique to each program you are applying to (with a fair amount of overlap). The questions may not be exactly those listed above, but it should be your goal to address these concepts in your responses.

There is a spectrum of what secondaries actually look like. Some consist of several short answer questions, whereas others ask for a longer essay. But in general, the average secondary consists of 2-6 short essay questions about the applicant’s experiences and interest in that particular school.

 

2. When Do Secondary Applications Arrive?

When secondary applications arrive depends on when you submit your application. The sooner you submit your primary, the sooner you’ll receive secondaries, and the sooner you’ll be able to start the interview process.

If you submit your primary application at the earliest possible time (beginning of June) you may begin receiving secondary applications by late June. The bulk will likely arrive in July and August.

 

3. When Are Secondary Applications Due?

Secondary application deadlines differ depending on the school, but many lie in the fall or early winter. Keep in mind that some applicants will receive secondaries later if they sent their primary later. Some schools will also give a deadline in relation to when you received the secondary (i.e., 3 weeks from the time of receipt.)

Even though schools may give a technical deadline, when you submit your secondary answers should be between 7-14 days of receiving them.

 

4. When Should I Complete Secondaries?

Just like the primary application, the earlier you submit your secondaries, the better.

Most schools are on rolling admissions, so the sooner you complete your primary and secondary, the sooner you are eligible for an interview.

You should submit your secondary applications within 1-2 weeks of receiving them. That said, don’t rush, as you risk compromising the quality of your responses. Take these essays seriously and make sure they effectively deliver a strong message. The best way to do this is to start writing your secondaries as soon as possible—even before you receive them.

Learn more in our article: How to Start Medical School Secondaries Early.

 

5. How Many Schools Should I Expect to Get Secondaries From?

Almost every school you apply to will send you a secondary application. Very few do not, as medical schools profit off of secondaries. So, expect to receive a secondary from each school you apply to. Unfortunately, sometimes this means you’ll write secondaries for schools that do not ultimately grant you an interview. It’s all part of the process, and by completing this necessary component of the application, you are simply giving yourself the best chance of eventual acceptance.

 

6. How Much Do Secondary Applications Cost?

The cost of secondaries varies by school, but the cost generally hovers around $100. The cheapest may be about $30-50, while the most expensive can be more than $200. This is no paltry sum; completing secondary applications is a significant financial undertaking.

 

7. What Are Common Secondary Application Questions?

Secondary Questions person happy looking at computer screen

Here are some examples of common secondary prompts:

  • The mission statement of our medical school is “X.” Please state why you are a great fit for our community.
  • What aspects of our medical school are most intriguing to you?
  • What are your reasons for applying to our program?
  • Why have you chosen to apply to our program, and how will we help make you the physician you aspire to be?
  • What would you as an individual bring to our medical community?
  • Indicate any special experiences, unusual factors, or other information you feel would be helpful in evaluating you, i.e., education, employment, extracurricular activities, or prevailing over adversity.
  • Please describe one particular extracurricular activity that helped shape you.
  • Please describe a moral or ethical dilemma that was particularly memorable and what you learned from this experience.
  • Please describe an achievement of which you are particularly proud.
  • Please provide a brief autobiographical sketch.
  • If you took time off after undergrad, what have you achieved in this time?
  • Please address any other issue of importance not otherwise covered in your primary application.

Learn more: 11 Common Medical School Secondary Questions and How to Answer.

The length of the prompt can vary, with some questions asking for 100 words and others requiring a short essay response. The questions asked by each school differ, but they are often the same or similar from one year to the next.

We created a free Secondary Essay Prompts Database that is continuously updated. It includes the most recent information about the secondary requirements for a wide range of specific medical schools in the United States, including essay prompts from the past few years.

 

8. What Are Schools Looking for in My Answers?

It is important to provide succinct, honest answers to each prompt. Let your experiences and actions speak for themselves, and let your voice and personality show in your writing. This is easier said than done, but it will get easier with practice.

Work to tie all of your answers back to this theme: Why am I a good fit for this program in particular? In order to answer this question well, you’ll need to do a great deal of research. Read about the specific program and dig deeper than the website. Find something unique about the school—something that interests you or fits well with your future goals. Providing these specifics and detailing how your unique characteristics and goals correlate with the school will result in a strong essay.

 

9. How to Order Secondary Applications

Be intentional about your priorities. Go into secondaries with a clear plan of action so that you know right away which secondary application request to complete first. 

How to Order Secondary Applications infographic

If you have multiple options for which secondaries to work on first, schedule your top choice schools as soon as possible. The earlier the schools receive your secondary applications, the sooner they can send an interview invite. Securing interviews from programs you favor most early on means you have a better shot at earning an acceptance there. 

If you have competitive schools on your list, prioritize these over less-competitive schools. You need every advantage you can get to earn acceptance at competitive programs. The sooner you submit secondaries and continue moving through the application process, the better.

Completing a couple of lower-ranked schools’ secondaries first enables you to hone your skills. The more secondary answers you complete, the more you’ll understand how to most effectively craft your responses.

If you have several secondary requests to pick from, you might also choose to tackle one of the schools with the most questions first. You’ll be able to draft foundational answers to many common secondary questions, which you can evolve and expand on to align with each school. 

 

Conquer Your Secondary Applications

Med School Insiders offers a Secondary Essay Editing Service that will help you masterfully craft secondaries soon after you receive them. We know what it takes to stand out, and we’ll help you craft a stellar secondary application for each school.

Read our Medical School Secondary Application Guide for more information about how to plan for and perfect your secondaries.

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