Florida Atlantic University (Schmidt) Secondary Essay Prompts
These are the secondary application essay prompts for Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. To put your best foot forward and maximize your chance of an interview invitation, visit our secondary application editing page.
About Florida Atlantic University (Schmidt)
Secondary Deadline: December 31, 2025
Secondary Fee: $30
FAP Waiver: Yes
Casper Required: No
Screens Applications: Yes
Accepts Application Updates: Yes
Mission
The college’s mission is to advance the health and well-being of our community by training future generations of humanistic clinicians and scientists and translating discovery to patient-centered care.
The Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine is an integrated learning organization that fosters high-quality, humanistic, and patient-centered care. Our mission is to deliver high-touch, high-tech education to our students and residents, and to collaborate on high impact, interdisciplinary research with leading experts in the field. The College of Medicine is dedicated to integrating discovery with health care and education in order to contribute to the vitality of our immediate communities, to improve the health and well-being of people and populations, and to transform community-based health care.
Values
As an integrated learning-organization, our values encompass collaboration, innovation, respect, compassion, lifelong learning and engagement. Through collaboration, we share knowledge and build trust and consensus. Through innovation, we embrace creativity and flexibility. By respecting one another, we strive to acknowledge and express our appreciation for the unique and diverse contributions of others. Through compassion, we empathize with our patients, students, and peers. Through lifelong learning, we value intellectual curiosity and the drive toward continuous knowledge acquisition and human development. Through engagement, we foster teamwork within our organization and within our community.
2025-2026
1. Will you be enrolled as a student this year?
Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 characters)
2. Describe why you would like to attend the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you contribute to our community? (1600 characters)
3. Community service provides a powerful lens through which we can understand your values, motivations, and growth. Please describe a community service experience that was meaningful to you. What inspired you to get involved? In what ways did this experience promote your personal growth and learning? What aspects did you find most fulfilling? (1600 characters)
4. Reflect on your past experiences participating in paid or unpaid work, volunteer roles, or other community-oriented activities. What skills or personal qualities have you developed that you believe will support your success in medical school and as a future physician? These experiences do not need to be clinical. (1600 characters)
5. Leadership is not defined by titles alone – it’s demonstrated through initiative, collaboration, and the ability to guide others toward a shared goal. Describe a time when you demonstrated leadership by guiding a group or organization toward a shared goal. How did you align efforts, motivate others, and contribute to the outcome? (1600 characters)
6. Discuss a significant personal challenge that helped shape who you are today. What did you learn about yourself, and how will these insights help you navigate the challenges in medical school and beyond? Please include any support systems or resources that played a role in your experience and share if you believe they will translate to medical school. (1600 characters)
7. If you are a reapplicant for medical school, please share examples of personal or professional experiences that you believe have strengthened your application, contributed to your growth, and have better prepared you for the rigors of medical school since your initial application. (1600 characters)
2024-2025
2. Use this area to explain exceptions to these prerequisites at your institution.
3. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 character limit including spaces)
4. Describe why you would like to attend the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you contribute to our community? (1600 character limit including spaces)
5. Please share a meaningful community service experience outside of direct patient care that has been meaningful to you. What drew you to this particular experience? How did it contribute to your personal growth and learning? What aspects of your involvement did you find particularly fulfilling? (1600 character limit including spaces)
6. How have your previous experiences, whether in paid roles or volunteer work, shaped the skills and qualities you believe will be essential for success in medical school and as a future physician? These experiences do not necessarily have to involve direct patient care. (1600 character limit including spaces)
7. Describe a situation where you effectively demonstrated your leadership skills by guiding a group or organization towards a common goal or aligning their collective efforts. (1600 character limit including spaces)
8. Share a notable personal challenge that has influenced your personal growth. Discuss the insights gained about yourself and how these lessons will assist you in navigating challenges in medical school and your future career as a physician. Describe the support systems or resources you relied on and their impact on your journey. (1600 character limit including spaces)
2023-2024
1. Use this area to justify and/or explain any academic hardships on your transcripts (any failed and/or repeated courses due to any reason)
2. Use this area to explain exceptions to these prerequisites at your institution.
About Self:
3. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 char incl spaces)
4. Describe why you would like to attend the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you contribute to our community? (1600 char incl spaces)
Experience (1600 character limit incl. spaces):
5. Describe your most meaningful community service experience that is unrelated to direct patient care. Why did you select this particular experience? In what way did you grow and learn from this experience? What did you enjoy most?
6. What traits do you feel you have developed through your experiences thus far (such as paid or unpaid work experiences) that will help prepare you to be successful in medical school and a future physician. Experience does not need to be related to patient care.
7. Leadership can be defined in many ways. One way of defining leadership is as a set of behaviors used to help people align their collective direction, or lead a group or an organization. Tell us about a time you executed your leadership skills.
8. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped shape you as a person. Focus on what you learned about yourself and how it will help you during challenges you may face during medical school and as a future physician. Describe any support system and/or resources you had available and how you utilized them.
2022-2023
2. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What makes you a good fit for our College of Medicine? (1600 characters)
3. Tell us about your most meaningful community service experience that is unrelated to direct patient care. How did you grow? What did you learn? What did you enjoy about serving others? (1600 characters)
4. You may have worked during or after college. Having to maintain paid employment can be challenging, yet it can also develop a number of qualities that can help you succeed in medical school, as well as beyond. Tell us about your most meaningful paid employment. What was it about the experience that made it meaningful? What qualities and skills did the job help you develop and strengthen? What traits do you feel you learned while with that employer and/or the work experience? Experience does not need to be related to patient care. If none, please write not applicable. (1600 characters)
5. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. (Organized a fundraiser, had club/organization officer role, etc.) How do you motivate or influence people? If none, please write not applicable. (1600 characters)
6. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a future physician. If none, please write not applicable. (1600 characters)
7. The Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine has made a commitment to foster an inclusive environment in which every person in our medical school community has the ability to achieve their full potential. We are proud to have a medical school rich in cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you contribute to our community? (1600 characters)
2021-2022
2. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What makes you a good fit for our College of Medicine? (1600 char)
3. Your AMCAS application should reflect your community service experiences. However, tell us more about your most meaningful community service involvement, particularly an experience that really inspired you. How did your involvement move you? (Experience does not need to be related to patient care) (1600 char)
4. Good leaders add value to the healthcare profession. They have passion, motivation, conflict resolution skills and integrity, among other attributes and traits. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. Have you organized a fund raiser, had a club organization/leadership role? How do you motivate or influence people? (1600 char)
5. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome an obstacle or were faced by a difficult challenge or decision. What valuable lessons did you learn? How do you think the experience prepared you for a career as a future physician? (1600 char)
6. Diversity means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences. Describe what uniqueness you would bring to the Schmidt COM. We are proud to already have a medical school rich in cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you add to our culture? (1600 char)
7. You may have worked during or after college. Having to maintain paid employment can be challenging, yet it can also develop a number of qualities that can help you succeed in medical school, as well as beyond. Tell us about your most meaningful paid employment. What was it about the experience that made it meaningful? What qualities and skills did the job help you develop and strengthen? (Experience does not need to be related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1600 char)
8. As a community FAU Schmidt COM has made a commitment to be anti-racist and address systemic racism in education and healthcare. Institutionalized racism can be defined as “macro level systems, social forces, institutions, ideologies, and processes that interact with one another to generate and reinforce inequities among racial and ethnic groups.” As a future medical student at FAU, how can you play an active role in addressing and dismantling systemic racism? (1600 char)
9. One of the values of the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine is to provide the best medical care for all people. A major challenge for all physicians to provide the best medical care are Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). These can be defined as “conditions in the social, physical, and economic environment in which people are born, live, work, and age.” What will you as a future doctor do to address SDOH? (1600 char)
2020-2021
2019-2020
1. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 Character limit)
2. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. (1600 Character Limit)
3. The college’s mission is to advance the health and well-being of our community by training future generations of humanistic clinicians and scientists and translating discovery to patient-centered care. Therefore, as a community-based medical school, community service is important to the College. What community service activity was your most meaningful and do you currently continue to give your time to the activity? (1600 Character Limit)
4. Our College believes in working collaboratively. Thus being able to work in a team is vital to the success of an FAU Medical Student, yet being able to lead is equally important. Give an example of when you were part of a team and had a leadership role. How did you influence your team members to carry out their tasks within the group? How did you perform in your role within the team? What did you learn from having to lead a team? Did any problems arise? How did you overcome them? What did you learn about being a part of a team, while also holding a leadership position? (1600 Character Limit)
5. The FAU College of Medicine Admissions Committee is interested in learning more about you as a person. Please describe a noteworthy personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral and/or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience and what you learned about yourself as a result. (1600 Character Limit)
6. Diversity is an array of things. What unique qualities and/or traits will you bring to our College? What distinctive attributes would you bring to the practice of medicine? What values, skills, talents, and life experiences – and how you would add to the cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine? (1600 Character Limit)
7. Have you held any type of paid employment? If so, please tell us about your most meaningful employment experience. What traits do you feel you learned while with that employer? (If you have not held paid employment, please write none). (1600 Character Limit)
2018-2019
2. Our College believes in working collaboratively. Thus being able to work in a team is vital to the success of an FAU Medical Student, yet being able to lead is equally important. Give an example of when you were part of a team and had a leadership role. How did you influence your team members to carry out their tasks within the group? How did you perform in your role within the team? What did you learn from having to lead a team? Did any problems arise? How did you overcome them? What did you learn about being a part of a team, while also holding a leadership position? Character limit 1600 (including spaces)
3. The FAU College of Medicine Admissions Committee is interested in learning more about you as a person. Please describe a noteworthy personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral and/or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience and what you learned about yourself as a result. Character limit 1600 (including spaces)
4. Diversity is an array of things. What unique qualities and/or traits will you bring to our College? What distinctive attributes would you bring to the practice of medicine? What values, skills, talents, and life experiences – and how you would add to the cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine? Character limit 1600 (including spaces)
5. Have you held any type of paid employment? If so, please tell us about your most meaningful employment experience. What traits do you feel you learned while with that employer? (If you have not held paid employment, please write none)
2017-2018
1. Use this area to justify and/or explain any academic hardships on your transcripts (any failed and/or repeated courses due to any reason)
2. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 Character limit)
3. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. (1600 Character Limit)
4. Tell us about your most meaningful community service experience. (not related to patient care if none, please write none) (1600 Characters)
5. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. (Organized a fund raiser, club/organization officer role, how do you motivate or influence people, if none, please write none) (1600 Characters)
6. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a future physician (if none, please write none)
7. Describe what you would bring to the practice of medicine – your values, skills, talents, and life experiences – and how you would add to the cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. (1600 Characters)
8. Tell us about your most meaningful employment experience. (not related to patient care, if none, please write none)
2016-2017
1.Tell us about your most meaningful community service experience. (not related to patient care if none, please write none) (1200 char)
2.Tell us about your most meaningful employment experience. (not related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1200 char)
3.Tell us about your most meaningful leadership experience. (if none, please write none) (1200 char)
4.Tell us about any creative endeavors you participate(d) in. (e.g., art, dance, music, etc if none, please write none) (1200 char)
5.Describe a situation in which you interacted with a culturally diverse group. (if none, please write none)
Disclaimer: The information on this page was shared by students and/or can be found on the medical school’s website. Med School Insiders does not guarantee the accuracy of the information on this page.
We're here to help
The secondary application is just as important as the primary. We'll make sure you get it right.