Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Secondary Essay Prompts

These are the secondary application essay prompts for Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. To put your best foot forward and maximize your chance of an interview invitation, visit our secondary application editing page.

about Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Secondary Deadline: December 15, 2024
Secondary Fee: $95
FAP Waiver: Yes
CASPer Required: No
Screens Applications: No
Accepts Application Updates: Yes

Mission

The mission of New Jersey Medical School is to educate students, physicians, and scientists to meet society’s current and future healthcare needs through patient-centered education; pioneering research; innovative clinical, rehabilitative and preventive care; and collaborative community outreach.

Vision 

To create, transmit and utilize knowledge to shape the future of medicine and to enhance the quality of life for the people of New Jersey.

Values

  • Personal respect for patients, students, staff, faculty and community
  • Passionate commitment to excellence in service, research and training
  • Celebration of diversity in culture, ethnicity, religion, gender and individual goals
  • Professionalism in all conduct
  • Commitment to serving needs of constituents
  • Progress through partnerships

2024-2025

1. We are committed to supporting our NJMS community by enhancing collaboration between students, staff, and faculty, with a dedicated focus on humanism, health equity and social justice. How do you envision yourself contributing to the NJMS community?

2. We seek students who are respectful, self-aware, humble, resilient, team-oriented, and adaptable. Discuss a personal or professional challenge you have experienced and share insight on what you learned about yourself and how the challenge was resolved.

3. If you have chosen to pursue any “growth/gap” time prior to applying or prior to your intended matriculation to medical school, please share insight on your decision for growth/gap time.

4. If you will not be a full-time student between July 2024 and July 2025, please describe in detail your planned activities, including projected time commitment for each activity during that time.

5. If you are a re-applicant, please share what you have done to enhance your candidacy and re-application?

6. Please elaborate on challenges not thoroughly addressed anywhere else in your application.
(Please feel free to address any or all of the following if applicable: Institutional Actions, Academic and/or MCAT inconsistencies, personal challenges)

7. Please discuss any additional information you feel may help us in our review of your candidacy.

Early Decision Specific Essays

Please share why you have decided to apply as an Early Decision applicant, as well as insight on your Motivation for NJMS.

As an Early Decision applicant, how do you intend to enhance your preparation for a successful transition into NJMS over the next year.

2023-2024

1.We are committed to an environment which fosters collaboration, humanism, equity and social justice. How do you envision yourself contributing to the NJMS community? (1500 characters)

2.We seek students who are self-aware, resilient and adaptable. Discuss a personal or professional challenge you’ve experienced and how you resolved it. Please include insight on what you learned about yourself as a result (1500 characters)

3.If you will not be a full-time student between June 2023 and August 2024, please describe in detail your planned activities, including projected time commitment for each activity (1500 characters)

4.If you have chosen to pursue one or more “growth” years prior to your planned matriculation to medical school in 2023, please share insight on your decision (1500 characters)

5.If you are a re-applicant, please share what you have done to enhance your candidacy and re-application? (1500 characters)

6.Please elaborate on challenges not thoroughly addressed anywhere else in your application (Please feel free to address any or all of the following if applicable: impact of COVID, institutional actions, academics, MCAT, personal difficulties, etc.). (1500 characters)

7.Please discuss any additional information you feel may help us in our review of your candidacy. (1500 characters)

2022-2023

The secondary application essay prompts from this medical school application cycle are the same as above.

2021-2022

The secondary application essay prompts from this medical school application cycle are the same as above.

2020-2021

All prompts have a 1,500 character limit.

1. We seek students who are self-aware, resilient and adaptable. Discuss a personal or professional challenge you’ve experienced and how you resolved it. Please include insight on what you learned about yourself as a result.

2. We are committed to an environment which fosters collaboration, cohesiveness, equity and social justice. With this in mind, how will you contribute to the NJMS community?

3. If you will not be a full-time student between June 2020 – August 2021, please describe in detail your planned activities, including projected time commitment for each activity.

4. If you chose to pursue one or more gap years prior to applying to medical school, please share insight on your decision.

5. If you are a reapplicant, what have you done to enhance your re-application?

6. Please discuss any additional information you feel may help us in our review of your candidacy.

7. Please elaborate on any academic challenges (including MCAT), institutional actions, and/or personal difficulties not thoroughly addressed anywhere else in your application.

2019-2020

1. If you have participated in any program(s) affiliated with NJMS (i.e. summer programs, research, high school programs, internships, volunteering, graduate school, etc.), please indicate below. Please provide name(s) and date(s) of program participation:

This question is relatively self-explanatory and requires prior involvement with Rutgers NJMS to be answered. If you do have this experience, list it and include the role you played and one line about a skill you gained or lesson learned from that experience.

2. If you have any relatives currently enrolled or who have graduated from NJMS please provide name(s), relationship to you and graduation year in the space provided below:

Answer as appropriate based on any prior connections.

3. If you have any other connections to NJMS, or Rutgers University, please provide details below:

Answer as appropriate based on any prior connections.

4. If you previously applied to NJMS through AMCAS or an accelerated program, please provide the following: Program name(s) and Application year(s):

Answer as appropriate based on any prior applications.

5. Please indicate below if you previously met with either Dr. Heinrich or Ms. Rivero (prior to July 1, 2018). With whom did you meet and date(s):

Dr. George F. Heinrich is the Associate Dean for Admissions at Rutgers NJMS.
Mercedes Rivero, M.S. is the Assistant Dean for Admissions at Rutgers NJMS.
List any prior meetings as appropriate based on previous applications.

6. NJMS recognizes the importance of diversity in the medical profession. We understand that the applicant pool is multidimensional and as such we would like to learn more about you:
How do you self-identify Racially
How do you self-identify Ethnically
How do you self-identify Culturally

Be sure to respond to all 3 components of this prompt. Consider how they make you unique and help define you as a person. Brainstorm how these traits affect your personal values and influence your desire to be a physician. Consider how these traits will help you interface with diverse populations which is a crucial skill for any physician. It may be helpful to use examples/anecdotes from the past or describe individuals or experiences which have been particularly influential and formative for you.

7. Integrity is a core value at NJMS. Please share your thoughts on Integrity. Additionally, we seek students who are self-aware, resilient and adaptable. Discuss a personal or professional challenge you have experienced and how you resolved it.

There are two components to this question, so be sure to answer them both adequately. First, consider what integrity means to you. How does this play into being an effective medical student, resident and physician. Speak honestly about your thoughts and values. Perhaps describe an individual who is a role model for you and demonstrates these ideals. Next consider a time when you encountered a particular challenge personally of professionally. It may have been a challenge within yourself to achieve higher or push through an obstacle. Perhaps it was a challenge to resolve a dispute with a colleague. Describe how you overcame this challenge, what traits that required and what lessons you learned. Try to bring out the traits they describe in the prompt: self-awareness, resilience, and adaptability.

8. NJMS is committed to fostering a collaborative and cohesive environment. With this in mind, how will you contribute to our medical school community?

The first strategy to answering this question is doing some research on the program website to understand some of its nuances. Is it very strong in a particular field of research, or perhaps in community clinical work for the underserved? If one of these aspects aligns with your strengths or interests, explain how you are a great fit for this reason. Second, brainstorm what is unique about your background. Is it your place of birth, your family, your culture, or your path to medicine. Also consider prior adversity you have had to overcome and how that has shaped your values. Consider 1-2 of these experiences and weave a story about them which show your unique characteristics. Specifically answer how this can contribute to your medical school class; consider the effect you might have on your peers, professors and patients.

9. Please discuss any additional information you feel may help us in our review of your candidacy. Feel free to elaborate on any gaps (educational or experiences), discrepancies in academic history, institutional actions, etc.

If you took time off between undergraduate and medical school, describe the experiences you had during that time. For each experience, explain how this helped you grow and become a better medical school candidate, which is the most important goal of the gap year in the admissions committee’s eyes. Focus on the lessons you learned and skills you gained during the time off. Do not repeat what is in your primary application. This is a key to all secondaries. If you use a prior experience from the AMCAS primary (which can be difficult to avoid given the nature of some secondary questions), try to adopt a new angle or describe a different aspect of the experience than has been presented before. Consider using an anecdote to spice up the answer. 

If there is an inconsistency or issue within your application which you feel the need to explain, do so honestly and directly. Do not make excuses or make yourself out as a victim. Be sure to take responsibility but also explain how you improved thereafter and what you learned from the experience. Spin it as a positive which you grew from.

2018-2019

The secondary application essay prompts from this medical school application cycle are the same as above.

2017-2018

The secondary application essay prompts from this medical school application cycle are the same as above.

2016-2017

The secondary application essay prompts from this medical school application cycle are the same as above.

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.

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