In today’s episode, Dr. Renee Marinelli talks about some of the common questions that applicants face surrounding secondary applications. First, Dr. Marinelli provides an explanation of what secondary applications are for anyone who is unfamiliar.
[2:43] “How quickly do I need to turn these secondary applications around?”Dr. Marinelli believes that with a secondary application, you’re trying to show the school your specific interest in them. To convey that interest, it makes sense to send back the application pretty shortly after receiving it.
[4:42] “Can I start re-using essays that I wrote for one school and turn it into another school?”Many schools ask similar questions so it’s okay to do this sometimes, but you must be very careful. You may get tempted to work fast through secondaries, but make sure you use caution and read each prompt carefully.
[6:59] “How do I answer the question of ‘why do I want to go to this school?’”Almost every secondary asks this. This question is going to take a little bit of work, and there’s not anything you can do to avoid that unless you have some inherit knowledge of the school. Give yourself an hour to do some research.
[9:20] “How are secondaries actually used in evaluating an applicant?”In general, Dr. Marinelli sees the application as twofold. First, it’s a way for medical schools to further narrow down the applicants that are interested in that school. Second, once the school has your secondary application, they can sit down and review your whole application in the context of what they look for.
[13:01] “How do I tackle these secondaries?”Just sit down and start working through them. If you have received multiple secondaries, you should prioritize based on when you received them. It’s also okay to prioritize based on your preferences, too.
