Secondary Applications
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Your primary application (e.g., AMCAS, AACOMAS, TMDSAS) was broad and covered general information about your preparation and motivation for becoming a doctor, dentist, vet, etc. The information in the primary application will be received by all schools and they will determine how to use it. A supplemental or secondary application is specific and designed by each individual school to capture information that they, specifically, deem important in determining whether you’re a good fit for their school.
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The bulk of your secondaries will likely arrive within two weeks of the first application release to schools (date varies by year, but typically late June), or two weeks after verification if you aren't verified by that release date.
AMCAS transmits some basic information to your schools before your application is verified. Since many schools don’t screen applicants and send secondaries to everyone, as soon as they see that you’ve applied, they’ll send a secondary. Some schools will wait until your application is verified, and others will do further screening of your verified application and then determine whether or not to send you a secondary.
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If you haven't done so yet, this is a great place to spend some time talking about why you think you're a good fit for the school, based on its mission, curriculum, or other aspects of it. If you've already done that, reflect on how you've presented yourself and the school's mission, and think of something that you can expand on that speaks to the mission of the school.
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If we had to generalize we'd say that medical schools might wonder why you didn't take the time to complete these 'optional' essays, and ultimately you might pass over an opportunity to present yourself in an even fuller light than you have already.
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The rule of thumb is to send back within two weeks of receipt of a secondary. Schools date stamp everything in your file, and if you take longer than that, we have heard that it can cause concern that you’re either not that interested in the school, or that you’re managing your time poorly in the application cycle. Of course, better to take a little bit longer and feel satisfied in your answer, so do your best to balance timing and quality of responses.
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Our applicants submit a primary application to an average of 25 schools. The primary includes your personal statement and up to 15 mini-essays that you’ll write to describe your experiences. After that, schools will send a secondary application, which can contain any number of additional essays of varying lengths. Most of those secondary applications will arrive in the week or two after your primary application is transmitted to schools (this year, that’s June 30), and the rule of thumb is to try to return them in a timely manner, since this can indicate your enthusiasm, professionalism, and organizational skills. So if you apply to 25 schools and they all have 3-4 secondary essays prompts, it’s true that you could be faced with 100 short essay responses.
Here are some strategies to manage this:- In the years before you apply, keep journaling and reflecting on your preparation, motivation, values, and experiences. Those insights can become the backbone of many secondaries.
- In the year that you’re applying:
- Survey last year’s secondary essay prompts as you create your school list (you’ll find many sources via google). This will give you an idea of what you’ll be asked to write about.
- Don’t burn yourself out on writing during your primary application. There is no “perfection” in a personal statement—once your readers seem to understand your thesis and feel like it’s solid, put it away and move on to secondaries.
- Submit your primary in early June, then start brainstorming and prewriting secondaries based on last year’s prompts. That will give you almost a month to get a head start.
Situational Judgment Tests
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Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) are used by schools to better understand inter- and intrapersonal competencies and your approach to ethical decision making. Over the years, different SJTs have been piloted to complement the written secondary applications. Currently, the CASPer and AAMC PREview are the prevailing SJTs that you will be asked to take when applying to medical school.
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Try to take CASPer and PREview in the summer (June/July) around the time that you’re completing secondary applications so that your score will arrive at your schools around the same time that your file will be complete.
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The CASPer (Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics) test was developed at McMaster Medical School (also the birthplace of the multiple mini-interview, or MMI) and is now used by 20+ medical schools. Like the MMI, it aims to assess non-cognitive competencies associated with success in medicine, such as ethical judgment, interpersonal skills, empathy, and professionalism. You can take CASPer from any computer that meets the system requirements at specified test dates and times (you will register online). You will respond to 8 video-based scenarios and 4 text-based scenarios and scores are sent to medical schools about three weeks after the test is taken. You will not receive your score. You should take CASPer in the summer around the time that you’re completing secondary applications, so that your score will arrive at your schools around the same time that your file will be complete. Familiarize yourself with the test and its format by reading the CASPer webpage and working through the sample scenarios. Many of the same materials you’ll use to prepare for MMIs may also be useful for CASPer since both involve responding to scenarios and ethical situations.
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The PREview professional readiness exam is designed to gauge your judgment in professional situations. It seeks to understand how you’re developing some of the AAMC core competencies (specifically, service orientation; social skills; cultural competence; teamwork; ethical responsibility to self and others; resilience and adaptability; reliability and dependability; and capacity for improvement). There’s another situational judgment test that’s required by some medical schools called the CASPer, which has a different format but measures some of the same characteristics.
The best way to prepare in the years prior to applying to medical school is to place yourself in situations where you’re interacting with others as part of a team and developing your professional judgment. This isn’t a content-based exam like the MCAT – you aren’t expected to memorize facts. It’s an exam where familiarity with how people may effectively approach difficult situations can be helpful. In the years before you apply, you could read through or take the practice exam to get a feel for the format and the questions that are asked.
In the spring before you apply to medical school, you should familiarize yourself with the exam format, expectations, and logistics of taking it (which will be in the spring/summer you apply to medical school). Read all of the free PREview resources posted online and attend the webinar that introduces the exam (register through the PREview website). There’s an examinee preparation guide that goes over the test goals, structure, and format, and a practice exam with a scoring key and explanations of the rationale behind each correct response.
It’s clear that medical schools are eager to understand your ethical decision-making, professionalism, and maturity in addition to your scientific knowledge, and your ability and interest in serving others with health needs. They're continually trying to determine ways to quantify these qualities. There’s debate about how effective these tools are in meeting this goal, how much bias is embedded in them, and the added stress that these assessments add to applying to medical school, but for now, they’re part of the process, so understanding what they’re trying to measure and how they’re trying to measure it will help you prepare. Like everything else (experiences, attributes, GPA, MCAT, etc.), these tests are one piece of many being considered as part of holistic review in admissions, so take them seriously, but try not to lose sleep over them.