Summary: This course is aimed at helping premedical students gain a greater understanding of the most fundamental components of secondary applications.
In this course, we will be providing the foundational content that allows students to understand why secondary essays exist and how to see them as medical schools intend. Students will practice how to identify what individual schools want and how to shape their answers towards demonstrating that fit. Since it is impossible to cover every possible secondary question that the hundreds of medical schools may ask, we will be using three common categories of secondary questions to explore these points as well as two student-chosen questions.
Students will have time inside and outside of class to implement what they learn to work on their individual secondary questions. Nevertheless, it is not expected that students with typical writing skills and a typical number of schools will complete and finalize the secondary essays for all schools by the completion of the program. Instead, we will be focused on building skills that students can continue to effectively utilize throughout the cycle.
Format: Online, synchronous webinar
Eligibility: Current and alum JHU students (including undergrads, graduate students, and post-bac students) across the University. This course was designed for students currently applying to medical schools, but students earlier in the process or interested in other professions are welcome to join us. All participating students must submit an application to the course by the stated deadline.
Access: This synchronous course begins on June 17, 2024 and ends July 8, 2024 (opt. office hours 7/15).
Credit: This course is not for academic credit and will not appear on transcripts.
Planned Summer 2024 Content Topics
- “Introduction to Secondary Essays” – This session lays the groundwork for the rest of the course by discussing the role of the primary and secondary applications, and then we will cover a brief overview of medical schools’ mission-driven admissions practices. Students are also given a suggested timeline for how and when to plan to have secondary essays completed. To support students in the writing process, we will also present an approach to expository narrative writing, highlight things to consider while writing secondary essays, and make students aware of Hopkins resources that are available to support them while writing.
- Focus on Question Type: “Why Are You Applying to School X?” – Regardless of whether the schools you apply to ask this specific question in their secondary application, you motivation for applying to each school should underlie the answers to all secondary questions. We will delve deeper in mission-driven admissions, the ways that different schools ask this question, and illustrate why individual schools ask the questions they do in secondary applications.
- Focus on Question Types: “Describe a Challenges You Faces and How You Addressed It” and “How Might You Contribute to the Diversity of the Student Body at School X?” – In this class, we will go deeper into two common types of questions and draw connections between the individual school secondary applications where this question is featured and the school’s mission. We will explore the many ways these questions are asked and illustrate how students can build thoughtful responses.
- Focus on Question Types: Student Chosen Questions (2 selected) – In the prior class, students were given a poll with common question types as well as the opportunity to submit additional secondary questions. Students voted on their preferred questions, and we featured as many of the top responses as possible in this class. The format used similar to the prior class.
- Optional Office Hours – This office hour opportunity allowed interested students to chat with faculty and ask additional questions on this topic.
Cost: The course is free for eligible Hopkins students.
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Understand the purpose of secondary questions and their role in the larger application.
- Recognize how the same question may look different on different school’s secondary application but be focused on addressing the same school concerns.
- Understand the importance of tailoring secondary essays to specific schools, even if the question is similar.
- Gain familiarity with a handful of common secondary application questions.
- Feel able to create an approach for tackling secondary essays.
- Complete early brainstorming/drafts of 3-5 common secondary questions.