The prompt for the personal statement essay is essentially looking for your motivation for your chosen career. For example, the prompt in AMCAS is “Use the space provided to explain why you want to go to medical school (5300 characters)”. The other health career prompts are very similar and the goal is for you to show your journey and suitability for a healthcare career. This can be a very challenging essay to write as you want to highlight your strengths, explain your motivation, show how your experiences have shaped your motivation, and convince the schools that you are suited for this career. This is your first real opportunity for the schools to hear your voice which makes this an important essay. 

Health Careers Advising offers a number of resources to help you in the writing process. We recommend that you begin by watching our two info sessions as they provide a great deal of information. The first session is focused on a process to help you begin brainstorming about the essay. The second is a more detailed session on what to include and factors to consider as you write. Once you have submitted your essay as part of your Health Careers Advising Dossier (HCAD), we will provide feedback during your comprehensive appointment. You can also work with our writing specialists at every step of the writing process.

All of the application services have a space for you to enter your activities and provide a description for them. These descriptions need to include information about what you have done in that activity as well as include a little about what you learned or why that experience was important to you. This is not a place to provide a bulleted list of your tasks but it is also not a place to tell a story about a particular event within that activity. Instead, write a summary of what you did and then provide some reflection on the activity. 

On AMCAS, you will need to choose 3 of your activities as your Most Meaningful Experiences. For these 3 activities, you will write two short essays. The first essay is simply the description of what you did. The second essay, typically described as the Most Meaningful Experience Summary, should be much more reflective. This is a space for you to explain why this experience was meaningful, explain how it shaped your path to medicine, and/or explain what you gained from the experience. We have also created an info session on filling out the AMCAS application to help you with this process. 

If you are applying to MD-PhD programs, there are two additional essays you will need to complete. The first is the MD-PhD essay, which asks you to state your reasons for pursuing the combined MD-PhD degree. You will have already written your personal statement which focuses on your motivation for medicine, so this essay should focus on why the combined degree is important to you. It is important to not just write about why you want the PhD portion of the degree but instead why having both is critical to the work you want to do.

The second essay is Significant Research Experience Essay. This should not be a list of all of your research experience, but instead the 1-2 that were most significant for you. You will need to include your research supervisor’s name and affiliation, the duration of the experience, the nature of the problem you studied, and your contributions to the research effort. You should also explain why these experiences were meaningful to you.

Each medical school has additional essays that you must write before the school will consider your application complete. The topics and prompts for these essays are determined by the individual school and many of them change slightly each year. You will receive the school’s secondaries after your primary application has been processed and verified. It is very important that you complete these within 7-14 days of when you received them as this is an indication of your interest in that particular school. Because of this short timeline to write the essays, many students pre-write the essays using the prompts they find from previous years. This can be a good approach, but it is important to note that the prompts may change annually. We have also created an info session that provides more tips and suggestions on filling out your secondary essays to help you with this process. 

In 2024 AMCAS changed their disadvantaged status essay to what is now known as the Other Impactful Experience Essay (learn more about the change in this AAMC Update) The new prompt is as follows: “To provide some additional context around each individual’s application, admissions committees are interested in learning more about the challenges applicants may have overcome in life. The following question is designed to give you the opportunity to provide additional information about yourself that is not easily captured in the rest of the application. Have you overcome challenges or obstacles in your life that you would like to describe in more detail? This could include lived experiences related to your family background, financial background, community setting, educational experiences, and/or other life circumstances.”

We encourage you to consider if this question applies to you. The schools do not expect all applicants to complete this essay, but it gives you an opportunity to explain any major challenges or obstacles that you have had to overcome in your path to a healthcare career. While this is the exact prompt for AMCAS, other application services may have similar essay prompts. We are happy to provide feedback on this essay during your comprehensive advising appointment. 

Medical schools need to know if you were ever the recipient of any institutional action resulting from unacceptable academic performance or a conduct violation. The specific AMCAS prompt for this is as follows:

If you were ever the recipient of any institutional action by any college or medical school for unacceptable academic performance or conduct violation, you must answer Yes to the question about institutional action, even if such action did not interrupt your enrollment or require you to withdraw. Furthermore, select Yes even if the action does not appear on, or has been deleted or expunged from, your official transcripts as a consequence of institutional policy or personal petition. Examples of institutional actions include, but are not limited to, academic probation, academic standing warnings, suspension, residence hall policy violations, and ethics policy violations.

If you have had any institutional action, including academic warning status or conduct reprimands, you must answer Yes to this question and provide an explanation of what occurred. Medical schools recognize that people make mistakes and that these are often opportunities for growth so answering Yes will not automatically disqualify your application. It is important to acknowledge any mistakes and then highlight how you have changed since then and what you learned from the experience. We are happy to help with these explanations during your comprehensive advising appointment. It is also important to note that even if you do not report your institutional action, it will be shown on a dean’s certification if your schools request one. This is very damaging to your application because it will appear that you lied on your application which will make the schools question your ethical behavior. 

While many of the secondary essay prompts are similar, there are often nuanced differences between the essays and these will require slightly different responses. While you can use similar experiences, we recommend that you carefully read each prompt and tailor your response to the specific question being asked. 

There is a good bit of variation in the timing of when secondary essays are sent, so do not panic if you have not received yours yet. This is even true if others who applied to the same school have received their secondaries. In that instance, you will likely receive yours in a few days. 

We have an info session specifically created to help you get started with the process of writing a personal statement. 

Yes, the language on AMCAS clearly states that you need to report it. Here is the language from the application:

You must indicate whether you have ever been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, a misdemeanor crime, excluding (1) any offense for which you were adjudicated as a juvenile, (2) any convictions that have been expunged or sealed by a court, (3) any misdemeanor convictions for which you completed any probation and for which the court dismissed the case (in states where applicable), and (4) any offense you are not required to disclose pursuant to a state-specific law.

No, the medical schools do not consider your application complete until you have submitted all of their secondary essays.