how to write a diversity essay for medical school

How to Write the Medical School Secondary Diversity Essay

By Med School Insiders
June 13, 2022
Secondary Application

The medical school secondary diversity essay exists because admissions committees want to ensure their campus is as diverse as possible. Medical schools want to attract applicants from all walks of life so that each student contributes something unique to the student body. The diversity essay is an opportunity for applicants to discuss their minority background or otherwise unique history or identity and how their uniqueness will contribute to the college community.

In this post, we’ll break down why this prompt is asked, what admissions committees are looking for, and how to best answer it.

Medical School Secondaries

The AMCAS application opens for the following year’s medical school class around the first week of May. Submissions open around the end of May to early June, so you have a month to prepare your primary application. Therefore, if you hope to begin medical school in the fall of 2023, you must apply in the spring of 2022.

Your secondary applications will take about two to four weeks to arrive after you submit your primary application. Secondaries must be completed as soon as possible without compromising quality. We recommend taking no longer than 7-14 days to submit each secondary you receive.

This is especially true because, at Med School Insiders, we recommend applicants apply to around 20 different medical schools . This could mean receiving 20 different secondaries, all within the same general time frame.

For more information about ideal scheduling, read our Medical School Application Timeline Guide .

Why Do Schools Include a Diversity Essay?

Colleges, and not just medical schools, believe their college culture, community, and campus learning experience can be enriched by including a wide array of different backgrounds, perspectives, identities, and beliefs. Therefore, many admissions committees assign a diversity essay so that each applicant can explain in their own words how their identity and background will help enhance the student body at large.

Diversity essays are an opportunity for applicants with minority backgrounds, unique family histories, an unconventional education, or otherwise distinctive experiences to explain how their uniqueness will add to the campus community.

How to Answer the Medical School Secondary Diversity Essay

1 | diversity comes in many forms.

This is an extremely important point, as many applicants who don’t come from a specific socioeconomic or ethnocultural background believe they are unable to add diversity to a prospective medical school class. This is a common misconception. Diversity isn’t limited to the color of your skin or which religion your family belongs to.

Did you experience a non-traditional upbringing growing up? This could include losing a family member, having a sibling or family member with a health concern or disability, growing up in a single parent home, needing to work at a young age, or much more. There are many, many factors that could contribute to your diversity.

Focus on your story. Which personal qualities make you unique? What aspect of your personal identity, upbringing, or family has separated you from your peers?

2 | What is Your Personal Identity?

If you’re stuck on what direction to take this essay, take time to look inward and consider your own identity. Who are you? What kind of person are you? What makes you, well, you? What makes you unique from other candidates?

Your identity is made up of a number of different factors, including your ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and health.

You might also consider any non-traditional experiences you’ve had or a non-traditional upbringing.

What was your home life like?
What was your financial situation growing up?
What is your family’s education level?
How much did you have to work when you were younger?
Do you come from a multicultural background?
Have you experienced a personal health scare?
Do you have family members who have significant health concerns?
Have you lost close family members?
Did you lose a parent at a young age?
Did you grow up in a single parent home?
Have you experienced any kind of traumatic event that has informed your values and identity?

3 | Get Personal

Don’t hold back when sharing your experiences. Surface-level stories or bland anecdotes will not stand out. What personal details can you add that will better illustrate your points?

Describe in detail how the experience made you feel. What did you learn? What qualities have you developed as a result of the experience? How will you apply what you learned and the qualities you earned to your medical education and eventual career?

At the same time, remember that your experience may be brought up during your interview. Anything you mention in your application is fair game to be asked about on the interview trail. Do not write about any experience you will be unable to speak about in person. It’s good to be open and show vulnerability, but it’s also vital that you maintain your composure during your interview.

If you don’t think you can speak about the experience face-to-face with an interviewer, leave it out of your essay.

4 | Don’t Repeat Yourself

You may have been asked a diversity question in your primary application, or you may have chosen to focus on this aspect of your life in your personal statement.

Do not repeat yourself in your secondary. Admissions committees already have access to your primary application. Repeating the same stories won’t provide adcoms with any additional insight into who you are. The secondaries are an opportunity to add something new to your story.

If you’re going to touch on an experience, moment, or lesson you’ve already mentioned, ensure that you are adding to it. You must provide a notable amount of additional context if you utilize the same examples in your secondaries.

5 | Continue Crafting Your Narrative

An essential piece of a successful primary application is the cohesive narrative you build throughout it about who you are and why you want to be a doctor. The secondary application is no different. The diversity essay is an opportunity to continue the narrative you established in your primary application.

It’s important that the diversity essay fits well with the rest of your secondary application. Each piece of the application should add to your story and provide additional context about how you’ve arrived at where you are today.

Learn How to Develop a Cohesive Narrative for Medical School Applications .

Medical School Secondary Diversity Essay Examples

There are a number of different directions you can take your diversity essay.

You might discuss a time when you or someone you care about experienced prejudice. How did that experience make you feel? What did you learn? How did it shape who you are? If you took action in response to this, what action did you take? Did you try to support others who are experiencing prejudice?

You might discuss the difficulties you’ve had growing up with parents who have different values than your own. How did these differences change your relationship with your family? How did that conflict in your life shape who you are today? Were you able to resolve your differences with your family, or did you need to prioritize your own needs and identity?

You might discuss how your cultural background has been a positive influence on your life. How has learning another language and participating in cultural values distinct from those of the US shaped who you are? What have you learned from the traditional values of your family? How can you apply what you’ve learned to interacting with people who come from other ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds?

You might discuss how from a very young age you needed to help support your family financially. How did taking on that burden when you were young shape you? How were you able to help and support your family? Was it financially or with your time? What did you learn from that experience growing up, and how has it informed your priorities and outlook on life?

Secondary Application Editing With Med School Insiders

We get it. We understand how long you’ve already been working on the application process, but now is not the time to give up. It’s time to knuckle down and drive this thing home.

Med School Insiders can help. Our Medical School Secondary Application Editing services will help you write the kind of singular secondary applications that will get you noticed by your top choice medical schools. Our doctor advisors have served on medical school admissions committees, and they’ve read hundreds of secondary essays. Our team will help you craft a stellar secondary application tailored to each school you apply to.

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Medical School Diversity Essay: Complete Guide

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Admissions committees want to ensure their campus is as varied as possible, so they require additional diversity essays for medical schools.

Medical schools strive to draw candidates from diverse backgrounds so that each student can bring something unique to the school.

The diversity essay allows you to talk about your ethnicity or other distinctive characteristics and how those characteristics will benefit the campus community.

This article will give you a thorough understanding of a medical school diversity essay and the best tips on making a compelling one.

What is a Diversity Essay for Medical School?

Many secondary admissions require a diversity essay. If a diversity essay is suggested, you should still view it as a requirement because contributing additional, compelling materials increases your chances of getting accepted.

Sending extra resources will enable the admissions committees to understand your distinctive background better since they matriculate well-rounded, diversified, and experienced individuals. A recurrent element across purpose and vision statements on medical school websites is diversity.

This is due to the necessity for healthcare professionals who can relate to and treat a variety of patient populations in the medical industry.

Some institutions even have unique diversity declarations demonstrating their unwavering dedication to enrolling a diverse student body, including students of every color, religion, sexual orientation, identity, and experience in education and the workforce.

To further promote the advantages of diversity in medicine, admissions committees give unconventional applicants with non-science backgrounds substantial consideration and admit them.

What Counts as Diversity?

Put your worries aside if you are concerned that because you do not identify with a historically underrepresented group, you do not qualify as a diverse applicant.

Diversity in the context of med school applications does not mean that only members of racial or ethnic minorities should be admitted.

Yes, minority applicants are diverse and are urged to submit applications to medical school, but diversity does not stop there.

Instead, diversity is viewed broadly to embrace a variety of areas. In addition, everyone is diverse because each person may draw on their own particular experiences and backgrounds, which is advantageous in the healthcare industry.

Candidates might be diverse due to a variety of distinct qualities and traits:

Career switchers
Returning older students
Non-traditional candidates
Returning parents to the workforce
Candidates with military experience
Candidates who did not major in science
Candidates from challenging socioeconomic backgrounds
Candidates who persevere in the face of enormous difficulties
Historically underrepresented groups (including those based on race, ethnicity, gender, and gender identity as well as language, sexual orientation, and more )

You will have many examples to pick from if you widen your idea of diversity to include your learning experiences and worldviews.

8 Tips for Answering Medical School Diversity Essays

Diversity essays for medical schools give candidates with diverse backgrounds, unusual families, unorthodox educations, or other different experiences a chance to describe how their distinctiveness would enrich the campus community.

Your diversity essay is your chance to show the medical school you are applying to what you have to offer. Hence, it is a must that you ensure that you stand out among the other candidates.

Below are the best tips when writing your diversity essay for medical school.

Decide What Makes You Unique

Before you even start writing, develop a list of the characteristics in your background that set you apart.

Consider your schooling, employment history, extracurricular activities, upbringing, family life, and other facets of your path to medical school.

The purpose of brainstorming is to stimulate your creative thinking.

Do not worry about spelling, grammar, or sentence structure at this time. Your objective is to write down as many thoughts as you can so that you can start to develop a narrative for your diversity essay using one to three examples.

Focus on Your Story

This is a crucial aspect since many applicants who do not belong to a particular socioeconomic or ethnic group feel they cannot bring variety to a potential medical school class.

Unfortunately, this is a typical misunderstanding. Diversity is not only about your skin tone or the religion your ancestors practiced.

Did you grow up in a non-traditional environment?

This could involve losing a family member, having a brother or other family member who is ill or disabled, growing up in a home with only one parent, starting work at an early age, or many other things. There are a ton of different things that could be a part of your variety.

Do not Hold Back

Do not be reluctant to share your experiences. Simple or uninteresting anecdotes will not stand out. What specific information about yourself can you include to support your arguments?

Clearly state how the encounter affected you.

What did you discover?

How has the experience helped you grow in terms of your character?

How did you utilize what you learned and acquired skills to further your medical education and, ultimately, your career?

In addition, keep in mind that your experience can come up during the interview. Therefore, any information you include in your application is fair for questioning throughout the interview process.

Never write about an experience that you will not be able to discuss in person. It is beneficial to be honest and vulnerable. Still, it is equally important that you keep your cool throughout the interview.

Make Sure Your Story Has a Potential Contribution to the Community

Occasionally, candidates focus so much on their differences that they lose sight that being unique is a means, not an end, to an objective.

These distinctions and distinctive traits/experiences must have a purpose. They must assist in demonstrating your merit for a place at the roundtable discussion for medical schools.

Being a two-time offender or a habitual absence from school are two examples of unusual qualities and experiences for a medical school applicant . Will they aid you in entering?

Most likely not, and for apparent motives. Concentrating on another subject for your medical school diversity essay might be best.

The idea is straightforward. Once you have determined your unique traits, your primary responsibility is to explain how that distinctiveness will enable you to offer something extraordinary both in and outside school.

Enter your text here...

Keep Developing Your Narrative

The coherent story you weave throughout your primary application about who you are and why you want to be a doctor is crucial to a successful application.

Nothing different applies to the second application. The diversity essay allows you to develop the story you started in your main application.

The diversity essay must flow naturally with the remainder of your secondary application. Each application component should support your narrative and offer further background information on how you came to be where you are.

Do Not Repeat Yourself

Make sure you are expanding on any experiences, moments, or lessons you have already addressed if you will bring them up again. You must include more background if you use the same examples in your secondaries.

Do not say the same thing twice in your secondary. Your initial application is already available to the admissions committee. Repeating the same tales will not give the admission committee any new information about you. The secondary chapters offer you the chance to develop your plot further.

Have Enough Evidence of What You Are Writing

Even if diversity may be an elusive idea or characteristic, it needs concrete proof. Therefore, diversity essays for med school are not comprehensive without a clear explanation of how your "diversity" relates to your experiences.

You cannot, for instance, blatantly claim that your history as an immigrant son or daughter and first-generation college student gives you some important insight into the concerns of immigrant populations.

You still need to provide evidence, even though it makes sense that you would be more knowledgeable than people from wealthy, non-immigrant families. Clearly state the links.

Therefore, the ideal strategy is not to overemphasize how significant your minority identity is if you do choose to focus on ethnic, cultural, or religious diversity.

Instead, a compelling essay might concentrate on your commitment to diversity and social justice issues or your efforts to address the health disparities between minorities and non-minorities. It could also be your encounters that show a concrete proof of your cross-cultural competence in patient or client interactions.

These three subjects are not exhaustive but could serve as an excellent starting point.

Proofread and Double-Check Your Diversity Essay

Spend some time going over a few crucial details in your article again. Ensure the element or elements you emphasize have real personal significance for you. Then, reread your essay one last time to ensure you genuinely respond to the question.

The diversity essay is multifaceted. For example, one school might require you only to list any noteworthy aspects of your background.

At the same time, another would want you to explain how those aspects will improve their curriculum or influence your future line of work.

Additionally, make sure you relate your attributes to medicine, particularly to the institution you are applying to.

Medical School Diversity Essay Sample Prompts

The leading schools' diversity essay prompts are provided below to give you an idea of what is anticipated. Remember that each of these prompts has a consistent theme.

Specifically, medical schools are interested in your broad diversity and how it will benefit the institution's purpose, vision, and student body.

Larner College of Med – University of Vermont

The Larner College of Medicine understands that diversity embraces all of a person's experiences and goes beyond their self-identified or unidentified identities. Consider a period when you gained knowledge from a person or organization that is different from yourself.

Mayo Med School – Mayo Clinic

Our individual inflections, which make up our diversity, distinguish us from one another or bind us together. Describe how your personal and professional activities reflect your relationship to your own variety and the diversity of others.

Stanford University School of Medicine

The diversity of an entering class is viewed by the admissions committee as a crucial component in advancing the school's educational purpose. The Committee on Admissions encourages you to address any distinctive, personally significant, and/or challenging aspects of your background.

These aspects may include how well you were educated as a child, your gender, your sexual orientation, any physical disabilities, and life or employment experiences.

Please explain how these influences have shaped your aspirations and training for a future in medicine and how they might enable you to make a distinctive contribution to the Stanford learning environment.

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

The Pritzker Sch of Medicine at the University of Chicago is committed to encouraging diverse students with an extraordinary promise to become leaders and innovators in science and medicine for the benefit of humanity. This is done in an environment of multidisciplinary scholarship and discovery.

Our essential objective and educational ethos are expressed in our mission statement. In particular, it emphasizes how important diversity is to us since we believe that variety in the student body is vital to academic performance. Please submit an essay outlining how you would further Pritzker's goal and promote diversity there.

Wake Forest School of Medicine

We want to develop doctors who can relate to various patient populations, even though they may not have a common background. Tell us about a situation that helped you to see the world more broadly or to understand people who are different from you better and what you took away from it.

Medical School Diversity Essay Samples

The diversity essay questions you are given by various institutions may differ, meaning that the terminology and what is being asked of you will be unique to each institution.

To prepare yourself, reading a few samples is a good idea.

While the general substance of each prompt will not fluctuate significantly depending on the school, you might want to change the organization or sequencing of the content for various prompts.

Here are some of the best samples of medical school diversity essays.

Prompt: Diversity can take many different shapes. How do you think you could add to the class's diversity?

I feel fortunate to have a solid sense of my roots. Being in Italy frequently throughout my life has allowed me to see how this culture's ideologies differ from those of the United States.

Italian society is frequently tarnished by the myth that its people are idle or unwilling to put forth the effort. People will, in my opinion, see a community where love and camaraderie are more critical than monetary possessions if they view the world objectively.

As a result, there is a considerable emphasis on other people's health and wellness. There is always time for family dinner, a coffee with a friend, or a mind-clearing walk in the evening.

Growing up, my family always ensured everyone had access to food and conversation. I adhere to this concept and see working in the healthcare industry as a chance to assist people in leading fulfilling lives and seeking their own happiness.

Healthcare experts have continuously allowed my loved ones to live independently and be there throughout my life. They have provided me with a service and a gift, and I want to spend the rest of my life sharing that gift with others. My passion for studying medicine and my holistic way of living have been influenced by my culture, background, and experiences in life.

In addition to being a physician in training, I will bring these qualities of empathy and holistic care to my role as a classmate who supports others through medical school challenges.

Prompt: Without restricting the discussion to your identity, please elaborate on how you see yourself supporting the fundamental principles of inclusion and diversity at our school of medicine and the medical field.

When I think about diversity, the first thing that springs to me is "a difference of opinion." As a member of the debate club and a student with a budding interest in classical philosophy, I've come to understand the importance of having a variety of viewpoints. I think advancement is basically impossible without the ability to question our assumptions and expectations about the world and ourselves.

My responsibility as a volunteer scribe at a mobile clinic was to document the specifics of patient examinations. We saw primarily middle-aged or older people. One patient, Paul, showed up at the mobile clinic with a nasty cut on his foot that he claimed was caused by catching his foot on an old rolled-up fence behind his barn. He was skeptical when we suggested he get a tetanus injection. He expressed why he didn't think immunizations were effective.

It was crucial to avoid conflict. We emphasized that while maintaining his autonomy was our first goal, he was likely to contract tetanus, which is potentially fatal. We explained to him that the tetanus vaccine has contributed to a 95% reduction in tetanus cases since about 1950. The patient thought for a bit, then agreed to the vaccination and thanked us for our assistance before leaving. I want to provide the University of Maryland School of Medicine with what I've learned through polite, open communication.

Prompt: What diverse characteristics and experiences could you offer the community of medical schools?

Our training for the Peace Corps taught us a metaphor for our work. Our new neighborhood could be compared to a square if America, our country of origin, were a circle. Volunteers like me formed triangles. The purpose? We could see both as legitimate modes of existence since we were a part of both.

The majority of us have several identities. I also practice living in the center by driving a boat across an island chain. The translator assumes a crucial role in Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, one of my favorite books, which tells the tale of foreign ambassadors who are taken hostage during a banquet. He is the one who must communicate, interpret, and give voice to the blank spaces between characters.

I have had many opportunities to translate for my siblings, parents, Belizean villagers, and others in my health advocacy work. I am the oldest child, a former Peace Corps volunteer, and a member of a mixed-race family.

My "triangular" persona enables me to take an alternative perspective on issues. The medical school is a hub for creative thinking and an entrepreneurial community. I wish to take part in the translation of differences and support of evidence-based solutions to health issues.

I believe that to fulfill my duty, I must be willing to try to comprehend others. My capacity to stand in two places, ears and heart open, enable dialogue, and give my perspective from a place of collaborative appreciation, will be my most outstanding contribution to the medical school community. In a silo, growth cannot take place. It starts with acknowledging the significance of all identities while learning from and working with others.

Additional FAQs – Medical School Diversity Essay

Do all medical schools require a diversity essay, why is diversity good in medical school, you're no longer alone on your journey to becoming a physician.

How to Showcase Diversity in a Med School Essay

A med school admissions dean was impressed with these essays by students from varied backgrounds.

How to Write Med School Diversity Essays

An African-American reading on her computer.

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Some medical schools ask applicants to give details about their exposure to and interactions with marginalized populations.

U.S. doctors don't always get to cherry-pick the patients they'll care for or the medical conditions they treat.

Hospital emergency room physicians in the U.S. are legally obligated to care for every person who arrives with a medical emergency, regardless of the person's ability to pay for medical treatment. And in nearly every area of medicine, a doctor can expect to encounter patients with varied circumstances, personalities and perspectives.

[Read: Use a Medical School Diversity Statement to Shine .]

Dr. Linton Yee, associate dean for admissions at Duke University School of Medicine , says one of the challenges doctors are often faced with is the need to initiate a conversation about a medical problem with someone they've never met before. "You're going to walk into a room with a total stranger, and somehow you've got to make a connection with this person in order to figure out what's going on," he says.

Doctors must bond with and understand their patients, Yee says. That's one reason why medical schools seek students who demonstrate a willingness to be compassionate towards any individual they treat.

To identify applicants with a nonjudgmental disposition, some med schools ask applicants to give details about their exposure to and interactions with marginalized populations, including those who struggle with poverty. Med schools also sometimes inquire about whether applicants intend to serve as a physician for a medically needy community, such as a poor rural area or inner-city region where doctors are scarce, and there are certain medical school scholarships reserved for applicants who make a commitment to practice medicine in areas of the U.S. with doctor shortages .

In addition, because many medical schools strive to assemble a student body that is diverse in terms of race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, geography and ethnicity, these institutions often inquire about whether an applicant identifies as a minority in U.S. society.

Yee says that empathy is a key quality he looks for when he screens medical school applicants and decides which have the potential to become quality physicians. "We can teach you all about the intricacies of pathology and treating patients and management and all that sort of stuff, but we can't teach you how to care for people," he says. Because of the increasing diversity of the U.S. population, all aspiring doctors should be prepared to deal with a wide array of patients, including patients of multiple races, Yee says.

[Read: 4 Factors Prospective Medical Students Overlook .]

Though Duke University School of Medicine does not require a formal diversity statement, many of its secondary application essay questions give applicants an opportunity to describe their commitment to diversity.

Below are two essays by incoming Duke medical students who impressed Yee with their thoughtful discussion of diversity.

The first essay is by Ariana Paniagua, a student of mixed heritage who described the lessons she learned from the cultural traditions of each of her parents, including her mother, who is a devout Buddhist of Sicilian ancestry, and her father, who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador. "I really wanted to give a genuine sense of who I was and the most important aspects of my upbringing and family that helped to shape me into the person I am today," she says. "So it was really important to me to express everything accurately, and also to take a lot of time to reflect, because these aren't things that we think about everyday necessarily."

[Read: Highlight Diversity in Medical School Applications .]

The second essay is authored by Drake Sanders, a student of African-American ancestry who says that his race has played a key role in shaping his identity. Sanders says this essay about his core values would have been incomplete if he had shied away from discussing race. "Especially in the times we're living in now, it's such a polarizing issue, and I was trying to make it less polarizing, if that's possible even," he says. "So I was trying to be as clear and as noncombative as possible in describing what it's like growing up black."

how to write a diversity essay for medical school

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The Medical School Diversity Essay: Everything You Need to Know

June 13, 2017

The Medical School Diversity Essay

Now that you've turned in your AMCAS (phew!), you're probably wondering how to tackle the monster of secondaries coming your way. One of the most common questions asked in one form or another is the medical school diversity essay . Have you ever wondered why diversity is such an important component of the medical school admission process? I’ve heard a lot of pre-med students eager to write this off as a political move on the behalf of medical schools, without taking the time to truly consider its value.

Of course, in the US we have a powerful tradition of diversity in higher education. Diversity in the classroom (and on campus) allows students to produce a “creative friction,” thereby improving the educational experience for all.

However, in the medical school context, diversity has an additional, more utilitarian purpose: it is crucial to the quality of medical care provided by these soon-to-be physicians. An ability to understand your patients -- regardless of background -- is an integral part of your life as a doctor.

So, now that we have solved the great admissions diversity mystery, we can get started on the actual essays. First, what does a medical school diversity essay actually look like? Let’s take an example from one of Stanford Med School’s recent secondary applications:

“The Committee on Admissions regards the diversity (broadly defined) of an entering class as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the school. The Committee on Admissions strongly encourages you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as the quality of your early educational environment, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and life or work experiences. Please discuss how such factors have influenced your goals and preparation for a career in medicine.”

Or this question from Wake Forest School of Medicine :

“The Committee on Admissions values diversity as an important factor in the educational mission of the Wake Forest School of Medicine. How will you contribute to the diversity of your medical school class and to the medical community in general?”

Ultimately, these medical school diversity essay prompts are all variations on the same question, “How are you different from other applicants, and how does that difference impact your ability to contribute in medical school and beyond?”

This prompt brings us to our first action point:

1. “Diversity” and “Underrepresented Minority” are not synonymous.

Have you ever heard someone lament, “[sigh]...I’m not a minority so I’m not diverse.” I have. Many times. Most frequently, this lamentation originates from a lack of creativity and fundamental understanding about what diversity means. As we’ve already discussed, diversity serves two purposes: 1) varying perspectives in a classroom and on campus so as to produce more comprehensive learning, and 2) Improving patient care once these applicants become newly-minted MDs.

Thus, while ethno-cultural, religious, or socioeconomic backgrounds are all forms of diversity, they are by no means the only forms of diversity. Indeed, diversity is anything about you which is special and which will allow you to satisfy the objectives of diversity as described above.

Multlingual? That’s diversity.

Been in the military? That’s diversity.

Had a rare disease as a child? That’s diversity.

Have a special personal quality (such as being a talented connector, or unusually high EQ)? Diversity.

Have a very specific and innovative career path in mind (e.g., using robotics to improve prosthetics)? Diversity.

Worked as a personal trainer or a nutritionist?....you see where I’m going with this. The key is not to narrowly define diversity, but instead to broadly construe how your “diverse elements” will allow you to contribute something unique to your prospective school and ultimately, your profession.

This brings us to our second action point:

2. Your “diversity” means nothing if it isn’t clearly connected to your potential contribution.

Sometimes, applicants get too caught up in the ways they are different, that they forget that being different is not an end, but a means to an end. These differences and unique qualities/experiences have to accomplish something. They have to help prove that you are deserving of a seat at the med school roundtable.

For example, being a chronic truant or two-time felon are certainly unique qualities and experiences for an applicant to medical school. Will they help you get in? Almost certainly not, and for obvious reasons. Best to focus on some other topic for your medical school diversity essay .

The point is simple: once you have identified what makes you unique, your primary task is to explain how that uniqueness will allow you to contribute something special in school and beyond.

This brings us to our third action point:

3. Diversity, as with all other parts of your application, requires evidence.

“I am the smartest person in the world.”

Really!? Are you actually the smartest person in the world? Prove it.

“I have unique insight into the needs of immigrant populations.”

Oh do you? And what, pray tell, gives you this incredible insight?

“I have always dreamed of being part of Doctors Without Borders, and helping to save the world one person at a time.”

Is that so? Because I don’t see a single international community service experience on your application...

...see where I’m going with this? Diversity, though it may be an intangible concept or quality, still requires tangible evidence. A medical school diversity essay is not complete without a clear explanation of how your “diversity” relates to your experiences.

For example, if you are a first generation college student and the son/daughter of immigrants, you cannot just baldly state that this background gives you some crucial insight into the needs of immigrant populations. Although it seems plausible that you would know more than others who are from affluent, non-immigrant backgrounds, you still need to prove it. Make the connections explicit.

You could do this by providing anecdotes about your communication skills with immigrant families during your time with Habitat for Humanity. Or you could explain how you used your special insights and cross-cultural communication skills in becoming a leader in La Raza.

Ultimately, if what makes you diverse is that you have a very high capacity for empathy, you don’t need to have an activity on your AMCAS experiences section called “the society for people who empathize good and want to learn to do other things good too.” You just need to explain how your diverse element(s) have affected or motivated your activities, even if they seem totally unrelated.

E.g., “I am a motivator. I love motivating people to better their lives. That is why I worked as a nutritionist. Moreover, as a writing instructor at Dartmouth’s RWIT program, I had the opportunity not only to help students with their writing, but also to show them how exciting and fun it could be.” Please note: this is not from an actual essay, and if it was, it would not be especially good. This is just to demonstrate a point.

Thus, if you do decide to focus on ethnic, cultural, or religious diversity, the best approach is not to hammer the adcom with how significant your minority status is. Rather, a strong medical school diversity essay might focus on your activities which were committed to diversity and social justice issues; or on your pursuits which address health disparities between minority and non-minority populations; or experiences which provide tangible evidence of your cross-cultural competence during patient or client interactions. Of course, these three topics are not exhaustive, but might be a good place to start.

This brings us to our final, and most succinct point:

4. Using buzzwords doesn’t convince anyone

This is a common mistake among applicants who think that repeating buzzwords such as “diverse,” “multicultural,” “cross-cultural,” “underrepresented,” etc. will automatically convince an adcom that they are those things. It won’t. In fact, it is no more likely to convince them of your diversity credentials than if I tried to convince you of the quality of this article by simply repeating “this article is super informative and comprehensive, and it is likely the best thing you’ve read all week.”

In short: let your evidence and experience do the talking.

Tags : applying to medical school , medical school , medical school essays , med school , applying to med school , hot to get into medical school , medical school diversity essay

joel butterly

Joel Butterly, Co-founder and CEO of InGenius Prep, is an experienced admissions counselor and entrepreneur. Joel comes from a rich educational background—his immediate family alone has 14 Ivy League Degrees—from Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and Dartmouth.

Joel attended Dartmouth College, where he studied Government, Geography, and the Philosophy of Ethics. He was inducted early into Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. He graduated with a double major in Government and International Studies, and a minor in Ethical Philosophy.

After Dartmouth, Joel attended Yale Law School, where he served on the executive board of the Journal on Regulation, as well as the Law School’s entrepreneurship society.

Joel currently resides at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. He lives with his fiance – Emily – who teaches and is receiving her PhD in Medieval History from Yale.

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Medical School Diversity Essay Prompts (21 Examples)

Putting together an incredible diversity essay for a college or med school application can be tough. Knowing where to start, or exactly what it is a school wants to see or read, only adds to the challenge.

A good way to prepare and get a better understanding of what diversity essays are all about is to take a look at prompts. Reading them; you can see recurring themes, common questions, and how schools even try to “diversify” their own diversity questions!

In this article I’ve put together 21 examples and grouped them together under the following categorizations:

Prompts from Ivy League medical schools
Prompts from mid-tier schools
Prompts from low-tier schools
Prompts from D.O. schools

I hope that by reading them you’ll get a better idea of what diversity essays are about!

Ready to get started? Let’s go.

Just want quick writing tips? Check out this article; How To Write An Awesome Diversity Essay In Medical School (5 Quick Tips) .

How can you find specific prompts for schools you’re applying for?

The best way to stay on top of secondary essay prompts is via the community at The Student Doctor Network .

There, you can sign up for alerts on application information (and secondary prompts) specific to each school.

You’ll also see new threads for every year of admission!

Diversity essay topics

You’ll see the most common topics from these prompts include:

Your educational environment
Your cultural and socioeconomic background
Your ethnicity
Your geographic origin
Your lifestyle
Your gender identity
Your sexual orientation
Your physical ability/challenges
Your views on social justice
Your work experience

Ivy League medical school diversity essay prompts

Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive and colleges change these prompts every year.

You’ll also notice that not every school asks for a secondary essay based on diversity!

Pay close attention to the word count of your school’s prompt when it comes to writing…

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Are there any special, unique, personal, or challenging aspects of your personal background or circumstances that you would like to share with the Committee on Admissions, not addressed elsewhere (siblings/relatives at Penn, applying as a couple, educational environment, culture, ethnicity, etc.) ( 1000 characters)

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons values diversity in all its forms. How will your background and experiences contribute to this important focus of our institution and inform your future role as a physician? 300 words .

Harvard Medical School

If there is an important aspect of your personal background or identity, not addressed elsewhere in the application, that you would like to share with the Committee, we invite you to do so here. Examples might include significant challenges in access to education, unusual socioeconomic factors, identification with a minority culture, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. Briefly explain how such factors have influenced your motivation for a career in medicine. (4000 character maximum)

Geisel School of Medicine

Geisel School of Medicine values social justice and diversity in all its forms. Reflect on a situation where you were the “other”. (250 words)

Yale School of Medicine

Yale School of Medicine values diversity in all its forms. How will your background and experiences contribute to this important focus of our institution and inform your future role as a physician? (500 words limit)

Alpert Medical School

How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Alpert Medical School community? (2000 characters)

Mid Tier medical school diversity essay prompts

*Schools typically ranking 10-20 in common medical school rankings

These schools follow the same trends as those of the Ivy League ones. They also expect you to think about socioeconomics, sexual orientation, gender, and ethnicity, etc.

Some recycle their prompts every year. Others (like John Hopkins/Vanderbilt) are a little more open to creativity.

Duke University

Tell us more about who you are. You may provide additional information that expands your self-identity where gender identification, racial and/or ethnic self description, geographic origin, socioeconomic, academic, and/or other characteristics that define who you are as you contemplate a career that will interface with people who are similar AND dissimilar to you. You will have the opportunity below to tell us how you wish to be addressed, recognized and treated. (500 words)

Stanford University

The Committee on Admissions regards the diversity (broadly defined) of an entering class as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the school. The Committee on Admissions strongly encourages you to share unique, personally important and/or challenging factors in your background which may include such discussions as the quality of your early education, gender, sexual orientation, any physical challenges, and life or work experiences. Please describe how these factors have influenced your goals and preparation for a career in medicine and may help you to uniquely contribute to the Stanford learning environment. (2000 characters )

Johns Hopkins University

Briefly describe a situation where you were not in the majority. What did you learn from the experience? (2500 characters)

Optional: You may address any subject you wish, such as being a first generation college student, or being a part of a minority group (whether because of your sexual orientation, religion, economic status, gender identity, ethnicity) or being the child of undocumented immigrants or being undocumented yourself, etc. (2500 characters)

University of Pittsburgh

UPSOM is committed to building a diverse and talented community that will train physicians in delivering culturally competent, person-centered care, and promoting a supportive, collaborative learning environment. To achieve this, we want our fellow students to recognize health disparities and advocate for health equity. We are interested in combating all forms of systemic barriers, and would like to hear your thoughts on opposing specifically: systemic racism, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, and misogyny. How will you contribute? (Limit your response to 250 words or less .)

Vanderbilt University

Tell us about a time when you interacted with someone who is different than you. What did you learn? What would you do differently? (600 words)

Northwestern University (Feinberg)

The Feinberg School of Medicine values diversity as a measure of excellence. We define diversity as the totality of the characteristics and experiences of our students. We believe that a diverse student body improves the educational environment and the ability of our graduates to serve an increasingly diverse patient population. Narrative Descriptions: Everyone has their own narrative. Please provide more detail about how your experiences would enrich the Northwestern community. (200 word max)

Feinberg’s mission is to train future leaders in medicine who will serve their patients, communities and society. Describe one specific interest in medicine and how FSM, located in Chicago which is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country, will help you achieve this professional goal. (200 word max)

Low Tier medical school diversity essay prompts

*Schools typically ranking outside the top 20 in common medical school rankings

Diversity is at the heart of all medical colleges in the U.S.

Rankings? Have nothing to do with a school’s level of commitment – as you’ll see with these prompts!

Make sure you read your school’s mission statement along with their prompt, that’ll help you better approach an answer.

University of Iowa (Carver)

Describe any unique personal characteristics or obstacles you may have overcome that will influence your contribution to a diverse healthcare system.

Temple University (Katz)

How do you plan on contributing to the Lewis Katz School of Medicine Community? LKSOM seeks an engaged student body with a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and interests to enhance the medical school experience for everyone. Please use the space below to describe what makes you unique as an applicant, an obstacle that you had to overcome, or how you will contribute to the LKSOM community. (2000 characters )

Florida Atlantic University (Schmidt)

Diversity means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences. Describe what uniqueness you would bring to the Schmidt COM. We are proud to already have a medical school rich in cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you add to our culture? (1600 characters )

SUNY Upstate Medical University

Upstate Medical University is strongly committed to providing a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for the patients we serve and all who work at, study at, or visit our campus. As a potential partner in this effort, please describe your commitment to eliminating health inequities, discrimination, or other forms of social injustice. (500 words)

George Washington University

What makes you a unique individual? What challenges have you faced? How will these factors help you contribute to the diversity of the student body at GW? (1000 characters)

D.O. medical school diversity essay prompts

You’ll also see that D.O. schools require diversity essays just as often as their allopathic counterparts.

The same writing rules and strategies apply.

Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM)

Other than healthcare access, what are some of the most important health care issues confronting underserved communities? How would you address them?

Briefly describe a situation where you were not in the majority. What did you learn from this experience?’

New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM)

NYITCOM values diversity, equity, and inclusion. How will your background and experiences add to our inclusive culture and how will this focus influence your future role as a physician? (Max. 1000 characters)

What should you do with a medical school diversity essay prompt?

The next best step is to look at your school’s mission statement. Examine what their aims and objectives are in terms of student and faculty representation. Understand that, then try to draw parallels from your own background that lend themselves well.

Use it to brainstorm a couple of points from your life that fit the prompt. Then choose what you feel are the best ones and start writing a couple of rough drafts.

The important thing is to make an attempt early. That’ll make it seem less daunting!

Where can I see medical school diversity essay examples?

I’ve ranked some of the best diversity essay examples I could find, along with giving them a small critique, in the following article…

Related : 6 Medical School Diversity Essay Examples (Ranked Best To Worst!)

Hopefully, scanning over those can give you further ideas on what to think and write about.

Born and raised in the UK, Will went into medicine late (31) after a career in journalism. He’s into football (soccer), learned Spanish after 5 years in Spain, and has had his work published all over the web. Read more .

Recommended

How to write a medical school diversity essay

Now that you’ve turned in your AMCAS (phew!), you’re probably wondering how to tackle the monster of secondaries coming your way. One of the most common questions asked in one form or another is the diversity essay for medical school. Have you ever wondered why diversity is such an important component of the medical school admission process? I’ve heard a lot of pre-med students eager to write this off as a political move on the behalf of medical schools, without taking the time to truly consider its value.

Of course, in the U.S. we have a powerful tradition of diversity in higher education. Diversity in the classroom (and on campus) allows students to produce a “creative friction,” thereby improving the educational experience for all.

However, in the medical school context, diversity has an additional, more utilitarian purpose: It is crucial to the quality of medical care provided by these soon-to-be physicians. An ability to understand your patients — regardless of background — is an integral part of your life as a doctor.

So, now that we have solved the great admissions diversity mystery, we can get started on the actual essays. First, what does a “diversity essay” actually look like? Let’s take an example from one of Stanford Med School’s recent secondary applications:

The Committee on Admissions regards the diversity (broadly defined) of an entering class as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the school. The Committee on Admissions strongly encourages you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as the quality of your early educational environment, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and life or work experiences. Please discuss how such factors have influenced your goals and preparation for a career in medicine. -->

Or this question from Wake Forest School of Medicine:

The Committee on Admissions values diversity as an important factor in the educational mission of the Wake Forest School of Medicine. How will you contribute to the diversity of your medical school class and to the medical community in general?

Ultimately, these medical school diversity essays are all variations on the same question, “How are you different from other applicants, and how does that difference impact your ability to contribute in medical school and beyond?”

This prompt brings us to our first action point:

1. “Diversity” and “underrepresented minority” are not synonymous.

Have you ever heard someone lament, “[sigh] … I’m not a minority so I’m not diverse.” I have. Many times. Most frequently, this lamentation originates from a lack of creativity and fundamental understanding about what diversity means. As we’ve already discussed, diversity serves two purposes: 1) Varying perspectives in a classroom and on campus so as to produce more comprehensive learning; and, 2) Improving patient care once these applicants become newly-minted MDs.

Multlingual? That’s diversity.

Been in the military? That’s diversity.

Had a rare disease as a child? That’s diversity.

Have a special personal quality (such as being a talented connector, or unusually high EQ)? Diversity.

Have a very specific and innovative career path in mind (e.g., using robotics to improve prosthetics)? Diversity.

Worked as a personal trainer or a nutritionist? … You see where I’m going with this. The key is not to narrowly define diversity, but instead to broadly construe how your “diverse elements” will allow you to contribute something unique to your prospective school and ultimately, your profession.

This brings us to our second action point:

2. Your “diversity” means nothing if it isn’t clearly connected to your potential contribution.

The point is simple: once you have identified what makes you unique, your primary task is to explain how that uniqueness will allow you to contribute something special in school and beyond.

This brings us to our third action point:

3. Diversity, as with all other parts of your application, requires evidence.

“I am the smartest person in the world.”

Really!? Are you actually the smartest person in the world? Prove it.

“I have unique insight into the needs of immigrant populations.”

Oh, do you? And what, pray tell, gives you this incredible insight?

“I have always dreamed of being part of Doctors Without Borders, and helping to save the world one person at a time.”

Is that so? Because I don’t see a single international community service experience on your application …

… see where I’m going with this? Diversity, though it may be an intangible concept or quality, still requires tangible evidence. A diversity essay for medical school is not complete without a clear explanation of how your “diversity” relates to your experiences.

For example, if you are a first-generation college student and the son/daughter of immigrants, you cannot just baldly state that this background gives you some crucial insight into the needs of immigrant populations. Although it seems plausible that you would know more than others who are from affluent, non-immigrant backgrounds, you still need to prove it. Make the connections explicit.

For instance, “I am a motivator. I love motivating people to better their lives. That is why I worked as a nutritionist. Moreover, as a writing instructor at Dartmouth’s RWIT program, I had the opportunity not only to help students with their writing, but also to show them how exciting and fun it could be.” Please note: This is not from an actual essay, and if it was, it would not be especially good. This is just to demonstrate a point.

Thus, if you do decide to focus on ethnic, cultural, or religious diversity, the best approach is not to hammer the adcom with how significant your minority status is. Rather, a strong essay might focus on your activities which were committed to diversity and social justice issues; or on your pursuits which address health disparities between minority and non-minority populations; or experiences which provide tangible evidence of your cross-cultural competence during patient or client interactions. Of course, these three topics are not exhaustive, but might be a good place to start.

This brings us to our final, and most succinct point:

4. Using buzzwords doesn’t convince anyone.

In short: Let your evidence and experience do the talking.

Joel Butterfly is co-founder and CEO, InGenious Prep .

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

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8 Tips to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay

by internationalmedicalaid

Here at IMA, we believe in writing strong essays. We provide samples in our medical school guides , and we’ve shown you how to write strong personal statements . In today’s article, we’re going to examine the diversity essay.

The diversity essay is among the classic essay prompts that many universities employ to better understand their applicants. If you don’t know how to write a diversity essay, this can be tricky. That’s why we’re going to break down the elements. If you know what the essay question is asking and how to answer it, you can write a fantastic essay.

What Is Diversity?

Diversity is what makes you diverse. You could also say that diversity sets you apart from others. It makes you unique. It gives you an individual story to tell. Some kinds of diversity include:

An unusual background
A different educational experience
A unique family history

How To Show Your Diversity

Are you a U.S. immigrant?
Were your parents immigrants?
Do your parents have an unusual background?

If any of these apply to you, you can describe diverse aspects of your childhood. For example, if your mom was from China and ran a restaurant to support your family, you could talk about how your immigrant mother built a business from the ground up and taught you the value of hard work. What might seem ordinary or common to you could be unique and inspirational to someone else (like the admissions committee!).

Are you a veteran?
Did you serve as president of a club?
Were you on your debate team?

Not all diversity means having diverse roots. Some experiences can make you diverse as well. For example, if you’ve been through the Army’s Basic Combat Training or Advanced Individual Training, you’ll surely have stories to tell. Your experiences will bring diversity to the campus you’re attending.

In short, diversity is about anything that makes you unique. Your diversity can come from your religious or cultural background. It could come from your sexual orientation or gender identity. But it could also be something entirely different. Indeed, you could write a story about having a rare disease and how you’ve worked through setbacks. Even that is diverse.

We go into such great detail on what you can classify as “diversity” because some students get freaked out. They think that coming from a middle-class family in a suburban neighborhood means they’re not “diverse.” Then they worry that they won’t get into medical school because they’re not “diverse enough.” That is not true! Everyone has something that makes them diverse. And sharing that story will help the admissions committee to get to know you better.

Why Is Diversity Important?

Diversity matters for a few reasons.

Diversity improves a student’s classroom experience.
Diversity teaches things you can’t learn in a textbook.
Diversity in medicine allows for better healthcare .

If everyone came from the same background, had the same interests and interacted the same way, we’d have a pretty boring world. But if we surround ourselves with a diverse population, our opportunities for growth never end.

Once you don your white coat as an M.D. or D.O. , you’ll be surrounded by diverse populations. The more diversity you’ve been exposed to, the better of a healthcare provider you’ll be.

10 Diversity Examples to Get You Started

We’ve talked about diversity… now let’s get you started! Here are ten examples to showcase your diversity.

You were raised by your grandmother after your single mother passed away from cancer.
You subscribe to a different set of beliefs than you did when you were a child.
You didn’t have that many friends at school. Only 3% of students were also of your ethnicity. It was hard to find others to relate to.
You grew up in the military. You called your father “Sir” far more than you called him “Dad”. You have deep respect for him, but not really a relationship.
You learned to adapt to an ever-changing environment because your family was part of a traveling circus.
You’re a dual citizen. You grew up in France but moved to the U.S. as a teenager.
Your little brother has cerebral palsy. You’ve helped take care of him since he was a baby.
You grew up in a neighborhood with lots of different political beliefs. You’ve seen a lot of injustice and have protested for positive change.
You were diagnosed with dyslexia when you were little. You adapted to your environment and learned different ways to study.
You’ve been a ballerina since you were five years old. Not only do you love the sport, but it’s taught you the value of hard work, determination, discipline and grit.

These are just a few of the examples you could use to get started with your own diversity essay.

Writing Your Diversity Essay

Now that we’ve covered what diversity is , let’s talk about how to write about it . Because you want to tell a story, but you also want to appropriately craft your essay for the admissions department.

First , let’s examine what the question is. Not every school asks about diversity in the same way. For example, one school might ask how diversity has shaped you as a person, while another school might ask what diversity means to you. Some schools even combine diversity with adversity. They’ll ask you how you’ve overcome injustice related to diversity. Carefully examine the question to ensure you properly answer it. And whatever you write about, be bold. Shyness won’t show the admissions committee who you are as a person.

Second , formatting your essay is the way to go. This will help you write within a framework so that your writing isn’t all over the place. You don’t want the admissions committee to have a hard time following what you wrote.

Introduce yourself. First off, tell the admissions committee who you are. But don’t write, “Hi, I’m Hannah, and I want to attend Perelman School of Medicine .” The admissions committee already knows who you are. Your name is listed on your application. Instead, describe who you are . What is your gender identity? What about your sexual orientation? Your background? Did you grow up Catholic but became a Latter-day Saint? Are you the first doctor in your family? Did you grow up in poverty? And those questions are just ideas to get you started. Think about what makes you unique, and describe yourself in that light. This will make up the first part of your essay.
How has your diversity impacted you? The admissions committee knows you’re diverse. It’s time to tell them what you’ve done with your diversity. How have you grown through it? How has it affected you? This could be negative or positive. How have you adapted to different circumstances? The sky is the limit with this one. You can talk about scholastic achievements, leadership positions, service projects, work or internships, or even serving in the military.
Tie it back to diversity. It’s really easy to get lost in the experience you’re sharing, especially when you’re passionate about something. Be sure to tie your experience into your diversity, and how that contributes to your M.D. candidacy. Why should this school accept you? How do your ideas, your philosophical approach and your work ethic influence you? This is also where you’ll want to wrap up your essay. Transition into your conclusion.

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The Diversity Essay: How to Write an Excellent Diversity Essay

What is a diversity essay in a school application? And why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? Most importantly, how should you go about writing such an essay?

Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to the diversity on their campus. A diversity essay gives applicants with disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds, an unusual education, a distinctive experience, or a unique family history an opportunity to write about how these elements of their background have prepared them to play a useful role in increasing and encouraging diversity among their target program’s student body and broader community.

The purpose of all application essays is to help the adcom better understand who an applicant is and what they care about. Your essays are your chance to share your voice and humanize your application. This is especially true for the diversity essay, which aims to reveal your unique perspectives and experiences, as well as the ways in which you might contribute to a college community.

In this post, we’ll discuss what exactly a diversity essay is, look at examples of actual prompts and a sample essay, and offer tips for writing a standout essay.

In this post, you’ll find the following:

What a diversity essay covers

How to show you can add to a school’s diversity, why diversity matters to schools.

Seven examples that reveal diversity

Sample diversity essay prompts

How to write about your diversity.

A diversity essay example

Upon hearing the word “diversity” in relation to an application essay, many people assume that they will have to write about gender, sexuality, class, or race. To many, this can feel overly personal or irrelevant, and some students might worry that their identity isn’t unique or interesting enough. In reality, the diversity essay is much broader than many people realize.

Identity means different things to different people. The important thing is that you demonstrate your uniqueness and what matters to you. In addition to writing about one of the traditional identity features we just mentioned (gender, sexuality, class, race), you could consider writing about a more unusual feature of yourself or your life – or even the intersection of two or more identities.

Consider these questions as you think about what to include in your diversity essay:

Do you have a unique or unusual talent or skill?
Do you have beliefs or values that are markedly different from those of the people around you?
Do you have a hobby or interest that sets you apart from your peers?
Have you done or experienced something that few people have? Note that if you choose to write about a single event as a diverse identity feature, that event needs to have had a pretty substantial impact on you and your life. For example, perhaps you’re part of the 0.2% of the world’s population that has run a marathon, or you’ve had the chance to watch wolves hunt in the wild.
Do you have a role in life that gives you a special outlook on the world? For example, maybe one of your siblings has a rare disability, or you grew up in a town with fewer than 500 inhabitants.

If you are an immigrant to the United States, the child of immigrants, or someone whose ethnicity is underrepresented in the States, your response to “How will you add to the diversity of our class/community?” and similar questions might help your application efforts. Why? Because you have the opportunity to show the adcom how your background will contribute a distinctive perspective to the program you are applying to.

Of course, if you’re not underrepresented in your field or part of a disadvantaged group, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to write about in a diversity essay.

For example, you might have an unusual or special experience to share, such as serving in the military, being a member of a dance troupe, or caring for a disabled relative. These and other distinctive experiences can convey how you will contribute to the diversity of the school’s campus.

Maybe you are the first member of your family to apply to college or the first person in your household to learn English. Perhaps you have worked your way through college or helped raise your siblings. You might also have been an ally to those who are underrepresented, disadvantaged, or marginalized in your community, at your school, or in a work setting.

As you can see, diversity is not limited to one’s religion, ethnicity, culture, language, or sexual orientation. It refers to whatever element of your identity distinguishes you from others and shows that you, too, value diversity.

The diversity essay provides colleges the chance to build a student body that includes different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, backgrounds, interests, and so on. Applicants are asked to illuminate what sets them apart so that the adcoms can see what kind of diverse views and opinions they can bring to the campus.

Admissions officers believe that diversity in the classroom improves the educational experience of all the students involved. They also believe that having a diverse workforce better serves society as a whole.

The more diverse perspectives found in the classroom, throughout the dorms, in the dining halls, and mixed into study groups, the richer people’s discussions will be.

Plus, learning and growing in this kind of multicultural environment will prepare students for working in our increasingly multicultural and global world.

In medicine, for example, a heterogeneous workforce benefits people from previously underrepresented cultures. Businesses realize that they will market more effectively if they can speak to different audiences, which is possible when members of their workforce come from various backgrounds and cultures. Schools simply want to prepare graduates for the 21st century job market.

Seven examples that reveal diversity

Adcoms want to know about the diverse elements of your character and how these have helped you develop particular personality traits , as well as about any unusual experiences that have shaped you.

Here are seven examples an applicant could write about:

1. They grew up in an environment with a strong emphasis on respecting their elders, attending family events, and/or learning their parents’ native language and culture.

2. They are close to their grandparents and extended family members who have taught them how teamwork can help everyone thrive.

3. They have had to face difficulties that stem from their parents’ values being in conflict with theirs or those of their peers.

4. Teachers have not always understood the elements of their culture or lifestyle and how those elements influence their performance.

5. They have suffered discrimination and succeeded despite it because of their grit, values, and character.

6. They learned skills from a lifestyle that is outside the norm (e.g., living in foreign countries as the child of a diplomat or contractor; performing professionally in theater, dance, music, or sports; having a deaf sibling).

7. They’ve encountered racism or other prejudice (either toward themselves or others) and responded by actively promoting diverse, tolerant values.

And remember, diversity is not about who your parents are. It’s about who you are – at the core.

Your background, influences, religious observances, native language, ideas, work environment, community experiences – all these factors come together to create a unique individual, one who will contribute to a varied class of distinct individuals taking their place in a diverse world.

The best-known diversity essay prompt is from the Common App . It states:

“Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”

Some schools have individual diversity essay prompts. For example, this one is from Duke University :

“We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.”

And the Rice University application includes the following prompt:

“Rice is strengthened by its diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders and change agents across the spectrum of human endeavor. What perspectives shaped by your background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice?”

In all instances, colleges want you to demonstrate how and what you’ll contribute to their communities.

Your answer to a school’s diversity essay question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your embrace of differences, your resilience, your character, and your perspective.

The school might ask how you think of diversity or how you will bring or add to the diversity of the school, your chosen profession, or your community. Make sure you answer the specific question posed by highlighting distinctive elements of your profile that will add to the class mosaic every adcom is trying to create. You don’t want to blend in; you want to stand out in a positive way while also complementing the school’s canvas.

Here’s a simple, three-part framework that will help you think of diversity more broadly:

Who are you? What has contributed to your identity? How do you distinguish yourself? Your identity can include any of the following: gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, religion, nontraditional work experience, nontraditional educational background, multicultural background, and family’s educational level.

What have you done? What have you accomplished? This could include any of the following: achievements inside and/or outside your field of study, leadership opportunities, community service, internship or professional experience, research opportunities, hobbies, and travel. Any or all of these could be unique. Also, what life-derailing, throw-you-for-a-loop challenges have you faced and overcome?

How do you think? How do you approach things? What drives you? What influences you? Are you the person who can break up a tense meeting with some well-timed humor? Are you the one who intuitively sees how to bring people together?

Read more about this three-part framework in Episode 193 of Accepted’s Admissions Straight Talk podcast or listen wherever you get your favorite podcast s.

Think about each question within this framework and how you could apply your diversity elements to your target school’s classroom or community. Any of these elements can serve as the framework for your essay.

Don’t worry if you can’t think of something totally “out there.” You don’t need to be a tightrope walker living in the Andes or a Buddhist monk from Japan to be able to contribute to a school’s diversity!

And please remember, the examples we have offered here are not exhaustive. There are many other ways to show diversity!

All you need to do to be able to write successfully about how you will contribute to the diversity of your target school’s community is examine your identity, deeds, and ideas, with an eye toward your personal distinctiveness and individuality. There is only one you .

Take a look at the sample diversity essay in the next section of this post, and pay attention to how the writer underscores their appreciation for, and experience with, diversity.

A diversity essay sample

When I was starting 11th grade, my dad, an agricultural scientist, was assigned to a 3-month research project in a farm village in Niigata (northwest Honshu in Japan). Rather than stay behind with my mom and siblings, I begged to go with him. As a straight-A student, I convinced my parents and the principal that I could handle my schoolwork remotely (pre-COVID) for that stretch. It was time to leap beyond my comfortable suburban Wisconsin life—and my Western orientation, reinforced by travel to Europe the year before.

We roomed in a sprawling farmhouse with a family participating in my dad’s study. I thought I’d experience an “English-free zone,” but the high school students all studied and wanted to practice English, so I did meet peers even though I didn’t attend their school. Of the many eye-opening, influential, cultural experiences, the one that resonates most powerfully to me is experiencing their community. It was a living, organic whole. Elementary school kids spent time helping with the rice harvest. People who foraged for seasonal wild edibles gave them to acquaintances throughout the town. In fact, there was a constant sharing of food among residents—garden veggies carried in straw baskets, fish or meat in coolers. The pharmacist would drive prescriptions to people who couldn’t easily get out—new mothers, the elderly—not as a business service but as a good neighbor. If rain suddenly threatened, neighbors would bring in each other’s drying laundry. When an empty-nest 50-year-old woman had to be hospitalized suddenly for a near-fatal snakebite, neighbors maintained her veggie patch until she returned. The community embodied constant awareness of others’ needs and circumstances. The community flowed!

Yet, people there lamented that this lifestyle was vanishing; more young people left than stayed or came. And it wasn’t idyllic: I heard about ubiquitous gossip, long-standing personal enmities, busybody-ness. But these very human foibles didn’t dam the flow. This dynamic community organism couldn’t have been more different from my suburban life back home, with its insular nuclear families. We nod hello to neighbors in passing.

This wonderful experience contained a personal challenge. Blond and blue-eyed, I became “the other” for the first time. Except for my dad, I saw no Westerner there. Curious eyes followed me. Stepping into a market or walking down the street, I drew gazes. People swiftly looked away if they accidentally caught my eye. It was not at all hostile, I knew, but I felt like an object. I began making extra sure to appear “presentable” before going outside. The sense of being watched sometimes generated mild stress or resentment. Returning to my lovely tatami room, I would decompress, grateful to be alone. I realized this challenge was a minute fraction of what others experience in my own country. The toll that feeling—and being— “other” takes on non-white and visibly different people in the US can be extremely painful. Experiencing it firsthand, albeit briefly, benignly, and in relative comfort, I got it.

Unlike the organic Niigata community, work teams, and the workplace itself, have externally driven purposes. Within this different environment, I will strive to exemplify the ongoing mutual awareness that fueled the community life in Niigata. Does it benefit the bottom line, improve the results? I don’t know. But it helps me be the mature, engaged person I want to be, and to appreciate the individuals who are my colleagues and who comprise my professional community. I am now far more conscious of people feeling their “otherness”—even when it’s not in response to negative treatment, it can arise simply from awareness of being in some way different.

What did you think of this essay? Does this middle class Midwesterner have the unique experience of being different from the surrounding majority, something she had not experienced in the United States? Did she encounter diversity from the perspective of “the other”?

Here a few things to note about why this diversity essay works so well:

1. The writer comes from “a comfortable, suburban, Wisconsin life,” suggesting that her background might not be ethnically, racially, or in any other way diverse.

2. The diversity “points” scored all come from her fascinating experience of having lived in a Japanese farm village, where she immersed herself in a totally different culture.

3. The lessons learned about the meaning of community are what broaden and deepen the writer’s perspective about life, about a purpose-driven life, and about the concept of “otherness.”

By writing about a time when you experienced diversity in one of its many forms, you can write a memorable and meaningful diversity essay.

Working on your diversity essay?

Want to ensure that your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking? Work with one of our admissions experts . This checklist includes more than 30 different ways to think about diversity to jump-start your creative engine.

Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications, and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Sundas has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

Different Dimensions of Diversity , podcast Episode 193
What Should You Do If You Belong to an Overrepresented MBA Applicant Group?
Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions , a free guide

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How To: Master the Med School Secondary Essay (with examples) 2023

After you submit your primary applications , medical schools will ask you to submit secondary applications (most automatically) the majority of which require you to write secondary essays of varying lengths.

The essay prompts should serve as clues to the culture of the medical school and indicate what kind of information is important for them to know about applicants. As you research each school to apply to, begin to make notes about what draws you to that school so you can use these thoughts in your secondary essays.

You can prepare for these in advance by organizing notes in these areas: my accomplishments, obstacles I have overcome, challenges I have had and how I’ve handled these, why I want to attend this school, what kind of physician I want to be, what activities I’ve been most intimately involved with and what have I learned.

Secondary Essay Basic Guidelines

Write essays for your top choice and target schools first! You are likely to be overwhelmed by the tidal wave of secondary applications you will receive so don’t make the mistake of completing, for example, all of your reach schools first!
Do not rush your work. Unless a medical school specifies a return date, there is no “deadline” to complete your essays. Complete all of your essays, if possible by August 1st or by Labor Day at the latest.
Answer the essay prompts carefully. The biggest mistake students make is trying to squeeze a prewritten essay for an inappropriate prompt.
Some prompts will force you to repeat information that is in your primary application. This is okay!
Don’t feel that every topic you write about should be momentous. Sometimes writing about more personal details of your life can offer more insight into your values, ideals, and life decisions.

Most Common Essay Prompts

Several common secondary essay topics that are listed below.

Greatest Challenge/Failure/Adversity Essay

Essays that ask about personal challenges, failures or adversities are seeking information about your ability to manage conflict and challenge. They also want to know how you cope with conflict and that you can be objective when things don’t go your way.

Medical schools want to know that you are level headed, and that you won’t crumble when feeling vulnerable or faced with less than ideal situations. Students often immediately gravitate to academic or scholarly subjects for these essays, but, sometimes the most compelling topics are those that are personal. Why? These topics can often say much more about your character, values, ideals, and decision making. Ideally, you should also write about what you learned and how you grew or changed as a result of the challenge, failure, or adversity.

Students also consider writing about red flags for this topic such as a class failure, poor MCAT exam or institutional action. Generally speaking, we find that these topics are usually less interesting and don’t offer enough information about who you are as a person.

Essay Example:

I had worked on my presentation for weeks. I knew it was so important, not only for me, but for my principal investigator (PI), that I present the work we had done succinctly and clearly since I would be speaking in front of the entire biochemistry department. Public speaking has never been a strength and I was very nervous. Before it was my time to speak, I could feel my heart racing and my palms sweating. When I got to the podium, I was literally unable to speak; I was shaking uncontrollably and had to sit down while my PI took over. It was the most humiliating experience of my life. I was able to calm down, and, rather than leaving the auditorium, I waited until the conference was over and apologized to my PI who was kind and forgiving. I then resolved to improve my public speaking skills. The the next day I signed up for a Toastmaster’s course and have taken every opportunity since this incident to speak in public. Although I still get nervous before I have to speak, I have learned to actually enjoy speaking in public.

I saw the Microsoft Word document on the screen of my roommate’s computer. It looked familiar. I realized that this essay my roommate had written on the works and life of Jane Austen contained the exact language I had seen elsewhere. Where had I seen it? Why was this so familiar? I also asked myself, “Do I have a right to be looking at this document?”

Then it dawned on me. When my roommate got this assignment for her literature class, we discussed it with our housemates from down the hall. One girl offered to give my roommate a paper she had written on this topic for an AP class in high school. She printed out the paper and gave it to me to give to my roommate. Curious about the topic, since I am a Jane Austen fan, I read it before handing it to my roommate. The document on the computer in front of me contained parts of this paper that were copied, verbatim.

The issues here were complicated. First of all, I was invading my roommate’s privacy. I should not have been looking at her computer even though we often shared our computers. But now that I was aware of what she had done, I felt an obligation to confront her.

That night, when my roommate returned home from studying, I first apologized for invading her privacy and explained that I had read the document on the screen. I then told her that I realized she had plagiarized and told her I thought this was wrong. She explained that she felt under tremendous pressure since she also had a big organic chemistry mid-term that week and it just seemed so easy to copy the paper even though she recognized it was not right to do so. With my urging, since she had not yet handed the paper in, she stayed up late into the night to compose an original essay and, in the end, she thanked me for noticing and for encouraging her to do the right thing. I realized that even confronting my roommate, which was uncomfortable and awkward for me, encouraged her to make a better choice and reinforced for me the importance of acting ethically even if these easier choice would have been to look away.

Diversity Essay

Medical schools have broadened their definitions of diversity and for essays like this you can write about your unique interests, talents, or experiences. Maybe you have a distinctive background, perspective, or outlook. Think outside the box when writing about diversity. Do you have a special hobby or accomplishment that sets you apart?

Or, you can also choose to write about your own experiences with diverse or minority populations to illustrate your cultural competence which most people think of as the more “traditional” approach to questions about diversity. We find that most applicants do not currently write about these more traditional topics. Sometimes it can be more impressive to write about topics that are more distinctive to you and your background.

I grew up in a diverse community even though my undergraduate college was quite homogeneous. During college, I sought out experiences beyond campus to immerse myself in more diverse communities. I volunteered in a free clinic, tutored children in Africa, and traveled during my vacations, when possible. I gained insights into the challenges facing others and how their backgrounds and experiences influenced their perspectives and attitudes. On a medical mission abroad the summer after my junior year, I worked in medical clinics helping to care for Mexican families, which helped me understand that such challenges and unfair inequalities in education and health care also exist internationally.

Through my experiences, I came to realize that all patients, regardless of their background, fare better when their unique circumstances, cultures, and outlooks are considered. To improve my ability to communicate with some of these populations, I minored in Spanish and became more proficient in the language through my studies in Spain. I have learned the importance of listening and seeing situations through the eyes of those I help. Throughout such experiences, apart from realizing that I hope to work with these populations as a future physician, I was continually reminded of the pervasive societal inequalities and injustices both locally and internationally.

Another Example:

Whether playing a Beethoven or Brahms sonata, playing music has always been an outlet for me. Since the age of seven, I have emulated my mother, a professional cellist. In fact, even during college, my goal was to practice medicine while working as a professional pianist. While doing my premedical coursework and majoring in biology, I also minored in music and composed my own work. The year following college, while playing piano professionally, I realized this wasn’t what I wanted to pursue for my lifetime. However, my musical interests will always be more than a hobby and serve as my escape from the stresses of daily life.

Why XXXXX School Essay

Medical schools want to know that you have the qualities and characteristics they are seeking. Before writing these essays, read the medical school’s mission statement and review their student biographies (if offered) to get a sense of what the school values in applicants.

The key in writing “Why our School Essays” is to offer as many specifics as possible. You want to show you will take advantage of the medical school’s opportunities and that you will make valuable contributions as a medical student. Do this by showcasing how your interests and experiences are aligned with opportunities at the medical school, that you can benefit from what the medical school offers and that you will contribute to the medical school community.

Also, many students fail to look beyond the first and second year curriculums when writing about why there are interested in a medical school. What you do during your third and fourth years of medical school, in clinical settings, is just as important. Show that you understand this!

Example Essay:

My interest in geriatrics and emergency medicine evolved as I worked clinically in these two departments last summer. Through my coursework in health policy, I also learned of the imminent need for geriatric specialized physicians to support the aging baby boomer generation. Through your hospital’s renowned telemedicine and information technology departments, I would be offered the unique opportunity to explore this interest further. I would also take advantage of the medical school’s summer research program to participate in research projects related to geriatrics or emergency medicine.

At the clinic where I worked, I gained first hand exposure to disease complications, which often were caused by lack of access to primary care. My travels and work in India have shown me how common these issues also are internationally. Your unique medical school program would allow me to continue my active community participation during my first year, while providing care to diverse populations who lack access to care. This endeavor also could be augmented through participation in research and study in South America, so I could pursue my interest in global health while caring for other underserved communities and improving my language skills.

Of supreme importance, the urban location and suburban hospitals affiliated with the medical school as well as the Level I trauma center would offer unparalleled exposure to novel academic and clinical opportunities. Apart from the school’s location in my favorite city of Great City, it is the superior curriculum, supportive medical educational environment, opportunity for community involvement, and team-oriented culture that would make your medical school a perfect fit for me.

What are you doing next year or what have you done since graduating from college?

Answer these questions in a straight forward fashion. Typically, medical schools require that only applicants who are not full-time students answer the question. In answering these questions, write about what you will be doing, but also include information about what you hope to learn and how this will prepare you for medical school.

For the upcoming academic year, I will continue my research on breast cancer at Outstanding Oncology Center, where I have been working for one year. Our findings last year have already provided evidence for the etiology of what receptor is involved in the development of tiny cell cancer, and we hope to build on these findings to continue our work. I have already become proficient in using the literature to design experiments, and I hope that this year I will learn how to analyze our findings. My hope is that our findings will be significant enough to lead to a publication on which I would be an author.

I will also shadow several doctors throughout the year to broaden my understanding of clinical medicine. Right now I have plans to shadow an internist, a surgeon, and an ophthalmologist.

My Saturday mornings will be spent volunteering at Inner City Clinic, where I will be promoted to the level of triage. I will be responsible for taking vital signs and basic intake histories on patients.

This year will be productive and, I hope, will provide the foundation I need to be an excellent medical student.

Secondary Essay Writing Tips

For each essay prompt you receive, pay attention to the character and word limits and use them as cues for how much information a medical school is seeking. A medical school that limits your responses to only 50 words, for example, is asking you for a simple, straightforward response. On the other hand, the school that allows 1,000 words per essay wants you to elaborate and go into some detail.

Secondary prompts vary, and I find that students can often recycle essays for multiple schools. But reading secondary prompts carefully is important. The most common mistake students make is providing a response that does not really address what is being asked. Even though writing secondary essays can get laborious, don’t try to make an essay you have already written “fit” for a prompt if it just doesn’t work. Remember, good secondary essays can help you earn a medical school interview.

Sometimes, especially if your primary application is comprehensive, responding to a secondary essay may force you to repeat information that is already in your primary application. That not only is okay but also suggests that you are in good shape; many schools determine prompts by identifying topics that applicants frequently leave out of primary applications.

I discourage applicants from writing a “one size fits all document” for various secondary essay themes. Since the character/word limit for secondary essays is so variable (50 – 3,000 words) it would be a waste of time to write an essay before knowing specific character limits for each prompt. Having an idea of what you would write about for each of the common themes is wise, however. Some schools’ secondary essay prompts do not vary from year to year, and you can often find these essay prompts and start working on them in advance. But, be warned, schools do change secondary essay prompts on occasion.

Above all, just as you did with your personal statement, write authentically and honestly and don’t try to spin your responses to tell admissions committees what you think they want to read.

A couple of additional tips:

Never quote others; your essays should be about you!
Optional secondary essays are truly optional. Don’t fill a space or recycle an essay unless you have a good reason to do so.
Unless medical schools specify a secondary essay “due date,” there are no real turn around rules. Submit your essays when they are ready and ideally within two to three weeks after receiving the secondary application.

Secondary Essay Editing Services

MedEdits’ secondary essay review and editing services will ensure that your secondary essays address what is being asked by the prompt while ensuring you highlight what is necessary to distinguish your candidacy.

About MedEdits

MedEdits helps students get admitted to medical school and residency programs. Our consultants have years of experience serving on medical school admissions committees, and as faculty members at the top medical schools in the country.

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Secondary Essay Prompts By School

*Data collected from MSAR 2022-2023, 2022 Osteopathic Medical College Information Book, and institution website.

Disclaimer: The information on this page was shared by students and/or can be found on each medical school’s website. MedEdits does not guarantee it’s accuracy or authenticity.

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Weekly Weigh-in: The Diversity Secondary Essay

Welcome to PDr’s Weekly Weigh-in! Each week, we ask medical students and physicians to weigh in on some of our most frequently asked pre-med questions. This week’s question: How did you approach “the diversity secondary essay” on your secondary applications?

Edward Chang, DGSOM MS3

Honestly I had a pretty tough time with the diversity question. I didn’t know how far I could go with this question and I had a difficult time putting what I thought made me unique on paper without sounding arrogant or cliche. At the time I was applying, I also thought this question was very ethnically charged (I felt that I couldn’t be “different” as a typical Asian American from a middle-class family) but looking back, I realized that I was approaching the question very narrow-mindedly. If I were to answer the question now, I would emphasize the unique aspects of my personality and the specific instances that demonstrate those unique qualities. I personally wouldn’t talk about race but rather focus on how my uniqueness would contribute to the student body overall. I think a few things that make me who I am are:

Obviously many people have those qualities but I think its the combination of those characteristics that make me unique.

|| Read: Diversity in Medical Secondary Questions ||

Evan Laveman, DGSOM MS3

When I was answering questions on diversity in my secondary statements, I would catch myself unconsciously interpreting the word ‘diversity’ as a difference in race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. I urge everyone to not be limited in their approach to portraying their own diversity. What sets me apart is not my skin color, religion, or how much money my parents make. What sets me apart is that I worked within the same marine safety department for 7 years. I got permission to obtain my EMT license earlier than most other California residents. I’ve been personally involved in saving lives and losing lives. I love the ocean. I once paddled 41 miles down the Southern California coast in one day.I helped to found a social fraternity at UCLA. I value community, camaraderie, compassion, and service. I attempted a day hike of Mount Whitney in the snow, and knew when to turn back. I’m a hard worker, but I strive to never work so hard that I lose my grounding. There are many qualities and characteristics I possess that I share with others, and some that may be unique to just me, but the constellation of what I’ve done is a fingerprint that I feel defines me and makes me diverse. This is how I chose to answer questions on diversity- by focusing on the active aspects of my character, instead of passive identifiers.

|| Read: Three Secondaries to Pre-Write ||

Brandon Brown, UCSF MS2

I approached the diversity question by just writing about what made me a unique individual that would provide new perspectives to the incoming medical school class. Diversity doesn’t merely mean diversity in how you look or where you came from, but how your experiences have shaped you as an individual and how your experiences provide a valuable addition to a group. I wrote about about my family, my upbringing, and some of the skills I’ve acquired (e.g. programming) and how those inform my decisions, thought process, and contribute to improving team work.

|| Check out: PDr’s Secondary Essay Prompts Database to start pre-writing! ||

Evan Shih, DGSOM MS3

As a heterosexual Asian-American male from an immigrant family with aspirations of applying to medical school, I wasn’t exactly jumping to the top of anybody’s diversity checklist, at least not in the classic sense of “racial background, sexual identity, and social background”. However, I wanted to show medical schools that despite growing up in an “cookie cutter” suburban community, I still possessed experiences that provided me with both an enriched background and an open-minded outlook. With my diversity essay, I sought to exhibit the fact that I was eager to learn more about the diverse patient population that I was going to serve in the future. I wrote about my experiences volunteering with a homeless clinic and the multitude of patient backgrounds in the Greater Los Angeles area: recently displaced families, chronic cocaine addicts, veteran war heroes, Latino immigrants, and countless individuals of the LGBT community.

Working with the homeless clinic showed me two things: 1) I knew very little about the world around me and 2) If I wanted to practice medicine in Southern California, I needed to hone my Spanish skills. These two realizations compelled me to plan a summer trip to Cusco, Peru with a friend. For 3 weeks we took medical Spanish, learned to salsa dance, and hiked the Inca Trail. My multicultural experiences in both Peru and inner-city Los Angeles provided me with an understanding of the many different patient backgrounds that I would encounter as a physician, and I wanted to show schools that I was confident that I could contribute the same enthusiasm and capabilities in medical school.

Weekly Weigh-in: The University Secondary Essay
Weekly Weigh-in: Which Medical Schools Should I Apply To?
Weekly Weigh-in: The Adversity Secondary Essay
Weekly Weigh-in: Preparing for Interview Season

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How to Answer Adversity Secondary Essay Prompts for Medical School

Including successful essay examples.

Medical schools desire applicants that can effectively manage stress, overcome challenges, and navigate their way through life's curveballs. Successful applicants must prove they can endure the rigors of both medical school and a career as a physician. The secondary application adversity essay is a way for the admissions committee to evaluate your resilience as an applicant. Keep reading for everything you need to know about the adversity essay, including successful essay examples and strategies for how to answer this prompt type, even if you feel you haven't faced adversity.

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What is an adversity essay for medical school.

In addition to writing a diversity essay for medical school , an adversity essay for medical school is one you'll likely have to write when filling out your medical school secondary applications. Although the AMCAS work and activities section includes up to 15 experiences, medical school secondary essays dive deeper into unique applicant characteristics that haven't already been covered. While most schools send out secondary applications to all applicants, some schools are choosier about who they send secondaries to, often screening using MCAT and GPA scores. While there are many medical school secondary essay examples , the adversity secondary essay is among the most common. Typically, in the essay prompt, you'll be asked to discuss a challenging time you experienced as well as how you overcame that challenge.

Adversity prompts often come in the form of an "overcoming challenges" question. These questions ask the applicant about a difficult situation they were faced with, an obstacle they encountered, or a hurdle they had to push past in order to succeed. Check out our blog for a comprehensive list of medical school secondary essays which are sorted by school so you can see which prompts you'll likely receive depending on your chosen school. The following prompt examples fit into the adversity category:

1. Discuss a time in your life in which you have failed at something other than an academic experience. How did you confront the failure and what did you learn from it? Please describe how you typically approach challenges that you face in your life.

2. What has been your biggest challenge in pursuing medicine? What have you learned as a result?

3. The admissions committee is interested in gaining more insight into you as a person. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience and what you learned about yourself as a result.

4. Describe a major problem you have had to deal with at some time in your life. Include how you dealt with it and how it influenced your growth.

5. Please describe to the Admissions Committee a challenge you have overcome and what you learned about yourself from that experience.

First, you need to make sure you read the prompt thoroughly and understand what the prompt is asking. In some cases, the challenge the admissions committee wants you to discuss is a professional challenge, in other cases, they are looking for a personal challenge. If the med school adversity question should be answered using a particular type of example, it will be specified in the prompt. Secondly, check the word or character count and keep this in mind when structuring your answer. Some prompts may allow for 1000 words while others are limited to only 200 words. These limits must be strictly adhered to, any violation of the limit will be seen as a red flag and will exclude you from progressing further through the admissions process. When answering these prompt types, begin by reflecting on your past experiences, which you likely already did when you wrote your medical school personal statement. Think about a time when you faced a difficult situation. What happened? What were the steps you took to overcome the challenge? What did you learn from the experience? Often, you won't have a lot of available words or characters to answer the question, so you need to make sure your answer is direct and to the point.

Start your essay with a brief introduction to the situation or experience, notice the word brief here. The least important part of this essay is describing what happened and all the details surrounding the experience. Make sure you don't get lost in the story because you won't have any words left to describe the important aspects which are covered in the body paragraph. This includes how you felt, how you were affected, and what you learned. Discussing how you felt is particularly important as it helps the admissions committee understand your thought process when you're faced with adversity as well as how you cope in these situations. Tie everything together with a short conclusion that summarizes how the experience changed you. Have you become a stronger person because of the obstacle you faced? Have you learned to be more compassionate? Did you gain a better understanding of a complicated issue? Everyone's experience will be different, so it's important to reflect on your individual experience to determine how you gained something positive from it.

Some students struggle with the "overcoming challenges" prompt because they feel truly fortunate in life and don't feel that they've faced adversity. So, if you haven't faced adversity, what should you write in this section? The truth is, everyone has faced adversity, the struggle that students face in answering this question is that they are categorizing the prompt incorrectly. Adversity simply means difficulty or misfortune, but students often take this term to the most extreme and feel that it only applies to a serious situation such as the loss of a loved one, a serious disability or a life-altering illness. While these are certainly hardships worth discussing, they are not the only hardships people face. Everyone has overcome a difficult situation, but if you're having a hard time identifying such a time in your life, read these questions below to help determine a hardship that affected you personally. If you answered yes to any of the below questions, you likely have a good topic for discussion, as long as you can expand the topic and think about how it affected you and what you learned moving forward.

Did you have to move because of issues at school? Have you been bullied before? Have you had a hard time making friends? Did you face an obstacle while gaining shadowing or clinical experience? Do you have a poor grade or a gap in your academic record? What do you think the main cause of this was? Have you been the new person at school? "},{"number":"2","title":"Family Challenges","comment":" Have you lost a loved one? Have you or a loved one faced injury or illness? Has a loved one struggled with addiction? Did your parents get divorced? Do you or a loved one struggle with a physical, physiological, or developmental condition or disability? Has your family lost their home? Was your family forced to move? "},{"number":"3","title":"General Challenges","comment":" Can you think of a time when something didn't go the way you had hoped? For example, maybe you could have played professional basketball but an injury forced you to change plans. Have you faced discrimination or prejudice of some kind? Have you had to learn a new language? Have you had to manage a financial hardship? Have you fallen out with a best friend? Have you made a mistake that had unfortunate consequences? "}]">

Check out our video for adversity essay examples:

1. Please describe any significant barriers or challenges you may have overcome in the pursuit of your personal/professional goals.

During my senior year of undergraduate studies I had struggled to cope with my diagnosis of vitiligo. It started off as a faint light spot near my eyes that I did not pay much attention to at first. Eventually, that spot became whiter and I noticed two other small spots forming near it and other around my lips. I became concerned at that point for my health.

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Have a question ask our admissions experts below and we'll answer your questions.

Can i write in my hardship that i didnot match last year

BeMo Academic Consulting

Hello Ambresha! Thank you very much for your question. You can absolutely include this obstacle in your essay. Do not forget to discuss what you learned and how you worked to overcome this hurdle.

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How to write the tmdsas personal characteristics essay.

Reviewed by:

Jonathan Preminger

Former Admissions Committee Member, Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine

Reviewed: 6/23/23

Applying through the TMDSAS? Read on to learn more about personal characteristics essays for TMDSAS schools!

How to write the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay

If you’re preparing to apply to medical school, you’re probably familiar with AMCAS . However, if you’re planning to apply to medical, dental, or veterinary school in Texas, you’ll need to apply using the Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Service (TMDSAS) .

On top of your personal statement, you’ll need to write a personal characteristics essay. We’ll highlight everything you need to know about the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay and how to craft a narrative that maximizes your chances of getting accepted into your dream Texas medical school .

Get The Ultimate Guide on Writing an Unforgettable Personal Statement

Purpose of the TMDSAS ‍

Texas is a large and populous state; the purpose of the TMDSAS is to provide a centralized application service for Texas-only medical, dental, and veterinary schools.

Infographic explaining what is the TMDSAS

In fact, the TMDSAS pre-dates the AMCAS! The following medical schools participate in the TMDSAS network:

The Baylor College of Medicine
The Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio
The McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston
The Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Texas A&M College of Medicine
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at El Paso
The Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Medicine at Lubbock
The University of Houston College of Medicine
The University of North Texas Health Science Center Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

Two Texas medical schools don’t participate in the TMDSAS:

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine requires applicants to use the AMCAS .
The University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine requires applicants to use AACOMAS .

Be sure to stay up-to-date with Texas medical school application procedures and visit the school websites to use the correct application portal.

TMDSAS Essay Overview ‍

Like AMCAS , the TMDSAS also requires a personal statement. The TMDSAS requires a personal characteristics essay and allows candidates to write an additional optional essay.

The personal characteristics essay is unique to TMDSAS, so let’s highlight some key information, such as its purpose, tips on how to write a compelling narrative, and sample personal characteristics essays that thoroughly answer the prompt.

Purpose of the TMDSAS Personal Characteristics Essay

The TMDSAS personal characteristics essay must be 2,500 characters or fewer (including spaces). Applicants must respond to the following prompt:

“Learning from others is enhanced in educational settings that include individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Please describe your personal characteristics (background, talents, skills, etc.) or experiences that would add to the educational experience of others.”

The way this prompt is worded might sound confusing and challenging, but we can simplify it – you can think of this as a diversity essay . Diversity has different contexts for this prompt. These may include your:

Unique background (ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, etc.)
Perspectives
Ideas, talents, or skills
Experiences
Critical thinking

A strong personal characteristics essay connects your diverse background to medical school and illustrates how your peers, program, and the medical school can benefit from your diversity.

Group of students talking about the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay

Every entering class consists of diverse students with differing cultures, upbringings, socioeconomic statuses, birthplaces, educational experiences, and more. A diverse student body can expose students to new perspectives, insights, and information.

This student body can challenge one another to grow, empathize with others, and foster a global mindset that is open, accepting, and critical in medicine. This is the heart of the personal characteristics essay, and what medical schools are looking for in future leaders – how will you add diversity and value to the class?

How to Write the TMDSAS Personal Characteristics Essay

The TMDSAS personal characteristics essay is only 2,500 characters, including spaces, so every word must count. Here are tips for writing a strong and compelling personal characteristics essay:

1. Brainstorm Ideas That Demonstrate Your Diversity

Brainstorming is an effective technique to recall memories and experiences you can write about. You aren’t editing or revising your thoughts; don’t worry about grammar, structure, or spelling at this stage.

First tip on how to write the personal characteristics essay: Brainstorm ideas that demonstrate your diversity and define you.

You simply want to write down every idea that comes to you that may be relevant to your narrative. Here’s a list of questions to get started with thinking about diversity:

Who are you at your core, and what experience(s) defined you?
How do you identify yourself?
Where did you grow up, and what was it like to live there?
What was your family like?
What have you done or experienced that shaped who you are today?
Have you traveled abroad?
Have you learned another language?
Did you serve in the military?
Have you volunteered in your community?
Are you a part of any teams, groups, or organizations?
Have you suffered or had to overcome disability, injury, or illness?
Have you been a caregiver for someone with a disability or illness?
Have you had to face and overcome rejection?
Have you been bullied? How did you overcome it?

2. Pick Your Most Meaningful Anecdotes

After brainstorming, pick one to three stories that fulfill the prompt and are meaningful in your pursuit of medicine. Remember, you don’t want to choose similar experiences to those outlined in your personal statement!

Tip #2 on how to write the personal characteristics essay: Pick one to three stories that fulfill the prompt.

3. Outline the Structure of Your Essay

Create an outline to structure and organize your essay. Although the personal characteristics essay is relatively short, you want your narrative to flow.

Tip #3 on how to write the personal characteristics essay: Outline the structure of your essay

The essay should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion:

4. Write Your First Draft

After completing your outline, begin writing your first draft. Your tone should be professional yet conversational – you don’t want to be too stiff or casual.

Tip #4 on how to write the TMDSAS personal characteristics: Begin the first draft

It’s important to show rather than tell; instead of writing “I am compassionate,” tell a story that conveys your compassion. Remember, your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, and it may even exceed the word limit the first time – changes can be made in the next step.

5. Edit Your Work

Review your first draft for spelling, grammar, clarity, and sentence structure errors. If there are weak sentences, cross them out and rewrite them. You can also check for concision – does every word serve a purpose? Eliminate wordy phrases to leave more room for rich descriptions.

Tip #5 on how to write the personal characteristics essay: Revise and edit your work

The introduction should flow seamlessly to the body and the body to the conclusion. Another pair of eyes can help provide a fresh perspective on your work – consider an admissions counselor’s help to ensure your writing aligns with what Texan med schools seek!

TMDSAS Personal Characteristics Essay Examples

Here are some personal characteristics essay samples to help inspire you as you write your own drafts:

TMDSAS Essay Example #1

Here’s the first TMDSAS essay example:

“Being South Asian, I have firsthand knowledge of what it means not to access basic healthcare. As a child, my mother took me to Pakistan every year, where I spent summers with my grandfather, a top pediatrician in the nation. He had a free clinic attached to his home in Faisalabad, and his practice was so renowned and respected that people from all over the country would travel great distances to have my grandfather treat their children. Pakistan is a developing country where a significant part of the population remains illiterate and uneducated due to the lack of resources and opportunities. This population is the most vulnerable, with extremely high numbers of infectious disease and mortality rates. Yet, it is entirely underserved. With the lack of hospitals, clinics, and doctor’s offices in rural Pakistan, parents of ailing children must travel great distances and wait in long lines to receive proper healthcare. Every summer at my grandfather’s clinic, from ages five to seventeen, my job was to open the doors to long lines of tired, hungry, and thirsty parents with their sick children. I would pass out bottled water and pieces of fruit. I would record names, where the patients came from, and reasons for their visit. I would scurry back inside with the information for my grandfather to assess, and then he’d send me running back out again to let the next family inside. I learned in my formative years how to communicate with diverse patient populations with special needs and lack of basic necessities. I learned to listen to every family’s unique reasons for their visit, and some of their desperation and pleading for the lives of their children will stay with me forever. When I get into medical school, I hope to share the story of how Gulzarah carried her dehydrated daughter for twelve miles in the Pakistani summer heat without rest (thanks to my grandfather, she later made a full recovery). I want to tell my peers that doctors like my grandfather are not only healers in biology but healers in spirit when he made up heroic songs for the children and sang the fear out of their hearts. I want to show my peers that patients are unique individuals who have suffered and sacrificed to trust us with their healthcare, so we must honor their trust by providing quality treatment and empathy. My formative experiences in pediatrics contributed to my globally conscious mindset, and I look forward to sharing these diverse insights in my medical career.” This essay connects the writer’s ethnic background and experiences interacting with underserved patients. The communication skills they learned, their experiences with diverse individuals, and the stories patients shared with them will allow them to add diversity to the incoming class while sharing new insights and perspectives with their peers.

TMDSAS Essay Example #2

This diversity essay example was adapted from a personal statement but still checks the boxes to showcase the author’s experiences and interests:

“Hatha yoga emphasizes the ability to sculpt the human form into a fit, healthy, balanced vehicle for self-awareness and discovery…My instructor, John, encouraged me to push myself further until full splits and headstands could be achieved with ease. Yoga therapy and instruction became a way for me to connect to people in many aspects of my life… I cherish the diversity I encounter. It is what excites and motivates me. My study of yoga grew from my interest in exploring the philosophies of Eastern cultures. Traveling, mostly independently, to over 20 countries and living in Germany challenged me to continuously learn more about the diverse world around me. Ordinary tasks such as getting water and preparing food can become unique challenges as different modes of operation and cultural differences come into play. Incorporating “sanuk,” the Thai description for playful contentment, became a key tool for overcoming the obstacles of traveling alone in Asia. Living abroad afforded me the opportunity to learn a language in a shorter time than studying in an English-speaking environment. Having studied Spanish and German encouraged me to be precise in the messages I want to convey. As I continue to travel, I am touched by the sincere desire and efforts of people to improve their English speaking skills. This invigorated my desire, and I find myself jumping at the opportunity to practice my language skills. These experiences will be valuable resources in establishing trust and building thoughtful communication with patients… Since college, I have been committed to volunteer work as a means of improving social conditions and quality of life. As a therapist, I offered massages and yoga instruction to low-income individuals in exchange for donations to Habit for Humanity and Doctors Without Borders. I was able to raise hundreds of dollars for these organizations while providing massages to people who would ordinarily not be able to afford such services. …Observing work done in hospitals in India provided an insight into the ways in which I can incorporate a desire to work in underserved communities into my career as a physician… Though the path I have chosen may be arduous at times, my practice of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness will help keep my own physical and emotional health in balance. It is this integrated balance, along with a sincere desire to help people, that I have to share with my community and the medical profession.” This diversity essay showcases the writer’s passion for yoga and how their pursuit of new experiences in new places invigorates them. While they connect their travels and other experiences to how it will help them become a better doctor, they could have been more direct about what they could teach their peers.

TMDSAS Essay Example #3

Here’s another TMDSAS personal characteristics essay sample :

“I grew up in a household of six, and I am the youngest of four siblings, with two older brothers and one older sister. I spent the first eighteen years of my life living in Cedar Hill, a suburb of Dallas with a population of 50,000 and around 50% of that being Black. All of my siblings played sports, and everyone was very competitive, but in a good way…It was more about doing better than your previous best than being the other person. This was especially true after I became a swimmer in higher school. Before every race, my swim coaches always made sure to tell me that it was me against the clock, not against the people who were swimming around me. It instilled in me a very internally motivated hard work ethic. I want to improve myself because I know that my full potential has not been reached, not because other people are doing better. As a medical student, this will only make me a better doctor, as I will always be striving to become a better caregiver than I was before, whether that means learning more about the body and disease or learning how to become more compassionate so that I can serve my patients to the best of my ability. But hard work is not all that is necessary for success. My life has been heavily affected by my Blackness. My dad used to give me lessons on what to do if I were stopped by the police. He said that because of the color of my skin, I would have to be as subservient as possible that there was less of a chance of my name becoming another hashtag. When I walked to school, I saw confederate flags flying on people’s houses. I was told, “You’re so lucky you’re black,” referring the the advantage in college admissions people thought I received because of my race, disregarding the struggles that come with growing up black, including the criminalization of Black people. The same criminalization that has a very negative impact on Black people, causing us to see things such as the color of our skin as negative…But because I had such a strong support system and grew up in a family full of Black role models, I did not see my Blackness as a detriment, but something to be celebrated. It is important and uplifting to see people who look like you as successful. It is even more important that you have a connection with these people, and my Blackness taught me the value of mentorship. If I had not had powerful Black people pouring into me, things would be a lot different. Because mentorship influenced me so much, I became a mentor while at Vanderbilt, leading mentorship organizations such as Project I Am and After School Program. I want to continue to be a mentor and role model as I pursue my career as a doctor, being a positive example for aspiring Black doctors and communities of color in general. Yes, hard work is necessary to succeed, and you will accomplish much by being hard-working, but you need mentors and role models. Everyone needs someone to look up to who will guide, encourage and care for them.” This essay showcases various aspects of the writer’s background, interests, and insights. They’ve seamlessly tied their home upbringing, racial identity, perspectives on competition, and appreciation for mentorship. They clearly reference how they want to be a mentor and role model for other doctors who are Black or POC.

Still have questions about the TMDSAS’ personal characteristics essay? Then check out these FAQs!

1. What Does Diversity Mean in the TMDSAS Personal Characteristics Essay?

For the TMDSAS essay, diversity doesn’t only mean racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or gender diversity. You can broaden the definition and think of any unique event or experience that’s meaningful and shows how your acceptance would benefit your peers.

2. What’s the Difference Between the TMDSAS Personal Statement and Personal Characteristics Essay?

The personal statement addresses why you’re the right candidate for med school. The personal characteristics essay focuses on your diversity and the insights you can bring to the class to educate your peers and add value to the program.

3. What Do I Write About In My Personal Characteristics Essay?

Ideally, one to three events or experiences are sufficient to answer the prompt. It’s better to have quality over quantity. The essay should be clear, well-organized, and professional. It’s easier to achieve a compelling, coherent essay by focusing on a couple of key ideas.

4. What Should I Avoid in My Personal Characteristics Essay?

Some things to avoid in your TMDSAS essay include rehashing your resume, writing controversial or alienating statements, being overly negative or critical, not editing, using filler words, and lying or embellishing.

5. What Is the Character Limit of the TMDSAS Essays?

The TMDSAS personal statement is 5,000 characters (including spaces). The TMDSAS personal characteristics essay is 2,500 characters (including spaces).

Final Thoughts

The personal characteristics essay is a required TMDSAS component that shares your diversity and how it would enhance the entering class. With our guide, you’re well on your way to crafting a successful TMDSAS personal characteristics essay that showcases your diversity, fit, background, and experiences!

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How to Write the Medical School Secondary Diversity Essay
4 | Don't Repeat Yourself. You may have been asked a diversity question in your primary application, or you may have chosen to focus on this aspect of your life in your personal statement. Do not repeat yourself in your secondary. Admissions committees already have access to your primary application.
6 Medical School Diversity Essay Examples (Ranked Best to Worst!)
First things first, you're incredibly unlikely to get the chance to write this much for a diversity essay. Most of the prompts you'll see from med schools are in the 500 words range. As evidenced in the following article… Related: Medical School Diversity Essay Prompts (21 Examples) What I love about this example here however is the ...
Medical School Diversity Essay: Complete Guide
Diversity essays for medical schools give candidates with diverse backgrounds, unusual families, unorthodox educations, or other different experiences a chance to describe how their distinctiveness would enrich the campus community. Your diversity essay is your chance to show the medical school you are applying to what you have to offer.
Medical School Secondary Essays: The Complete Guide 2024 (Examples
Part 2: The medical school diversity essay Example diversity essay prompts. Example 1: "We seek to train physicians who can connect with diverse patient populations with whom they may not share a similar background.Tell us about an experience that has broadened your own worldview or enhanced your ability to understand those unlike yourself and what you learned from it."
How To Write The Perfect Diversity Essay For Medical School
Avoid spelling and grammar errors, an unprofessional or casual tone/language, controversial or offensive statements, embellishing stories, and negative outlooks. If your diversity essay addresses facing adversity, make sure to focus on a growth mindset, what you learned, and the positive outcomes of that experience. 7.
Medical School Diversity Essay Examples and Tips
Medical school diversity essays are questions on medical school secondary applications that applicants write as part of the medical school application process. Medical schools value diversity in their student bodies because it leads to a more dynamic learning environment where students can learn from each other and benefit from diverse ...
The Secret to Writing an Excellent Secondary Diversity Essay
There are a number of reasons why writing a diversity Secondary Essay is important. Not every medical school requires applicants to write a diversity secondary essay, but submitting one can attract the attention of the admissions committee. Here are a few reasons why you should write the diversity secondary essay for a more impactful ...
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Medical school diversity essay: Reddit ideas. Reddit's always a great source of real advice from students who've successfully made the transition from pre-med to med. Here are a couple of useful remarks for putting together a good diversity essay… I'm black, low income, first generation, so plenty diverse.
How to Showcase Diversity in a Med School Essay
Below are two essays by incoming Duke medical students who impressed Yee with their thoughtful discussion of diversity. The first essay is by Ariana Paniagua, a student of mixed heritage who ...
The Medical School Diversity Essay: Everything You Need to Know
The point is simple: once you have identified what makes you unique, your primary task is to explain how that uniqueness will allow you to contribute something special in school and beyond. This brings us to our third action point: 3. Diversity, as with all other parts of your application, requires evidence.
Medical School Diversity Essay Prompts (21 Examples)
Medical School Diversity Essay Prompts (21 Examples) Putting together an incredible diversity essay for a college or med school application can be tough. Knowing where to start, or exactly what it is a school wants to see or read, only adds to the challenge. A good way to prepare and get a better understanding of what diversity essays are all ...
How to write a medical school diversity essay
Best to focus on some other topic for your medical school diversity essay. The point is simple: once you have identified what makes you unique, your primary task is to explain how that uniqueness will allow you to contribute something special in school and beyond. This brings us to our third action point: 3.
How to Write About Diversity in Your Secondary Essays
Think about how you would finish the following sentence: "I want to be a doctor and _______.". That second part is likely something that makes you diverse. If it's not something that's going to apply to everyone in medical school, it's diverse. ← How to Write About Your Obstacles, Challenges, and Problems in your Secondary Essays.
8 Tips to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay
Second, formatting your essay is the way to go. This will help you write within a framework so that your writing isn't all over the place. You don't want the admissions committee to have a hard time following what you wrote. Introduce yourself. First off, tell the admissions committee who you are.
How to Write an Excellent Diversity Essay
How to write about your diversity. Your answer to a school's diversity essay question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your embrace of differences, your resilience, your character, and your perspective. The school might ask how you think of diversity or how you will bring or add to the diversity of the ...
How To Master The Med School Secondary Essay 2022
A medical school that limits your responses to only 50 words, for example, is asking you for a simple, straightforward response. On the other hand, the school that allows 1,000 words per essay wants you to elaborate and go into some detail. Secondary prompts vary, and I find that students can often recycle essays for multiple schools.
Weekly Weigh-in: The Diversity Secondary Essay
Welcome to PDr's Weekly Weigh-in! Each week, we ask medical students and physicians to weigh in on some of our most frequently asked pre-med questions. This week's question: How did you approach "the diversity secondary essay" on your secondary applications? Edward Chang, DGSOM MS3. Honestly I had a pretty tough time with the diversity ...
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Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. Example: Common Application prompt #1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it.
Mayo Clinic Secondary Essays: Tips and Prompts
Mayo Clinic Secondary Essays Tip #4: Remember, diversity does not necessarily mean your ethnic diversity. Diversity encompasses a wide range of life experiences, clinical experiences, academic opportunities, challenges, and personal situations. We recommend students write about their strengths, including exceptional extracurricular activity ...
2024 TMDSAS Ultimate Guide (Essay Examples Included)
Part 1: Introduction. If you're gearing up to apply to U.S. medical schools, you're probably familiar with AMCAS, the centralized application system that you can use to apply to nearly any med school in the country.But, if you're planning to apply to medical schools in Texas, you'll also need to get to know another system: TMDSAS.
2024 Medical School Personal Statement Ultimate Guide (220+ Examples)
Part 2: A step-by-step approach to writing an amazing medical school personal statement. Before writing, the typical applicant does two things: Pulls up their resume and attempts to identify the experience that is "most unique" or "most authentic" Searches for essay sample after essay sample, hoping to be inspired by someone else's ...
How to Answer Adversity Secondary Essay Prompts for Medical School
In addition to writing a diversity essay for medical school, an adversity essay for medical school is one you'll likely have to write when filling out your medical school secondary applications. Although the AMCAS work and activities section includes up to 15 experiences, medical school secondary essays dive deeper into unique applicant ...
How To Write the TMDSAS Personal Characteristics Essay
3. Outline the Structure of Your Essay. Create an outline to structure and organize your essay. Although the personal characteristics essay is relatively short, you want your narrative to flow. The essay should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion: Essay Component.
6 keys to creating a medical student CV that sets you apart
An up-to-date medical student CV can yield benefits—such as internships, research opportunities and key visiting rotations during medical school—well in advance of the residency-application process that concludes with the Match. "I tell students to update their CV and keep track of what they are doing as they do it," Kavan said.
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National High School Essay Contest - Sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace, this contest encourages students to write essays on peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Scholastic Art & Writing Awards - A prestigious competition recognizing exceptional writing in categories such as poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic script.

How to Write the Medical School Secondary Diversity Essay

Medical School Secondaries

Why Do Schools Include a Diversity Essay?

How to Answer the Medical School Secondary Diversity Essay

2 | What is Your Personal Identity?

3 | Get Personal

4 | Don’t Repeat Yourself

5 | Continue Crafting Your Narrative

Medical School Secondary Diversity Essay Examples

Other Common Secondary Questions

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Medical School Diversity Essay: Complete Guide

What is a Diversity Essay for Medical School?

What Counts as Diversity?

8 Tips for Answering Medical School Diversity Essays

Decide What Makes You Unique

Focus on Your Story

Do not Hold Back

Make Sure Your Story Has a Potential Contribution to the Community

Keep Developing Your Narrative

Do Not Repeat Yourself

Have Enough Evidence of What You Are Writing

Proofread and Double-Check Your Diversity Essay

Medical School Diversity Essay Sample Prompts

Larner College of Med – University of Vermont

Mayo Med School – Mayo Clinic

Stanford University School of Medicine

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

Wake Forest School of Medicine

Medical School Diversity Essay Samples

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The Medical School Diversity Essay: Everything You Need to Know

The Medical School Diversity Essay

1. “Diversity” and “Underrepresented Minority” are not synonymous.

2. Your “diversity” means nothing if it isn’t clearly connected to your potential contribution.

3. Diversity, as with all other parts of your application, requires evidence.

4. Using buzzwords doesn’t convince anyone

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Medical School Diversity Essay Prompts (21 Examples)

How can you find specific prompts for schools you’re applying for?

Diversity essay topics

Ivy League medical school diversity essay prompts

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Harvard Medical School

Geisel School of Medicine

Yale School of Medicine

Alpert Medical School

Mid Tier medical school diversity essay prompts

Duke University

Stanford University

Johns Hopkins University

University of Pittsburgh

Vanderbilt University

Northwestern University (Feinberg)

Low Tier medical school diversity essay prompts

University of Iowa (Carver)

Temple University (Katz)

Florida Atlantic University (Schmidt)

SUNY Upstate Medical University