by Mary Mahoney
Five Tips for Completing AACOMAS Secondary Applications
Once you file the AACOMAS application and choose your schools, the process is not yet over. You will start to receive secondary essay prompts for each school, often with a two-week deadline. Although some prompts are common and expected (e.g., “Explain your biggest challenge” or “Tell us about significant volunteer experience with a vulnerable population”), others will ask you to explain why you would like to attend a particular school. Here are some tips to help you through the process:
1. Plan.
One of the hardest parts of this process is to allocate enough time to complete the secondary applications in a timely manner – so plan ahead. Don’t leave them all for the last minute. Start early and allocate time to revise. There’s nothing secondary about secondaries!
2. Emphasize fit.
Remember that John F. Kennedy quote, “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”? Same thing. Secondary essays are all about assessing whether you are the right fit for the school. In this case, how will you bring dedication and honor to the school? How, without bragging, will you help fulfill their vision of what it means to be a doctor? Speak to the school’s mission. Emphasize the qualities that are important to each school. Highlight what about you aligns with the kind of student they seek and the kind of holistic, patient-centered doctor they want to educate to serve regional and underserved communities.
3. Dedicate the time.
Often, applicants run out of steam when they reach the secondaries, especially those who apply to many schools. But you should be sure to invest as much time into these essays as you did the AACOMAS application. This is a way to show schools that you are serious about the process and their admission committee’s time.
4. Research the schools.
Schools want applicants that want to attend their program, so the time you spend researching and asking questions is well worth it. For instance, if a school states they are committed to rural medicine, show them you are, too, and why. If a school states they are committed to improving access to care for underserved populations, explain how you share that value, and tell a true story that demonstrates this point empathetically and compassionately while staying true to holistic, osteopathic aims.
5. Don’t repeat.
Make sure that the anecdotes and information you include in secondary applications don’t repeat stories from your personal statement. You want to present new information, new stories/experiences, or new insights to the school. Applicants who submit redundant information could seem as if they need a gap year to gain more experience.
Secondaries are often have shorter character limits than personal statements. Keep in mind a short word or character limit does not mean you should provide an underdeveloped answer. Compression, clarity, and succinctness are key to answering these prompts effectively. This takes practice – and ruthless editing.
Mary earned her PhD from the University of Houston and her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is director of medical humanities at a liberal arts college in New York. With more than 20 years’ experience as a tenured English professor, she specializes in personal statements. She also teaches narrative medicine, empathy, health equity, disparity, bias, and social justice. She has a strong track record of helping applicants to medical, psychology, and humanities graduate programs achieve success. Want Mary to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!
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