I’ve recently received several questions about optional secondary essays. How to approach these depends on two things – the prompt itself and your candidacy.

The beauty of a generic “additional comments” section is that it is intentionally vague. It’s your chance to provide details, context, or qualifications that the structure of the application didn’t allow you to present. 

For that reason, if you have a candidacy without any red flags, I lean toward using the “additional comments” space to both highlight who you are and any exceptional aspects of your candidacy that you’d want a reader to know before making an interview decision. One good option in this circumstance is to pick something completely nonmedical that distinguishes you and is nowhere else to be found in your application. Since an interview isn’t guaranteed, don’t save your best material for an in-person meeting. (On the other hand, if you have a large weakness in your candidacy, you usually want to use an optional, generic prompt or a more focused one to gingerly address the issue. See the next paragraph for guidance.)

Sometimes an optional essay is more pointed. An applicant recently forwarded me this prompt: Please describe any extenuating circumstances that may have affected your medical or non-medical service experiences, including any circumstances that impacted your engagement in activities, academics, and MCAT that would have helped to prepare you for medical school. If you have no major deficiencies in your candidacy, there’s no need to write this essay. On the other hand, you should draft a response to this prompt if there’s a big elephant in the room. While, in general, I tell applicants to avoid highlighting standard weaknesses, sometimes someone has a big problem that’s important to address head on. It’s better that you write your own story than let someone else do it.

Bottom line: Optional essays are frequently worth completing because this process is so competitive. And, if you have a big weakness, you should leverage an optional prompt to explain extenuating circumstances.

Secondary essay prompts vary, but there are a few that are standard fare like “Why do you want to attend our school?” Here, medical school admissions officers want to be assured you know their institution, are seriously considering it, and will fit in well. In approaching the “why-our-school” question, do your research on the institution and link something specific about you with the school’s philosophy, curriculum, patient population, and/or extracurricular programs.

For example, if you were a physics teaching assistant in college, you might link your use of the Socratic method with a school’s tutorial-based learning. In that way, you demonstrate knowledge of the school, show you connect well with it, and showcase your distinctive accomplishment.  

The paradox here is that – although you are focusing your essay on one school – because so many institutions have overlapping philosophies, curricula, programs, and objectives – you can oftentimes use the same framework for many different institutions. That’s one strategic way to cut down the overwhelming workload that secondary applications present.  As you craft your essay, it’s key, however, to know and leverage the names of institution-specific programs like student-run clinics, summer travel scholarships, and/or primary care tracks, for example.

I’ve recently received several questions about optional secondary essays and their necessity.

The beauty of an “additional comments” section is that it is intentionally vague. It’s your chance to provide details, context, or qualifications that the structure of the application didn’t allow you to present. For that reason, I lean toward using that space to both highlight who you are and any exceptional aspect of your candidacy that you’d want a reader to know before making an interview decision.

So, one good option for these essays is to pick something completely nonmedical that distinguishes you and is nowhere else to be found on your application. In this case, the essay can actually be fun to write.

Of note, sometimes people use this type of a prompt to explain one major deficiency in their candidacy. I only recommend that if there’s a big elephant in the room: In other words, in general I tell applicants – throughout the process – to avoid highlighting weaknesses. The goal is to demonstrate distinctiveness and worthiness, so negatives are usually left out. But sometimes someone has a big problem like a low MCAT score that is an anomaly that’s worth addressing head on.

Bottom line:  Since an interview isn’t guaranteed, don’t save your best material for an in-person meeting. Get your foot in the door. And as always, make sure your essay is substantive and not fluffy.