diversity secondary essay 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?

Other Common Secondary Questions

The diversity essay is only one of the common medical school secondary prompts you can expect to see in one form or another. Knowing which questions are likely to appear on secondaries will help you prepare your answers in advance.

Some of the most common secondary questions include:

• Why are you a good fit for our school?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Why do you want to be a doctor?
• Why us? / Why do you want to join this program?
• Describe a moral or ethical dilemma you faced. What did you learn from the experience?
• Describe a time when you failed and what you learned.
• Did you take time off after undergrad? What did you achieve during this time?
• Where do you see yourself in ten years?

With these questions in mind, start writing your responses to common secondary questions long before you actually receive your secondaries. Once you do receive a secondary, deeply research the program and tailor your answers to suit their values and offerings.

Learn more about the complete secondary process and how to plan ahead in our Medical School Secondary Application Guide .

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 Application

My Secret to Writing an Excellent Secondary Diversity Essay

With 3 sample essays.

Featured Expert: Dr. Christian Cuevas, MD

Approaching diversity secondary essays for medical school can be tough when you don’t know what diversity you can share to the world. Diversity isn’t just about being underrepresented or coming from a marginalized group, but you may not know where to start with this medical school secondary essay prompt . In this blog I'll share how to approach the diversity secondary essay, what to write about, how to figure out what sort of diversity you can share, how to relate your diversity to medical school, and more. 

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free initial consultation here <<

Article Contents 12 min read

Diversity secondary essay: what exactly is "diversity".

Diversity does not necessarily (or exclusively) refer to religious, ethnic, cultural, or linguistic minorities. Yes, such applicants would indeed be diverse and would contribute to the diversity of a school or program, but everyone has their own form of diversity, even if it doesn’t appear straightforward. Discussing your diverse attributes can be difficult, especially when not knowing what makes you diverse.

For me, part of my diversity stemmed from my Mexican heritage, being fluent in Spanish, being the first in my family to pursue college/medicine and being a collegiate athlete. 

However, there are any number of other identities and designators you might apply to yourself that act as distinguishing features in your medical school secondary essay. If you’re a returning student, a parent, served in the military, or a non-traditional applicant , those are diverse attributes.

Additionally, if you have had experiences with helping people who come from underrepresented or marginalized groups, that can certainly count as having diverse experiences. 

1. To show that your values align with the school’s

The first and most important reason why you should consider a diversity secondary essay a requirement, even when it’s listed as optional, is because it’s an opportunity to show that your values align with theirs. For instance, notice the explicit mention of diversity in Yale Medical School’s mission statement:        

“Yale School of Medicine educates and nurtures creative leaders in medicine and science, promoting curiosity and critical inquiry in an inclusive environment enriched by diversity. We advance discovery and innovation fostered by partnerships across the University, our local community, and the world. We care for patients with compassion and commit to improving the health of all people.”

Most medical schools make diversity an integral part of their mission and growth plans. If you can elicit your definition of diversity and what it means to you, you’re showing the admissions committee that you have the potential to be a valuable contributor to the school’s culture and community.

2. You can show personality

Medical schools know that people are more than just their stats. That’s why secondary essays, resumes, and personal statements are part of the application process. Medical schools want to get to know the person behind the application because qualitative traits tell a story about who you are as a person. Diversity essays are an opportunity to introduce yourself on a more intimate level; you can explain where you came from, or how a formative experience shaped you as a prospective medical school student. Don’t underestimate the explanatory power of the diversity secondary essay; use it to show the admissions committee that you’re a resilient, prepared candidate.

3. You might have some explaining to do

Sometimes, diversity secondary essay prompts are more open-ended; in other words, they don’t explicitly mention diversity. Rather, they might ask the applicant to mention anything else they might like the admissions committee to know regarding academic records, or if there’s an important aspect of their background they think the committee should consider. You might think that your circumstances are extraneous; on the contrary, you can use the diversity essay to explain gaps in your academic background, interesting or influential experiences, or to simply give the committee a better view of who you are. If you look at your application holistically and identify valuable information you think is missing, take the opportunity to rectify those gaps in the body of this prompt.

Step 1: Explore Your Own Diversity

My approach to diversity secondary essays was ensuring that I included examples of experiences and my own personal diverse attributes that most strongly related to medicine. I went through my running document that contained all of my experiences and chose the ones that would show off my understanding of people who come from diverse backgrounds.

You likely had to assemble your list of experiences for the  AMCAS work and activities , which would have required you to think about your experiences, qualities, and overall trajectory as a student and as a person. Similarly, if you're applying to med school through TMDSAS , you would have had to brainstorm for the  TMDSAS personal characteristics essay . Returning to that and thinking through what you wrote through a slightly different lens is a great way of gathering some ideas about what sets you and your life story apart from others. For more ideas, you can always read some  medical school secondary essay examples  that can inspire your own.

Step 2: Reflect on Your Experiences With Others

Choosing the right experience can also be a bit of a challenge when discussing diversity. The two different forms of diversity to think through are personal perspectives, as well as personal experiences. When brainstorming personal experiences, think of your familial heritage, socioeconomic status, and whether you are a first-generation student.

For me personally, I come from a Mexican home where my parents were immigrants. Being new to this country, we were under the poverty line for most of my childhood. Additionally, I am a first-generation student in both college and medical school. For experiences, think through any volunteer work you may have done working with different populations of people, experiences in extracurriculars such as athletics, any other languages you may know, or prior work/career experiences. Personally, I worked in a free clinic, have volunteered in Haiti to serve, was a college athlete, worked as a professor prior to medical school, and am fluent in Spanish.

By discussing diverse experiences and interactions, I was able to show that I would be able to become an empathetic and understanding physician when interacting with different groups of patients. As a physician, being able to understand the backgrounds of different people groups will allow you to provide the best care for all, which is what medical schools want to see when choosing different candidates. After all, cultural competency is an important AAMC core competency for medical school applicants!

Consider these questions to help you start thinking about how diversity manifests in your life:

• Have you done volunteer work that allowed you to work with or for people from a different background than yourself?
• Have you traveled to places or taken up service opportunities that let you see other ways of life different from your own?
• Have you connected in meaningful ways with someone who challenged you to think from a new perspective?
• Do you have family, friends, or loved ones who have shown you other ways to think and be? If you have, and if you can articulate such experiences, then this may be something to reflect on as part of your diversity essay. 

Diversity allows us to connect with others and become better people for it. Sharing your diverse experiences with schools allows them to see your inclusivity and recognize that you will be a physician that cares for people, regardless of their walk of life.

Diversity in medical school is important as you will come across a multitude of different people groups. Being able to express that you have had experiences with diverse groups of people/your own diversity, you can demonstrate that you will be able to connect with patients of different backgrounds and provide quality care. To show this, you will want to describe your experience, relating it to how you will come across specific people groups in medical school and beyond, and how the specific experience has prepared you to be a caring and compassionate medical student and physician. Since many medical schools have clinical partnerships with county hospitals or free clinics, having experiences like these will further convince the admissions committee that you would be ready for a career in medicine. 

Examples of Diversity Essay Prompts

The diversity essay prompts you receive from different schools may vary; that is, the wording of the prompts and what they ask for will be specific to the school. It’s a good idea to read a few examples, so that you know what to expect. While the gist of what you should include in each prompt won’t vary all that much for each school, you might choose to alter the structure or order of content for different prompts.

Here are a few examples of diversity secondary essay prompts:

\u201cWithout limiting the discussion to your own identity, please describe how you envision contributing to the core values of diversity and inclusion at our School of Medicine, and in the medical profession.\u201d (1500 characters) ","label":"University of Maryland School of Medicine","title":"University of Maryland School of Medicine"}]" code="tab2" template="BlogArticle">

Sample Diversity Secondary Essays

Diversity secondary essay sample #1.

Prompt: “Diversity comes in many forms. How do you think you might contribute to the diversity of the class?” (1500 characters)

I am extremely fortunate to have a strong connection to my roots. Spending time in Italy throughout my life has allowed me to see how the ideology of this culture differs from that of the United States.

Italian society is often marred by the stereotype that its citizens are lazy or not willing to work. I believe that if people look through an objective lens, they will see a society that derives its happiness less from material objects and more from love and companionship. There is a monumental emphasis placed on the health and wellbeing of others. There is always time for a family meal, a coffee with a friend, or an evening walk to clear one’s mind. Growing up, my family always made sure everyone had enough to eat and someone to talk to. I believe in this philosophy and view the health care field as an opportunity to help others live a full and fruitful life pursuing their own happiness. My culture, upbringing, and life experiences have fostered my desire to pursue medicine and my holistic approach to life.

Throughout my life, health care professionals have consistently given my loved ones the ability to live autonomously and be present in my life. It is a service and a gift that they have given me and a gift I wish to spend my life giving to others. I will bring these elements of empathy and holistic care to not only as a training physician, but as a fellow classmate who is there for others through the rigors of medical school.  (1,449 characters)

Prompt: “The Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont recognizes that diversity extends beyond chosen and unchosen identities and encompasses the entirety of an individual’s experiences. Reflect on a time you learned something from someone or a group of people who are unlike yourself.”

In my freshman year of college, I roomed with an international student named Jorge who had immigrated from Guatemala to attend X University. We had a lot in common, despite our differences, and helped each other a lot in this transitional time in our lives. However hard adjusting to college life was for me as a first-generation citizen, I saw how much harder it was for him to transition to a new country and breach cultural barriers, while also acclimatizing to the responsibility and workload of a college student.

Instead of accepting the fact that our backgrounds rendered us incompatible, I decided to educate myself on his culture. I began reading about the political unrest in Guatemala, I found Latin Hip-Hop we could listen to, and I worked to develop my Spanish to try to make him feel at home. We grew very close and I learned a lot from being his roommate. Seeing his work ethic and commitment to building a life for himself inspired me to pursue my own goals with the same vigor. He looked at the opportunity to study in the United States as a privilege and didn’t take the chance to pursue his education for granted. We were roommates throughout college and in that time, I learned a lot culturally from him as well. Through our friendship, I spent time with his family and within the Latin community at X University and came to incorporate many aspects of his culture into my own life. I learned a lot about letting the people in my life know they are loved and taking the time in my day for simple pleasures like a good meal with friends. In return, I introduced him to my friends in the LGBTQ+ community on campus, where he forged more new friendships and found acceptance. I am very thankful for my friendship with Jorge and for the growth fostered by our friendship.

My experience with Jorge has made me particularly excited about the Larner College of Medicine, which I see as an institution invested in producing physicians who are culturally adept and equipped to treat all members of a patient population. The Larner College of Medicine’s commitment to improving health care for the LGBTQ+ population and investing in the wellbeing of its community speaks volumes about what this program values. My undergraduate and my own personal experiences as a first-generation citizen in this country have demonstrated for me how continuing to learn from others who are different is imperative, and how an enriching life comes from an open mind.  (427 words)

Diversity Secondary Essay Sample #3

Prompt: “Without limiting the discussion to your own identity, please describe how you envision contributing to the core values of diversity and inclusion at our School of Medicine, and in the medical profession.” (1500 characters)

During my junior year of college, I participated in a workshop on unconscious bias in healthcare, offered by my volunteer work at a community health clinic. I learned and observed firsthand the disparities in the quality of care provided to patients of color, from misdiagnoses to downright dismissals. These experiences illuminated the pervasive nature of unconscious biases and their detrimental effects on patients who were not getting appropriate care.

I envision hosting workshops focused on recognizing and mitigating unconscious bias in medicine. These workshops would foster a deeper understanding of how these biases influence patient care and to provide practical strategies for addressing them. By creating a comprehensive workshop series, I aim to cultivate an environment where my peers are better equipped to deliver equitable and compassionate care to all patients, regardless of their background.

Furthermore, I will advocate for the integration of unconscious bias training into the medical school curriculum, ensuring that every student is equipped with the knowledge and tools to provide equitable care.

As a future physician, I am committed to being a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion within the medical profession. I aim to influence positive change by setting an example for others to follow and by promoting these values. My goal is to contribute to a more equitable healthcare system that serves all patients with dignity and respect, regardless of their background. (1,497 characters)

The secret is understanding that diversity is universal. The definition is much broader than most traditionally think it is; for instance, having a diverse perspective qualifies just as much as other common diversity signifiers, like racial or ethnic background.

Not all schools make the diversity secondary essay mandatory. However, even when it’s optional, you are encouraged to reflect on your experiences and what you can contribute to the school’s culture and mission. Diversity is important, but so is taking every opportunity to use your qualities to your advantage and stand out from the crowd.

Telling means you’ve simply stated a fact about yourself. For example, you might say you’re a “compassionate” person. To show that this is true, you need to use an experience that evinces this quality.

It’s best if you reflect on your experiences with others. Interaction and connection are the two cornerstones of diversity. For example, maybe you collaborated with a diverse group of people in a music band and this was a challenging but emboldening experience.

Diversity isn’t about what makes us separate from other people. On the contrary, part of it defines our role in society and in large or small interdependent groups.

Diversity is about breaking convention; the definition is never fixed; everyone has diverse experiences; and diversity, in the final analysis, is what makes you “you.”

No, each school’s diversity essay prompt will most likely be different. Read each prompt thoroughly and be sure to address each component of the prompt, including character or word count.

It’s impossible to sound self-righteous if you’re being authentic. Pick out relevant experiences and show the admissions committee that you can demonstrate your moral convictions through action.

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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.

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Writing a Diversity Secondary Essay for Medical School

Posted in: Applying to Medical School

Table of Contents

As you prepare to write medical school secondary essays, plan to see a question about diversity on the essay prompts for most schools. This can feel like a tricky secondary essay prompt, as it’s a much easier question for some students to answer than others.

But even if you don’t see yourself as diverse racially or socioeconomically compared to other applicants, you still have unique experiences and perspectives to offer your top choice medical school .

Diversity in medical school isn’t just about ethnicity or economic background; it’s about the distinct qualities and life experiences that make you unique. You can showcase your unique contributions on your med school applications, whether you have an unexpected hobby, nontraditional gender identity, international experience, or an unusual academic background.

Here’s the advice I and my fellow Physician Advisors and Writing Advisors give to students looking to impress AdComs on their secondaries.

What Is the Medical School Diversity Essay?

Many medical programs (such as the Mayo Clinical College of Medicine , the University of Massachusetts , and Stanford University School of Medicine ) include a question in their secondary application process about how applicants will contribute to the diversity of the student body. 

This prompt, often called the “diversity essay,” is designed to help admissions committees understand each applicant’s unique qualities, experiences, and perspectives. It’s important to note that this is not necessarily the same as an “adversity” prompt, which focuses on challenges and hardships.

While some schools might combine adversity and diversity statements, the diversity essay prompt specifically highlights how your uniqueness and background will enrich your medical school class on your journey to becoming a doctor .

Common Topics and Themes to Address

The diversity question relates to multiple competencies added by the AAMC in 2024. When writing your application essays ( or preparing for your interviews ), you can explore a variety of topics and themes to showcase your unique experiences and perspectives. 

If you’re not from a particularly disadvantaged background, not to worry! You’re still an individual who can contribute to the diversity of a student body.

Here are some common and not-so-obvious themes to consider in your essay questions:

• Socioeconomic status : Highlight your unique socioeconomic background, whether marked by wealth or financial hardships, and how your relationship with money shaped your perspective, privilege, and resilience.
• Significant life events: Discuss significant events that have impacted your worldview and resilience. This may be anything from traumatic experiences to the loss of a parent or even something you experienced as a member of your community that shaped you.
• Racial identity: Share how your racial or ethnic background has influenced your experiences and interactions.
• Experiencing healthcare disparities: Describe personal encounters with healthcare inequities and how they have motivated you to pursue medicine.
• Physical disabilities: Explain how living with a disability has shaped your understanding of patient care and empathy.
• Gender and/or sexual identity: Reflect on your experiences as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and how your sexual orientation and/or gender identity have influenced your perspective.
• Neurodivergence: Discuss how conditions like ADHD, autism, or other neurodivergent traits have contributed to your unique problem-solving and patient-care approach.
• Unique or rare physical traits: Highlight characteristics such as unique skin conditions, being very under or overweight, Polydactyly (being born with extra fingers), or having distinctive birthmarks and how these have impacted your life.
• Insecurities you have overcome: Share personal challenges and how overcoming them has contributed to your growth, such as an unhealthy drive towards perfectionism or a body image disorder.
• Family circumstances: Describe unique family dynamics, such as being a caretaker for a family member, that have shaped your sense of responsibility and empathy.
• Religion/faith background: Reflect on how your religious or spiritual beliefs have influenced your values and commitment to service. Explain how your beliefs may now diverge from your family’s religious beliefs and how this has affected your educational and career paths.
• Cultural heritage: Discuss traditions, customs, and values from your cultural background and how they have influenced your identity and aspirations.
• Immigration experience: Share the challenges and perspectives gained from being an immigrant or coming from an immigrant family.
• Educational path: Highlight non-traditional or unique academic journeys, such as switching majors or pursuing unconventional fields of study.
• Work experiences : Reflect on diverse job experiences, especially those in healthcare or community service, and what you have learned from them.
• Volunteer work and community involvement: Discuss your commitment to volunteering and its impact on understanding diverse communities. Talk about how these experiences taught you the importance of teamwork, sensitivity, and belonging.
• Hobbies and interests: Showcase unique hobbies or interests that have contributed to your personal development and perspective. These don’t have to be related to medicine but should relate in some way to your journey in growing as a person and future physician.
• Global perspective: Describing experiences abroad, such as study or volunteer work in different countries , and how they have broadened your worldview.
• Leadership roles: Reflect on your leadership positions and how they have prepared you to contribute to a diverse medical school community.
• Interpersonal skills: Highlight your ability to work effectively with diverse groups of people and what you have learned from those interactions.

Read Next: How To Fill Out the AMCAS Application

Why Is Diversity Important in Medical School?

Diversity has become a primary focus for medical schools when evaluating applicants, and for good reason. 

With the Supreme Court’s ruling on Affirmative Action limiting race-based considerations, many medical schools have turned to the diversity essay to understand and value all applicants’ unique experiences and perspectives. This shift allows schools to continue fostering a diverse student body through a more holistic review process.

It is common knowledge that the medical field has historically been dominated by male white and Asian physicians, leading to a lack of representation for other racial and ethnic groups. This disparity can impact patient care, as studies have shown that patients often receive better care when treated by doctors who share their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. 

By promoting diversity in medical school admissions, institutions aim to create a more representative healthcare workforce to serve an increasingly diverse patient population better.

Another reason diversity is important is that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Historically Black Medical Schools (HBMSs) have long struggled with underfunding and lower enrollment numbers than their predominantly white counterparts. 

Increasing diversity within all medical schools can help address these disparities by ensuring that students from underrepresented backgrounds have equal opportunities to pursue medical careers, regardless of their institution.

Last but certainly not least, medical school diversity enriches all students’ learning environment. When you interact with peers from different backgrounds, it fosters cultural competency, empathy, and collaboration — essential skills for future healthcare providers. 

These interactions prepare medical students to work effectively in diverse teams and understand the complex social determinants of health affecting patient care.

Not from a ‘Disadvantaged Background’? You Still Have Something to Say.

There is a common misconception that a med student’s diversity only relates to skin color or cultural heritage. That is simply not true. Even if you don’t come from a traditionally diverse background, you still have unique qualities and experiences that can contribute to a diverse student body. 

Some of my favorite diversity essays from former students have come from unique stories that weren’t about culture or socioeconomic status. For instance, I once worked with a competitive ballerina who discussed her extensive training as part of diversity essay questions.

Maybe you chose an unconventional major, like art or music, and can talk about your unique approach to problem-solving and innovation. You may have grown up in America, but have you spent time traveling internationally? Or perhaps you have skills from fields that are seemingly unrelated to medicine, like computer programming or graphic design, that can spark inspiration for your essay.

Diversity Essay Examples

Need inspiration to get started? Below, I include three real-life diversity essays from students accepted by the requesting programs. Each paints a different picture of how diversity can be expressed in this essay format to show how you’ll be able to contribute to a diverse medical school community. (Names have been removed for confidentiality.)

Example 1: A Second-Generation Asian American (272 Words/1837 Characters)

Prompt: Do you identify as being part of a marginalized group socioeconomically or in terms of access to quality education or healthcare? Please describe how this inequity has impacted you and your community. (350 words max)

Essay: When the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community experienced a resurgence in anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us feared for our elderly, experienced physical assaults, and endured constant streams of microaggressions. All these effects led to consequences for my community’s mental health and revealed gaps in mental healthcare for AAPI. As a second-generation Asian American, I have experienced the conflict of identity created by the generational gap between immigrant parents and children, and the surge in anti-Asian hatred compounded these stressors. The stigma against mental illness within our community discourages many of us from seeking treatment, and the increased demand for mental health care led to services becoming more inaccessible. I dedicated myself to addressing this gap by organizing virtual activities and dissemination of resources. Many of my fellow students struggled to adapt to the sudden change to virtual curriculum and social distancing; our goal was to maintain a network for students to discuss their experience, seek support from peers, and empower our communities. Another area that demonstrates the long-lasting effects of COVID-19 is food insecurity. While visiting my grandparents in their assisted living facility, I learned that many residents struggled to access affordable and healthy food. After reaching out to local food banks, I registered as a recurring volunteer. Using my fluency in Mandarin and basic Spanish, I can comfort and serve families who are struggling with the consequences of COVID-19 and recent economic changes. With the knowledge I gained from these experiences, I aspire to continue working to address disparities, advocate for underserved populations, and provide accessible and culturally appropriate care as a future physician.

Example 2: When Cultures Collide in Unity (373 Words/2399 Characters)

Prompt: Describe your identity and how it has impacted the development of your values and attitudes toward individuals different from yourself and how this will impact your interactions with future colleagues and patients. (2500 characters max)

Essay: Growing up, I traveled to India during summers to visit my family. Living in India for months at a time allowed me to understand the rich history of my ancestral homeland, Hyderabad. Unlike other parts of India, Hyderabad historically saw collaboration between Hindus and Muslims. They set aside their differences to live peacefully and build long-lasting monuments, such as the Charminar, symbolizing the value of tolerance on which Hyderabad was established. I experienced firsthand how coexistence between Hindus and Muslims persists today, as my family tailor and my apartment watchman have Arabic names and practice Islamic traditions. Recognizing this aspect of my heritage informed my identity as someone who celebrates diversity and understands its importance. 

Upon returning to the US, I had a new appreciation for the values of diversity and acceptance, which I now noticed in my hometown as well. Although the people in my community had our differences, we assisted one another during difficult times. Whether it was shoveling driveways during snowstorms or babysitting children of our working neighbors, we could count on the people living around us to understand our needs and support one another. The values I learned from my neighbors continue inspiring me to behave altruistically and help those in need whenever possible. 

My experiences reflect the richness of my life as well as the dual nature of my identity. I embody diverse values because I am both an Indian with deep ties to centuries of history and tolerance and an American with compassionate attributes. Throughout my undergraduate years, I delivered meals at food banks, served underprivileged groups and clinics, and treated patients experiencing multiple medical comorbidities as an EMT. By taking these actions, I aim to apply the diverse aspect of my identity in my life and help others overcome the challenges they face. 

As a physician, I hope these core values will meaningfully shape my interactions with colleagues and patients. I will work alongside colleagues and staff to collectively improve patient outcomes. With my patients, I will act compassionately and dedicate myself to addressing their needs through high-quality care. Witnessing different parts of the world, learning to appreciate different backgrounds, and selflessly contributing to others’ health will serve me well as I work toward these goals.

Example 3: Advocating for Those with Disabilities (256 Words/1631 Characters)

Prompt: Please describe how your background and/or your unique lived experiences contribute to our culture of inclusive excellence. Limit the response to 300 words.

Essay: I can contribute to the culture of inclusive excellence through my passion and skillset for caring for persons with disabilities. Through my time caring for over 50 residents with varying disabilities at an assisted living facility and living with my grandma who suffers from Alzheimer’s, I have become a strong advocate for people with disabilities. As a supervisor at an assisted living facility, I ensure my residents receive equitable treatment, respect, and necessary accommodations in both medical and social settings. My resident, “Jeff,” whom I advocate for regularly, experienced a recent traumatic brain injury (T.B.I.) that left him partially paralyzed and nonverbal. Unfortunately, this has led some people to assume he is in a vegetative state and unable to communicate. In such situations, I explain that Jeff is a mature adult with a unique communication style, demonstrated through nods, fist bumps, and facial expressions. By doing this, I help Jeff engage with the community and express his preferences and decisions to medical personnel. I want to emphasize the importance that individuals with disabilities should not be defined solely by their disabilities, but rather celebrated as unique individuals. I am always looking for ways to get my residents involved in the community and want them to feel included wherever they go. I have further advocated for persons with disabilities by sending a letter to my state representative, asking that the government increase funding to support those living with disabilities. I am inspired to use my experiences to promote an inclusive environment as a medical student.

Unlock secondary essay success! Brainstorm content, craft your stories, and tailor your essays to each medical school with the help of a professional writer and a physician.

Some medical schools require diversity secondary essays, while others do not include these questions or make them optional. Carefully read the instructions for each school’s secondary application to know for sure. If you’re pre-writing your essays, be sure to check out last year’s secondary essay prompts to get an idea of which schools will require a diversity essay.

When discussing diversity, focus on your experiences and their impact rather than boasting about your achievements. Highlight your lessons and how they’ve shaped your perspective and ability to contribute to a diverse environment. Avoid painting a picture of yourself as a savior or hero.

Avoid making broad or clichéd statements — instead, provide specific, personal examples. Also, avoid exaggerating your experiences or appearing insincere; authenticity is key.

Yes, revisiting diversity-related topics from the personal statement portion in your primary application is okay. However, provide new insights or additional context to deepen your narrative and avoid redundancy.

Get Help Crafting Unique Secondary Essays

Our professional advisors are here to help you craft unique and compelling secondary essays. We’ll listen to your story, highlight what makes you truly diverse, and help you uncover standout experiences you may have overlooked. 

Work with professional writers and former admissions committee members to craft application essays that wow. Ace this step of the process and get those interview invites with the help of our expert team.

Renee Marinelli, MD

Dr. Marinelli has practiced family medicine, served on the University of California Admissions Committee, and has helped hundreds of students get into medical school. She spearheads a team of physician advisors who guide MedSchoolCoach students.

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How to write the perfect diversity essay for medical school.

Reviewed by:

Akhil Katakam

Third-Year Medical Student, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

Reviewed: 5/19/23

Wondering how to write the perfect diversity essay for medical school? Stick around to find out our top tips!

The medical school admissions process is becoming increasingly holistic. Admissions committees look at more than just your GPA and extracurricular activities to decide your candidacy.

There is a significant need to diversify the medical field, so various other selection factors play an important role in your success. Many medical schools require secondary essays as part of their application materials to help them assess candidates’ strengths, desirable qualities, experiences, and insights. 

Some schools require the medical school diversity essay, so it’s essential to understand the ins and outs of what makes a compelling essay stand out. This blog will review the definition of diversity in the context of medical school applications and provide examples of prompts from top schools. 

You will also learn how to write a diversity essay, including tips on what to include and the proper format to follow. Lastly, we’ll provide an example that tells an interesting story and connects a candidate’s diversity with a medical school’s mission and vision.

Get The Ultimate Guide on Writing an Unforgettable Personal Statement

What is a Diversity Essay for Medical School?

A diversity essay is required or recommended for many medical school secondary applications . In the cases that the diversity essay is recommended, you should still consider it as a requirement, as submitting additional, strong materials maximize your chances of acceptance. 

Admissions committees matriculate well-rounded, diverse, and experienced candidates , so sending more materials will help them gain a better overview of your unique background. 

If you look at medical school websites, there is a common theme among mission and vision statements: diversity. This is because the medical field needs to diversify health care practitioners who can empathize with and effectively treat various types of patient populations.

Some schools even have separate diversity statements that show their ongoing commitment to matriculate a diverse student body, representing every race, religion, sexual orientation, identity, educational/professional background, and more. 

In fact, admissions committees are even seriously considering and matriculating non-traditional applicants from non-science backgrounds to further serve the benefits of diversity in medicine. 

What Counts as Diversity?

If you’re worried that you don’t count as a diverse candidate because you don’t belong to a historically underrepresented group, cast your concerns aside. Diversity in the context of diversity essays for medical school is not a code word to only matriculate ethnic or racial minorities. 

Yes, candidates from minority groups are diverse and are encouraged to apply to medical school, but diversity doesn’t end there. Rather, diversity is broadly defined to include many categories. Everyone is diverse because everyone has their own unique experiences and backgrounds to draw from, which is valuable in healthcare.

There are many distinguishing factors and characteristics that can make candidates diverse:

• Non-traditional applicants (2 or more gap years before med school)
• Candidates who are non-science majors
• Career changers
• Candidates with a disability
• Historically underrepresented groups (racial, ethnic, gender and gender identity, linguistic, sexual orientation, religion, and more)
• Older returning students
• Applicants with military service
• Parents returning to the workforce
• Candidates who overcome extreme challenges and adversity
• Applicants with a difficult socioeconomic background

If you broaden your understanding of diversity to include your unique learning experiences and worldviews, you will have a plethora of examples to choose from to write a powerful diversity essay. 

Examples of Diversity Essay Prompts

The following are previous diversity essay prompts from top medical schools to give you an idea of what a diversity essay prompt looks like . You’ll notice there is a similar thread in all of these prompts: medical schools want to know about your diversity in broadly defined terms, and most importantly, how it will enhance the school’s mission, vision, and student body.

Prompt: Stanford University School of Medicine

“ 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.”

Prompt: Wake Forest School of Medicine

“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.”

Prompt: Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont

 “The Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont recognizes that diversity extends beyond chosen and unchosen identities and encompasses the entirety of an individual’s experiences. Reflect on a time you learned something from someone or a group of people who are unlike yourself.”

Prompt: Columbia 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?”

Prompt :University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

“At the University of Chicago, in an atmosphere of interdisciplinary scholarship and discovery, the Pritzker School of Medicine is dedicated to inspiring diverse students of exceptional promise to become leaders and innovators in science and medicine for the betterment of humanity. Our mission statement is an expression of our core purpose and educational philosophy. In particular, it highlights the value we place on diversity since we regard the diversity of entering class as essential for educational excellence. Please write an essay on how you would enhance diversity at Pritzker and advance the Pritzker mission.”

 Use our tool to discover every U.S. medical school’s secondary essay prompts! 

How to Write a Diversity Essay

If you’re having trouble figuring out how to write a diversity essay, take the following steps:

1. Identify What Makes You Unique

First, before you even begin to write, brainstorm the things in your background that make you unique. In particular, think about your education, work experience, extracurricular activities, upbringing, family life, and other aspects of your journey to medical school.

Brainstorming ideas is meant to get your creative juices flowing. At this point, don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or sentence structure. Your goal is to get as many ideas on paper as possible so that you can begin to craft a story that uses one to three examples for your diversity essay.

You can ask yourself the following questions to get started:

• Who are you at your core, at your best self?
• What experiences have defined you?
• How do you identify yourself, and how does this differ from society’s expectations of your identity?
• How have you overcome challenges, adversity, or rejection?
• Where did you grow up, and what was it like to live there? How do your geographic roots inform your worldview?
• What was your family life like?
• Have you faced a disability, injury, or illness? What did you learn, and how did you overcome these challenges?
• Are you a part of any teams, groups, or organizations? How have they contributed to your interpersonal skills?

Remember, admissions committees are interested in your story. You should never falsify information in your essays. Write what you know!

2. Pick 1-3 Meaningful Experiences to Potentially Write About

A compelling diversity essay consists of one or a few meaningful experiences instead of overloading the essay with brief mentions of too many examples. You should prioritize quality over quantity and weave a story that’s memorable to the admissions committee.

You should also be mindful of character limits. Every school has different requirements, so be sure you achieve the minimum character count and stay within the upper limits. 

3. Outline the Structure of Your Diversity Essay

No matter the length of your secondary essays , you should always structure it with the following: 

• An introduction that hooks the reader. 
• A body that details your experience(s). 
• A conclusion that concisely ties everything together with the school’s mission.

The introduction should begin to tell your main story. It should introduce your main talking points so that the reader knows what to expect in the essay. Strong introductions often have a hook, which can appear as the beginning of an interesting and evocative anecdote.

The body of your diversity essay should delve into your unique experience through reflective storytelling . Here is where you will go into compelling details about your examples. The body will also demonstrate how your diversity will be an asset to the school and your peers and colleagues. 

It’s also important to show rather than tell. For example, rather than list all of the personal characteristics that make you diverse, use imagery and storytelling to show these personal characteristics in action. 

Finally, the conclusion should neatly tie in your meaningful and diverse experiences to the pursuit of medicine. Your last sentences should leave the reader with a strong impression of why your diversity will be an asset to the school.

4. Write the First Draft

Draw from your notes and outlines to write the first draft. Excellent writing involves an evolution of multiple drafts, so don’t be discouraged if the first draft isn’t perfect. 

You’re not striving for perfection here—you’re still in the beginning stages, so you should prioritize fully addressing the essay prompt with strong examples from your diverse background. Polishing your first draft can come later.

5. Revise and Edit Your Diversity Essay

Go over your draft with a critical eye. Ensure that all prompt components are thoroughly answered, check for spelling and grammatical mistakes, and proofread for proper syntax and sentence structure. 

Look at the flow of your essay. The transitions from introduction, to the body, to the conclusion should be seamless and make sense. If you’re writing about a few experiences, ensure that they make sequential and logical sense. The transitions should feel natural, not jarring or out of place.

Have someone else look at your essay to offer objective feedback. This can be a trusted friend, family member, instructor, employer, peer, or mentor. Be open to constructive criticism and revise any areas that need improvement or further clarification/elaboration. 

Diversity Essay Examples

If you want to gather ideas about what to write, you can look at examples! Try taking a look at our secondary essay database. It has plenty of sample med school diversity and diversity-related essays that can help you craft one of your own! Reading through these samples will help you learn more about what makes a standout essay.

The following diversity essay examples both tell compelling and memorable stories. As you read, consider how the essay transports you to another location and invites you to view medicine and health care from a unique perspective. 

Note how the essay ties into the school’s mission, vision, and goals for diversifying health care. Finally, consider the overall structure of the essay: there is a tangible introduction, body, and conclusion.

“Being South Asian, I have firsthand knowledge of what it means not to access basic health care. 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 third-world 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 health care.  Every summer at my grandfather’s clinic, from ages five to 17, 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 the reasons for their visits. 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 a 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 12 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 the spirit by the way 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 health care, 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.”

Example 2: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

“‘911 operator, what’s your emergency?’ ‘My friend has just been shot and he is not moving!’ ‘Is he breathing?’ ‘I don't think so!’ ‘Are you hurt?’ ‘No.’ ‘Stay there, the paramedics are on their way.’  ‍ On April 10th 2003, at approximately 11pm, my best friend Kevin and I, intending to see a movie, headed out my front door. We never made it to see a horror movie; but our night was nothing close to mundane, when we became innocent victims to gang crossfire. As we descended my front door stairs two gunshots were fired and one person fell to the floor. Kevin was shot! I vividly recall holding him in my arms, and while he lost blood I almost lost my mind. All I wanted was to help, but there was nothing I could do. At 1am that morning Kevin's family and I sat in the emergency waiting room at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, hoping and praying that the chief surgeon would bring us good news. While this event started me on my quest to become a medical doctor, at that moment all I could envision was a life of despondency.  ‍ According to author Jennifer Holloway, ‘tragedy is a substance which can ignite the soul.’ When Kevin’s surgeon walked through the door of the emergency waiting room he did not have to say a word. Kevin’s family cried hysterically. I, on the other hand, could not cry. As fast as despondency had filled my heart, it was now gone; I was consumed by anger, frustration and motivation to change my life’s direction. The death of my best friend compelled me to pursue a career in medicine. This, I hope, will enable me to help save the lives that others try to take.  ‍ In the fall of this event, I took my first biology and chemistry courses. By the end of the year I excelled as the top student in biology, received the Inorganic Chemistry Achievement Award and was encouraged to become a tutor in general biology and chemistry.  ‍ Tutoring was a captivating experience for me. Questions raised by students challenged my understanding of scientific concepts and their application in patient care. To further develop my knowledge of medicine, I volunteered in the emergency department at Albert Einstein Hospital, in Bronx, NY. While shadowing doctors, I was introduced to triaging, patient diet monitoring and transitioning from diagnosis to treatment. This exposed me to some of the immense responsibilities of a doctor, but my 5 experience helping in the cancer ward was where I learned the necessity of humanity in a physician and how it can be used to treat patients. Peering through a window I saw Cynthia, a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with terminal cancer, laughing uncontrollably after watching her doctor make funny faces. For a moment not only did Cynthia forget that she was dying, but her smile expressed joy and the beauty of being alive. This taught me that a physician, in addition to being knowledgeable and courageous, should show compassion to patients. It also became clear to me that a patient’s emotional comfort is as important as their physical health, and are both factors that a physician considers while providing patient care.  ‍ Although focused on medicine, I was introduced to research through the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in Science. Here, I learned organic synthesis techniques, while working on a project to elucidate the chemical mechanisms of oxygen protein binding and its relationships to anemia. I also received the United Negro College Fund/Merck Science Initiative Research Scholarship that allowed me to experience cutting edge research in Medicinal Chemistry, with a number of world-class scientists. At Merck Research Labs, I learned the fundamentals of synthesizing novel compounds for drug discovery, and we focused on treatments for cardiac atrial fibrillation. This internship changed my view of medication and their origins, and left me with a deep appreciation of the challenges of medicinal research. I also now understand that medical doctors and research scientists have similar responsibilities: to solve current and future health issues that we face.  ‍ Despite the tragedy that brought me to the hospital on April 10th 2003, the smells, the residents and the organized chaos of the emergency room have become an integral part of a new chapter in my life. On the day that my friend lost his life I found my soul in medicine. Today as I move forward on the journey to become a physician I never lose sight of the ultimate goal; to turn the dying face of a best friend into the smiling glow of a patient, just like Cynthia’s. A patient’s sickness can be a result of many things. But with the right medications, a physician’s compassion and some luck, sickness can be overcome, and the patient helped. In time and with hard work it will be my privilege to possess the responsibilities of a physician in caring for life.”

FAQs: Med School Diversity Essays

Here are our answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about how to write a diversity essay for medical school. 

1. I’m Not an Underrepresented Minority, so How Can I Write a Diversity Essay for Medical School?

Diversity in the context of medical school secondary essays is not limited to race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other historically underrepresented groups. Think of diversity in broader terms that include your unique experiences and insights, and write about how your diverse skill sets will enhance the school and the student body.

2. How Can I Write a Diversity Essay that Stands Out from Other Candidates?

Brainstorm unique experiences that you have had and narrow down one or two main experiences to weave compelling stories with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. You should prioritize the quality of your experiences and elaborate upon them rather than pack too many bullet points in a limited space.

3. I’m Not a Strong Writer, How Can I Improve My Diversity Essay for Medical School?

Writing is not a linear process, and even bestselling authors need skilled editors. Start small with outlines and notes, then flesh out the essay with details. Write multiple drafts. When you’re happy with a draft, ask friends, family, peers, colleagues, instructors, or mentors for objective feedback. You can also consult with our team of experts to help you. 

4. Why Do Some Medical Schools Require Diversity Essays?

Medical schools want to diversify the field and accept candidates with unique backgrounds and skill sets. These students will go on to be leaders in health care, so a holistic admissions process ensures that the world’s future doctors represent diverse groups, perspectives, talents, and skill sets. 

5. Where Can I Find More Prompts and Examples of Diversity Essays?

Browse the medical school’s website and read their application procedures. You can also contact the school’s admissions committee helpline for more information.

6. What Should I Avoid in my Medical School Diversity Essay?

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. How Long Should a Diversity Essay Be?

Every school has its own character limits and requirements for secondary essays. Be sure to follow the recommended application guidelines and secondary essay requirements, including the school’s specific diversity prompt. You can use the same stories for each diversity essay but repurpose them to answer different prompts. 

8. How Important is a Diversity Essay for Med Schools?

Essays are generally considered a highly important piece of your med school application as they allow you the most room to express who you are and stand out from others. So, writing a thoughtful, compelling diversity essay can seriously improve your chances of acceptance - making them an important piece of your overall application.

Final Thoughts

The diversity essay for medical school is an important component of many secondary applications. Medical schools are increasingly relying on a holistic review of candidates to diversify medicine to better serve global patient populations.

To write an effective diversity essay, think about the unique characteristics and experiences that make you unique. Remember that diversity is broadly defined, so don’t limit yourself to only certain categories.

Pick one to three of the strongest examples that showcase your diversity in the best light. Answer the prompt fully and include every aspect of the prompt. Remember to tell a great story and tie in your experiences to the school’s goals of diversifying health care.

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How To Write The Best Diversity Essay in Medical School (Explained)

Don’t be fooled into thinking your diversity essay in medical school should only be about your race or gender. It’s more than that. It’s intended as an exploration of yourself.

Putting one together, especially if you feel there’s nothing particularly “unique” about you, is hard.

In this article, I’ll try and help with that. We’ll cover:

• Quick things to think about
• Examples to help guide your writing
• How other successful med students approached it

As a white male med student myself, my background (and upbringing) is pretty standard. But you’ve got to get creative if you ever hope to impress admission committees.

You’ll obviously be restricted a little by whatever prompt you get, but hopefully, the following tips can still help!

Ready? Let’s go.

How to write the best diversity essay

5 quick things to focus on before you start:, 1. unique interests.

Think about what you do when you’re not studying or working. What things do you feel impassioned to learn about or explore?

How far have you taken these interests? Have they led you to interesting places or conversations? What types of people have you encountered through pursuing them?

Personally, this whole project here is a unique interest of mine. I’m keen to explore writing, share tips about medical education and try and effectively help others. This blog forces me to constantly think about you, the reader.

Maybe there’s something similar you can tap into.

2. Unusual experiences

Maybe you’ve studied something weird or you majored in a topic that’s unusual for most med school applications. Diversity is as much what you’ve done as it is who you are.

Perhaps the way you were brought up was a little unorthodox or different from the norm?

If you can learn to trace these experiences back to your application and how they can help shape your approach to medicine (and working with others), you’ve got something valuable on your hands.

3. Important views or beliefs

Have you ever petitioned for something or embarked on a radical change in your lifestyle or political positioning? These are good things that can help show the diversity of thinking you may be experiencing.

It doesn’t matter if you later reversed these beliefs or were proven wrong. Having adopted them once makes you unique in a certain sense. And you’re bound to inevitably face a patient, doctor, or medical staff with a similar ideal.

Show how these things can help you draw connections with a broader set of people.

4. Impactful interactions

Have you ever had a chance meeting that changed the course of your life forever? Maybe a teacher that encouraged you when nobody else would?

These are the types of things that can make for great essays.

5. Failures and struggles

Failure is the best teacher. Highlighting tough lessons learned isn’t something to shy away from when writing about yourself.

It can help ingratiate you to others and show qualities like resilience and perseverance – two things any good doctor is going to need if they wish to be successful.

Diversity Essay Prompts

The prompt you get is critical to how you go about “strategizing” a writing plan.

If you’re curious as to what a prompt can look like (and how to find them), here’s an example…

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

You can find a ton more in the following article:

Related : Diversity Essay Medical School Prompts (21 Examples)

Before writing, make sure you familiarize yourself with your target school’s prompt and link it back to their mission statement and core objectives (they’ll usually have this published somewhere on their website).

Following on from Geisel in the prompt, here’s how they talk about theirs…

Matching up your ideas with their principles; “building a diverse and inclusive community etc.” is the best way to go about this.

Keep this in mind with your prompt and you’ll be off to a good start.

Writing Plan

After reflecting on the prompt, and the recommendations above, make a list to see what ideas you come up with.

Step one: brainstorm

Get all your ideas down.

Think about:

• How do you see yourself and what do you think best defines you?
• Do you subscribe/conform to certain societal ideas or expectations?
• What challenges have you had to face and overcome? Did you succeed?
• Have you ever been responsible for someone’s health or care? How did this impact you?
• Do you have experience volunteering or participating in community projects?
• Do you lead or make up any teams? How does this help shape who you are?
• Do you speak and have experience working in different languages?
• Do you have a military service record?
• Have you worked in any positions of responsibility?
• What were the environment/conditions like in your childhood growing up? How did this shape your views/opinions?
• How was your family and personal life growing up?
• Have you participated in events overseas or traveled to unique places?
• Have you experienced illness or injury? How did this shape your worldview?

Step two: be mindful of common mistakes

These are the types of things you want to be mindful of:

• Avoid buzzwords or cliched terms : just because it’s a “diversity” essay doesn’t mean you should use obvious themes. Don’t use anything you yourself would cringe at, especially heavy usage of words like ‘cultural/multicultural’, ‘underserved’, ‘awareness’ etc.
• Don’t state the obvious : figure out why these things make you different and what the result of them is. Don’t just write what they are.
• Avoid falling back on your identity as a minority/immigrant : it’s fine to talk about these things, but what did they change for you and what did they help shape on your journey to becoming a doctor?

Step three: recognize the writing structure

You’ll want to start off with some kind of punchy introduction or hook. Grab the attention of the reader early.

Here’s an example:

“I’m sick and don’t know if I’ll get better.” Hearing those words is probably the most painful memory I have about my mother. And I’m reminded of it often when I talk with family at the Memorial Hospital Cancer Center.

Want 13 more? Check out this article; Medical School Personal Statement Hooks (13 Examples) . These can be a good source of inspiration!

After coming up with hook ideas, choose the best and then expand the essay and detail your experience.

Weave in the parts that make you unique.

Conclude by matching your philosophy to the mission objectives of the school.

Step four: draft

As soon as you have an idea of the types of things you can write about and how you can start, get a rough draft down.

Don’t sweat the details, just match the word count.

The important thing is to make a start and get out of your own head.

Step five: feedback

Taking your draft (but still keeping your ideas in mind), it’s good to start gathering feedback.

You can start out by sharing your essay with current students of the school you’re targeting and asking for criticism.

Besides that, also consider sharing your ideas with student communities like Reddit or Student Doctor Network. Or reaching out to people on Facebook or Discord groups.

It’s important you remain open-minded to feedback and avoid getting too defensive. The whole idea of a draft is that it’s subject to change!

Step six: edit

Once you’ve implemented the ideas from your feedback, start adding polish.

Run the essay through grammar and spelling tools to clear up any errors.

Consider consulting or hiring a secondary essay editor for a little extra boost.

It’s not necessary but it definitely can help!

Diversity essay examples

You’ll find some really interesting examples in the following article…

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

My own story is not exactly formatted like a diversity essay (quite the opposite) but it is a personal account of how/why I got into med that can maybe give you some ideas too!

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. But ultimately I chose to shy away from writing about belonging to those groups for the diversity prompt (or at least not let the entire essay focus on those identities) because I think they speak for themselves in other parts of my application…Instead I wrote about a unique hobby and more about my life experiences growing up. u /len49

I talked about constantly moving as a kid and how that shaped my worldview and view of others. Then I related that back to the prompt. You might have something like a passion for scuba diving. You can talk about how your experiences with that have shaped you and set you apart from others in a med school class. Talk about your growth specifically. Don’t just describe a list of activities. u/VainNGlory

Notice the tip of not centralizing your focus on your gender, race, or sexuality? These things are important but aren’t enough on their own. Adcoms want to see how they directly relate to your philosophy on becoming a doctor.

There’s a ton more great advice from Redditors on the topic of diversity essays here; Tips For Diversity Essays In Medical School (Reddit’s 14 Best) .

Final Thoughts

Diversity essays are a device used by med schools to help weed out superficial applicants; those typically focused on money or prestige etc.

Showing what makes your intentions different is the name of the game when it comes to writing.

Hopefully, by following the process above, reviewing the examples, and really thinking about aspects of your character that make you unique, you might find it a little easier.

If you enjoyed this post, you might find the following articles useful:

• 6 Best MCAT Anki Decks: Crush The MCAT (2021)
• What’s The Easiest Pre Med Major? (Read This First!)

Image Credit: @Aarón Blanco Tejedor at Unsplash

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 .

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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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Mayo Clinic Secondary Essays: Tips and Prompts

• Cracking Med School Admissions Team

As you will learn from our “ How to Get Into Mayo Medical School ” page, the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine (Alix) has 3 different campuses. They are located in: Minnesota, Arizona, and Florida. The Mayo medical school secondary application prompts are the same regardless of which campus you apply to. 

Mayo Alix School of Medicine changed its secondary essay prompts last year (2023-2024 cycle). If you want to pre-write this secondary, then you . We wouldn’t submit the Mayo Clinic secondaries past September because Mayo tends to give interview invites earlier in the cycle. 

Our Cracking Med School Admissions team has a track record of helping our mentees receive acceptances to Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. We have our former medical school premed mentees who are currently studying there, and we are familiar with what the Mayo Medical School admissions committee looks for. Get started and read our Mayo Medical School secondary application tips below. To learn more about student life and Mayo’s curriculum, read our How to Get into Mayo Clinical Medical School  tips.

• Personally Tailored Essays
• Edits by Stanford & Harvard-trained Doctors
• We study your application strengths to see what unique attributes we’ll bring to the medical school

Mayo Clinic Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2023 - 2024

• Why are you specifically interested in pursuing your medical education at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine? Please tell us in a few sentences why you are interested in the top choice track you indicated. (500 words max)
• Each of us relates to others through characteristics that make up our individual diversity. Tell us how your diversity is reflected not only in your personal and professional activities but also in your relationships with others, particularly in diverse learning environments. (500 words max)

Mayo Clinic removed one of its secondary prompts from last year.

How to Answer Mayo Clinic Secondaries

Mayo Clinic Secondaries Pre-Writing Guidance: You can definitely pre-write the “Why Mayo Clinic” secondary essay. But, we would hold off on pre-writing the other essay prompt since Mayo changed its secondary application essay questions in the 2023-2024 application cycle. 

• Download our  Cracking Med Secondary Essay Workbook and Examples .

Mayo Clinic Secondary Essays Tip #1: The Mayo Clinic Admissions Committee cares that you know the medical school well and that you will thrive at Alix School of Medicine. Be specific about why you chose a specific campus / track. Talk about clinical rotations, clinical opportunities, and patient care opportunities you are excited about in your top track choice. Mention professors you want to conduct research with. Discuss any ways you want to engage with the surrounding community. Finally, if you have ties to the medical school or the surrounding vicinity, we recommend stating that in the “why Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine” question. Read more Cracking Med School Admissions tips and a sample response for how to answer why this medical school essay prompt. 

Mayo Clinic Secondary Essays Tip #2: Tell stories to convey your impact and leadership throughout your Mayo Clinic secondaries. For example, you can discuss a story from your premedical journey that reflects the type of clinical experiences, research, and volunteer work you want to do at Mayo as a medical student. Additionally, you can write a story for the diversity essay. There is a lot of space, so utilize it and make the reader yearn to meet you through stories in your Mayo Clinic secondaries!

Mayo Clinic Secondary Essays Tip #3: If you have affiliations or personal connections in Florida or Minnesota / Midwest or Arizona, you should mention them in your essays. It’s most appropriate to add it to the Mayo Clinic secondary essays question, “ Why are you specifically interested in pursuing your medical education at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine? Please tell us in a few sentences why you are interested in the top choice track you indicated. “

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 endeavors. Read our tips on diversity essays when answering the question, “ Each of us relates to others through characteristics that make up our individual diversity. Tell us how your diversity is reflected not only in your personal and professional activities but also in your relationships with others, particularly in diverse learning environments. ” You can literally write about anything. Our students who get accepted to Mayo Clinic typically write about times they led a team and instances when they made an impact on somebody’s life. To be strategic, you should relate this diversity essay to your vision to improve medicine. 

Most applicants will first go to writing about their family background – particularly their families’ immigrant background – when they see a diversity prompt. While that is not incorrect, Drs. Rizal and Mediratta  ask: Is this the best topic to make you stand out? What Mayo Clinic secondary essay topic will best convey your leadership and vision to the admissions committee? 

• You can read more high yield tips and a sample diversity essay in our blog post:   How to Write a Strong Medical School Diversity Essay And Examples

Mayo Clinic Secondary Essays Tip #5: Have questions about how you can stand out? Contact us below. Need editing help on your Mayo Clinic secondary application? We can help you through our secondary essay packages . 

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Mayo Clinic Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2022 – 2023

Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine Secondary Application – MD Essay Prompts

• We are all differentiated from or connected to one another by individual inflections that constitute our diversity. Explain how your relationship with your own diversity and to the diversities of others manifests in your personal and professional activities. (500 words max)
• Share with us your thoughts about the relevance – or not – of diverse learning environments in which you wish to learn medicine. (500 words max)

Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine Secondary Application – MSTP Essay Prompts

• In the space below, write a brief paragraph explaining why you are specifically applying to the Mayo Clinic MD-PhD Program.  (500 characters max)

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Mayo Clinic Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2020 – 2021

• Why are you specifically interested in pursuing your medical education at Mayo Clinic School of Medicine even if you gain acceptances to other highly ranked medical schools? (500 words max)
• We are all differentiated from or connected to one another by individual inflections that constitute our diversity. Explain how your relationship with your own diversity and to the diversities of others manifests in your personal and professional activities.  (500 words max)

Mayo Clinic Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2019 – 2020

• We are all unique in different ways. Explain how your personal diversity manifests in your personal and professional activities. (500 words max)

Mayo Clinic Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2018 – 2019

Mayo clinic secondary application essay prompts: 2017 – 2018.

• Please tell us why you are specifically interested in pursuing your medical education at Mayo Clinic School of Medicine – MN even if you gain acceptances to other highly ranked medical schools? (500 words max)
• Please tell us how you would contribute to the diversity of your medical school class at Mayo? (500 words max)

Mayo Clinic Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2014 – 2017

There were no essay prompts in the Mayo medical school secondary application for the 2016-2017 cycle, 2015-2016 cycle, and the 2014-2015 cycle. 

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It’s Life, by Maggie

blogging my journey from premed to md & all the little life things in between

Diversity Essay for Medical School Applications: Smart 2-Step Strategy for Approaching It

May 22, 2024 · In: Applying to Medical School

Tackling the diversity essay for your secondaries on your medical school applications can be a bit intimidating. It’s easy to overthink it and cause yourself a ton of unnecessary stress. 

While the diversity essay gives you the opportunity to showcase your unique perspective and experiences , it can also feel like a tricky tightrope walk of wanting to represent yourself authentically without falling into stereotypes or clichés.

However, having been in your shoes, I’m here to tell you that you can easily nail it if you know how! The 2-step strategy I used when applying to medical school will help you approach it with confidence and clarity. You’ll be able to craft a compelling and genuine essay that highlights what makes you stand out.

This post is all about diversity essay for medical school.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure  here .

Ultimate Tips in Writing Diversity Essay For Medical School Applications

What’s the Diversity Essay for Medical School?

Medical school secondary applications often provide a diversity essay prompt. It’s a place to share with your prospective medical school how your unique background, experiences, and perspectives can contribute to the school’s diverse and inclusive community.

Similar to your adversity essay , this essay is your chance to show the admissions committee who you are beyond your academic achievements and test scores. You get to talk about your cultural background, personal challenges you’ve overcome, your experiences with diversity and inclusion, and how these have shaped you into the future doctor you aspire to be.

What Medical Schools Want to Know From Your Diversity Essay

Admissions committees prioritize candidates with different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Adding a diversity essay to your application shows them how your unique story can contribute to the diverse community they’re trying to build in their med school.

If you take a peek at different medical school websites, you’ll see that words like “diversity” pop up a lot in their mission statements. That’s because they want future doctors who can connect with all kinds of patients and bring fresh ideas to the medical field.

Most schools have separate diversity statements to show just how serious they are about welcoming students from all walks of life – different races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, and more. Plus, they’re also open to non-traditional applicants , such as those coming from non-science backgrounds.

How to Write a Diversity Essay When You’re White

I recently had a fellow pre-med student reach out to me and say, “Hey, I’m a white female, and I’m not bilingual. How can I tackle the diversity question?” 

If you’re wondering the same thing, know that diversity isn’t a secret code solely reserved for underrepresented groups. Absolutely, applicants from minority backgrounds are definitely seen as adding to the diverse tapestry of medical schools. But we’re all unique with our own stories, and that’s where the magic lies.

Diversity is more than being from a specific background—it’s about the richness of your experiences and how they shape your perspective. So, if you’re struggling to figure out what makes you diverse, dig deep into your own journey. My strategy will help you with that!

2-Step Strategy for Approaching the Diversity Essay

Skip the writer’s block because I have a simple strategy that will make tackling this essay a whole lot easier. This approach will help streamline the process, save you time, and make sure you stay focused to highlight your strengths and uniqueness. 

Step 1: Think of All the Ways You Are Diverse

Of course, there’s ethnicity, culture, speaking multiple languages, and more. But there are tons of other ways you can bring diversity to the table. 

Here are some examples that may apply to you.

• Being someone who often “thinks outside the box”
• Having a major that isn’t related to science
• Being a non-traditional applicant (especially if you took more than two gap years!)
• Swapping careers to pursue medicine
• Navigating life with a disability
• Being part of any historically underrepresented group
• Coming from a unique family 
• Experiencing a different type of education, such as homeschooling
• Embracing the challenges of being an older student
• Having a military experience background
• Balancing parenting and pursuing your professional goals
• Facing tough times due to your socioeconomic background

Step 2: Use the Same 1-2 Stories for Tons of Prompts

Diversity essay prompts can come at you from all angles. But, pro tip: you can use the same one or two stories and adapt them for most prompts. Simply pick your top two themes of what makes you diverse, craft a noteworthy story around each one, and – bam, you have what you need! 

Personally, I had two standout stories that I kept tweaking to fit whatever prompt came my way. I either talked about growing up biracial or finding creative solutions when I was president of the equestrian team. Afterwards, I played around with the length, made sure to hit the stated character limit, and I was all set.

Diversity Essay Example Prompts

S econdary essay prompts on diversity often ask about different aspects of your identity that contribute to your unique perspective and how you would add to the diversity of the medical school. It’s a chance for you to share what makes you, well, you! 

Here are several examples of the type of diversity prompts that you’ll likely encounter when applying to medical school.

• How will your background and experiences shape your journey as a future physician and enrich our school community?
• In what ways do your unique attributes, whether that’s your cultural background, life experiences, or work history, bring diversity to our medical school family?
• Do you see yourself as someone who can contribute to the diverse tapestry of the student body?
• Talk about a moment that expanded your perspective or helped you understand different viewpoints, and what you took away from it.
• Reflect on a time when you learned from individuals or a community that was different from your own.
• How will your background and experiences align with the values of our institution and shape your future as a healer?

My Diversity Essay Examples

These are the exact two essays I reused for many diversity prompts, such as the following examples.

• How can you contribute to our diversity and inclusion mission statement?
• Ohio State diversity of thought
• Interacting effectively with people from diverse backgrounds
• Explain a time you interacted with people different from you
• How will your unique attributes add to the diversity of the school community? 

Prompt: What perspectives or experiences do you bring that would enrich the class?

My mother is Caucasian and my father is African American. Growing up biracial, I constantly felt like I did not belong. My hometown in Ohio lacked diversity; I could often count on being the only minority in my school classes. 

For a long time, I never even spoke about race or the color of my skin. When I heard people talking about anything along those lines, I avoided the conversation or pretended like I was not listening. These feelings caused me to be shy and confused about a large part of what made me, “me”. When I began college things slowly started to change. I was still shy talking about race and discussing my skin color, but as each year passed the shyness faded. 

Today, I have accepted my light brown skin and no longer think about whether I am the only biracial person in the room. As I continue to grow as a person, I hope to become someone who positively impacts those struggling on their own journey to acceptance and who makes others feel comfortable to be themselves around me.

This personal experience is what I believe I can bring to enrich the class. I would love to have open conversations with my future classmates about the perspectives I have regarding race and implicit bias. Additionally, I want to learn about my classmate’s diverse experiences so I can develop into a physician who is culturally competent.

Prompt: How will your unique attributes add to the diversity of the school community?

I believe many of my unique attributes are a result of the lessons learned as an equestrian. I started riding in the 3rd grade and have experienced both the highs and lows of working towards lofty goals. When I was younger, I was happy when I won and irrationally upset if I did not. 

By high school, I had learned how to handle failure more gracefully. For instance, my biggest goal during my four years on the equestrian team was to qualify for Regionals. During my senior year at our last show of the season, a small mistake prevented me from earning the one point I needed to finally qualify. 

It was a painful but transient moment and the rest of the day I was able to focus on my accomplishments during my four years on the team. I think experiences such as this will help me relate to my fellow classmates and be the student they come to for words of encouragement and help finding the positives in an upsetting situation.

Additionally, being passionate about something inspires me to find creative solutions when faced with a problem. In my senior year, I came up with an idea to start a monthly newsletter for the equestrian team. We had over twenty members and we all had riding lessons at different times. We had monthly meetings, but there were always a handful of members with schedule conflicts. As a result, we lacked an effective way to ensure that each member was informed about upcoming events. I thought a newsletter might help centralize all the information we needed members to have and eliminate the issue of scheduling conflicts. 

Eager to send the first one as soon as possible, I recruited help from my teammates, Bailey and Kayla. We stayed up late for a few nights creating the first newsletter and the end result was better than expected. Coach Mandi loved the idea and we implemented it for the rest of the year. One day as a medical student, I am eager to promote a collaborative environment with my classmates by sharing my enthusiasm for creative solutions.

3 Tips for Nailing Your Diversity Essay

Your diversity essay is your chance to showcase your unique perspectives or skills. Here are three things to keep in mind as you write your first draft.

Share Your Stories Through Anecdotes

Whether you share your cultural roots by describing a special meal with your grandparents, recount a patient interaction that left a lasting impact, or detail a leadership challenge you overcame, let your experiences shine through. Remember, it’s these stories that make you unique and shape your journey to become a doctor.

Link Your Experiences to Medicine 

How will the qualities you’ve developed help you excel in the medical field? Whether it’s through patient advocacy, teamwork, resilience, or leadership skills, explain how these traits will benefit you in your medical career. Show admissions committees how your diverse background will make you a valuable asset to their school and the medical community.

Customize Your Essay for Each School

Research each medical school you’re applying to and tailor your essay to their values and mission. Add an extra sentence or two that ties your story to an issue valued by the medical school you’re applying to. Also, pay attention to the details outlined by each different school, such as character limit and how to structure your essay. 

Want to Craft “Interview-Worthy” Secondary Essays in a Fraction of the Time?

The first time I applied to medical school, I didn’t even know secondaries existed! I was so caught off guard and clueless, I took forever to submit just 4 of the 6 secondary applications I received. Needless to say, I only got one interview invite and was never pulled off their waitlist.

The second time around, I was SO well prepared that I was able to submit 28 secondary applications. This is just within days of receiving them (and my strategy didn’t even involve pre-writing). This earned me 15 interview invites which led to not just one but TEN medical school acceptances. Granted, my secondary essays weren’t the only reason since I improved so many aspects of my application to maximize my chances. But they surely made a big difference to get me foot into the door for interviews. 

Inside my course Mastering Secondaries , I will teach you how to write unique essays for every school, brainstorming techniques, 70+ real-life essay examples and a step-by-step process to get your writing done in a fraction of the time.

The Bottom Line on the Diversity Essay for Medical School

Remember, diversity in medical schools is not just about race or ethnicity but also different perspectives, beliefs, and life experiences. So, don’t be afraid to share your story and highlight what makes you stand out! 

Just be honest and authentic, and be yourself. Talk about how you have actively contributed to promoting diversity and inclusivity in your community. And, most of all, show how you’re not just a great candidate for medical school but also a future doctor who’s ready to make a difference. Good luck writing!

Related Posts

Adversity Essay Medical School: What Medical Schools Actually Want to Know About You

How to Write a Personal Statement for Medical School – Easy 5-Step Process

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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.

Related posts:

• 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: Master the Med School Secondary Essay (with examples) 2024

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

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 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.

Another Example:

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.

Why XXXXX School Essay

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?

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

Need help with your secondary essays, secondary essay prompts by school.

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• 2024-2025 MD Medical School-Specific Discussions

2024-2025 McGovern

• Thread starter wysdoc
• Start date Apr 10, 2024

Plain-spoken Texan

• Apr 10, 2024

University of Texas Medical School-Houston Interview Feedback

• Jun 5, 2024

I believe the character limit for each of these 4 questions is 2500, but I'll ask someone who has received the secondary to verify for us here. Thank you!  

christopherincorporated

My app was verified 5/15 and sent 5/23; I know mcgovern sends secondaries to all applicants, but any reason why I wouldn't have received the secondary yet?  

christopherincorporated said: My app was verified 5/15 and sent 5/23; I know mcgovern sends secondaries to all applicants, but any reason why I wouldn't have received the secondary yet? Click to expand...

IWishICouldPhysics

Full member.

wysdoc said: I believe the character limit for each of these 4 questions is 2500, but I'll ask someone who has received the secondary to verify for us here. Thank you! Click to expand...

IWishICouldPhysics said: I haven’t yet, but someone on the TMDSAS thread said they were able to copy paste a whole 5000 characters and nothing happened; same with a friend of mine who received the other day. Might be an early error, but just wanted to share! Click to expand...

wysdoc said: More isn't always better! Click to expand...

IWishICouldPhysics said: Would you suggest sticking to 2500-3000-ish, assuming the "no character limit" stays? I wouldn't mind the extra characters to add depth to certain points (though I doubt I'd get beyond 4000), but I also don't want to bore the poor readers Click to expand...

wysdoc said: wait for confirmation, aim for 2500 Click to expand...

anonymous1234556

McGovern usually releases secondaries on specific day(s?) of the week and not auto release everytime they have an app come from TMDSAS.  

Wavin' Howdy 🤠

Incoming MS1 here. Happy to answer any questions!  

CheeesyBoi said: I am in the same boat. Are you IS or OOS? Click to expand...

christopherincorporated said: IS. Also weird because I've been getting the secondaries for a bunch of other schools Click to expand...

• Jun 6, 2024

We got the secondaries on 6/3 from McGovern  

Is anyone else sad that they changed the 3rd prompt from the “how do you want to be remembered” one? I really liked that one 😔 (also made for a banger why us)  

Just got my secondaries from McGovern. 2500 characters per essay is correct.  

What could we say for the fourth question that wouldn't be a red flag?  

• Jun 7, 2024

wander21 said: What could we say for the fourth question that wouldn't be a red flag? Click to expand...

TheDeadrok said: Not sure if this would be a red flag or not but I wrote a small blurb about how much family means to me and being worried that I won't be able to provide emotionally for my wife as well as I have historically, but then I mention how much her and I have discussed it and that we both feel prepared. Someone can let me know if this will come off red flag-y Click to expand...

Stress, burnout, depression, debt, toll on family and/or loved ones - all raise the question of is it worth it.  

• Jun 9, 2024

I wanted to ask if I could talk about harassment for the first mcgovern question... it happened in middle school and I wanted to use my UTSW secondary question 2 (tweak it a little to better fit the mcgovern question). I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't raise any flags or if it was even appropriate to use here. Essentially my ass was grabbed almost every day in 8th grade and I was going to connect it to speaking up, patient advocacy, creating a safe space (worded way better obvi lol). Any advice if this works?  

• Jun 10, 2024

stratdkt said: This school's MSAR profile lists the latest MCAT considered as January 2024. Is this their unique policy or could it be a mistake? Looking at other schools I've seen nothing else with such an early cutoff for when you can have the test score. View attachment 387870 Click to expand...

Admissions advisor

2024-2025 list of schools and their SJTs

For the 1st question, I have a much stronger essay that would answer the "obstacles" prompt, however I do also have some academic road bumps that could be addressed. Should I go with the stronger essay, or does it seem necessary to address the academic challenges despite being a much weaker essay.  

quinonoa said: For the 1st question, I have a much stronger essay that would answer the "obstacles" prompt, however I do also have some academic road bumps that could be addressed. Should I go with the stronger essay, or does it seem necessary to address the academic challenges despite being a much weaker essay. Click to expand...

• Jun 12, 2024

wysdoc said: That is the date listed on MSAR this year, but if you want to verify, a quick email to their admissions office to ask would be okay. Let us know what you find out- Click to expand...

Do y'all think for question 3 it's appropriate to mention how you are ready but also acknowledge the difficulties of medical school and how McGovern can help or should it be focused entirely on how I am prepared now? Ty!  

andy1788 said: Do y'all think for question 3 it's appropriate to mention how you are ready but also acknowledge the difficulties of medical school and how McGovern can help or should it be focused entirely on how I am prepared now? Ty! Click to expand...

undeadghost

• Jun 13, 2024

Hello! I wanted to know, for the 4th question, I don't really have a lot of immediate reservations regarding medical school. Is it a red flag to say this, but also acknowledge that I'm aware of the immense commitment and grueling course of medical school, which have definitely been daunting but never a reason for me to give up/hesitate?  

TheDeadrok said: I don't think it's bad at all to recognize the difficulties and challenges that you will face seeing as it says to do so in the question! Just make sure you talk about a challenge that you feel really prepared to tackle. Click to expand...

andy1788 said: Should it be a singular challenge or can it be multiple? The question asks what the biggest challenge will be (singular) and then how I am prepared for the challenges (plural). I'm probably overthinking it, but I didn't want to not answer the question. Click to expand...

TheDeadrok said: I think narrowing it down to one challenge is not a bad idea and then talking about traits/skills that you have developed that will help you address multiple challenges. I.E. struggling with ADHD and focus, developed resiliency and coping mechanisms to focus better which will help with school and other challenges you face Click to expand...

• Jun 14, 2024

andy1788 said: I wrote about multiple challenges instead of focusing on just one, do you think it's worth rewriting it to focus exclusively on one? I talked about how my biggest challenge is about all of the new things I will experience. This includes greater academic expectations, difficult clinical experiences, and navigating my life outside of school alongside medical school requirements. Click to expand...

• Jun 15, 2024

undeadghost said: Hello! I wanted to know, for the 4th question, I don't really have a lot of immediate reservations regarding medical school. Is it a red flag to say this, but also acknowledge that I'm aware of the immense commitment and grueling course of medical school, which have definitely been daunting but never a reason for me to give up/hesitate? Click to expand...

ricefanatic

• Jun 17, 2024

topochips said: i feel like i'm going this route as well!! i'm in my fourth gap year and a reapplicant, so i've had a lot of time to think about whether or not this is something i wanna do also, how are yall finishing secondaries so fast - i need to step it up Click to expand...

bean-sprout

ricefanatic said: Yes, I think it's important to put a positive spin on it at the end and confirm that this is still the path for you. I think they ask this question to admit realists. There are ugly parts to this profession/healthcare system as well. Click to expand...

• Jun 20, 2024

Rite1234 said: Incoming MS1 here. Happy to answer any questions! Click to expand...

• Jun 21, 2024

So, I’ve heard that there’s a “soft” two week deadline for McGovern. If I received my secondary on June 6 and I submitted earlier today on the 20th, would i be at a disadvantage if I turned it in at exactly 14 days? I know this sounds neurotic 😭  

CYaL8Er01 said: So, I’ve heard that there’s a “soft” two week deadline for McGovern. If I received my secondary on June 6 and I submitted earlier today on the 20th, would i be at a disadvantage if I turned it in at exactly 14 days? I know this sounds neurotic 😭 Click to expand...

wysdoc said: Instead of asking go write the darn essay Click to expand...

CYaL8Er01 said: sorry 😭. What I meant to convey is I already submitted the essay 😅… but at like 11:46 pm Click to expand...

• Jun 24, 2024

Does anyone know how Letter of Recommendations affect your completed time? Would I be negatively viewed upon if I submitted my secondary within 2 weeks but my letters arrive after that? I know Long doesn’t require letters for review. Although McGovern needs all 3 letters, do they just not look at you until all 3 letters arrive? Or do they look at you and hold your invitation until all ur letters arrive?  

All schools have an application completion requirements for your app to be reviewed for an interview. Most schools want all pieces of your app they consider important before they hand it off to the reviewers. Until the school says your file is complete on their portal, you can assume it most likely will not be reviewed.  

Similar threads

• Apr 13, 2024

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17 Best Medical schools in Saint Petersburg

Updated: February 29, 2024

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Below is a list of best universities in Saint Petersburg ranked based on their research performance in Medicine. A graph of 271K citations received by 35.9K academic papers made by 17 universities in Saint Petersburg was used to calculate publications' ratings, which then were adjusted for release dates and added to final scores.

We don't distinguish between undergraduate and graduate programs nor do we adjust for current majors offered. You can find information about granted degrees on a university page but always double-check with the university website.

1. St. Petersburg State University

For Medicine

2. Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University

3. Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical Academy

4. ITMO University

5. Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University

6. Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology

7. Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University

8. Leningrad State University

9. St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

10. Saint-Petersburg Mining University

11. St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation

12. St. Petersburg State University of Economics

13. European University at St. Petersburg

14. Baltic State Technical University "Voenmeh"

15. Bonch-Bruevich St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications

16. Russian State Hydrometeorological University

17. St. Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation

Universities for Medicine near Saint Petersburg

Medicine subfields in Saint Petersburg