Submitting outstanding and tailored Brown secondaries are vital to receiving a Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University interview. Brown University is an institution that cherishes individuals who have a vision to change society and who aren’t afraid to pursue out-of-the-box ideas in order to make a positive impact on society. In your Brown Medical School secondaries, you must convey how you will improve healthcare in your future career. Additionally, our Cracking Med School Admissions team believes it is imperative to convey how Alpert Medical School at Brown University – and Brown University as an entire institution – will help you accomplish your goals. You will find our blog post on “Why this medical school” very helpful.
Read the Brown secondary essay prompts and more of our Brown secondaries tips below.
Pre-Writing Advice: Some of the Brown secondaries changed from the previous year. This is no longer a secondary we are encouraging medical school Brown applicants to pre-write their Brown secondaries.
Our Cracking Med School Admissions team has a track record of helping our mentees receive acceptances to Brown Medical School year after year. We can help you submit strong Brown secondary essays through our secondary essay editing packages!
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Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2024 - 2025
Note: Interviews occur on Thursdays and/or Fridays beginning in mid-September and finishing in February. Please detail any significant limitations on your availability during this time, such as international travel, work or courses. You may use the text box below to explain your limited availability. (if none, leave blank)*
Three Required Essays:
- Summarize your activities during the 2024-2025 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2000 characters)
- How will your unique attributes, life experiences, and interests add to The Warren Alpert Medical School community?
(2000 characters) - Reflect on a non-academic situation when you had to change course, and how you did so. (3000 characters)
How to Get Into Brown Medical School
Brown Pre-Writing Guidance: There have been too many changes in the Brown Medical School Secondary Application essay prompts in the 2023-2024 application cycle. We would not suggest you pre-write these before the official prompts come out. Additionally, Brown from our experience, Brown does not favor students who submit early – the Brown Medical School Admissions committee is selective in choosing its applicants, so having essays that are tailored to Brown’s philosophy is much more important than the speed of submitting this secondary. Contact Dr. Rachel Rizal and Dr. Rishi Mediratta for help with your Brown secondaries. In general, we want to stress that there is no one right way to writing Brown secondaries, BUT there are many techniques you can employ to stand out!
Brown Medical School Secondary Essays Tip #1: Highlight your leadership, passion to change healthcare, and impact on society. The questions are geared towards learning more about what you did in your extra-curricular activities. Tell stories to convey your impact and leadership. For example, if you conducted research over a gap year, tell a story about a challenge you faced or a patient you met while conducting a clinical trial.
Brown Medical School Secondary Essays Tip #2: Conveying strong reasons to attend Brown Medical School is super important. You should mention specific career goals and specific opportunities at Brown University that you want to pursue.
- Read our blog post for an example and tips to incorporate “Why Brown medical school” in your secondaries: Why this Medical School? Secondary Essay Example
Brown Medical School Secondary Essays Tip #3: Brown University and Alpert School of Medicine is an innovative school. The Medical School Admissions Committee wants medical students who want to change the world and come up with creative ideas in how to improve society. Your essays should reflect how you’ve been innovative in your endeavors, whether it’s through writing composition or your research. To learn more about Alpert Medical School’s curriculum and student life, read: How to Get Into Brown Medical School | Insider’s Perspective
Brown Medical School Secondary Essays Tip #4: For the essay, “Summarize your activities during the 2023-2024 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career,” it’s best to write these thematically. One mistake Brown applicants make is the need to write about every single activity they are involved with. We would suggest highlighting fewer important activities and thematically grouping some activities together.
Brown Medical School Secondary Essays Tip #5: The essay prompt, “How will your unique attributes, life experiences, and interests add to the Alpert Medical School community?” is basically a diversity essay. It is extremely important to bring in the following elements: the impact you want to make in healthcare; the impact you already made in healthcare; and innovative ways to improve healthcare.
- It is extremely important to read our blog post about diversity essays: Medical School Diversity Essays Examples and Tips
Brown Medical School Secondary Essays Tip #6: To help you brainstorm the question, “Reflect on a situation when you had to change course, and how you did so,” here are examples of topics our Cracking Med School Admissions team has read, which we thought was executed successfully and helped the applicant stand out!
- Innovative changes to a research project.
- Changes to a community service project.
- A change in an approach in helping a patient. For example, a student developed other clinical skills to change your therapeutic approach. Additionally, another applicant discussed how he changed his approach to educating a patient about an important health topic.
- A change in an approach in helping a community member, such as how to help a homeless individual receive social resources. Additionally, another applicant held a position as a school counselor and discussed how she changed her course in mentoring students from varying backgrounds.
Brown Medical School Secondary Essays Tip #7: We help several students get accepted to Brown each year. Definitely get our help to stand out on your Brown secondaries! We can help you through our secondary essay packages. And if you have questions, Contact us below.
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Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2023 - 2024
Note: Some Brown secondaries changed from last year
- Summarize your activities during the 2023-2024 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Alpert Medical School community? (2,000 characters max)
- Reflect on a situation when you had to change course, and how you did so. (3000 characters)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2022 – 2023
- Summarize your activities during the 2022-2023 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Alpert Medical School community? (2,000 characters max)
- What are your aspirations for your medical practice? Fast-forward to 15 years in the future: where do you imagine yourself? (3,000 characters max)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2021 – 2022
- Summarize your activities during the 2021-2022 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Alpert Medical School community? (2,000 characters max)
- What are your aspirations for your medical practice? Fast-forward to 15 years in the future: where do you imagine yourself? (3,000 characters max)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2020 – 2021
- Do you have significant limitations on your interview availability for the 2020-2021 admissions cycle?
- Summarize your activities during the 2020-2021 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Alpert Medical School community? (2,000 characters max)
- What are your aspirations for your medical practice? Fast-forward to 15 years in the future: where do you imagine yourself? (3,000 characters max)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2019 – 2020
- Do you have significant limitations on your interview availability for the 2019-2020 admissions cycle?
- Summarize your activities during the 2019-2020 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Alpert Medical School community? (2,000 characters max)
- What are your aspirations for your medical practice? Fast-forward to 15 years in the future: where do you imagine yourself? (3,000 characters max)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2018 – 2019
- Summarize your activities during the 2018-2019 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Alpert Medical School community? (2,000 characters max)
- What are your aspirations for your medical practice? Fast-forward to 15 years in the future: where do you imagine yourself? (3,000 characters max)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2017 – 2018
- Summarize your activities during the 2017-2018 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- What are your aspirations for your medical practice? Fast-forward to 15 years in the future: Where do you imagine yourself? (3,000 characters max)
- Imagine that you are approached by a multibillionaire philanthropist who wants to donate a substantial fund of money to a single project with the goal of “fixing the US healthcare system.” He/she asks for your expert opinion on what project this money should go towards; what would you advise and why? (2,000 characters max)
- Often when we talk about medicine, we focus on the individual physician-patient relationship. Why should medical schools train future physicians to care for communities and populations as a whole, and not just individual patients? (2,000 characters max)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2016 – 2017
- Summarize your activities during the 2016-2017 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University community? (2,000 characters max)
- Imagine that you are approached by a multibillionaire philanthropist who wants to donate a substantial fund of money to a single project with the goal of “fixing the US healthcare system.” He/she asks for your expert opinion on what project this money should go towards; what would you advise and why? (2,000 characters)
- Often when we talk about medicine, we focus on the individual physician-patient relationship. Why should medical schools train future physicians to care for communities and populations as a whole, and not just individual patients? (2,000 characters)
Brown Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2015 – 2016
- Summarize your activities during the 2015-2016 academic year. Describe how your activities are preparing you for a medical career. (2,000 characters max)
- How will your unique attributes (e.g., cultural or socioeconomic background, lifestyle, work experiences) add to the overall diversity of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University community? (2,000 characters max)
- Imagine that you are approached by a multibillionaire philanthropist who wants to donate a substantial fund of money to a single project with the goal of “fixing the US healthcare system.” He/she asks for your expert opinion on what project this money should go towards; what would you advise and why? (2,000 characters)
- Often when we talk about medicine, we focus on the individual physician-patient relationship. Why should medical schools train future physicians to care for communities and populations as a whole, and not just individual patients? (2,000 characters)