Tips to Answer SUNY Buffalo Medical School Secondary Application Essays

SUNY Buffalo Jacobs Secondary Application Pre-Writing Guidance: We think you can pre-write this secondary.  This is a state school, so you should aim to submit this in July or early August of the application cycle. Additionally, while there are only 2-3 questions historically, there is a large word limit (500 words per essay), so this will take a long time to complete, edit, and perfect! 

• Download our Cracking Med Secondary Essay Workbook and Examples.

Jacobs School of Medicine Secondary Application Tip #1: Start early and get our help. The SUNY Buffalo secondary application is long and tough. Have questions about how you can stand out? Contact us below. Need editing help on your secondary? We can help you through our secondary essay packages. 

Jacobs School of Medicine Secondary Application Tip #2: For the “Why University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine” question, do your research on the school and write very specific reasons why you want to attend SUNY Buffalo. 

• First, do your research on the SUNY Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine. What makes it unique? 
• Second, make a list of opportunities you would like to pursue Jacobs Medical School. This can include research opportunities and community projects. 
• Third, read our HIGH YIELD blog post “How to Answer Why This Medical School?” Study the example “Why this medical school secondary essay” and emulate our strategies to your SUNY Buffalo Medical School secondary application response! 

Jacobs School of Medicine Secondary Application Tip #3: Other than answering the question directly about what you would do in the scenario, “how you would respond to a fellow student who muttered a racist or homophobic statement under their breath in your presence and that of other peer,” you can also add a time when you witnessed or dealt with a similar scenario. Make sure to give your reflections about the impact of racism or homophobic statements. 

Cracking Med School Admissions’ Tips:

• Give specific actions you would do in the scenario.
• Answering this question is similar to answer a Multiple Mini Interview or CASPer question. Read our tips by clicking on the links! 
• If there are nuances, such as “If this were to happen, I would do _____” and “If this other thing were to happen, I would do _____ instead,” then explain these two different actions you would take. There is enough room to write details and nuances in your actions! 
• You can link this to a personal experience and doing so will make your essay sound less hypothetical.

Jacobs School of Medicine Secondary Application Tip #4: Tell stories to convey your impact and leadership. We stated in tip #2 that you could add a story in which you faced a prejudiced situation. Similarly, you can tell a patient story from your clinical experience and link it to why you want to attend Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences!

Jacobs School of Medicine Secondary Application Tip #5: From the SUNY Buffalo Jacobs secondary questions, you can tell that the school cares deeply about equity, inclusivity, and social justice. You can incorporate your personal experience and knowledge about current events in American society. If you can link your insights to how the current events like socioeconomic disparities and racism affect healthcare, then we would highly encourage you to do it because this connection leads to strong secondary essays!

• We have an entire healthcare current events blog post here, where you can read more about healthcare disparities and other current events. Our Cracking Med School Admissions team updates this each year!

[Read more: Medical Schools in New York: How to Get Accepted & School Profiles ]