Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine Secondary Essay Prompts
Avg GPA
3.89
Avg MCAT
515
Class size
166
SJT required
Duet
The 2025-2026 prompts
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Collected from public applicant reports. Prompts occasionally change mid cycle, so confirm against your own secondary portal before you submit.
- 01
Why are you interested in attending the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine?
500 words - 02
Describe a time when you engaged with a perspective, culture, or experience different from your own. What did you learn, and how did it influence your personal or professional development?
500 words - 03
Describe your experience with the field of medicine (or a related field) that has prepared you for advanced study in this area. Specifically, how have your life experiences prepared you to pursue a degree in medicine, including: coursework, clinical work, experiences in overcoming adversity, work opportunity, volunteer activities, and/or research experiences?
500 words - 04
Have you ever been convicted of any crime or offense, whether State or Federal, including offenses categorized as misdemeanors, high misdemeanors, or felonies? You should include convictions under any circumstances such as, but not limited to, a plea of guilty, Non Vult, Nolo Contendere, No Contest, etc., or a finding by a judge or jury. You do not need to include convictions that were overturned on appeal.
No stated limit
How to write these well
- Turn secondaries around within 7 to 14 days of receiving them. Schools read speed as interest, and slow essays land in a bigger pile.
- Pre-write the universal question types (diversity, challenge, why us) once, then adapt per school. Adapting is rewriting the school specific half, not swapping the name.
- Name real programs. A why us answer that cites a specific clinic, track, or community partnership reads ten times stronger than praise for reputation or location.
- Stay under the limit without padding to reach it. Readers are working through thousands of these; a tight answer is a kindness they remember.
- Heads up: this school also requires Duet, so build that into your timeline alongside the essays.
Draft your Hackensack Meridian secondaries in your own voice
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