Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Secondary Essay Prompts

The 2026-2027 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.

1. 01

   If you are currently not a full-time student, please briefly describe the activities you are participating in this academic year.

   100 words
2. 02

   If you are committed to a particular community or if there is an important aspect of your background not addressed elsewhere in the application, we invite you to do so here. Briefly explain how such factors have influenced your motivation for a career in medicine.

   150 words
3. 03

   What is the toughest feedback you ever received? How did you handle it, and what did you learn from it?

   250 words
4. 04

   Describe a situation that you have thought to be unfair or unjust, whether towards yourself or others. How did you address the situation, if at all?

   250 words

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.

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