Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University 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

   Will your education be continuous between college and medical school matriculation? If NO, please explain what you have done or plan to do during the gap period and why.

   500 words
2. 02

   Tell us how your past experiences and/or challenges have defined you.

   500 words
3. 03

   Please respond to ONE of the following two questions: (1) Please tell us about your career goals, and how you plan to achieve them. (2) Can you describe a time you faced an ethical/professional dilemma and how you managed it?

   500 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.
• Heads up: this school also requires CASPer, so build that into your timeline alongside the essays.

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