The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences 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

   We invite you to briefly discuss any connections you may have to the region of Northwest Ohio.

   400 wordsOptional
2. 02

   If you feel you have any aspects of your record that may potentially negatively influence your application to our medical school, we encourage you to use this space to discuss them in order to provide the admissions committee with further context about your application. (Examples of possible topics include MCAT scores lower than our class average, low grades, withdrawn course, institutional action/student conduct violation.)

   400 wordsOptional
3. 03

   The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences' mission is to "improve health in the communities and region we serve by educating and training excellent clinicians and scientists, providing high-quality patient care and conducting nationally recognized research". Values contributing to this mission are the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Premed Competencies of: Commitment to Learning and Growth, Scientific Inquiry, Service Orientation. Please describe how your past experiences predict your potential to contribute to at least one of these mission areas, and reflect on how the corresponding AAMC Premed Competencies have shaped your personal and professional development.

   600 words
4. 04

   One of the AAMC Core Competencies for entering medical students involves resilience and adaptability. This competency involves the ability to tolerate stressful or changing environments or situations and adapt effectively to them. Additional characteristics of this competency are persistence and the ability to recover from setbacks. Discuss a specific experience from your life that you feel demonstrates your level of competence in resilience and adaptability as described above. As part of your discussion, explain how you feel this experience will help you meet new challenges you may face in medical school.

   600 words
5. 05

   Please briefly describe what activities you are/have been engaged in during the period between undergraduate school and medical school.

   400 wordsOptional
6. 06

   Please briefly describe how your application has changed since applying previously to our program.

   300 wordsOptional

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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