University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine Secondary Essay Prompts

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.

1. 01

   What personal accomplishment are you most proud of and why?

   1500 characters
2. 02

   Please describe to the Admissions Committee a challenge or disappointment you have overcome and what you learned about yourself from that experience.

   1500 characters
3. 03

   Have you ever had difficulty accessing quality education or healthcare? If so, please describe how this impacted you and others in your community.

   1500 charactersOptional
4. 04

   Have you completed your Bachelors Degree (B.A/ B.S). Please clarify for the Admissions Committee your activities (school, work, and/or volunteer, travel, etc.) since receiving your undergraduate degree. You may list them in chronological order or you may incorporate them into an essay, stating why you chose particular activities. If you have just received or will receive your undergraduate degree this year, please discuss your plans for current year.

   1500 characters

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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