University of Missouri-Kansas City 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

   If you rate likeliness to attend the Saint Joseph campus at 8 or higher: You have highly rated your placement at the Saint Joseph campus as a preferred site. Please help us understand why you assigned your rating. For example, is rural clinical practice your foremost career goal, or do you prefer the Saint Joseph campus because of its location, curriculum, or education pedagogy? In a few sentences, please help us better understand your rating.

   No stated limitOptional
2. 02

   We educate physicians/healthcare providers to provide care for individuals with various identities, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Describe any interests, abilities and/or experiences that prepare you to participate in and contribute to that learning environment.

   1000 words
3. 03

   If you are interested in rural healthcare or in practicing a specialty that meets the needs of underserved rural communities, please describe your interest in this aspect of healthcare.

   No stated limitOptional

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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