u/thetruth-is-outhere

This year, Virginia Tech added this question: "Describe a time when doing the "right" thing conflicted with rules, authority, or expectations. How did you handle it?"

It feels... shady. Do they want applicants to admit to breaking the rules for a moral cause? Are they open to accepting students who might disagree with and advocate against school policies? If not, why ask this question?

...is that I'm starting to get excited about many schools on my list that I wasn't as interested in before. Can't even lie, these "why us?" essays are making me want to attend more

As I write my secondaries, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with how this process demands so much information from applicants yet deems only certain struggles, forms of diversity, and commitments/activities valid. Several of my formative experiences are not "palatable" to an adcom audience, and writing about how another, comparatively minor setbacks or parts of my identity feels inauthentic and inaccurate.

If medical schools want resilient students, they should be more open to accepting those students no matter how they acquired that resilience. Rant over, haha.

Rather odd question incoming: would it be appropriate to talk about my conversion to Islam during college in diversity-focused secondaries? This would be through the lens of how I handled friends' and family's reactions, grew close with my mosque community, and how I would be able to apply lessons learned in med school and in patient interactions. I don't want to come off as "weird" but Islam is an important part of my life (and I am visibly Muslim as a hijabi, so it isn't like my religion will be unknown to any schools I interview with), but I'm worried that the conversion part might throw adcoms off.

Thanks :')

Hello r/premed :) I will need to travel outside of the US for work for a week sometime in June/July, though the exact timing is flexible. When it comes to prewriting/writing secondaries, what would be the "best" window to travel during this busy period? I mostly likely would not have the chance to work on secondaries while away. Any insight appreciated.