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Secondary Application Questions

2024-2025 Application Cycle

**Updated July 10, 2024**

We would like to provide our applicants with the essay prompts for this year’s CWRU secondary application.  Throughout the week of July 15th, secondary application invitations will be emailed to CWRU applicants with a verified AMCAS application and an MCAT score of greater than or equal to 495. 

Applicants are able to select which of our MD program(s) they would like to apply to within the secondary application, and this selection will then dictate which essay prompts are displayed. We hope that this early availability will alleviate some of the stress that may be associated with the application process, and will allow our applicants more time to craft their essay responses while waiting for other processes, such as AMCAS application verification or an MCAT administration, that are required for application completion.

Please note that spaces are counted as characters in our secondary application platform. You will only need to provide one response for prompts that are shared by programs and each program will have access to that response. You won't have to write multiple responses for the same prompt.

University Program Applicants

Required Responses:

  1. Greatest Challenge: The Admissions Committee is interested in gaining more insight into you as a person. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience, how you handled the uncertainty or stress, and what you learned about yourself as a result. (2,000 character limit)

  2. Personal Growth: Based on your current maturity and wisdom, reflect upon an experience from the past few years that you would handle differently today. (1,000 character limit)

  3. Cultural Awareness: Many have been reckoning with the impact of systemic injustices on social environments and healthcare equity. Describe a personal experience that has deepened your cultural awareness and humility, and the impact of that learning on how you look at health and healthcare. (1,500 character limit)

  4. Gap Year(s) if applicable: If you are taking time off between college graduation and medical school matriculation, please tell us why you made this decision and what you will be doing or have done during this gap. (1,000 character limit)

Optional Responses:
  1. Research/Scholarly Work: One of the four pillars of the Western Reserve2 Curriculum is Research and Scholarship. Although research is not a prerequisite requirement for the University Program, if you have participated in research or other scholarly project (capstone project, honors thesis, etc.), please reflect on the experience, including how you learned from it, what challenged you, and how it may have impacted you educationally and professionally. If you have not completed research or scholarly project, please indicate that in the text box below. (2,500 character limit)
  • If the details of your project are included elsewhere in your application no need to repeat them here. We are interested in learning what you took away from the experience(s). 
  • If you are applying to both the University Program and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Program, the research response will default to the CCL Program required response.

2. Additional Information Response:  Is there any further information that you wish to share with the Admissions Committee that may not be captured in the rest of your application? (2,000 character limit)

CCLCM (5 yr. MD) Applicants

Required Responses: 
  1. Greatest Challenge Essay: The admissions committee is interested in gaining more insight into you as a person. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience and what you learned about yourself as a result. (2,000 character limit)
  2. Research Essay:  Please tell us about ONE research project to which you made a significant contribution. In your essay, describe your role on the project, the hypothesis of your research and whether you contributed to hypothesis generation, why the methods were selected to answer that hypothesis, your results, and interpretation of your results with respect to future findings. In addition, please briefly share your motivation for pursuing this research project and reflect on how this experience affected your future career goals. (3,500 character limit)
  3. Personal Growth: Based on your current maturity and wisdom, reflect upon an experience from the past few years that you would handle differently today. (1,000 character limit)
  4. Cultural Awareness: Many have been reckoning with the impact of systemic injustices on social environments and healthcare equity. Describe a personal experience that has deepened your cultural awareness and humility, and the impact of that learning on how you look at health and healthcare. (1,500 character limit)
  5. Career Essay: What does your ideal career entail fifteen years after medical school graduation? (1,000 character limit) 
  6. Gap Year(s) if applicable: If you are taking time off between college graduation and medical school matriculation, please tell us why you made this decision and what you will be doing or have done during this gap. (1,000 character limit)
Optional Responses:

Additional Information Response:  Is there any further information that you wish to share with the Admissions Committee that may not be captured in the rest of your application? (2,000 character limit)

MSTP (MD/PhD) Applicants

Required Responses:
  1. Greatest Challenge Essay: The admissions committee is interested in gaining more insight into you as a person. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience and what you learned about yourself as a result. (2,000 character limit) **Updated July 10, 2023**
  2. Personal Growth: Based on your current maturity and wisdom, reflect upon an experience from the past few years that you would handle differently today. (1,000 character limit) 
  3. Cultural Awareness: Many have been reckoning with the impact of systemic injustices on social environments and healthcare equity. Describe a personal experience that has deepened your cultural awareness and humility, and the impact of that learning on how you look at health and healthcare. (1,500 character limit)
  4. PhD Advisor: What do you look for in a PhD advisor, and who at CWRU would interest you? (800 character limit)
  5. Area of Interest: What is your specific interest in the MSTP at CWRU? (800 character limit)
  6. Gap Year(s) if applicable: If you are taking time off between college graduation and medical school matriculation, please tell us why you made this decision and what you will be doing or have done during this gap time. (1,000 character limit)
Optional Responses:

Additional Information Response:  Is there any further information that you wish to share with the Admissions Committee that may not be captured in the rest of your application? (2,000 character limit)