I love Duke University

Me too.

Hi Pain (admit.org legend), would you be comfortable sharing a bit about your experience in the secondary writing process and your experience with Duke so far? If not, no worries!

I haven’t started school so far but I can only speak positively to anything Duke related so far. It’s a big reason why i picked it.

What questions did you have for me?

Waitlist is a death sentence here

+1 iss sec

Hi. Can you please post the essay prompts?

Thanks for the response! Since there are so many prompts, I was curious how you tackled them. More specifically, would you recommend always bringing it back to the school or medicine? I feel like it could be super redundant, but I am unsure what qualities schools are looking for. To note, I will be using the optional prompt for a "Why Duke" essay but outside that I have mostly tried to focus on my own interests and experiences so far.

In terms of Duke Medicine itself, how was the secondary and interview and process and what specifically made you choose them? I feel like I have only heard positive things from them.

Share with us your story. This is your opportunity to allow us to know how you wish to be addressed, recognized, and treated. (400 words)

Trust and rapport are essential in your day-to-day interactions with people. How do you cultivate a relationship with a person who may be very different from you? (400 words)

Describe a situation in which you chose to advocate for someone who was different from you or for a cause or idea that was different from yours. Define your view of advocacy. What risks, if any, might be associated with your choice to be an advocate? (400 words)

Describe a time when you received feedback following a setback. What did you do to implement change? (400 words)

What do you value most as a leader and contributor? What attributes do you possess as a leader and as a team member and how do you apply them on a daily basis? (400 words)

Critical thinking involves a number of characteristics. Research experience enhances critical analysis skills. Describe a research experience or similar experience in which you utilized critical thinking. How will critical thinking be important to your future career? (400 words)

Which personal quality or skill of yours have you found to be the most beneficial in building relationships within your community? (400 words)

Drawing from your clinical experiences, how have you fostered a connection with people? (400 words)

Are any secondary questions new?

Thank you! Can you also please share any of the optional prompts for any pathways etc.,

+1 oos secondary

Questions for Primary Care Leadership Track (PCLT):

Community Engagement: PCLT values community engagement. What is your understanding of community engagement and its value? How does community engagement impact either research or working in a community to improve health outcomes?

Why PCLT: What distinguishes you from other applicants to the PCLT program?

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+1 oos md secondary received

Anyone having problems with LORs for duke? I submitted the secondary and paid but it says my app is incomplete bc my LORs "have not been received" even tho when i click the documents tab they are listed right there.

Yes!! I emailed them, and they stated that they had received my packet. They asked if I had any more letters on the way, and I responded that I did not. It still lists my app as incomplete, and I am not quite sure what the next steps are here...

Soooo like is this a problem on their end or what. I haven’t had this issue with any other school

well, n=2 and I also haven't had this problem anywhere else. I'm betting it's a glitch on their end, but it can't hurt to reach out to them and check.

did they end up marking your app complete?

I'm also having this same issue. Did you end up reaching out/did they give any info?

I emailed today

Duke has a lot of prompts but I think for the most part, they tend to be pretty straightforward. I would simply tackle them one by one - I don’t think you necessarily need to bring every answer back to medicine or back to why Duke. I don’t think it hurts you either though. At the end of the day, this is a medical school application. Personally, I’d say I ended most of my prompts with a Takeaway about medicine or just interacting with others in general.

I find the most applications in general tend to have some degree of redundancy. I think thematic redundancy is OK. What is not OK is using I realized or I understand or I learned over and over and over within the same essays. You don’t have to say, I realized that the system is broken. You just have to say the system is broken.

I personally hate the idea of using the optional prompt as a why Duke. I really regretted it because I feel like I could’ve said something more interesting. Having read a few last year and this year, they basically all sound the same. If you do want to write why Duke, you absolutely have to mention the 3rd year and how it’s a research year. Yeah don’t get me wrong. Duke is pretty holistic. But it’s still a very research heavy school. We have a whole year for research like it’s just kind of a given. If I could go back and do it, I would talk about something interesting on my application that I didn’t mention it anywhere else like my Lego business.

The interview is a brutal probably the most brutal MMI. It’s like 10 stations with very minimal breaks. Lots of different scenarios and topics. Everybody was super friendly though.

As for why I chose Duke - I’ll be upfront. I had much cheaper options than Duke. Duke is about 70 after my merit and need Bass scholarships. Hopkins was free, UPenn was around 40k, Yale was around 40k, and UF was free. I chose Duke for a few reasons. For one, I think the value of the build in research year is crazy since that’s the potential to save a whole year if I do a competitive specialty. Two, I think Duke is by far the most chill school. Despite how condensed the curriculum is, none of the students I talked to really felt extremely hyper stressed. I would argue the vibes at Duke were even more chill than they are at Yale. Everyone at Yale kept talking to me about how stressed they were and I think part of it was because they were super unprepared ( Which is probably why Yale is basically a five-year program).

Did they end up fixing it for you?

No response. Emailed saturday

I'm having the same issue :(

They just did today

Thank you for the insight, Pain! This is probably the most daunting secondary to write lol, so I genuinely appreciate all the tips. Hearing that some redundancy is okay is a huge relief. I feel like I am practically repeating myself despite attempting to make a new point about interacting with others and medicine or something.

TYSM and good luck with MS1!

I am also having the same issue. Emailed today about it

if any current students are on here, can you do community-based research during 3rd year if you're not in the PCLT? interested in community health & public health + advocacy but not planning to pursue hospital medicine not primary care. but still want to do a lot of community-engaged work!!

Current student, yes you can and a good amount of people do. You're free to do pretty much any projects you'd like and ofc there are also structured opportunities through the MPH, scholar tracks, etc

Happy to also answer any other Duke questions!

I love how Duke is asking the same questions but in 4 different ways LOL 😭

Prob on purpose to get depth with multiple stories

Finally tackling this big boi...save me.