<p>Yes, essay prompts are generally similar. The scary land of student doctor network posts them for each school, so you can get a start there if you want.</p>
<p>I think some of the greatest advice I got from my advisor was to not be afraid to shoot for the stars, which sounds cliche but was really true in my case. I was pretty hesitant to apply to elite programs (a 30 MCAT was a big ego killer) because I tend to think I’m just another run of the mill applicant, but I think he saw that I had some really unique things on my application and it would be well worth the effort. So far, he’s been right.</p>
<p>As for worst, I’d say the lack of advice from my official premed advisor. IMHO the entire department just really dropped the ball–perhaps that’s part of being at a big state school. I chose to rely on: aforementioned advisor, docs I shadowed (each for 2yrs), and CC. I didn’t solicit advice from other sources because I didn’t want to get totally bogged down. As far as I can tell, it’s gone well so far.</p>
<p>Another thing I just picked up on (actually, that echoed some of my high school experiences) was that it’s going to be really tough for schools to think that you’re an awesome applicant if you don’t think you’re an awesome applicant and/or if you don’t write persuasively and well in a concise but thought out manner. If you do something great, say it. If you’ve learned something profound, mention it. If you’ve fixed this problem for this many people as a result of something you did, by all means, talk about it. Take plenty of time with your secondaries; for me, that meant waiting to write them until the “time was right” and I knew exactly what I wanted to say and could get into a writing groove. Applying to medical school is one huge feat, and for many people it is the culmination of years of hard work. Time to suck it up and go to bat for yourself–if you’re not your greatest advocate, who’s going to be?</p>