Oregon Health and Sciences University – OHSU Secondary Application Tips & Prompts

Submitting an outstanding OHSU secondary application is vital to receiving an OHSU MMI interview invite, which ultimately can lead to an acceptance. The Oregon Health & Sciences University School of Medicine Admissions Committee is selective with whom it sends a secondary. So, if you receive a secondary from the OHSU admissions committee, that means they are interested in you! Read our OHSU secondary application tips below to see how you can stand out in your application! Unfortunately, the OHSU secondary application changes its prompts frequently, so we don’t think this is the best secondary application to start pre-writing.

OHSU loves non-traditional applicants. If you have unique life experiences or have taken gap years, be sure to mention those in your OHSU medical school secondary application and your OHSU interviews!

Our Cracking Med School Admissions team has a track record of helping several of our mentees receive acceptances to OHSU School of Medicine year after year. Get accepted with our help through our secondary essay editing packages and our Mastering the Multiple Mini Interview course!

• Personally Tailored Essays
• Edits by Stanford & Harvard-trained Doctors
• We study your application strengths to see what unique attributes we’ll bring to the medical school

OHSU Secondary Application Essay Prompts: 2023 – 2024

OHSU Secondary Application Prompts: All MD Applicants

1. What experience have you had that has given you insight into the patients you hope to eventually serve? (1,550 characters max)
2. Tell us about a time you went into a situation completely unprepared. (1,550 characters max)
3. Discuss a time in your life that demonstrated your resilience. (1,550 characters max)
4. In 1990, Salovey and Mayer defined emotional intelligence (EI) as “the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”. The components of EI include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. (2,050 characters max)
5. Give an example of personal feedback in the last few years that was difficult to receive. How did you respond? (1,550 characters max)
6. New Question and removed old diversity question. Please discuss the roles Dignity, Respect and Deference play in how medical teams optimize patient care. (1,550 characters max)
7. (Only if relevant) Are there any additional ties to the state of Oregon you wish to share? If so, use the space below. Please note that this does not factor toward your consideration as an Oregon resident or Oregon Heritage. (1,550 characters max)
8. We know that many of our applicants in the OHSU UME Program may have familial relationships with individuals who are OHSU faculty, residents, staff, or current students who serve as evaluators in our admissions process. We have added this question in hopes to prevent perceived or actual conflicts of interest that can occur when an applicant has a family member (or someone with a similar close personal relationship) they may encounter through the admissions process. If you have any such connections, please list those individuals’ names and departments below. (1,550 characters max)
9. (Optional) Based on your own experiences or the experiences of family and friends, do you believe that the area in which you grew up was adequately served by the available health care professionals? Were there enough physicians, nurses, hospitals, clinics, and other health care service providers and how did that affect your experience and relationship with health care? Please explain. (4,000 characters max)
10. (Optional) Adversity essay: Select degrees of adversity you’ve faced. Please describe the nature of the adversity. (4,000 characters max)
    • Economic
    • Educational
    • Ethnic / Cultural
    • Family
11. We acknowledge that our application is not fully comprehensive. If there is anything additional you would like to let us know about you, please briefly state it here. (500 characters)

OHSU Secondary Application Prompts: All MD/MPH Applicants

The School of Medicine requires a statement of purpose for admission to the MD-MPH Combined Degree Program. The MD-MPH Combined Degree program offers two MPH concentrations, 1) Epidemiology and 2) Health Management and Policy. (4,000 characters for entire statement of purpose)

1) Why you are applying for the combined MD-MPH Degree Program at OHSU?

2) Your interest in EITHER the Epidemiology or the Health Management and Policy concentration; and,

3) How you plan to use your training in medicine and public health training in your career.

Please submit your statement using the text area provided below. This cannot exceed the 4000 character limit. No particular formatting or spacing is required.

Tips to Answer OHSU Medical School Secondary Application Essays

OHSU Secondaries Pre-Writing Guidance: The Oregon Health & Sciences University changes a few of its medical school secondary essay prompts each year. Given that it is not obvious which secondary prompts are changed, we would recommend NOT pre-writing this secondary. Or, if you do pre-write it, then you should look at the last few years’ prompts and see which essays have not changed.

OHSU Secondary Application Tip #1: First, understand what the OHSU Admissions Committee is looking for:

1. Individuals with diverse experiences in healthcare. Yes, stating your clinical experiences and patient interactions are important, but OHSU tends to love people who also think about healthcare broadly. Many of our students have a wide range of experiences in community health, advocacy, and public health.
2. Individuals with interesting life experiences (almost all our students who have received acceptances at OHSU are non-traditional students who have taken gap years)
3. Individuals who reflect on the issues of healthcare & patient care … and have a creative desire to improve the system
4. Students interested in primary care and want to practice in community-based primary care settings
5. Students who have ties to Oregon and who have worked extensively with people in Oregon in community settings (community health fairs, non-clinical volunteering, etc.)

OHSU Secondary Application Tip #2: Answer as many questions as possible. Our Cracking Med School Admissions team does not view OHSU secondary application essays as optional. Remember, each essay can highlight a different aspect about you. For example, in the optional adversity essay, you can talk about a new activity or an experience in your life when you learned an important life lesson. The reader can then glean insights into an activity that was meaningful and how you faced a challenge. Or, the reader can learn how your personal life experiences have shaped who you are today. Additionally, it is important to discuss what you learned in the face of adversity . The reader can learn how you cope with hardship through the optional essay. For example, for the question, “We acknowledge that our application is not fully comprehensive. If there is anything additional you would like to let us know about you, please briefly state it here” you can write about: your favorite class related to healthcare; leadership; reflections about experiences in health care, particularly primary care; anything you forgot in your primary application (many premeds forget to mention all their awards, achievements in academics, and poster presentations on the AMCAS!); and recent updates to your application like new jobs, summer activities, clinical experiences, or extracurricular activities.

OHSU Secondary Application Tip #3: OHSU loves non-traditional applicants. If given a choice, talk about your gap years and extra-curricular activities instead of stories from your college courses. For example, for adversity, we recommend to our students to not talk about difficulties with organic chemistry. Because OHSU loves non-traditional applicants, we recommend talking extensively about your gap years and extracurricular activities. Be sure to incorporate these same activities and passions in your OHSU MMI interview!

OHSU Secondary Application Tip #4: Don’t forget to incorporate a little bit about “Why Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine” throughout your essays. Talk about projects, community organizations, and clinical electives you want to participate in throughout your medical school career.

>> Read our HIGH-YIELD blog post with tips and an example about how to answer why this medical school?

OHSU Secondary Application Tip #5: Have questions about how you can stand out? Contact us below. Need editing help on your secondary? We can help you through our secondary essay packages.

Our Cracking Med School Admissions team has helped students stand out on their OHSU secondary essays and OHSU MMIs!