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10 Least Competitive Industries In The World
In this piece, we will take a look at the ten least competitive industries in the world. If you want to skip our analysis of why competition is important, head on over to 5 Least Competitive Industries in the World.
Competition sits at the heart of the business world and the capitalist system. It forces firms to innovate and makes those with unprofitable business models or obsolete products either get their act together or go out of business.
In fact, competition is also a large reason why the Western world was eventually able to overcome the Communist system of Soviet Russia. The country had a centralized planned economy, which required steel making plants to meet their monthly quotas. The managers of these plants as a result were not eager to improve their cost efficiencies and instead would simply overhire labor and order excess raw materials to just meet the requirements set by the government. Over the long term, this introduced inefficiencies in the system, and would often lead to managers sometimes not even meeting their production targets if they were afraid that the targets would be increased next year. The end result of this ensured a lack of competition in the Soviet Union's factories and stunted innovation - which have led to key technologies such as semiconductors and optics being relatively underdeveloped even today.
The world has changed since the time of the Soviet Union and one of the biggest changes comes in the form of the Internet. The internet allows people to make money while sitting at home instead of toiling away in factories or in offices. And its proliferation across the globe means that there are a variety of niche markets that any seller can target. And some great niche markets for 2023 come from none other than the retailing platform Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP). According to Shopify, great niche markets that can be interesting in 2023 include laptop accessories, desktop toys, reusable drinking straws, melatonin gummies, GPS pet trackers, and oil diffusers. And when it comes to finding high demand and low competition business ideas, it can pay to understand search algorithms to determine which products are in high demand, analyze competitor behavior, and see if any substitute products can attract similar demand to well selling ones.
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Additionally, we don't need to take a look too far back in history to pick out which industries need competition. One of the biggest examples of an industry that lacked competition and was subsequently transformed due to an agile and intelligent entrant is aerospace. The aerospace industry has typically been funded by governments for state programs as its only other source of demand is satellites. And until 2015, the industry continued to rely on big and slow companies such as The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT). However, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's (SpaceX) entry into the fray has forever changed the way in which the astronautics industry operates. SpaceX's reusable rocket has dramatically reduced the cost of launch, taken market share from the largest company before it, and broken the United Launch Alliance's (ULA) decades old monopoly in the national security space launch (NSSL) market.
Another industry that has been begging for competition for decades is satellite internet. For years the only options consumers have had came from satellites placed high up in geostationary orbits resulting in slow speeds due to the vast distances involved. And for decades, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet industry needed competition. Yet, only one firm made an attempt starting in the 1990s. And while Teledesic Corporation tried to break into the industry, eventually it had to go bankrupt. However, SpaceX is making its mark in the LEO internet market too, with its Starlink satellite service up and running and providing coverage globally. You can take a detailed look at the satellite industry by checking out 10 VLEO Technology Stocks and Startups to Watch.
Furthermore, competition is not limited only to corporate players. It also extends itself to the job market, where thousands of candidates jostle to land a dream role. Yet, others also seek a relatively stress free life where they don't have to worry about competition in the job market. So what are some jobs that have low competition but pay remarkably well? Well, some roles are pediatricians, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, and tax directors.
Finally, one highly competitive industry that sees players cut prices aggressively to woo customers is telecommunications. On this front, the management of T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) shared details about its strategies during the firm's latest earnings call where it shared:
So we announced last week our latest Un-carrier move with Phone Freedom, a move aimed to free customers and other wireless providers locked into those three-year contracts, while they are subjected to relentless pricing changes and gadgets. We continue to make it easier for customers to come to T-Mobile and switch to T-Mobile for peace of mind, knowing that with price lock, we won't raise their price for top text and data. And now with new one too are part of Phone Freedom, they will be upgrade-ready in two years, because three years is too long to force customers to wait.
Here's kind of a crazy sort of fact to get your head around, AT&T reported the lowest postpaid phone churn in the industry this quarter and yet quantitative research states that their customers have the highest self-reported likelihood of switching away. Their customers report being almost 50% more likely to switch than Verizon's or T-Mobile's customers. The lowest churn, but the highest apparent dissatisfaction. And to me, that means one thing. Their customers are trapped and we are here to solve it and that's what our latest Un-carrier move is all about. That's what Phone Freedom is all about. And it's the way we have been designing our groundbreaking Un-carrier moves for a full decade now. And as you know, we hit another milestone this month, the three-year anniversary of our merger.
With these details in mind, let's take a look at some of the least competitive industries in the world. If you're interested to find out about companies that have remained in business despite being mostly the same, you can check out 10 Least Innovative Companies That Are Still In Business Today.
10 Least Competitive Industries in the World
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Our Methodology
To compile our list of the least competitive industries in the world, we used Michael Porter's Five Forces as the backbone of our hunt. According to Porter, industries with a high buyer and supplier power, high threats of substitution and new entrants, and high competitive rivalry have low returns on investments (ROIs) since companies have little pricing power to squeeze out more margins. So, we used data from CSI Market to see which industries have the lowest ROI as a proxy for the least competitive industries.
10. Capital GoodsReturn on Investment (ROI) Estimate: 9.55%
The capital goods industry is typically involved with making and selling heavy duty industrial equipment. This covers a wide range of products such as steam turbines, land excavators, tractors, jet engines, and other machines. The sector requires significant capital expenditure and guaranteed orders for companies to take the risk of producing bulky and expensive goods. Some notable capital goods companies are General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), and Deere & Company (NYSE:DE).
9. Consumer Non CyclicalReturn on Investment (ROI) Estimate: 8.49%
The consumer non cyclical industry takes its name from the idea of a business cycle. A business cycle, broadly speaking, describes the economy and the business environment as prospering in cycles of high and low growth. Consumer non cyclical companies are those that are relatively insulated against the changes in the business cycle as they are typically operating in stable sectors such as utilities, healthcare, and consumer staples - which are bound to see demand regardless of the state of the economy.
8. Basic MaterialsReturn on Investment (ROI) Estimate: 8.01%
The basic materials industry is quite self explanatory really. It deals with the building blocks and raw materials for a variety of industries. One of the more popular basic materials segments these days is the lithium industry which is seeing sustained demand due to the global shift toward electric vehicles. Some well known basic materials companies are Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO), BHP Group (NYSE:BHP), and Vale SA (NYSE:VALE).
7. ConglomeratesReturn on Investment (ROI) Estimate: 7.04%
Conglomerates, simply put, are firms that try to do it all. These companies often have a global presence and often operate in completely unrelated industries. One of the best examples of a conglomerate is the South Korean chaebol Samsung which makes smartphones, medicines, washing machines, chips, and other products.
6. TransportationReturn on Investment (ROI) Estimate: 5.56%
The transportation industry is one of the more crucial ones for economic progress. Not only does it enable firms to transport raw materials and finished goods across territories, but it is also the backbone of the tourism industry. Transportation spans across several mediums, including land, air, water, and more recently, space.
Click to continue reading and see 5 Least Competitive Industries in the World.
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Disclosure: None. 10 Least Competitive Industries in the World is originally published on Insider Monkey.
How To Make Leadership Positions More Enticing To Primary Care Physicians
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Primary care in the US is being pushed to the brink of collapse due to historic highs of physician stress, burnout, and exhaustion; mass departures from the profession; and the inability to care for vulnerable populations due to an inequitable health system. These problems are compounded due to a lack of effective advocacy to improve primary care on a national scale and a reimbursement system that chips away at time with patients while keeping primary care physicians (PCPs) on a volume-based hamster wheel. The end result is a shortage of doctors who want to practice primary care under these challenging circumstances, which can lead to potentially devastating consequences for the future of healthcare in America.
PCPs are fundamentally poised to make an impact on the organizations they lead. Healthcare organizations who understand and work to address the issues PCPs face — and encourage their professional development — will have a distinct competitive advantage. They will be able to better engage and recruit PCPs in leadership and thereby reap the benefits of better quality of care, higher patient satisfaction, and decreased provider burnout.
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Primary care in the U.S. Is being pushed to the brink of collapse due to historic highs of physician stress, burnout, and exhaustion; mass departures from the profession; and the inability to care for vulnerable populations due to an inequitable health system. These problems are compounded due to a lack of effective advocacy to improve primary care on a national scale and a reimbursement system that chips away at time with patients while keeping primary care physicians (PCPs) on a volume-based hamster wheel. The end result is a shortage of doctors who want to practice primary care under these challenging circumstances, which can lead to potentially devastating consequences for the future of healthcare in America.
If primary care is touted as the foundation of a well-functioning health care system — the front line of clinical care and the initial point of contact for most patients — how can it be allowed to deteriorate without unified and passionate intervention? Our research suggests that the answer may be straightforward. While primary care accounts for roughly one in three practicing physicians and is seen as the bedrock of the health care system, it is also the most overlooked and underrepresented in the realms of health care leadership.
Transformational changes to primary care will require leadership with holistic training, a clear vision, an insider's perspective, and skin in the game. PCPs are uniquely positioned to lead this change. They are the Swiss Army Knives of medicine, offering an increasingly rare generalist perspective, requiring strong communication skills, and a community-focused approach to care delivery. Not only are they responsible for managing day-to-day concerns for their patients, they also coordinate care across specialties and organizations for those who may have medically complex diagnoses. These clinicians are accustomed to leading teams every day to care for their patients, and must be adaptable, thoughtful, and flexible, given their vast breadth of clinical responsibilities.
However, it is paradoxical that those best poised to lead are often reluctant to do so. In fact, many physicians are not only reluctant but averse to taking on leadership roles.
We interviewed PCPs in leadership roles to better understand what they believe prevents so many other physicians from pursuing such positions. Our research highlights three key deterrents:
Despite these concerns, PCPs are fundamentally poised to make an impact on the organizations they lead. Health care organizations who understand and work to address these deterrents will have a distinct competitive advantage. They will be able to better engage and recruit PCPs in leadership and thereby reap the benefits of better quality of care, higher patient satisfaction, and decreased provider burnout.
Here are three ways that health organizations can counteract these disincentives and support PCPs embracing leadership roles.
Provide the On-RampPCPs crave system change and personal growth, but often feel disempowered. They see their experience as valuable and want to leverage it to make a positive impact on the health care system.
Executives and health administrators can tap into this motivation by framing leadership as a constructive opportunity to be a change agent. While organizations may not have the ability to alter a position's specific title, the job description can be used to reflect openness to an entrepreneurial mindset and an opportunity for improving perceived system deficits. Instead of drafting a typical (and often dry) administrative job description, frame it to emphasize how the role will enact change or address major obstacles in health care. Postings should speak to a PCP's adaptability based on the breadth of their training and diversity of practice experience, and PCPs should be encouraged to apply.
By using the frustration PCPs experience with the status quo and their frontline experience, health care organizations can promote vacant or novel leadership roles as opportunities to expand the impact on patients and to garner a broader scope of knowledge and expertise for PCPs identified as having leadership interest or potential.
Role Design and DefinitionPCPs want to grow and develop professionally, but our study showed that they also identified clear disadvantages in taking on leadership roles. They identified the least attractive aspect of leading, in a word, as "loss." They feared the loss of autonomy, time, close patient relationships, and camaraderie with peers. This can be due, in part, to their exposure to disappointing experiences observed in peers who have assumed leadership roles.
Executives and health administrators can help mitigate this with the use of strategic job design, where organizations create an optimal job role, and job crafting, which allows PCPs to define and customize their role themselves. These two complementary pieces of the puzzle yield large gains in employee satisfaction and fulfillment.
When organizations realize that fear of loss is a major barrier, they are better positioned to design purposeful and motivating work for PCPs taking on leadership roles. To address the concern for loss of autonomy, the role should be intentionally constructed to allow PCPs the agency to make decisions per their expertise. For those apprehensive about losing time, the role can be devised to encourage a flexible approach in how goals are achieved, including the freedom to decide how they will balance their clinical responsibilities with their new leadership role. In order to address concerns about losing relationships, organizations must provide opportunities for leaders to meet with their colleagues in informal settings and encourage leaders to continue to be actively engaged as a member of their clinical team.
Empowering PCPs to engage in job crafting allows them to adjust aspects of the job to suit individual interests, values, and passions, making them more likely to be engaged and more likely to thrive at work, while being successful in their leadership role. PCPs can independently alter the type and scope of tasks; relationships and with whom they work; and how to think, communicate about, or conceive of the job. When PCPs have some degree of ownership and authority over how the job is defined, they will have the opportunity to include more of their passion points, while also thoughtfully reducing those aspects of the job that are seen as pain points.
Tools, Training, and MentorshipPCPs may want system change and growth, but they also need the tools, training, and mentorship to be successful. In most cases, PCPs aren't taught finance, accounting, management, or leadership skills in medical school, nor is there an emphasis on systems operations, despite the fact that, as physicians enter residency, they immediately begin leading medical teams.
There are stark contrasts, both operationally and culturally, between business and medicine. Executives and health administrators should provide opportunities for PCPs to cross-train with current administrators and to have access to mentors who can help with the transition. Providing resources to support the transition into leadership can help highly qualified and motivated PCPs avoid the common pitfalls than can derail their ability to influence others and be successful in their expanded role. This may include offering or supporting continuing medical education (CME) or credentialing opportunities that feature management and leadership skills building, partnering with institutions of higher education to create pathways into graduate business or policy programs, or engaging with organizations that specialize in physician leadership training.
Having PCPs in leadership roles has never been more important. Without a highly functioning and sustainable primary care system, all health care in the U.S. Will suffer. If we want a system that promotes effective and sustainable primary care, PCPs need to be involved in co-designing that system and leading change. Ultimately, this will benefit the entire health care system, and all of us who will, at any stage of our lives, depend on it for our own care and that of our families and communities.
How To Get Into A Top Medical School From Shemmassian Academic Consulting
As a premed gearing up to apply to medical school, you're likely hoping for admission into top-tier medical schools like Johns Hopkins, University of California–San Francisco, Stanford, and Harvard.
If you're hard at work earning excellent grades and studying for the MCAT, the good news is that you've already taken the first step toward getting into a top medical school. You might feel, as a Harvard undergrad, that you're a shoo-in for most medical schools. But you're still unsure about whether you can get into a top program.
Not to mention the bad news: if you're aiming for the most prestigious schools, it's a safe bet that the majority of your fellow applicants will also be well-qualified. While a terrific GPA and MCAT score are the foundation of any medical school application, it's important, even as an excellent student from Harvard, to distinguish yourself in other ways so that you won't be disappointed at the conclusion of the admissions cycle.
In this article, we'll discuss strategies that you can employ to boost your chances of acceptance into a top medical school. We'll go over the right way to approach extracurriculars, application materials, and interviews in order to help you stand out to admissions committees.
How hard is it to get into a top medical school?Getting into medical school is difficult, period. In the 2019–2020 application cycle, only 41 percent of applicants to American medical schools matriculated, meaning that nearly 60 percent of applicants most likely didn't get in anywhere. Even medical schools that aren't especially well-known often have acceptance rates under ten percent.
At the most prestigious medical schools, the odds are even more daunting. The vast majority of top-tier medical schools have acceptance rates under five percent, and the average GPA and MCAT score of accepted students tends to be high (around 3.8 and 518, respectively).
If you're in this ballpark, your odds of acceptance into medical school are favorable, especially given Harvard's rigorous reputation. In fact, GPA and MCAT scores are what we consider "tier one" admissions factors, meaning that they're among the most heavily weighed qualifications that admissions committees consider.
Nevertheless, if you're aiming for acceptance into the most selective medical schools, you should think of your academic accomplishments as a baseline rather than sufficient qualification. Because the best medical schools receive thousands of applications from academically gifted students, it's critical to find other ways to differentiate yourself.
What are medical schools looking for?One way that we can understand what medical school admissions committees look for is by reviewing the Association of American Medical Colleges' list of "core competencies." According to the AAMC, successful applicants should be able to demonstrate a number of qualities, which they group into the following competencies:
The former two competencies include criteria such as critical thinking, written communication, and knowledge of living systems. Rest assured that if you're taking care to excel in your premed classes and other coursework, exhibiting these competencies should more or less take care of itself.
The list of pre-professional competencies describes the personal characteristics that are desirable in medical students and, by extension, doctors. These include good social skills, reliability, cultural competency, an orientation towards service, and more.
How might you go about showcasing these traits? Your extracurricular activities, application materials, and interviews are all excellent ways to prove that you are not only academically qualified for a top medical school, but that you also have the necessary personal characteristics to become a first-rate doctor.
Developing an outstanding extracurricular profileDemonstrating a robust roster of extracurricular activities is crucial for a couple of reasons. As we mentioned, it provides admissions committees with insight into your character, which is key in a service-oriented profession like medicine. For example, volunteering at the same soup kitchen for four years displays commitment. Working as part of a research team reveals your capacity for teamwork.
Active participation in extracurriculars shows that you're engaged and proactive in the medical field. It also demonstrates your desire to gain as much experience and knowledge as you can.
Here are the five areas of extracurricular experience—and the minimum number of hours—that we recommend having in order to be a competitive medical school applicant:
Earlier, we used the word "robust" to describe the best approach to extracurricular activities—what does "robust" really imply, though? Medical school applicants often think that they need to check every metaphorical box and participate in all available extracurriculars. By adopting this mindset, you run the risk of not playing a significant role in any of your activities.
A far more effective strategy is to focus deeply and intently on one or two things. In other words, though it is important to demonstrate familiarity and experience within all five above categories, you should also undertake your extracurriculars with the intention to develop one to two areas of specialization.
As you might imagine, a specialist will always be more memorable than a generalist. So rather than dabble in a wide variety of activities, aim to be remembered for your meaningful efforts in something unique.
To use a sports analogy: Shaquille O'Neal was one of the most memorable players in the history of basketball, remembered for his ability to use his physical size to get past defenders and score. Most basketball analysts would agree that he was one of a kind, and that few players have been able to replicate his dominant style since his retirement.
Aim to be the Shaquille O'Neal of your chosen specialty. Be "the campus nutrition advocate," "the caffeine addiction researcher," "the medical interpretation service founder," and so forth.
Becoming a specialist takes hard work and commitment, but it's not an especially mysterious process. The trick is to slowly but surely push further than what other students in the same activity typically do.
For example, if you're part of a volunteer organization, consider a currently unaddressed issue and brainstorm how you can take initiative in tackling it, whether that's coordinating a fundraiser, organizing an outreach effort, or starting your own offshoot organization. Or, if you're working in a lab, you might eventually ask your PI if you can pursue your own project with the goal of publishing original research.
You may look at someone who's conducted independent research or started their own volunteer organization and think their successes seem out of reach. However, by taking gradual steps over time, the very same results are possible for you.
Preparing compelling application materialsEarning top grades and standing out in your activities is one thing; packaging them for your medical school applications is another.
It's essential to put the time and effort into your application materials for a couple of reasons. Not only are they a space in which you can highlight your achievements and character, they're also your biggest opportunity to frame these accomplishments yourself and demonstrate that they qualify you for acceptance.
Three important components of your medical school applications include your personal statement, the Work and Activities section of your AMCAS application, and your secondary essays.
Writing your medical school personal statementAlong with your GPA and MCAT score, we consider your personal statement to be a tier one admissions factor. It's the part of your application in which your personal characteristics—the AAMC pre-professional competencies we discussed earlier—have the best chance to shine through.
Of tier one admissions factors, the personal statement is the one over which you have the most control. While your grades and test scores will speak for themselves, think of your personal statement as a chance to make the case directly to admissions committees that your personal narrative sets you apart from other qualified candidates.
Conversely, academically competent students who fail to gain acceptance to medical school might have underdeveloped or clichéd personal statement essays.
So how do you write a standout personal statement? The key is to frame your specific experiences and personal qualities within a compelling narrative that clearly explains who you are and why you want to become a doctor.
When brainstorming what to write their personal statements about, applicants often have a hard time settling on a topic that feels worthwhile. Great and lousy personal statements can be written on any topic, and how you write about it is what actually makes the difference.
In other words, any subject can work so long as it's well executed, conveying your unique perspective and explaining why you'll make an excellent doctor. We've seen fantastic personal statements on topics ranging from multilingualism to family cuisine to mental illness stigma.
Here's the step-by-step approach that we recommend in order to write a great medical school personal statement:
Create a list of personal qualities that you'd like to convey through your personal statement. For example, you might choose compassion, resilience, communicativeness, and optimism.
Brainstorm experiences, events, or contexts in which you've expressed those qualities.
Begin writing by describing your chosen experiences in narrative form.
Discuss how your experiences have led you to pursue a career in medicine.
Conclude your essay and tie everything together by reemphasizing your personal qualities, your interest in medicine, and what perspectives your experiences have given you.
Create a list of personal qualities that you'd like to convey through your personal statement. For example, you might choose compassion, resilience, communicativeness, and optimism.
Brainstorm experiences, events, or contexts in which you've expressed those qualities.
Begin writing by describing your chosen experiences in narrative form.
Discuss how your experiences have led you to pursue a career in medicine.
Conclude your essay and tie everything together by reemphasizing your personal qualities, your interest in medicine, and what perspectives your experiences have given you.
While writing, make sure to demonstrate the qualities that you're focusing on rather than list them outright—in other words, "show, don't tell." Consider these two versions of the same idea: "through volunteering at the homeless shelter, I became a more reliable person" vs. "over my four years of volunteering at the homeless shelter, I learned that if I did not do my assigned tasks, they might not get done—this motivated me to show up every week." The latter is undoubtedly more memorable and convincing.
Ultimately, what's important in your personal statement is not the experience you describe but what the experience says about you. Though it's common to choose an experience to write about and then figure out its significance, our strategy is more effective because it allows you to work in reverse. By first deciding what you want to convey about yourself and then determining which experiences support those traits, you can more easily argue that you're a worthy candidate for medical school.
AMCAS Work and ActivitiesThough less frequently discussed, the Work and Activities section is an important component of your AMCAS application. A key reason for this is that the Work and Activities section appears before your personal statement in your admissions file, which makes it responsible for delivering a positive first impression.
In the Work and Activities section you'll have the opportunity to create up to 15 entries that succinctly detail your various non-academic experiences. AMCAS allows you to categorize your experiences into 18 different pre-set designations such as extracurriculars, employment, research, service, athletics, and more. However, you may only create one entry per category, so it's important to assign them carefully.
The meat of each entry will consist of a 700-character description of the activity. As you write each description you'll want to hit these main points: how much time you spent on the activity, what your responsibilities and accomplishments were, what impact you made, and what skills and qualities you demonstrated through the activity.
Three of your entries can also be designated as "most meaningful," which allows you to write an additional 1,325 characters per experience. The important points to cover in this extra space are what you learned from the activities and how they helped you grow.
Similar to your personal statement, your Work and Activities entries are a valuable opportunity to carefully choose the experiences that you want to highlight for admissions committees. Given the limited space available, you should include only your most significant experiences, making sure to avoid listing trivial activities simply for the sake of filling up the section, even if that means you end up with fewer than fifteen.
Here's how we advise applicants to choose which experiences to include:
Make a list of every non-academic experience you've had during your college career (and post-baccalaureate program, if you've taken time off after graduation).
For each experience, write out brief descriptions or keywords in response to each of the following: time spent, responsibilities and accomplishments, impact, competencies demonstrated, and lessons and growth.
For each experience, figure out all the categories that it could conceivably fall under, as experiences that can be labeled multiple ways leave you with greater flexibility. For example, a campus organization in which you hold an officership could be designated as "Leadership," leaving the "Extracurricular" slot free for something else.
Using these descriptions and categories, choose the activities that you'll include in your AMCAS application.
Take your descriptions and flesh them out into full sentences to create mini-narratives of your experiences, taking care to remain within the length limits.
Make a list of every non-academic experience you've had during your college career (and post-baccalaureate program, if you've taken time off after graduation).
For each experience, write out brief descriptions or keywords in response to each of the following: time spent, responsibilities and accomplishments, impact, competencies demonstrated, and lessons and growth.
For each experience, figure out all the categories that it could conceivably fall under, as experiences that can be labeled multiple ways leave you with greater flexibility. For example, a campus organization in which you hold an officership could be designated as "Leadership," leaving the "Extracurricular" slot free for something else.
Using these descriptions and categories, choose the activities that you'll include in your AMCAS application.
Take your descriptions and flesh them out into full sentences to create mini-narratives of your experiences, taking care to remain within the length limits.
In light of the space constraints, it's essential to write with brevity. As such, the writing style you employ will likely differ from that of your personal statement. In this section, it's fine to both "show" and "tell" if necessary — your primary concern should be conveying the requisite information and highlighting your accomplishments and excellent character.
By writing clearly and concisely about your experiences, you'll be able create a positive first impression for admissions committees and set the stage for the rest of your application materials.
Writing your secondary essaysThe final pieces of the medical school application puzzle are your secondary application, which you'll turn to after submitting your AMCAS application. The bulk of your secondary applications consists of essays that you'll need to write in addition to your personal statement.
Though secondary essays are often much shorter than the personal statement, their inclusion in the application process increases your workload significantly since most secondary applications ask for three or more extra essays. With the average applicant applying to sixteen medical schools — we recommend that most students apply to 20-30 schools — this can add up to a great deal of work.
Luckily, there are steps you can take to considerably streamline the secondary essay writing process. If you examine the prompts used for secondary essays, you'll notice that a large number of them fall into the following three categories:
We advise applicants to use this to their advantage by pre-writing one of each of these essays, which they can later tailor per school.
To write compelling secondary essays, you can use the same process that we outlined in our discussion of the personal statement: choose experiences that demonstrate the attributes you'd like to emphasize. Below are additional tips to help you write each of the three essays.
The diversity essay: in our experience, the biggest misconception surrounding diversity essays has to do with the concept of diversity itself. Many applicants erroneously believe that a diversity essay must take on their racial or ethnic background, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion. These are excellent topics to write about, but the list doesn't stop there.
Rather, any element of your background, experiences, identity, or aspirations that gives you a unique perspective can be used to write a diversity essay. We've worked with applicants on fantastic diversity essays about military service, competitive rock climbing, growing up on a farm, being a parent, using stand-up comedy therapeutically, and the list goes on.
No matter what you write about, the key to a successful diversity essay is to connect what makes you unique with your potential and goals. Don't assume that your contribution to a medical school's diversity statistics is meaningful in and of itself. Rather, take care to use anecdotes that explain why you have something unique to add and which demonstrate that you'll bring cultural sensitivity to your medical school community.
The adversity essay: adversity essays are not meant to measure suffering, but instead to get a glimpse into how you handle challenges, stress, and problem-solving. That's why the best topic for this type of essay isn't always the one that shows the greatest setback; instead, it's the one that displays the most growth.
To brainstorm, we suggest creating a list of challenges you've faced, no matter how big or small, and listing the following for each:
Once you've developed a list, choose the situation that exhibits the greatest development of maturity, improvement, and resilience.
The "why us?" essay: these prompts might ask questions like, "why are you specifically interested in pursuing your medical education at Mayo?" or "please explain your reasons for applying to Penn."
Applicants are often surprised to learn that the best approach to answering these questions is not to simply discuss the school's laudable mission, desirable location, or prestigious name. Instead, a compelling response will be equally focused on yourself.
The most effective "why us?" essays explain how your specific interests, background, and career goals fit closely with a school's specific curriculum, resources, and ethos. Top-tier medical schools know they're great — your task is to convince them that you'd fit into, benefit from, and contribute to their greatness.
How to ace your medical school interviewsMany applicants consider interviews the most nerve-racking part of the admissions cycle. Rest assured that if you receive an invitation to interview at a medical school, your academic and extracurricular credentials have already proved you to be a worthy candidate.
The primary purposes of medical school interviews are to confirm that who you are in real life matches the fantastic candidate you've submitted on paper. They also want to make sure that your social and interpersonal skills are sufficiently developed. We've made a point to underscore the importance of demonstrating desirable personal characteristics in your application materials; your interviewers will be looking to see that you display these characteristics in real life, too. Not only is it critical for physicians to possess well-honed social faculties, medical schools also want to ensure that you'll fit into their community.
That's why the manner in which you conduct yourself in your interviews (including on-campus social interactions and correspondence with faculty and admissions staff) is as important as what you actually say. Your task in your interviews is to infuse your candidacy with a human dimension that is personable, likable, and polished.
In order to prepare for interviews, we recommend that you prepare thoughtful responses to common questions and practice your delivery through mock interviews.
Begin by mastering your own materials—you should be ready to discuss any detail of your AMCAS application, secondary essays, and academic record. Then spend time with the school's website in order to fluently understand their programs, culture, and focus.
To understand which questions you might be asked, look up interview questions that past applicants have received at the schools at which you'll interview and prepare your responses. We also recommend having answers ready for the following common questions:
"Tell me about yourself": a good answer to this question will touch on both the personal and the medical. We suggest beginning by briefly describing your background, such as your upbringing and interests. Then transition into a discussion of experiences that have been relevant in your journey towards medical school.
"Why do you want to become a physician?": while many applicants fear sounding clichéd when answering this question, the truth is that an interest in science or a desire to help others are valid reasons to enter medicine. Our advice is to answer honestly and to ground your response in specifics and anecdotes, making sure that your reasoning is consistent with what you've written in your personal statement and secondary essays.
"Why do you want to attend our school?": you can think about this question the exact same way you think about your "why us?" essay: use specific details to explain how you and the school are an ideal fit.
"What do you see as the biggest problem with healthcare in the United States?": this sort of policy-oriented question can be intimidating, but take comfort in knowing that your interviewer isn't expecting you to take on a specific political stance. Rather, they're looking to see that you can defend your beliefs. Going into your interview, do make sure that you're reasonably well informed on current healthcare issues. When faced with this type of question demonstrate that you are aware of current debates by acknowledging both sides of the issue. Finally, state your position and thoughtfully back it up.
Having rehearsed responses at your fingertips will help you greatly as you interview; at the least, it'll aid you in feeling reassured and relaxed. That said, it's also crucial not to seem robotic or canned. Don't insist on sticking to your script if that's not where the conversation naturally flows or if your interviewer brings in a complex question. Demonstrating that you can adapt and think on your feet is just as important.
We recommend arranging practice interviews with trusted premed advisors, professors, admissions consultants, or friends who have already been through the medical school application process. Ask your mock interviewers to evaluate both your answers and your delivery so that you can perfect both, all the way down to eye contact and handshakes.
You've already proven that you're intellectually fit to become a doctor. Demonstrating in your interviews that you're also socially capable and put-together will help you stand out from the rest of the applicant pool.
Final thoughtsApplying to medical school is a competitive, grueling process, especially for those hoping to enter the top tier. Earning excellent MCAT scores and superb grades, particularly from a first-rate institution like Harvard, will do the work of placing you in the realm of qualified applicants. Becoming a specialist in your extracurriculars, preparing top-notch application materials, and acing your interview will help you demonstrate that your disposition and character are as admirable as your intellectual achievements. Work hard to distinguish yourself from your competition and you'll be on your way to acceptances at the most selective and prestigious medical schools in the country.
For over 15 years, our team of admissions experts has helped thousands of high-achieving students get into top medical schools like Hopkins, Harvard, and UCSF.
The Crimson's news and opinion teams—including writers, editors, photographers, and designers—were not involved in the production of this article.
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