Struggling to write the University of Toronto medical school brief personal essays? If you want to make your University of Toronto medical school application stand out, you definitely need to put in some effort to write impressive brief personal essay as per their specific prompts. This is a key part of their admissions process that helps them judge the applicants’ suitability for medical school.
In this blog, we’ll provide the latest prompts for these essays. We’ll also provide a few tips to help you write memorable essays that make your application stand out.
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You need to submit 2 essays to meet the University of Toronto medical school brief personal essay requirement as part of their admissions process. One of the top medical schools in Canada, the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine has a highly competitive admissions process. To maximize your chances of getting accepted, you need to craft well-written, meaningful essays that demonstrate your suitability for medical school.
These essays have to be written in response to specific prompts.
University of Toronto Medical School Brief Personal Essay Prompts
To apply to the University of Toronto medical school, you must write two essays of 250 words or less in response to the two prompts given below. This word count does not include titles, references, or verifiers, if you choose to include these elements.
- Question 1: The COVID-19 pandemic imposed obligatory changes in all our lives. What have you learned and how has this changed you as a person? Are there ways that you adapted that you would keep going forward?
- Question 2: What are the 3 most important elements of a mentoring relationship? Discuss a mentoring situation that you experienced in relation to these qualities.
The admissions committee will be evaluating these essays to see how well they align with the four core University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine "clusters" that identify and describe the abilities a physician must possess to effectively meet the healthcare needs of their patients.
These essays are similar in terms of their requirements, format, and style to the medical school secondary essays required at US medical schools.
Want to know more about other secondary medical school essays?
Tips to Help You Write the University of Toronto Medical School Brief Personal Essays
Tip#1: The first step to writing the perfect medical school application essay is to start as early as possible. An excellent essay takes several weeks and sometimes MONTHS to create. You will need time to first think about the questions and reflect on them daily and brainstorm ideas. It is also important that you discuss the questions with others who may be able to shed some light on the deeper intentions behind the questions being asked.
Tip#2: When writing the first draft of your essays, it is important to keep the following in mind: This is a test of your written communications skills. Therefore, the essay should have excellent structure and flow. This means it will need an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Importantly, you must also be able to convey your sense of maturity, professionalism, and self-reflexivity (i.e. essential non-cognitive skills), while clearly demonstrating your motivation for the medical profession.
The introductory paragraph and more importantly, the introductory sentence or opening sentence of your essay, will most certainly make or break your overall statement. Thus, ensure that you have a creative and captivating opening sentence that draws in the reader. This is your first and only chance to really capture the attention of the admissions committee.
Tip#3: Your introductory paragraph should also serve as a road map to the reader and allow them to understand where the remainder of the story is headed.
Tip#4: The closing sentence of an opening paragraph gives the reader an indication of what is about to follow in the subsequent paragraph. The closing sentence of any paragraph as a matter of fact, should serve as a good transition sentence that allows for good flow to be created from paragraph to paragraph. Therefore, pay attention to your transition sentences that link paragraphs to one another and be mindful of how you use transition words, which link sentences to each other.
Here are some examples of transition words or phrases: However, subsequently, in addition to, furthermore, in conjunction with, etc.
Tip#5: In the body of your essay, you essentially want to elaborate on the ideas that you have introduced in your opening paragraph and draw on your personal experiences to provide evidence.
Tip#6: Lastly, the conclusion of your personal statement should not be a simple summary of the things you have discussed. It should be insightful, captivating, and leave the reader with an impression. Although you want to re-emphasize the major ideas of your essay, you should try to be creative and captivating much like your opening paragraph.
Top 6 tips that will make your UofT med school brief personal essays stand out!
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FAQs
1. How many brief personal essays do I need to submit for University of Toronto medical school?
You need to submit 2 brief personal essays as part of your University of Toronto medical school application.
2. What are the prompts for the University of Toronto medical school brief personal essays?
You need to write an essay in response to each of the following questions:
- In Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit writes, “Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act… It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.” How can you relate Solnit’s quote to your life experiences?
- A recent UN News post states, “Unreliable and false information is spreading around the world to such an extent, that some commentators are now referring to the new avalanche of misinformation that’s accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘disinfodemic’.” What would you do to address the increasing ‘disinfodemic’?
3. How do I make my brief personal essays stand out?
To make your essays stand out, start by making sure you give yourself enough time to write the essay, at least 3 to 4 weeks. That will give you enough time to first brainstorm the topics and think deeply about what you want to write about. Make sure your essays have an excellent structure and flow, and a captivating introduction that draws in the reader and clearly establishes the thesis of the essay. Draw on your personal experiences to flesh out your ideas and finally, make sure you conclude with a memorable key takeaway or meaningful insight.
4. What is the word count for the brief personal essays?
Each essay should be no longer than 250 words.
5. How important are these brief personal essays?
The brief personal essays play a crucial role in your application review, and you must put in both time and effort to make them as memorable as possible. They demonstrate certain key qualities about yourself to the admissions committee and this information helps them rate your application.
The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine designates 4 core clusters that identify and describe the abilities a physician must possess to effectively meet the healthcare needs of their patients - professional, communicator/collaborator/manager, advocate, and scholar. They review the autobiographical sketch, brief personal essays, and reference letters in each application to evaluate how well the applicant aligns with these four clusters and their associated skills and qualities.
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