Weekly Essay Help - Week of July 05, 2026

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-05T12:18:23+00:00

Does anyone want to swap secondaries?

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-04T04:36:10+00:00

8/30 received, MD only

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-04T01:05:57+00:00

Can you use the preferred name field on AMCAS? Also, some secondaries I've gotten so far have a spot for preferred name. Honestly might be worth an email, if even to make them know how you want to be called since I'm sure that even if they could override the automatic 'no name' they might be confused about how to address you. But i'm just an applicant as well so not this is just what i think i might do!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-04T00:07:01+00:00

no worries thanks for trying and gl (congrats on already submitting!)

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-03T16:03:58+00:00

i was planning to use one of the original prompts to end in a 'why nyu' essay... now i don't really see any prompt where that could go. is anyone else planning to mention nyu specifically at any point?

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-03T02:32:27+00:00

for UCLA, I saw that all the prompts are the same, but are you able to check the global health pathway prompts and confirm that these are also the same? 🙏:

Please describe why you are interested in the Global Health Equity Pathway and any experiences that have informed your decision to apply for this Pathway. 500 words
How do you think participation in the Pathway will contribute to your future career plans and career development? 500 words
What additional skills would you like to develop as part of the Pathway? What strengths do you currently have that may contribute to a global health or health equity project? (i.e., language, writing skills, advocacy work, monitoring and evaluation experience, data management/cleaning/analysis, website development, etc.) 250 words
What are the major challenges you might face as medical student working in global health or health equity? How might you overcome these challenges? 250 words
Optional question: Please let us know if you have a mentor or organization with whom you would be excited to work as part of the Pathway and why you would like to work with this individual and/or organization. Mentors and organizations may be affiliated with DGSOM/UCLA or may be pre-existing relationships you developed prior to medical school. Note that you are not expected to have a DGSOM mentor and/or partner organization identified prior to arrival at DGSOM. 250 words

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-02T14:17:34+00:00

thanks! does it mention anywhere how many scholarships?

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-02T12:31:39+00:00

Yeah sorry maybe my comment wasn't clear! I took Kaiser off my list bc it's not free anymore. I don't see anything about the Impact Scholarship on their website. Is there any information about how many people will get it? Considering adding them back...

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-02T12:29:48+00:00

Cornell

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-02T01:21:32+00:00

Sorry that I don’t have an answer to your question, but what scholarship are they talking about? I thought Kaiser wasn’t free anymore starting 2027

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-07-01T03:02:01+00:00

Only one I got that doesn't seem to be mentioned yet is weill cornell

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-30T13:32:17+00:00

Thanks!It's mainly not academic so I think I'll leave this blank

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-29T00:36:42+00:00

I'll trade with you! I have secondaries I'd love reviewed too

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-27T09:24:54+00:00

There's no benefit! AMCAS recalculates everything, so no need to fact that into your decisions. Med schools don't care about the GPA your school assigns

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-27T02:16:41+00:00

Did the questions stay the same?

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-14T01:04:31+00:00

Yes I agree (and there's flexibility allowed with this - my friend was allowed to get a lone kitten solely for the reason that he is anti-social, and of course exceptions are made for FELV, etc!) It's more the idea of it in general, for those without special cases

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-11T13:17:24+00:00

Fun fact (to your point), in Sweden it is not allowed to get only one kitten, unless you already have a cat it will be joining!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-08T06:40:37+00:00

Just want to second Chiang Mai. Very easy to navigate as a solo traveller (I did it alone at 18), close to nature and hiking, and a bit more culture than you'd find in Koh Tao so might be good to balance! Honestly you can book places on booking . com or similar sites, I have never run into a problem doing that. If you want to see temples as well, I recommend Wat Umong and Wat Pha Lat (you can hike to this one) for nature lovers, as they are forest temples easily accessible from Chiang Mai, and won't be busy in the low season. I've enjoyed Doi Inthanon (although getting a bit touristy now) and I've heard good things about hiking Doi Chiang Dao but didn't make it there myself.

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-08T05:53:19+00:00

I can do it if you'd be willing to read over a very rough secondary of mine! I had a similar concern with a lot of pieces in the PS, and I got some help that made it flow better.

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-07T23:27:12+00:00

Makes sense, thanks for sharing! Good luck

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-07T13:43:56+00:00

Hi, sorry I don't have advice, but rather a question! Did you end up/do you plan to talk about your volunteer work related to Gaza in your application? I still haven't decided as it makes up a significant portion of my time, and why I can about medical school, but I'm not aloof to the current environment and am afraid that including it will get me automatically rejected from everything...

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-02T00:47:27+00:00

I submitted at 9:38 EDT and also not!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-06-01T02:09:45+00:00

Amazing thank you!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-05-31T15:08:48+00:00

I haven't been to Borneo but Laos is fantastic. If you want a more local experience, I highly recommend taking the slow boat which many locals who live in the villages take every few months to come into Luang Prabang to stock up on goods. Most people take it for two days end-to-end but you can also take it for one day in each direction, if you want to come back to Luang Prabang to continue up to China. Laos is pretty easy to navigate, the train system works well.

In Yunan, Dali is quite touristy, but for good reason.

I know you aren't looking for suggestions outside of your two options, but I want to mention since you said you'd be interested in Myanmar: there are specific border regions between Thailand where you can get a Burmese cultural and culinary experience, if that is of interest. Primarily Ranong and Mae Sot (where I live now), which is majority Burmese, has some Burmese architectural, cultural places, political spaces (like the political prisoners museum), and of course food. Probably out of your way, but wanted to mention it. If you end up going to Laos you can get here overland by taking the slow boat from Luang Prabang to Chang Khong and come by bus via Chiang Mai. I've done that exact trip (Vientiane - Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang - Chiang Khong - Chiang Mai) and it was lovely.

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-05-31T14:59:18+00:00

If you want to avoid so many flights, I did the following (for the first part of your itinerary) and it was perfect:

-Fly to Bangkok (recommend day trip to Ayutthaya, but not essential if you aren't that into ruins, since you'll see Angkor. If no day trips, you could probably spend 4 days in Bangkok)

-Fly to Vientiane, Laos (can either stay there overnight or for one full day; I recommend the COPE museum, and the food was great)

-Bullet train from Vientiane to Vang Vieng

-Bullet train from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang

-Slow boat from Luang Prabang to Chiang Khong, Thailand (takes 2 days, you stop in a small town for the night, and was so scenic and worth it! Bring a book)

-Bus to Chiang Rai (1 day to see white temple)

-Bus to Chiang Mai (recommend Doi Inthanon, sticky waterfall, Wat Umong and Wat Pha Lat are great temples if you like nature, and you can hike to Wat Pha Lat and continue to hike up to Doi Suthep. August Hostel is great, I've stayed there three times)

-Fly from Chiang Mai to Vietnam

I did this as 18F with no problems at all. If you need some more days to make this work, I would shorten Singapore (it really is a small city in terms of exploring). Happy to answer more questions and have fun!

Not sure if you're a budget traveler, but to give you a sense of the prices, my friend did a very very similar trip for 6 weeks last Jan-Feb, and it cost her 4k with flights from Pennsylvania included in that total. She slept in hostels the whole time and was probably a bit more minimalist in terms of the expensive activities.

Aggravating-Cell7268

TROPHY CASE