Is the Texas A&M secondary prompt about a medical field of interest a trick question?

[Wildestdreams25]

I am looking at the Texas A&M university School of Medicine's secondary essay prompts, and I am highly suspicious of the intention behind having this prompt. I know when I applied to college as a "pre-med interested student" as a high school student with mediocre stats, I was getting rejection letters left and right. When I applied to similarly ranked schools with no field of interest, I was getting acceptances. I talked to some people about this a while back and they said this is a well-known thing. My stats for my med school application are on the lower end, so I am highly concerned if I express my field of interest (ortho) they will just laugh at me for even thinking about it. Is anyone out there aware of why they ask this question?

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[wysdoc]

I am looking at the Texas A&M university School of Medicine's secondary essay prompts, and I am highly suspicious of the intention behind having this prompt. I know when I applied to college as a "pre-med interested student" as a high school student with mediocre stats, I was getting rejection letters left and right. When I applied to similarly ranked schools with no field of interest, I was getting acceptances. I talked to some people about this a while back and they said this is a well-known thing. My stats for my med school application are on the lower end, so I am highly concerned if I express my field of interest (ortho) they will just laugh at me for even thinking about it. Is anyone out there aware of why they ask this question?

not a trick question, you can say surgical/nonsurgical, urban/rural, say one or two specialties that interest you, say an age group you like, etc.

 

[Wildestdreams25]

not a trick question, you can say surgical/nonsurgical, urban/rural, say one or two specialties that interest you, say an age group you like, etc.

OK, do you happen to know why they ask this? The other secondaries have a brief explanation of how the secondaries play a role in maintaining the institution's values, but not this prompt. I know I am a little bit digging too much, but I am a little traumatized from all the college rejections I had gotten while applying for undergrad.

 

[wysdoc]

OK, do you happen to know why they ask this? The other secondaries have a brief explanation of how the secondaries play a role in maintaining the institution's values, but not this prompt. I know I am a little bit digging too much, but I am a little traumatized from all the college rejections I had gotten while applying for undergrad.

It gives them more information about your interests and something to talk to you about at your interview.
Many people totally change what they want to do at some point in medical school.

This is my take on it (I don't speak for A&M). If you can't think of a single area of medicine you would be interested in, it could seem like you haven't had enough exposure or haven't thought things through. If you like Ortho, say why & what you have observed about it

 

[Wildestdreams25]

It gives them more information about your interests and something to talk to you about at your interview.
Many people totally change what they want to do at some point in medical school.

This is my take on it (I don't speak for A&M). If you can't think of a single area of medicine you would be interested in, it could seem like you haven't had enough exposure or haven't thought things through. If you like Ortho, say why & what you have observed about it

OK, thank you so much!

 

[Faster Horses]

In my unprofessional and often wrong opinion, you need to say that you are very highly interested in FM and practicing in a rural location.

 

[deleted1144871]

In my unprofessional and often wrong opinion, you need to say that you are very highly interested in FM and practicing in a rural location.

And then if you have no experiences to back up that "interest," your application is dead. This isn't even a funny sh-tpost.