Committee Letter and Secondaries Timing

[RhinB]

Hey All,

I had a question that I was hoping some of you could help me answer.

I know that the usual rule of thumb is to get Secondaries done as soon as you can, within the week, or some variation of that, but I heard that schools won't look at your application until your letters of recommendation are in.

I have a committee letter from school that won't get there until maybe augustish so does it not matter if I finish secondaries early? Will finishing them by august when they get my letter be the same as me finishing them in July?

Let me knowwww.
thanks ahead of time.

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[WedgeDawg]

Most schools will not look at your app until LORs are in, regardless of whether you've submitted your secondary before them. There are a few exceptions (like Mayo), but this is the general rule.

 

[obscurity111]

delete

 

[Red G]

I am in the same situation as the OP and am wondering the answer to this question. Does it look bad to wait on secondaries even if adcoms won't be looking at my app for months?

 

[Dr. Retractor]

Isn't there a benefit to quick secondary turnaround aside from being considered early? As in, submitting secondaries quickly show you're really interested? Regardless, I'm taking my time with the ones I've gotten so far.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Isn't there a benefit to quick secondary turnaround aside from being considered early? As in, submitting secondaries quickly show you're really interested? Regardless, I'm taking my time with the ones I've gotten so far.

No

 

[nwts]

Take enough time to do well on them, but I don't recommend needlessly sitting around on them if you are ready to submit. Some schools might not like it if it took you 6-8 weeks to submit the secondary because that could imply that you don't care much about their school.

 

[nwts]

Rule 1: Take A Breath

Lets look for a minute how a medical schools get and deal with all these applications. Many, perhaps most, schools will send out secondaries during process by AMCAS, soon after receiving them from AMCAS without screening or with a basic GPA/MCAT screen that typically has a low score for that. Much, if not most, of the early work done by adcom staff (not Adcom voting members) who are simply trying to get the thousands of applications filed, check for completeness (MCAT, LOR, Secondary) organized. The early sorting of applications is down at a gross level into groups often referred to as "piles" as in old piles of paper folders, even if most is online/electronic format. You might some sorted in "outstanding" ,"Excellent" ,"Above Average", "Average" , "Below". At this stage, say late July - early August, EDP and Outstanding/Excellent might be reviewed in depth, usually by adcom director and a small group of adcom members, often referred to as Readers. They may have some leeway in early invites, but usually a committee waits to review when a file is complete at a monthly or biweekly adcom meeting. They may not happen until August or in many schools September. Since schools will "slice/dice" how they have applications reviewed, you may begin to have parts of files sent to readers to evaluate. For example 2 may review primary, 2 may review secondary, and variations abound to how each school does what.

My point to this very brief example is that until a large group of files are complete, there is no voting review done by committee. So if you get your secondary in July 10th and someone else gets theirs in August 10th, at the first committee meeting in late August, it all looks the same to the members. One pile to vote on with evaluations for IIs.

So go visit the Valium Salt Lick in the applicant waiting area and wash it down with a swig of the Xanax Kool-Aid

I understand that they'll all be read at the same time, but I wonder about perceptions. I know some schools actually give you a turn around time limit (generally a few weeks). I was wondering if taking a long time to turn it in would make schools think that you had prioritized other secondaries over theirs, and, thus, don't really care much about their school. I know that schools have electronic records of when they sent us secondaries, so they could definitely determine how long it took us to submit. I know that the rush to turn things around in 1 or 2 days is just SDN neuroticism, but I'm talking about holding onto things for well over a month. For example, if I received a secondary on July 2nd and didn't turn it in until August 28th, would that be understood to mean that I didn't care that much about the school I did this to? If this is the case, this would be a reason for OP not to sit on secondaries if he/she is able to get them turned around within a few weeks.