Secondaries, interviews time-consuming?

[sindee1984]

I'm taking the MCAT in April and applying in June, so I'll keep busy until I'm finished with my primaries. I'm planning to apply to ~20 schools. I would like to find a job after I finish my primaries, but I am concerned I will not have enough time to complete my secondaries if I work too many hours each day.

Will completing the secondaries (i.e. from ~20 schools) take a lot of time? Should I limit the number of hours I work? Or will the deadlines be pretty spread out so I have sufficient time to complete each one the best that I can?

Also, did you spend a lot of time preparing for your interviews (i.e. practicing how you would answer potential questions)?

Thanks!

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[airshad8]

Yes. They will consume your life- that is if you want to actually spend time on your essays. It also depends on where you apply. Some schools have a bunch of essays (uh...Duke!) while others give you optional additional info at best, and some-assuming you have no crime record- have no essays at all (AE). So it just depends.

 

[LolaGene]

Yeah secondaries are pretty time consuming... First, get your AMCAS sent out ASAP (which means working on it throughout the month of May and submitting early June- i seriously wish i could have done this). Find/start a thread next year where people post sec questions and work on them even before you get them and you should be fine. The key is to turn them in ASAP. Just to give you an idea, I did 23 of them in about 1 month and a week and I am doing reseach (bout 35 hr/week), class, and ECs. It sucks like many other things we have had to do but it is possible and done quite often. Good luck on the MCAT! Study hard!

 

[DrZeke]

I'm taking the MCAT in April and applying in June, so I'll keep busy until I'm finished with my primaries. I'm planning to apply to ~20 schools. I would like to find a job after I finish my primaries, but I am concerned I will not have enough time to complete my secondaries if I work too many hours each day.

Will completing the secondaries (i.e. from ~20 schools) take a lot of time? Should I limit the number of hours I work? Or will the deadlines be pretty spread out so I have sufficient time to complete each one the best that I can?

Also, did you spend a lot of time preparing for your interviews (i.e. practicing how you would answer potential questions)?

Thanks!

Just assume, that if you want to get all secondaries done in a month that you will need to set aside your evenings after work and do them. You can work full-time, but you will be holed up for a little while. I should have done more of that cuz I submitted in sept/oct. If you want to submit uber early, then set aside those evenings and part of the weekend and once you get out 5-6 different secondaries, you'll know exactly how to write each one, and how you want to tackle it. It will take less of your time as you move on, but the first few always take a while...