Sent secondary applications late due to a death in the family-need advice

[zukiscribe]

I am a pre-medical student applying to schools for the first time. I took time off after undergrad to enhance my resume because I wanted to be "ready" the first time I applied.
I was extremely excited for this cycle because I finally felt ready to apply.

Unfortunately, my brother passed away due to suicide right around the time I received secondaries. Because of this, I lost track of time due to grief, and ended up submitting secondaries much later than I had anticipated. Now I am working again in healthcare and I feel ready to get back to the grind, but I am fearful I may have ruined my chances by submitting secondaries late. I wanted to reach out to schools to explain this delay since I don't want them to think I was slacking, but I also don't want to appear as if I'm making an excuse for myself. Should I reach out to schools and explain the delay for sending secondaries late? Or just hope for the best?

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[Mr.Blackdoc.5]

I am a pre-medical student applying to schools for the first time. I took time off after undergrad to enhance my resume because I wanted to be "ready" the first time I applied.
I was extremely excited for this cycle because I finally felt ready to apply.

Unfortunately, my brother passed away due to suicide right around the time I received secondaries. Because of this, I lost track of time due to grief, and ended up submitting secondaries much later than I had anticipated. Now I am working again in healthcare and I feel ready to get back to the grind, but I am fearful I may have ruined my chances by submitting secondaries late. I wanted to reach out to schools to explain this delay since I don't want them to think I was slacking, but I also don't want to appear as if I'm making an excuse for myself. Should I reach out to schools and explain the delay for sending secondaries late? Or just hope for the best?

Personally I don’t think it’s worthwhile to do something like this after you’ve already submitted the secondaries. Could have been useful to do so beforehand. You could submit update letters or letters of interest and explain a lesson you learned from this hardship

 

[jp-ii]

Your healing and mental health are more important than getting into medical school as soon as possible. Like the previous post mentioned, it doesn't help to explain away why things were late. Schools have many thousands of applications more than they can interview people, and many do seem to process as soon as the completed applications arrive.

Medical school will still be there if you end up needing to reapply, but grieving is not something that can be expedited.

 

[Goro]

I am a pre-medical student applying to schools for the first time. I took time off after undergrad to enhance my resume because I wanted to be "ready" the first time I applied.
I was extremely excited for this cycle because I finally felt ready to apply.

Unfortunately, my brother passed away due to suicide right around the time I received secondaries. Because of this, I lost track of time due to grief, and ended up submitting secondaries much later than I had anticipated. Now I am working again in healthcare and I feel ready to get back to the grind, but I am fearful I may have ruined my chances by submitting secondaries late. I wanted to reach out to schools to explain this delay since I don't want them to think I was slacking, but I also don't want to appear as if I'm making an excuse for myself. Should I reach out to schools and explain the delay for sending secondaries late? Or just hope for the best?

Very very sorry to hear about this.

Unfortunately it is too late in the cycle.

And this cycle was far more competitive! We're interviewing for the wait list now as DO apps are up by some 20-30%. This is true for MD as well.

Take time to grieve and heal and apply once the new cycle starts, and good luck!