* * 2010 - 2011 * * Secondary Applications Thread

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I got an email from LECOM yesterday saying they received my secondary but are putting it on hold due to low MCAT...(my MCAT last August was a 26)... then the email goes on to say that a competitive MCAT is 24...which I was above...I did just retake the MCAT this May and should be having my score released next week. But I wonder why they would say my MCAT is too low if it above their stated competitive MCAT? I emailed Amy Rowe yesterday. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm so confused!
 
joeDO2 said:
got msu-com today. seems like quite a bit more work than the other secondaries. something like 10 different forms including an essay. also they don't take your LORs from interfolio/virtual evals. they require evaluators to fill out their form which consists of several questions. also they state that you can pay the $85 application fee and still not be reviewed by the admissions committee:scared:
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What a pain
 
StarStup said:
I got an email from LECOM yesterday saying they received my secondary but are putting it on hold due to low MCAT...(my MCAT last August was a 26)... then the email goes on to say that a competitive MCAT is 24...which I was above...I did just retake the MCAT this May and should be having my score released next week. But I wonder why they would say my MCAT is too low if it above their stated competitive MCAT? I emailed Amy Rowe yesterday. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm so confused!
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Probably just because they want to see your new score. Did it seem like a generic form e-mail? Let us know what Amy says, I'm curious.
 
StarStup said:
I got an email from LECOM yesterday saying they received my secondary but are putting it on hold due to low MCAT...(my MCAT last August was a 26)... then the email goes on to say that a competitive MCAT is 24...which I was above...I did just retake the MCAT this May and should be having my score released next week. But I wonder why they would say my MCAT is too low if it above their stated competitive MCAT? I emailed Amy Rowe yesterday. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm so confused!
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Let us know what they tell you in your emailed response. I'm curious as well since a 26 isn't that low, unless you got a "5" in a single section.
 
[ Originally Posted by StarStup
I got an email from LECOM yesterday saying they received my secondary but are putting it on hold due to low MCAT...(my MCAT last August was a 26)... then the email goes on to say that a competitive MCAT is 24...which I was above...I did just retake the MCAT this May and should be having my score released next week. But I wonder why they would say my MCAT is too low if it above their stated competitive MCAT? I emailed Amy Rowe yesterday. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm so confused!
/QUOTE]

I know that score is below their average. I know the head of admissions at LECOM-B and last year he told me they had an average of about 28, so they may consider that low now.
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DrDre2001 said:
May I ask when you guys were verified?

I have been verified for a while now, but do not see the release dates next to any schools...and it's been like this (verified, but no release dates) for a 11 days now.
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I was verified in May, submitted on June 1st, and released on June 6th,

But I also added 2 more schools on June 7th, and they still do not say released to schools. It's taking longer this time.
 
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Got a "primary application received" e-mail from VCOM-CC! YAY! AACOMAS still says Submitted to AACOMAS though. I guess they're slow but it got sent at least.
 
BigBoosting said:
Got a "primary application received" e-mail from VCOM-CC! YAY! AACOMAS still says Submitted to AACOMAS though. I guess they're slow but it got sent at least.
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I got this email to! I can't figure out if its a good thing or bad thing? I think they are going through all of the VCOM Virginia campus apps first?
 
trauma12 said:
I got this email to! I can't figure out if its a good thing or bad thing? I think they are going through all of the VCOM Virginia campus apps first?
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I think the way I understand it...and I could be totally wrong... Is that AACOMAS releases the apps every Tuesday and the schools can then download the apps from them at their leisure. So VCOM probably just downloaded our apps. But say PCOM (who I submitted to) for example has the option to download my apps, but hasn't yet for whatever reason (doesn't want to start the app season yet...who knows)

So I think it's a good thing.

Oh and I got VCOM Carolinas Campus e-mail, not VA campus
 
Alright, so I'm filling out LMU-DCOM's supplemental application today. It says on the site that they will begin accepting them July 1. Does anyone know if sending it in earlier would cause a problem?
 
BigBoosting said:
I think the way I understand it...and I could be totally wrong... Is that AACOMAS releases the apps every Tuesday and the schools can then download the apps from them at their leisure. So VCOM probably just downloaded our apps. But say PCOM (who I submitted to) for example has the option to download my apps, but hasn't yet for whatever reason (doesn't want to start the app season yet...who knows)

So I think it's a good thing.

Oh and I got VCOM Carolinas Campus e-mail, not VA campus
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That makes a lot of sense. Perhaps you should conduct a "Applying to Medical School" workshop for us!

I got the VCOM carolinas email too. That place is going to be awesome! I'm so excited!
 
StarStup said:
I got an email from LECOM yesterday saying they received my secondary but are putting it on hold due to low MCAT...(my MCAT last August was a 26)... then the email goes on to say that a competitive MCAT is 24...which I was above...I did just retake the MCAT this May and should be having my score released next week. But I wonder why they would say my MCAT is too low if it above their stated competitive MCAT? I emailed Amy Rowe yesterday. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm so confused!
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I got a reply back from Mr. Murphy, another admissions counselor, and he said that my application was placed in the MCAT hold pile by accident and that he removed it as soon as he got my email. 24 is still their average. So this just goes to show that the admissions people are human and if you think there may be a mistake, call or email to ask! I was going to wait until my other MCAT score came back, and I'm so glad I didn't!
 
judasreznor said:
Alright, so I'm filling out LMU-DCOM's supplemental application today. It says on the site that they will begin accepting them July 1. Does anyone know if sending it in earlier would cause a problem?
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I called today. The woman in admissions said not to send it in until July 1st. I also asked if they would send out an email asking for the secondary, she said they would. When I asked if they screen for secondaries she said they do... Weird.

Sucks because I filled it out, wrote the essays, cut the check and put it in an envelope already! Ugh. Even though I typed it and it wouldn't let me save it, I still had it open so I changed the date to July 1st and printed it again to save for later... So thats good news 🙂
 
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noshie said:
I called today. The woman in admissions said not to send it in until July 1st. I also asked if they would send out an email asking for the secondary, she said they would. When I asked if they screen for secondaries she said they do... Weird.

Sucks because I filled it out, wrote the essays, cut the check and put it in an envelope already! Ugh.
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The website doesn't have information about the essay response requirements. Like UMDNJ-SOM's secondary says Please complete your essay and include your responses to the following questions: (Please use font size 12 and limit your essay to one page. You may attach your essay to the application if additional space is needed.)


I wonder if LMU's is the same.
 
StarStup said:
I got a reply back from Mr. Murphy, another admissions counselor, and he said that my application was placed in the MCAT hold pile by accident and that he removed it as soon as he got my email. 24 is still their average. So this just goes to show that the admissions people are human and if you think there may be a mistake, call or email to ask! I was going to wait until my other MCAT score came back, and I'm so glad I didn't!
Click to expand...

Good to hear.
 
noshie said:
I called today. The woman in admissions said not to send it in until July 1st. I also asked if they would send out an email asking for the secondary, she said they would. When I asked if they screen for secondaries she said they do... Weird.

Sucks because I filled it out, wrote the essays, cut the check and put it in an envelope already! Ugh. Even though I typed it and it wouldn't let me save it, I still had it open so I changed the date to July 1st and printed it again to save for later... So thats good news 🙂
Click to expand...

Hm... this screening business is news to me. Hopefully they don't get too crazy with the screening. I may be screened out. ha ha 😱

I wonder if they just screen for minimum total MCAT and GPA? If it's by section on the MCAT, I may be screwed.
 
Has anybody called PCOM to see how flexible they are on the LOR requirement for the secondary? I see on their website that they require a pre-med committee or adviser letter. If that's not possible (which is the case for me), they say that a letter from my degree adviser would suffice as an alternative. It's strange, it seems that PCOM is the only school that wants this sort of letter in replace of a committee letter.
 
jzrull said:
Has anybody called PCOM to see how flexible they are on the LOR requirement for the secondary? I see on their website that they require a pre-med committee or adviser letter. If that's not possible (which is the case for me), they say that a letter from my degree adviser would suffice as an alternative. It's strange, it seems that PCOM is the only school that wants this sort of letter in replace of a committee letter.
Click to expand...

From what I've heard, it's mandatory.

You can also get a letter from the dean of your degree granting school.
 
judasreznor said:
Alright, so I'm filling out LMU-DCOM's supplemental application today. It says on the site that they will begin accepting them July 1. Does anyone know if sending it in earlier would cause a problem?
Click to expand...
when did you get lmu's secondary?
 
Atom bum said:
The website doesn't have information about the essay response requirements. Like UMDNJ-SOM's secondary says Please complete your essay and include your responses to the following questions: (Please use font size 12 and limit your essay to one page. You may attach your essay to the application if additional space is needed.)


I wonder if LMU's is the same.
Click to expand...

The application does have some information. There is no limit listed on how much you should write, but they wanted it typed, printed and attached to the back of the application. I wrote half a page for each of the two questions. Then I put a title at the top that said LMU-DCOM Secondary Essays. That was about it. I did 12 font too since most people want this size.

cliffhuxtableDO said:
when did you get lmu's secondary?
Click to expand...

It's on their website as a pdf, and it says to fill it out immediately following the submission of your primary, nothing about getting an invite for it or that they will contact you to fill it out... I guess they say that but they really don't want that! Haha.
 
noshie said:
The application does have some information. There is no limit listed on how much you should write, but they wanted it typed, printed and attached to the back of the application. I wrote half a page for each of the two questions. Then I put a title at the top that said LMU-DCOM Secondary Essays. That was about it. I did 12 font too since most people want this size.



It’s on their website as a pdf, and it says to fill it out immediately following the submission of your primary, nothing about getting an invite for it or that they will contact you to fill it out... I guess they say that but they really don’t want that! Haha.
Click to expand...


For LMUs Secondary anyone that used Interfolio/VE did you all fill out the LOR/Professor sheets for the Secondary? I haven't the foggiest idea for a couple of the telephone numbers.
 
Just wanted to pass on some useful info about PCOM I was told today by an admissions rep. I know it's horrendously early still, but just for reference.

I called up to PCOM-Philly today asking about their LOR requirements. I went to a pretty huge undergraduate university, Michigan State, which doesn't have a pre-med committee. I also didn't use their pre-med advisors because there were just so many pre-meds there. I asked if a letter from my major adviser from anthropology absolutely had to replace the pre-med letter, because even that major is pretty big at State. She told me that at big universities like this, the pre-med letter requirement is essentially voided. She said that if I could get a letter from my advisor, to try to, but if I can't it wouldn't be held against me. Further, you can replace that letter with any letters that you have.

So for anyone who doesn't really know his/her dean/adviser well enough for a quality letter, sounds like we can just send them any kind of our letters, in addition to the physician letter they require. Also, she said no limit to the number you send.
 
jzrull said:
Just wanted to pass on some useful info about PCOM I was told today by an admissions rep. I know it's horrendously early still, but just for reference.

I called up to PCOM-Philly today asking about their LOR requirements. I went to a pretty huge undergraduate university, Michigan State, which doesn't have a pre-med committee. I also didn't use their pre-med advisors because there were just so many pre-meds there. I asked if a letter from my major adviser from anthropology absolutely had to replace the pre-med letter, because even that major is pretty big at State. She told me that at big universities like this, the pre-med letter requirement is essentially voided. She said that if I could get a letter from my advisor, to try to, but if I can't it wouldn't be held against me. Further, you can replace that letter with any letters that you have.

So for anyone who doesn't really know his/her dean/adviser well enough for a quality letter, sounds like we can just send them any kind of our letters, in addition to the physician letter they require. Also, she said no limit to the number you send.
Click to expand...

Hmm...that's new to me

Disregard what I said earlier then. Thanks 🙂
 
jzrull said:
Just wanted to pass on some useful info about PCOM I was told today by an admissions rep. I know it's horrendously early still, but just for reference.

I called up to PCOM-Philly today asking about their LOR requirements. I went to a pretty huge undergraduate university, Michigan State, which doesn't have a pre-med committee. I also didn't use their pre-med advisors because there were just so many pre-meds there. I asked if a letter from my major adviser from anthropology absolutely had to replace the pre-med letter, because even that major is pretty big at State. She told me that at big universities like this, the pre-med letter requirement is essentially voided. She said that if I could get a letter from my advisor, to try to, but if I can't it wouldn't be held against me. Further, you can replace that letter with any letters that you have.

So for anyone who doesn't really know his/her dean/adviser well enough for a quality letter, sounds like we can just send them any kind of our letters, in addition to the physician letter they require. Also, she said no limit to the number you send.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. Did it sound like we'll need to call them specifically to have them put a note or whatever in our application to not expect a committee letter? Or can we just send what we have and it should be ok? I'm a non-trad so I didn't use committee or a pre-med advisor. But I do have 2 Sci 1 Nonsci 1 DO and 1 MD letter. For that matter, how can all these schools be sure that our undergrad institutions 1000 miles away even have committees? Do they even check?
 
jzrull said:
Just wanted to pass on some useful info about PCOM I was told today by an admissions rep. I know it's horrendously early still, but just for reference.

I called up to PCOM-Philly today asking about their LOR requirements. I went to a pretty huge undergraduate university, Michigan State, which doesn't have a pre-med committee. I also didn't use their pre-med advisors because there were just so many pre-meds there. I asked if a letter from my major adviser from anthropology absolutely had to replace the pre-med letter, because even that major is pretty big at State. She told me that at big universities like this, the pre-med letter requirement is essentially voided. She said that if I could get a letter from my advisor, to try to, but if I can't it wouldn't be held against me. Further, you can replace that letter with any letters that you have.

So for anyone who doesn't really know his/her dean/adviser well enough for a quality letter, sounds like we can just send them any kind of our letters, in addition to the physician letter they require. Also, she said no limit to the number you send.
Click to expand...


surprising such a big school like msu doesn't have a pre-health committee
 
jzrull said:
Just wanted to pass on some useful info about PCOM I was told today by an admissions rep. I know it's horrendously early still, but just for reference.

I called up to PCOM-Philly today asking about their LOR requirements. I went to a pretty huge undergraduate university, Michigan State, which doesn't have a pre-med committee. I also didn't use their pre-med advisors because there were just so many pre-meds there. I asked if a letter from my major adviser from anthropology absolutely had to replace the pre-med letter, because even that major is pretty big at State. She told me that at big universities like this, the pre-med letter requirement is essentially voided. She said that if I could get a letter from my advisor, to try to, but if I can't it wouldn't be held against me. Further, you can replace that letter with any letters that you have.

So for anyone who doesn't really know his/her dean/adviser well enough for a quality letter, sounds like we can just send them any kind of our letters, in addition to the physician letter they require. Also, she said no limit to the number you send.
Click to expand...

WOW 😱 Thats awesome and completely contrary to what they told me last year. I would have loved to replace a pre-med advisor letter with my lab advisor letter last year but instead I had to settle for a "you graduated" letter from the Dean's office.

I'm going to call them when it comes time for this but I'm stoked that this is the news we are getting now.

futuredoc4432 said:
surprising such a big school like msu doesn't have a pre-health committee
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UCLA doesn't have one either. It'd be hard to write thousands of letters each year for all the pre-med students.
 
BigBoosting said:
Thanks for sharing. Did it sound like we'll need to call them specifically to have them put a note or whatever in our application to not expect a committee letter? Or can we just send what we have and it should be ok? I'm a non-trad so I didn't use committee or a pre-med advisor. But I do have 2 Sci 1 Nonsci 1 DO and 1 MD letter. For that matter, how can all these schools be sure that our undergrad institutions 1000 miles away even have committees? Do they even check?
Click to expand...

So the lady I spoke with was pretty up to date with MSU happenings. The way she spoke with me made me wonder how much discussion they have with our colleges that we don't really know about. So in my case, she said that it was fine just to send the letters in without contacting them again. I'll probably end up calling and just reiterating what I already told them though, and what they told me, haha. I feel like a lot of schools are a bit more lenient when it comes to letters than they come off in print. A huge generalization, right there.
 
futuredoc4432 said:
surprising such a big school like msu doesn't have a pre-health committee
Click to expand...

Yeah we have this college within the university called Lymman Briggs School. It's a residential college for the natural sciences. Even this school has a couple thousand students, and they may have a committee, but MSU itself if just way too big to have an effective committee, I think. One of the major pitfalls of any big 10. Anthro was small though, which was nice.
 
i have been trying to logon to the lecom portal to check my status for an hour or two now and the site won't load.. could someone else try and see if it works? thanks!
 
so just to confirm things, once we send our primaries out, can we send the secondaries in right away if the school has it on their website?

or do I have to wait till some schools send me an email saying I can now fill out the secondary.

the reason I ask is because UMDNJ-SOM has their secondary on their website but people in earlier posts were saying how they were sent a UMDNJ secondary.

i still have not submitted my primary and plan to hopefully by the end of this week!
 
and do you guys do about half a page when answering the secondary essay questions?
 
traitorman said:
so just to confirm things, once we send our primaries out, can we send the secondaries in right away if the school has it on their website?

or do I have to wait till some schools send me an email saying I can now fill out the secondary.

the reason I ask is because UMDNJ-SOM has their secondary on their website but people in earlier posts were saying how they were sent a UMDNJ secondary.

i still have not submitted my primary and plan to hopefully by the end of this week!
Click to expand...

Wait until you are sure that the school has received your primary application. You don't want to submit a secondary with payment only to have them turn around and say they can't find it because you had no file created yet.
 
Did LECOM send out secondary invites? Or is everyone just doing the application without an invite?
 
I got vcom's email saying they're reviewing my app to decide on whether to send secondary. Anyone else get vcom secondary yet?

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
 
cbrons said:
I got vcom's email saying they're reviewing my app to decide on whether to send secondary. Anyone else get vcom secondary yet?

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Click to expand...

Yeah I received that email and then the next day an invitation to fill out the secondary.
 
For the secondary essays, many school's will ask "Why DO?" type of questions.

I am stumped really. There is are only two things we can possibly write about, as their are only two things separating DO from MD:

1. DO's learn OMM.
- Cross this off though. OMM is harldy used, and I am certainly not going to lie and say that OMM is the reason I am going DO.

2. DO schools are more forgiving towards students. They apparently also look beyond the stats more than MD schools.
- This is more about the DO schools than the DO physicians that we will become, though. Perhaps I agree with this philosophy in life (that people deserve second chances and to be looked at as more than two numbers). So, maybe if I was deciding on which type of school to teach at, I would teach at a DO school because I agree with this philosophy. This certainly can't be a reason why I want to practice osteopathic medicine though.

So, what do I write about in the essay?
 
MedIsInMyBlood said:
For the secondary essays, many school's will ask "Why DO?" type of questions.

I am stumped really. There is are only two things we can possibly write about, as their are only two things separating DO from MD:

1. DO's learn OMM.
- Cross this off though. OMM is harldy used, and I am certainly not going to lie and say that OMM is the reason I am going DO.

2. DO schools are more forgiving towards students. They apparently also look beyond the stats more than MD schools.
- This is more about the DO schools than the DO physicians that we will become, though. Perhaps I agree with this philosophy in life (that people deserve second chances and to be looked at as more than two numbers). So, maybe if I was deciding on which type of school to teach at, I would teach at a DO school because I agree with this philosophy. This certainly can't be a reason why I want to practice osteopathic medicine though.

So, what do I write about in the essay?
Click to expand...

http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?PageID=ost_omed
http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?PageID=ost_tenet

Try those links for ideas.
 
Did anyone that applied to Rocky Vista get their secondary yet? When I go to their link there is not secondary app to fill out
 
gatorfann14 said:
Did anyone that applied to Rocky Vista get their secondary yet? When I go to their link there is not secondary app to fill out
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Wow, mine said this too! I just emailed them about it and I am waiting for their reply. I thought it was just me! 🙂
 
gatorfann14 said:
Did anyone that applied to Rocky Vista get their secondary yet? When I go to their link there is not secondary app to fill out
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VCOM's was the same way. The next day it was up. Maybe they just wanted to give themselves time to email everybody before making it available.
 
cbrons said:
Did anyone download the secondary from http://www.vcom.vt.edu/admissions/application.html ?

The functionality of the document is a huge headache. Any tips for dealing with this? I wonder why they don't just have it up online in entry fields much like the primary application itself. LOL I bet they get lots of secondaries that are formatted differently
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i didnt have any real issues with the formatting.
 
hey guys, this is going to be an epically ******ed question...

I just got verified in AACOMAS and I cannot find my gpa for the life of me. I looked in app summary, I looked in colleges/coursework, I just dont see my gpa listed? What am i doing wrong!?😕
 
you have to wait until it is released to schools.
 
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