Advantage of completing secondary early

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Homoochan

Full Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
493
Reaction score
1
I've searched this topic but the threads that came up were sorta old.. so I thought I might as well ask again.

So. We all know that completeing your secondaries early is better than completing on the deadline date. But is the advantage really really significant?

Members don't see this ad.
 
Yes, the advantage is great. Getting in an early primary means nothing if you finish your secondaries close to their deadline. Medical schools require BOTH a completed primary AND secondary to consider you for an interview.
 
We all know that completeing your secondaries early is better than completing on the deadline date. But is the advantage really really significant?

Yes. Because all but a few school have rolling admissions, the sooner the admissions committee gets their eyes on your application, the greater your chance of a favorable outcome. This may be less true for those with well-above average application credentials, but for those who fall in the middle of the pack (which varies at each school), applying later means less spots available (and more competition).
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Turn around as soon as possible.
 
This point is so key. I've quit blazing in order to crank out my secondaries as quickly as possible (which can't be said about the weeks that led up to my MCAT)
 
I have a question regarding this. I submitted my primary as early as possibly, was verified very early, and submitted all secondaries received so far in within 7 days of their receipt. HOWEVER, my post-bacc committee letter (which was supposed to be completed at the end of June) is of course late by weeks...

How badly do you think this will affect me? And should I still be concerned with a prompt turn-around with secondaries if the LORs aren't going to be on-file? Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
I have a question regarding this. I submitted my primary as early as possibly, was verified very early, and submitted all secondaries received so far in within 7 days of their receipt. HOWEVER, my post-bacc committee letter (which was supposed to be completed at the end of June) is of course late by weeks...

How badly do you think this will affect me? And should I still be concerned with a prompt turn-around with secondaries if the LORs aren't going to be on-file? Thoughts? Suggestions?

I have a similar issue with my LORs. My pre-med advisor has had to remind me over and over that my app will not be negatively affected at this juncture in the application process. He may have told me to take a "chill pill" too.....
 
I have a question regarding this. I submitted my primary as early as possibly, was verified very early, and submitted all secondaries received so far in within 7 days of their receipt. HOWEVER, my post-bacc committee letter (which was supposed to be completed at the end of June) is of course late by weeks...

How badly do you think this will affect me? And should I still be concerned with a prompt turn-around with secondaries if the LORs aren't going to be on-file? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Dude...Come on.

If you have your application complete by August, you are way way ahead of the curve. Chill out. Dam.
 
I have a question regarding this. I submitted my primary as early as possibly, was verified very early, and submitted all secondaries received so far in within 7 days of their receipt. HOWEVER, my post-bacc committee letter (which was supposed to be completed at the end of June) is of course late by weeks...

How badly do you think this will affect me? And should I still be concerned with a prompt turn-around with secondaries if the LORs aren't going to be on-file? Thoughts? Suggestions?
Well w/o LORs it doesnt matter how fast you turn in a 2ndary as you cant be complete and be reviewed until they are. I dont think its going to hurt you as we are still early in this process.
 
Doing stuff in a timely manner is always an advantage, but I wouldn't sacrifice quality for turning anything in early. I've been doing 3-7 day turnaround....
 
so like elijah said, if I dont have my committee letter turned in, it really doesnt matter when i hand in secondary??

i am waiting for someone to review my essay for secondary but shes taking a long time and i was thinking about just turning it in so i wont be behind. BUT, my committee letter wont be in for awhile... so it doesnt matter whether i turn it in now or next week. correct?
 
so like elijah said, if I dont have my committee letter turned in, it really doesnt matter when i hand in secondary??

i am waiting for someone to review my essay for secondary but shes taking a long time and i was thinking about just turning it in so i wont be behind. BUT, my committee letter wont be in for awhile... so it doesnt matter whether i turn it in now or next week. correct?


HEY you are Korean!! :scared:
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I approach secondaries like I do everything else concerned with the medical school application process. Give it 100%, know that you have done everything you can to maximize your chances.

I made sure to have my primary submitted within 2 minutes of AMCAS accepting them on June 2.

For my #1 school, I had my secondary essay perfected and ready to go and the day after I recieved the invite I overnighted my secondary, (had I not recieved the invitation after the post office had closed I would have overnighted it the same day).

Every secondary I get I get out the same day or the next. If a secondary arrives as I am sitting down for dinner, the food gets put away because the secondary always comes first and food is for those who have no secondaries waiting in their inbox.

The key is to be a really good, fast writer, and or, have your essays pre-written, or write many fantastic essays that can be re-used for other schools.

In this way, an online secondary can be sent out within a few hours of it arriving in my mail box.

Am I a bit extreme, well perhaps. But at least I can honestly say there is nothing more I could have done to maximize my chances.

Well, I suppose I could have parked outside my first choice school's admissions office starting June 24th with my pre-completed secondary and programmed my Iphone to chime evertime an email came in. Then within 1 minute of getting the invite I could put the secondary in the hands of the admissions officer. It would have set a record for quickest turnaround time and shown just how much that school meant to me. But then again it would have been truely bat **** crazy, even for me:)
 
I approach secondaries like I do everything else concerned with the medical school application process. Give it 100%, know that you have done everything you can to maximize your chances.

I made sure to have my primary submitted within 2 minutes of AMCAS accepting them on June 2.

For my #1 school, I had my secondary essay perfected and ready to go and the day after I recieved the invite I overnighted my secondary, (had I not recieved the invitation after the post office had closed I would have overnighted it the same day).

Every secondary I get I get out the same day or the next. If a secondary arrives as I am sitting down for dinner, the food gets put away because the secondary always comes first and food is for those who have no secondaries waiting in their inbox.

The key is to be a really good, fast writer, and or, have your essays pre-written, or write many fantastic essays that can be re-used for other schools.

In this way, an online secondary can be sent out within a few hours of it arriving in my mail box.

Am I a bit extreme, well perhaps. But at least I can honestly say there is nothing more I could have done to maximize my chances.

Well, I suppose I could have parked outside my first choice school's admissions office starting June 24th with my pre-completed secondary and programmed my Iphone to chime evertime an email came in. Then within 1 minute of getting the invite I could put the secondary in the hands of the admissions officer. It would have set a record for quickest turnaround time and shown just how much that school meant to me. But then again it would have been truely bat **** crazy, even for me:)

I'm scared of you :scared:
 
What matters in this process is being complete early. That means LORs, primary, and secondary submitted in the same time frame. I wouldn't sit on secondaries too long. The more time passes the more interview spots are being taken by other applicants.
 
I think we're fine as long as we submit them before school starts and everyone starts realizing they need to get their acts together. We're ahead of the curve, let's calm down!
 
You want to apply early, but you have to take the time to make sure your application materials are excellent.
 
I approach secondaries like I do everything else concerned with the medical school application process. Give it 100%, know that you have done everything you can to maximize your chances.

I made sure to have my primary submitted within 2 minutes of AMCAS accepting them on June 2.

For my #1 school, I had my secondary essay perfected and ready to go and the day after I recieved the invite I overnighted my secondary, (had I not recieved the invitation after the post office had closed I would have overnighted it the same day).

Every secondary I get I get out the same day or the next. If a secondary arrives as I am sitting down for dinner, the food gets put away because the secondary always comes first and food is for those who have no secondaries waiting in their inbox.

The key is to be a really good, fast writer, and or, have your essays pre-written, or write many fantastic essays that can be re-used for other schools.

In this way, an online secondary can be sent out within a few hours of it arriving in my mail box.

Am I a bit extreme, well perhaps. But at least I can honestly say there is nothing more I could have done to maximize my chances.

Well, I suppose I could have parked outside my first choice school's admissions office starting June 24th with my pre-completed secondary and programmed my Iphone to chime evertime an email came in. Then within 1 minute of getting the invite I could put the secondary in the hands of the admissions officer. It would have set a record for quickest turnaround time and shown just how much that school meant to me. But then again it would have been truely bat **** crazy, even for me:)

I'm scared of you :scared:

Haha, me too! :eek: I would never sacrifice dinner for a secondary! :corny: Get a hold of yourself!
 
I made sure to have my primary submitted within 2 minutes of AMCAS accepting them on June 2.

5017e38382.jpg
 
so like elijah said, if I dont have my committee letter turned in, it really doesnt matter when i hand in secondary??

i am waiting for someone to review my essay for secondary but shes taking a long time and i was thinking about just turning it in so i wont be behind. BUT, my committee letter wont be in for awhile... so it doesnt matter whether i turn it in now or next week. correct?

I'm in a similar situation. I'm starting to receive secondaries but I'm missing a key LOR. I called her up today and she said she can give it to me in two weeks! (I asked her for the letter late May btw) But she later added that if its urgent she'd try to crank it out this weekend (which gets me a bit worried about the letter quality). Well, the concern is should I rush her to send the LOR or is there some sort of waiting period or something after submitting secondaries before Adcoms review the application? I'd appreciate a quick response (its urgent as you can see), thanks!
 
haha, pre-writing the secondary and driving over to my first choice's admissions building and handing it in personally on the first day of being received is actually feasible for me. what do you think they'd do? o_O
 
Yes. Because all but a few school have rolling admissions, the sooner the admissions committee gets their eyes on your application, the greater your chance of a favorable outcome. This may be less true for those with well-above average application credentials, but for those who fall in the middle of the pack (which varies at each school), applying later means less spots available (and more competition).

:thumbup:

This is pretty much true even for schools that don't have rolling admissions, because many of those have rolling interviews.
 
So, I have 3/4 of my LOR in and ready to go. However, I haven't heard back from the prof (non science) of my last one and won't know how strong it is. Should I wait a few weeks for it to be complete at several schools, or should I just send in secondaries without it?
 
Top