Anyone else got a pile of undone 2ndaries?

[tBw]

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I know this is kind of ignorant, considering some people are still desperate for 2ndaries but I have about 16 now and only 3 done....

I know I should get on with them, but as an August MCATer I know that they are not going to review them till they have those scores so I feel no real incentive to rush, and I'de rather write good essays for them, so I've been taking my time on each.

Just curious if anyone else is getting behind.

 

[Tweetie_bird]

ya, you could use a PM Buddy. 🙂 Check out my thread about "Official: Am I the only one behind" and buddy up with somebody on there if you feel like you need somebody to nag you to get it done.

I know that almost everybody is behind right now, and you being an aug mcater, ...I can understand your situation. I would say get started on them anyway, because your attention may be needed for other stuff like LORs after the MCAT scores come in. Make use of the time you have now to get working.

 

[lola]

well, you're ahead of me! i've only completed 2, and those didn't require essays 🙂 can't decide if i should waste my money on harvard. i think that's the only other one i have that doesn't require essays.
i think i have at least 10, maybe 15 piled up. i've lost track! it's a little overwhelming really. thank goodness i'm still working part time.

 

[LABRUIN407]

yep...I feel you guys...

 

[Bikini Princess]

working full-time, applying md/phd, 21 schools, still keeping up a good social life, exercise. hahahahahahha i'm going crazy

applying md/phd is like applying to twice the number of schools. separate LOR's, essays, applications

 

[jofrbr76]

It doesn't seem like someone that goes by Bikini Princess would have a problem with the social scene or finding a good time!!

 

[cbpremed]

Yep, same boat....got about half way through 13 done, and about 11 or so to go. I thought I would get screened out since everyone insist that it's just a number's game...but I got all mine back except UCLA Drew and MCP Hanheman....I've heard nothing from them. Good luck to all!!!! 😉
Candi

 

[Adcadet]

I just talked to MCOW. They don't even START interivewing unitl November. I guess they want to give Aug. MCATers the same chance the earlier peeps get. So I wouldn't worry too much about that stack of unfinished secondaries, as you're definitely not alone.

 

[SMW]

I would worry about a stack of unfinished secondaries. Maybe not worry so much as get in gear and start sending them off. It is important to write good essays, but as you get further into that stack, you'll realize that a lot of stuff can be reused, cut and pasted, etc., and even a great essay doesn't always translate into an interview (I spent forever on the Case ethical dilemma essay, only to be rejected pre-interview!) It's all the repetitive listing of classes, etc. that takes forever, so get going. You will be amazed about how much time it takes profs to send out your LOR's, schools to get your secondaries into their files, and how many things can go wrong/get lost in the process. You want your files to be complete the minute your August scores get into your file. If a school starts interviewing in November, those invites will have gone out to applicants who got their stuff in the earliest. This is advice from a successful Augst MCATer from last year's application cycle.

 

[pAkhtmAn]

I didn't even take the August MCAT and I'm behind. Right now, I only got two secondaries done. I'm working on sending another three or four out by this weekend, but it looks like its gonna take awhile. As for my letter of recs, I'm still waiting one of my science profs and a nonscience prof. I probably won't be done with everything until the end of September...🙁

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by SMW
I would worry about a stack of unfinished secondaries. Maybe not worry so much as get in gear and start sending them off. It is important to write good essays, but as you get further into that stack, you'll realize that a lot of stuff can be reused, cut and pasted, etc., and even a great essay doesn't always translate into an interview (I spent forever on the Case ethical dilemma essay, only to be rejected pre-interview!) It's all the repetitive listing of classes, etc. that takes forever, so get going. You will be amazed about how much time it takes profs to send out your LOR's, schools to get your secondaries into their files, and how many things can go wrong/get lost in the process. You want your files to be complete the minute your August scores get into your file. If a school starts interviewing in November, those invites will have gone out to applicants who got their stuff in the earliest. This is advice from a successful Augst MCATer from last year's application cycle.

True. But then again, once you complete a few apps the rest tend to go very quickly. I know it took me forever to get my first few done, and then the next bunch was really quick.

 

[Explosivo]

The Case open-ended essay was my stumbling block. I had writer's block and could not even attempt my other secondaries until I finished this one. After I finished Case, I felt like I had been waiting to take a dump for about three weeks and finally found a toilet. I know it wasn't the best essay I wrote, but it didn't matter. It helped me get the ball rolling on the others plus I expect to be rejected from them really soon anyway.

Once Case was down, I got back on track and knocked off six more. I Just finished pitt quickly and I'm ready to tackle NW next but since I really want to go there I may take some extra time. My biggest issue, since I work 50+ hours a week, is that when I get home from work I am so tired I just want to lay around and relax. It's surprisingly hard after a long day to actually think critically about a question on a secondary. I try to make the most of weekends but I sometimes I have to work then too and then there are other obligations as well.

 

[SMW]

Oops, maybe it was the Pitt ethical dilemma essay. One year later, it's all become a big blur!🙂 Good luck to all!!🙂 P.S. Do not write about fishing in your Case open-ended essay! 😉

 

[SolidGold]

Don't write about any sport in that CWRU essay. I wrote about football and it was the quickest rejection I got last year. The same for a friend who wrote about soccer. I wised up and wrote about literature this time around since I was an english minor.

I had my secondaries pile up since I was studying for the MCAT but I've been chruning them out. I have 5 left of 32. Should finish by the end of this weekend, thank goodness.

 

[DrBravesgirl]

of 21, i've received 18 (two are waiting for my aug scores, one is drexel), and sent 16..the only two not sent back yet are usc and pitt for obvious reasons (those of you who don't have them, they both involve either one huge essay or a bunch of smaller ones). grr.

 

[blackbird03]

How do you do it?!!!


I just finished August MCATs and haven't had the time to fill A SINGLE secondary. 🙁


I just recently sent my UC apps, and am working on NYU and Columbia (that app is a bitch).


Working and taking classes doesn't exactly help either...........

 

[tBw]

Originally posted by SMW
Oops, maybe it was the Pitt ethical dilemma essay. One year later, it's all become a big blur!🙂 Good luck to all!!🙂 P.S. Do not write about fishing in your Case open-ended essay! 😉

how ironic - it is exactly that essay (the Pitt ethical dilemma) that has stymied me 🙂

 

[DrBravesgirl]

Originally posted by blackbird03
How do you do it?!!!


I just finished August MCATs and haven't had the time to fill A SINGLE secondary. 🙁

the non-essay secondaries were simple to fill out..i just did those on my mcat study breaks. the essay ones were tougher, but i got most of them done. i stopped writing essays about two weeks before the test, thinking i'd start back up when it was over with. i have ONE STINKING PARAGRAPH written for usc as of right now. i need to get it in gear (esp. since my classes this semester are a bitch! 🙁)

 

[Explosivo]

Originally posted by SolidGold
Don't write about any sport in that CWRU essay. I wrote about football and it was the quickest rejection I got last year. The same for a friend who wrote about soccer. I wised up and wrote about literature this time around since I was an english minor.

I had my secondaries pile up since I was studying for the MCAT but I've been chruning them out. I have 5 left of 32. Should finish by the end of this weekend, thank goodness.

Well I guess I'm in trouble cause I wrote about a sport too. Screw them I guess, I'm not going to fake an interest in some high brow intellectual field just to please them. I really did have an interest in a particular sport and if they somehow don't consider sports a serious interest then I really have to wonder about them. I'd say the majority of people in this country are into some type of sport or sport activity. I guess Case is just chock full of academics living in their ivory towers unaware of what the members of the unwashed masses such as myself enjoy.

However, I actually heard of someone on SDN that wrote about cricket and they got in and are attending school there. Who knows maybe it was something else in your app. After all, you are reapplying so it seems you didn't get in anywhere else. Plus, I don't believe they were screening last year nor are they this year so they're probably going to reject a lot of people anyway regardless of what they wrote about.

 

[SMW]

Originally posted by the boy wonder


how ironic - it is exactly that essay (the Pitt ethical dilemma) that has stymied me 🙂

and I thought I wrote such a great essay (about whether to claim URM status). The frusrating thing about rejections (besides the obvious!) is never knowing whether it was your essay or something else that they didn't like or just wasn't quite good enough. Well, good luck with it, it was by far the hardest essay to write (I think Duke has a similar one, but I didn't apply there).

 

[Explosivo]

I felt the Pitt essay was rather easy b/c it only needed to be 250 words long. The hardest part was recalling an ethical dilemma I had. Once I did that though, I spent about an hour trying to fit everything into the short amount of space we had to write. Frankly, I would hardly call it an essay. It's more along the lines of a short answer question.

 

[SMW]

You're right, deciding what to write about was the hardest part. But they made up for the shortness of the required answer by also having that diversity question.