Are you getting burned out with secondaries?

Started by kachan0
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kachan0

kachan0

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With a full-time job and volunteering on weekends, these secondaries are starting to pile up and crushing me with such force that I feel just plain burnt out. Now I sit in front of my computer in a daze wanting to sleep instead of working through these last essays.

Instead of peaceful dreams, I have nightmares of receiving secondaries and unattainable dream sequences of having been invited for interviews or accepted into schools...just to wake up to the fact that the secondaries keep a-comin' and that my email inbox & spam mail are deplete of good news.

My days are filled with the constant checking of my email account followed by the compulsive refreshing of the SDN website. Sigh...what a life.

Pre-meds, do you hear me on this?
 
Yup, I definitely know what you mean. I work a full-time job and a part-time job. My only time to work on the secondaries are weekends, so no social life for now :/.

Just hang in there. The secondary stretch is almost done.
 
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kachan0 said:
My days are filled with the constant checking of my email account followed by the compulsive refreshing of the SDN website. Sigh...what a life.
Click to expand...
+1

This line sums up my life completely right now. If it wasn't for work I think I'd have lost it already. If you don't mind me asking, how many total secondaries are you completing? I'm finished with twelve, and I can't imagine much more.
 
After finishing 20, I still have 18 to go. I feel you.

I just want to snoozeeee 😴
(so I have given up for the night)
 
Lol dang maybe I did my secondaries wrong. I thought they were pretty easy to fill out, and I kinda liked writing the essays. But then again I don't work and spend most of my time in the pool, so i look forward to doing something productive each day.😀 I definitely got burnt out typing my credit number though..ughh I regret paying the secondary fee for a few schools!
 
I just got verified today and I'm waiting for the inevitable torrent of secondaries to come rushing in (applied to 24 schools). I actually pre-wrote some of my essays, which is good because I can send them back right away... but I already feel burnt out as well. We just gotta suck it up and trudge on through this part of the process. Good luck everyone. 👍
 
med355618 said:
+1

This line sums up my life completely right now. If it wasn't for work I think I'd have lost it already. If you don't mind me asking, how many total secondaries are you completing? I'm finished with twelve, and I can't imagine much more.
Click to expand...

21 done...9 more to go...

Avoidthetiger said:
After finishing 20, I still have 18 to go. I feel you.

I just want to snoozeeee 😴
(so I have given up for the night)
Click to expand...

I did that yesterday...too bad we can't just hit the snooze button all week 🙁. Plus, it's Shark Week, I'm so sad I have to miss it. It's my favorite week of the year.
 
I JUST finished my 16th and LAST secondary... i guess I didn't apply to a lot compared to everybody....

but it feels GREAT to be done!!
 
I sympathize with everyone who has written secondaries whilst balancing work obligations...I have 30 secondaries, 25 of which are now complete. I have been fortunate to not have to do full-time work, only part time and some research here and there. With "all of that to do", I feel "slightly" worn from doing all these secondary applications.

I commend all of you on your hard work, especially the ones who must do secondaries in addition to the more important obligations of putting food on the table!

For the record though, I know someone who applied to 50+ schools. Overkill much?
 
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I love shark week too!!:clap:

I'm holding up OK with the secondaries, it's the waiting that's getting to me. Maybe now that it is August things will get moving again.
 
Yeah i definitely got burnet out, so I stepped away for 3 days and now it's not as bad. I am constantly questioning the angle I am taking on the secondaries mostly because I don't have confidence in my writing.
 
frescoengano said:
damn...38 schools? you are INTENSE!!!
Click to expand...
It's really not that hard... I've just needed a break. Applying to so many schools only eats at your time and money. It gets more difficult when you are working 40 hours a week, have a household that requires responsibilities, and attempting to still have a life. That's when I get burnt out. Haven't had much of a summer 🙁 Maybe in September....
 
BaronVonZ said:
Intensely rich 😱 I wish I could afford that many schools... So jealous 😛
Click to expand...
You mean intensely saving up. haha. But actually my mom went back to work (well, after finish a degree -- she was a freshman when I was a freshman) just to help afford the cost of paying for medical school applications. Having supportive family helps. I also don't expect many interviews... so I don't need to worry about the cost of travel. REGARDLESS, this will all be cheaper than me going to SGU. I would rather apply to 100 schools, spend all that money and all that time, and get into one in the US than go to the Caribbean. It will make all the money and time worth it.
 
19 secondaries down and I'm already burned out. Thankfully only 6 left.

I gotta hand it to you avoidthetiger for the effort you are putting in. I think your passion will seem obvious to the schools you are applying to. 🙂

Also if you staggered your submissions your interviews will be spread out so that you might be able to opt out of later interviews.
 
wanderer100 said:
19 secondaries down and I'm already burned out. Thankfully only 6 left.

I gotta hand it to you avoidthetiger for the effort you are putting in. I think your passion will seem obvious to the schools you are applying to. 🙂

Also if you staggered your submissions your interviews will be spread out so that you might be able to opt out of later interviews.
Click to expand...
ohh that would be wonderful! I can hope for that one early interview and acceptance (I'm hoping VTC or Loyola or Rush or you know, anywhere, haha). I still haven't even received 8 secondaries... so it makes my life feel less stressed. I think all the effort will be worth it if I get in... and if I don't, well atleast I know I put in my best effort.
 
YES I am getting burned out. 29 down...10 to go but I think I'm probably not going to do 2 or 3 of them, so more like 7 to go and I'm still waiting on these 7. I hope I get them and can fill them out before I go on vacation overseas in 2 weeks because I probably won't have good internet access there.
 
I feel the same way. I check my email every couple of hours or so just hoping something good is in there besides the next secondary. I've finished 17, only 9 more to go. Sadly 5 have been sitting around for a while waiting to get done. It has been hard working part time and taking a full load of classes at the same time.
 
This thread motivates me!

Submitted a secondary this morning, completed essays for two other secondaries this afternoon, and am almost done with essays for a third secondary. 😀
 
kachan0 said:
With a full-time job and volunteering on weekends, these secondaries are starting to pile up and crushing me with such force that I feel just plain burnt out. Now I sit in front of my computer in a daze wanting to sleep instead of working through these last essays.

Instead of peaceful dreams, I have nightmares of receiving secondaries and unattainable dream sequences of having been invited for interviews or accepted into schools...just to wake up to the fact that the secondaries keep a-comin' and that my email inbox & spam mail are deplete of good news.

My days are filled with the constant checking of my email account followed by the compulsive refreshing of the SDN website. Sigh...what a life.

Pre-meds, do you hear me on this?
Click to expand...

I hear ya!!! Just like you, I also work full-time and volunteer on the weekends. I only have 13 secondaries complete... still have 20 to go.... I'm scared to get any rejections!!

Avoidthetiger said:
After finishing 20, I still have 18 to go. I feel you.

I just want to snoozeeee 😴
(so I have given up for the night)
Click to expand...

BaronVonZ said:
Intensely rich 😱 I wish I could afford that many schools... So jealous 😛
Click to expand...

Applying to 33 schools is really expensive... and I'm the only person paying for it. I had a little bit of money saved up from working full-time, but I'm mostly paying for it via credit cards... which I will slowly pay off. If it weren't for credit cards, I could probably only afford like 3 schools lol. And being a CA resident with a not-so-great MCAT score, I feel like I need to apply to lots and lots of schools.
 
Avoidthetiger said:
This thread motivates me!

Submitted a secondary this morning, completed essays for two other secondaries this afternoon, and am almost done with essays for a third secondary. 😀
Click to expand...

+1
I am only at 12 secondaries and I already feel burnt out, but I this thread is very motivating!
Just wondering, what's the rate that you guys finish your secondaries? With my schedule, I'm trying to go for 1 secondary/day..
 
Was fine. Then Duke came. Now :scared:

I wish my school would send out my committee letter/packet already so I could actually have something to look forward to/be excited about besides writing more essays =P
 
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This thread is motivating. It is nice to know I am not the only one checking my email a thousand times a day or afraid to leave my phone off or something.
 
Hawaiianhost1 said:
+1
I am only at 12 secondaries and I already feel burnt out, but I this thread is very motivating!
Just wondering, what's the rate that you guys finish your secondaries? With my schedule, I'm trying to go for 1 secondary/day..
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm definitely glad to know I'm not alone 🙂.

For me, it really varies on the difficulty of the secondary and my energy level... the other night I completed 4 secondaries (I was on fire!!)... but I've been staring at the UCI secondary for like 2-3 days. But my original plan was to do at least 1 secondary/day as well, let's see if I can get back on track 😛.

My last LOR writer FINALLY submitted her letter, so I just released my letter packet to AMCAS... so I'm getting really nervous that I'm actually going to hear back from schools soon :xf:. But I hope I get good news to motivate me 😀.
 
bpost137 said:
Yeah, I'm definitely glad to know I'm not alone 🙂.

For me, it really varies on the difficulty of the secondary and my energy level... the other night I completed 4 secondaries (I was on fire!!)... but I've been staring at the UCI secondary for like 2-3 days. But my original plan was to do at least 1 secondary/day as well, let's see if I can get back on track 😛.

My last LOR writer FINALLY submitted her letter, so I just released my letter packet to AMCAS... so I'm getting really nervous that I'm actually going to hear back from schools soon :xf:. But I hope I get good news to motivate me 😀.
Click to expand...

:woot: WOOT. I'm glad that this thread motivates others as well. This is PM-anonymous (pre-meds anonymous). Good therapy to know others are going through the exact same things. :biglove:
 
Hawaiianhost1 said:
+1
I am only at 12 secondaries and I already feel burnt out, but I this thread is very motivating!
Just wondering, what's the rate that you guys finish your secondaries? With my schedule, I'm trying to go for 1 secondary/day..
Click to expand...

I'm trying to do one a day during weekdays, two a day on weekends but am not even close to that. Mostly I am just trying to get them in within two weeks of getting them now. After 8 more I will be all done. Just submitted mine for today.
 
bpost137 said:
Applying to 33 schools is really expensive... and I'm the only person paying for it. I had a little bit of money saved up from working full-time, but I'm mostly paying for it via credit cards... which I will slowly pay off. If it weren't for credit cards, I could probably only afford like 3 schools lol. And being a CA resident with a not-so-great MCAT score, I feel like I need to apply to lots and lots of schools.
Click to expand...
I hear you. The amount of money on my credit card has never been so much.

I'm at 22 completed secondaries now!
 
7 to go and I am lagging. People have gotten IIs from the places I was in early at, none for me...which of course makes me incredibly panicked to get these in, like, NOW!!

*I'm not at all anxious about having no IIs yet, it's super early. But for some reason, seeing people move on to that next stage makes me feel anxious about completing THIS one, if that makes sense.
 
I'm going to have submit some of mine closer to 3-3.5 weeks instead of 2 due to full-time work and travel. Getting a little worried about how bad this will make me look!
 
Secondaries are the most exhausting, difficult, time consuming part of this entire process.

I have written a short novel about my life at this point.
 
I have now written 17 secondaries and submitted 16 applications. I feel inadequate, boring and wholly uninspired. Why didn't I just apply EDP to my state school, the one without a secondary?
Oh and the money- so now I am poor, inferior and inpatient.
 
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