How are you coping with secondary burnout?

[Phosphorus Ylide]

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I have 4 sitting in my inbox right now and I am just staring blankly at them as I have run out of witty things to say about myself.. lol

 

[123165]

I have 4 sitting in my inbox right now and I am just staring blankly at them as I have run out of witty things to say about myself.. lol

I definitely just took a break. I still have a few to complete, and am not sure if I will fill them out at this point.

I am filling out the TUCOM-NV tomorrow, as I am interviewing on August 31.

I feel for you though, it is a grind. How many have you done so far?

 

[swamprat]

Yeah I got a couple left to fill out too, have taken prob almost a month off. I should get around to just finishing them before the semester begins.

 

[BassCaster]

lol, i feel ya! My advice would be to not take a break. I took a break after maybe 15 secondaries last week and at this point I don't think I'm going to even bother with the the rest.

 

[p1acebo]

Yeah I got a couple left to fill out too, have taken prob almost a month off. I should get around to just finishing them before the semester begins.

I have 2 completed and I am hoping to finish 3 more before the semester starts...

 

[Phosphorus Ylide]

I feel for you though, it is a grind. How many have you done so far?

19 ...groan.

 

[droogdoc]

19 ...groan.

dang...

 

[YA7ES]

I'm finishing my 5th today (KCUMB), which will be my last one until I get one from William Carey in September.

 

[forrealz]

anybody worried about your secondary answers and personal statement sounding similar?

 

[jwoody]

I'm finishing my 5th today (KCUMB), which will be my last one until I get one from William Carey in September.

Has William Carey started officially accepting applications. I hadn't heard any news about this.

 

[forrealz]

Has William Carey started officially accepting applications. I hadn't heard any news about this.

not yet, they will start in September.

 

[AgDoc84]

anybody worried about your secondary answers and personal statement sounding similar?

You know I was.... but when every single one asks what special qualities you have, you can only dress that so many ways.

Besides they dont share them around do they?

 

[forrealz]

I guess I did not say that clearly. I am not worried about all my secondaries sounding the same at all. Heck, I am even copy-pasting when I have to answer the same question.

What I'm worried about is this...

I was just trying to think from an adcom's perspective. What if they are going through my personal statement and my secondary application at the same time at one school. They are going to find some redundant statements since I answered some of the questions(from secondaries) in the personal statement already. I better stop over-analyzing these secondaries.

 

[Phosphorus Ylide]

I am so sick of writing and then reading about myself.

I have 6 potential secondaries left to fill out ( including NYCOM if they feel like interviewing me and U of Minn if they feel like even looking at me any further. Yes, folks, I do believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[CycloneDO]

8 down, 4 more to go plus VCOM on pre-secondary hold. Booo! I really like VCOM. Hope to get the rest finished this week!
Then off to PA for some more schooling!

 

[MedicIL]

As Larry the Cable Guy would say:

GET 'ER DONE!

 

[Phosphorus Ylide]

I have two in my inbox right now. I am finishing one today and hoping to start Western this evening.



P.S. Is anyone else annoyed that MDapps was supposed to come back up today for updating, but hasn't? I use it mainly to see where I am at with all the schools and what I need to do. Sigh.

 

[Phosphorus Ylide]

I am tentatively done with secondaries 🙂

 

[krapitsjulia]

same

lol, i feel ya! My advice would be to not take a break. I took a break after maybe 15 secondaries last week and at this point I don't think I'm going to even bother with the the rest.

 

[DoctorQuack]

Bump. Applied to 15 schools and wondering what y'all's strategy is for filling out secondaries is under tight deadlines. Also, I'm in school full-time and work 25 hours a week. Somewhere I read a guy had a google docs spreadsheet with colors and this and that, can't find it. Oh well.

What's your efficient system?

 

[Iliketoytles]

I remember when I was doing secondaries... I had about 12 word documents minimized and firefox had about 12 tabs open, haha. My laptop was running so slow.

But ya, I basically started off by typing each of the essays for each school in the same document... just on different pages. That way, I could just focus on the essays and I closed out of the actual online secondary.

I started by tackling the one with the most essays. Spent a couple days perfecting them. Once I had all those essays done, I was able to do about 2-3 secondaries a day after that since all the other essays were just spin-offs of the ones I already did for the first school.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

I have 3 more to fill out, 4 if you count NYCOM. I've had UMDNJ and Touro Ca for about a month now, and Touro-NY for about two weeks. Definitely felt the burn out.

 

[SavoirFaire]

I have the cure for secondary burnout...

and it is...





copy and paste.

 

[DbDan]

I have the cure for secondary burnout...

and it is...





copy and paste.

This.

I did 46 secondaries over 2 years (maybe more) plus second request essays from USUHS, plus school updates, etc. Copy/paste is your friend. Many of the essays are asking the same things, use the same experiences, same descriptors, etc. I think I used almost the same essay for bare minimum 1/4 of my secondaries with each one being tailored directly to what the school was looking for.

Power through. The earlier you get your application completed, the more spots you are competing for. As those spots close, the field gets more competitive!

 

[ksmajmudar]

Seeing this thread title was so reaffirming for me. I'm so sick of writing about myself, haha. I have two secondaries left...I've had one of these secondaries for almost 6 weeks now (yikes! )

Guess I'll finish them up this weekend!

 

[Jeeps]

Adderall maybe & Coffee just to make sure your getting the full effect...🙂

 

[Optoed]

Adderall maybe & Coffee just to make sure your getting the full effect...🙂

Diagnosis: Secondary-itis

Symptoms: frequently found in the pre-med population, whose perfectionistic mindset typically causes onset of perpetual procrastination (usually on SDN).
In severe cases, dramatic writer's block and secondary speech impediment. Patients are prone of interview anxiety within the weeks/months following secondary submission.
Marked diminish of enthusiasm as the number of secondaries increases.


Treatment:
1. anti-perfectionistic therapy - just get it down on paper at all cost and then come back to do it later.
2. Find a BF/GF/BFF with a humanities/marketing major or bribe your parent/siblings.
3. 😴 then continue when your motivational reservoir is replenished

 

[hmainn]

I didn't really get secondary burnout.
The trick is to sit down and write what ever. It's called a $#!%%* first draft. Come back to it day after day and revise it a few times until you like it. Don't sit there and stare at a blank screen all day. Set aside a couple hours for focused hard work. Then rest.

After you do a few of these, you'll be able to use what you've already typed for the other applications. Of course, you need to tailor it and make the transitions seamless.

I ended up getting most of my apps in before the 3rd week (there are recommendations to get it in the 2nd). When you do your last apps, they will seem better because they would have went through the most revisions if you reused some material.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[medcandidate]

I have 4 sitting in my inbox right now and I am just staring blankly at them as I have run out of witty things to say about myself.. lol

i sure am in that phase right now - & the ones left are the TWO PAGE essay ones! 😕

 

[IDFsoldierboy]

I know AZCOM and CCOM have the same secondaries just changing the name and the curriculums are very similar...anybody think its ok to copy and paste my essays replacing 1 name for the other? im just wondering if they have access to eachothers secondaries since it is the same system. I can write a new why AZCOM/CCOM but im having a tough time to rewrite the "why should we accept you" since its the same "this is why im awesome" points

 

[Jeeps]

Diagnosis: Post-secondar-itis

Symptoms: frequently found in the pre-med population, whose perfectionistic mindset typically causes onset of perpetual procrastination (usually on SDN).
In severe cases, dramatic writer's block and secondary speech impediment. Patients are prone of interview anxiety within the weeks/months following secondary submission.
Marked by diminishing enthusiasm as the number of secondaries increases.


Treatment:
1. anti-perfectionistic therapy - just get it down on paper at all cost and then come back to do it later.
2. Find a BF/GF/BFF with a humanities/marketing major or bribe your parent/siblings.
3. 😴 then continue when your motivational reservoir is replenished

That seriously gave me a LOL moment. I'm going to have to quote on this one. @28 years old, I unfortunately had my zest for being perfect drained out of me and have to deal with the dreaded word all grown up hate...BILLS! I honestly do wish I can nit pick at my application at this point I just hammer everything down with the little time I have.