How fast is fast?

[drderek]

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Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out how fast the turn-around time for secondaries should be. I know to put yourself in the best position you should send them in ASAP, but what does that really mean? Sending them in a week after you get them? A couple weeks? A couple days? Help! Thanks.

 

[rgporter]

One day is fast, within a couple of days is good. A week is probably average or slightly slow. It depends on how many you get and how close together you get them. It's easy to keep up on a few but it is a misserable time trying to fill out 5 or more of those things at the same time. Plus some are just "money in the envelope" applications and some want you to write your autobiography. 😱

 

[TRUE]

There are certainly people on here who will insist that you turn them around the next day. I don't quite think that's necessary. I would say a week is probably a good amount of time, though I personally turned in my mt. sinai secondary in a month, and I still had the good fortune to be accepted. I think the most important aspect to consider is when the school will begin looking over the applications. There is no need to turn an application in a day in early August, for instance, because a lot of schools just let all the applications collect until a certain date before they even start looking them over.

General advice then: about a week is fine (unless otherwise specified by the school).

 

[crazy250]

depends on the secondary. money-grubbing secondaries such as from BU should only take a few days. but on longer secondaries you may want to spend more time. which one would you choose? a weaker application but with a quick turn around time or a stronger application with a slower time?

 

[bewitched1081]

i'd say within a week is fast

 

[angstrom55]

I turned in my amcas in september so i was trying to return secondaries as soon as i got em b/c i knew they were late in the game. I'd say if you turned in your amcas early to mid summer, about a week turn around is fine. I'd also factor in how far the school is to.

 

[mooklyster]

Just be careful if you have more than one. I did the click and paste for a couple of online secondaries ( no names, but one starts a song title ...of Earl and the other, aw hell, Wake). You guessed it, for one of them, after I had submitted, I noticed that I had forgotten to change the name of the school in one of the essays. Wonder why I never heard from them again. Was still in scattershot mode at the time, but I laugh now.

 

[adamj61]

Just be careful if you have more than one. I did the click and paste for a couple of online secondaries ( no names, but one starts a song title ...of Earl and the other, aw hell, Wake). You guessed it, for one of them, after I had submitted, I noticed that I had forgotten to change the name of the school in one of the essays. Wonder why I never heard from them again. Was still in scattershot mode at the time, but I laugh now.

Ouch

Yeah, some schools won't even start looking at them until later on, especially some of the non-screened ones