How long do you get to do secondaries once you receive them?

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Tofurkey

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Hello,

I wondered if schools set a time limit once you receive them. Are they all electronic now? Is it a two week limit?

I'm going out of town for two weeks in August will I be screwed?

Thanks,

T

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It totally depends on the school. My schools gave me from about a week to a month.
 
Some schools give you a standard amount of time between when you get it and when it's due, but most have a set due date for all applications (at least in my experience). However, it shouldn't make a difference, as I learned too late last year, if you're worrying about the due date, then it's already too late. I turned in secondaries at the due date or close and got no interviews, get them in early, or you'll be doing the process again next year, as I am now.

Best of luck to you and me!
 
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subtle1epiphany said:
Some schools give you a standard amount of time between when you get it and when it's due, but most have a set due date for all applications (at least in my experience). However, it shouldn't make a difference, as I learned too late last year, if you're worrying about the due date, then it's already too late. I turned in secondaries at the due date or close and got no interviews, get them in early, or you'll be doing the process again next year, as I am now.

Best of luck to you and me!

Yes I agree - just get them in as soon as you can. You will procrastinate - but try to do that early - and quickly, as well. :)
 
As has been stated, the earlier you return them, the more you increase the chances of your acceptance. Most schools I applied to had a maximum turn-around of 2 weeks on secondaries. Some had a little more, but apparently none were interested in a candidate who wanted to sit on their application for more than a month.

My routine:
Sit down the day you get an application and get all the mindless garbage done (ie biographical info).
Answer all short answer secondaries immediately.
Revisit your short answers 24 hours later for editing.
Allow 48-72 hours for full essays, with at least one draft/edit per day.
Send certified mail w/tracking.
As soon as the tracking says it has arrived, call to confirm.

Have the money for your application fees ready ahead of time. No time to wait for a paycheck a lot of times. That may mean you need to arrange a loan from your parents or a friend.
 
From my experience most schools that I applied to didn't really have a time limit for when they want their secondaries back. Most had a deadline in November, December, or January for when the stop recieving secondaries. Since I got the secondaries in August/Early September time wasn't really an issue for me. The only exception was Northwestern and they give you a date by which it has to be returned which is like two weeks.

As for the theory of earlier the better I am not sure I buy it. I submitted some of my secondaries in middle to late August and I didn't hear from most of those schools till January probably because they got the secondaries before they started reviewing applicants so my application went to the bottom of the pile or something. Who knows. For some of my applications that I waited a long time to do the secondary I got a response almost immidiately after completing them and the response was positive i.e. invite for inerview. For the school that I decided to go to I got the secondary in August, completed it in December, got an invite for interview about three weeks later.

I wouldn't sweat the time limit thing unless you are a borderline candidate or the school specifically says they have a two week limit or something
 
hey everyone,

have most of you already well underway with the secondaries? I just started on them a day or two ago because I was under the impression that we aren't supposed to submit them until the schools have either sent or emailed us the secondaries which can happen sometime between July and August, assuming one's application has already been processed. Or am I wrong? Can we already submit secondaries to schools that do not screen? Ahhh...now I'm worried because I have a pretty intense summer course starting up and I wont have that much time for the secondaries. Can someone clarify the secondary process for me???

And, have some schools sent out secondaries yet??? I was told by one school that no one can start dling the applications from AMCAS until June 6, but I read in some other thread that a person already has a secondary...?? Then the UC's said they wont be looking at the applications until Augustish....

confused.....help please =)
 
I didn't fill out my secondaries until I either got a letter from the school about it or an e-mail telling me the website to go to to fill it out. If you haven't heard from the schools yet don't worry about the secondaries yet.

I'm not sure your other questions, but relax and enjoy your free time you have now before the secondaries get here.
 
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