How many of you are actually *returning* secondaries?

[sandflea]

so i've amassed a small collection of secondaries from schools who have bypassed AMCAS (the same ones everyone has already mentioned here on the board). i've really been taking my time with them, and while i've completed most of them, they're just sitting on my desk. i figure that since even the schools who are asking for AMCAS photocopies are still going to consider the transmitted app as the final word, what advantage can we gain by rushing to finish up the secondaries to mail them back? it will be weeks before AMCAS can transmit.

am i in the minority here? are you all making a point of returning your secondaries, and should i get on the ball? just thought i'd take an informal poll.

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[AJM]

I am not applying, but I do admissions work for my med school, and I would highly recommend getting your secondaries in as soon as possible, as long as the school has told you that you CAN send in your application before AMCAS transmits to them. (I think some schools are telling applicants that they can work on the school's secondary, but then they have to wait until after the school receives the official AMCAS app to send the secondary).

So even though the application process is screwed up this year, it is in your best interest to get those secondaries in early. As with previous years, you should aim to have no more than a one week turnaround time for your secondaries. The advantages to getting the part you can control done early are many, including earlier interviews (meaning earlier notification), and consideration of your application before the "pack".

If you get all parts of the application in that are in your control to do so, then the only thing the school needs to wait on is AMCAS. Once AMCAS transmits, your application will be complete, and will probably be one of the first ones looked at. It typically does not take schools as long to process AMCAS applications as it does secondaries and rec letters. If you wait until AMCAS transmits, it could take several weeks or more for the school to receive your secondary and rec letters, and make sure everything is complete, before they begin to review it.

So I ask you a different question: What have you got to lose by sending in your secondaries early?

 

[Smoke This]

I have personal knowledge that at least some of the schools you probably have secondaries from intend to begin processing them as soon as your file is "complete", e.g. after you send in a printed AMCAS and letters, etc. and before AMCAS transmits.

Personally, I don't feel the rush to turn in secondaries to schools like Dart-Mouth who will not do anything with it until AMCAS transmits. However, schools like Tulane that want to start reviewing applicants right away are a different story, since they may not wait for AMCAS.

 

[Amy B]

I would fill them out and send them as soon as you can. Give the med schools something to read while they wait for the barage of applications AMCAS will be sending them.

 

[sandflea]

thanks for the responses. my gut feeling was that i should get them in ASAP because it wasn't hurting anything. but i guess what i was really trying to get at was whether schools will still take into account how early you get in your secondaries if they're not planning on evaluating until AMCAS transmittal. meaning, many people will probably get a chance to mail secondaries back before AMCAS fixes its problems, and will adcoms just evaluate all of these completed apps together, or will the earliest secondary-returners still get evaluated first like what would have happened had AMCAS not had so many problems.

i just started getting secondaries a few days ago so it's not like i've been sitting on them for weeks, and they're ready to go out tomorrow. but thanks for providing an electronic kick in the butt!

 

[gower]

It is not a question of the medical schools "taking account" of how early you send the secondaries. You want them there when they are ready to look. Another vote for sending NOW.

 

[moo]

I submitted Yale's today and sent in my paper app a while ago.

 

[ghettobird]

I agree...

Send secondaries ASAP but not at the expense of writing good careful essays. The premed advisors at my college beat it into our heads that we needed to send off secondaries within 15 minutes of their arrival, and as a result, I think some of my essays kind of sucked. Those essays are there for a reason, so take them seriously.

 

[sandflea]

ghettobird, that was my reasoning exactly. i applied before and made a point of returning my secondaries within 48 hours. now i have a little more time to really *think* about my essays and i thought i would take advantage of it. if the point is just to have my file complete when AMCAS arrives, as gower implies, then in other words it doesn't really matter at what *point* before AMCAS transmittal i mail the secondary in. of course i would have my secondaries returned *before* AMCAS transmitted! i understand the importance of getting the app in early to not be so foolish as to take 3 months or so per secondary. if i waited on returning them at all, it would be only a matter of days, not weeks.

thanks for the advice. they'll all be in the mail tomorrow!

 

[rohitbest]

oh, i dont' wait around, i could wait a year and my essay would be perfect. I've turned in my secondaries to St. Louis universtity, u of virginia, george washington, and baylor. I was satisfied with my essays, i'm sure they are not the best they can be, but i feel time is just as important.

 

[Scooby Doo]

I am taking my time. I have had all the secondaries on my desk for about 2 weeks now and more keep coming in!! I just don't have time right now and plus the schools would not have been sending out secondaries until early August anyways. I figure there is no point to rush right now b/c the schools are only doing Early Decision people right now anyways. As soon as they see "regular MD" marked on your form, off to a pile it goes where there is more chance for it to be lost. Well, probably not lost, but I have too many other things going on in my life right now to rush through these things...that's just me..plus, I don't think it's of utmost importance...maybe in later August..yea..but not now!
It's still SUMMER!
I am going to the beach..late...

 

[ghettobird]

Trust me, rohitbest, when your sitting around in Jan. and some of your schools still haven't gotten around to sending out their interview notices, a couple days will seem becomes meaningless.

 

[sandflea]

well, in defense of myself, this was my logic: in years past, it was *always* advised to get the secondaries in ASAP. and that was very good, very sound advice, because the idea was that the sooner you get your file completed, the earlier your file could be reviewed when the adcom meets, which is not all that often (depending on the school). but all bets are off this year; there is nothing for adcoms to review yet since our AMCAS apps are still floating around in AAMC never-neverland. so when it comes to new applicants, all they can do during meetings is twiddle their thumbs, because they don't have arguably the most important section of the file to even evaluate yet! therefore, all that matters is that we get our secondaries in *before* adcoms DO have something to meet about....and that is probably several weeks, even months (eek!), based on the way things seem now.

of course, schools like tulane who claim that they will go ahead and evaluate applicants with photocopies of AMCAS don't apply to this rule. but even tulane states somewhere in their secondary that they are only doing this on the assumption that AMCAS gets its transmittal up and running. if not, if i remember correctly they state that they may ask for copies of our transcripts, etc, etc, meaning we'll have to submit more material anyway and getting our secondaries in now ultimately won't make that big a difference. i forgot where i was going with this, so i'm going to end my post here.

 

[emdeetwobee]

I think it's good to send the secondaries as soon as you've completed them. Fine-tuning your essays would be the only legitimate reason for delay (and/or financial considerations).

 

[rohitbest]

ghettobird, i forgot to mention that the schools recieved my AMCAS. AT least u of virginia sent me an email saying they got my electronic AMCAS application, and to fill out the secondary and send it in ASAP because they are rolling admissions. That is what they told me. The other schools havent' said a word, just sent the secondary (baylor's is online). But i'm sure if one of the schools got the e application of AMCAS, all the other ones did. And if they have, they are going to start reviewing as they recieve them. But you are right, the essays should be good, but I feel they are good enough, i mean they say what I think. And I just like to get things out quick.

 

[sandflea]

UVA has *not* received your AMCAS app. AMCAS has been unable to transmit anyone's app to any school. i'm sure UVA just meant that they received your address from AMCAS, not the app itself. there's a thread about this somewhere.

 

[Barton]

I've sent in four secondaries: SLU, Pritzker, MCW, and Iowa. I think getting them in early can't hurt. Of course, I already had my essays written (a friend of mine gave me last year's secondaries in May).

 

[sc]

Originally posted by Barton:
•I've sent in four secondaries: SLU, Pritzker, MCW, and Iowa. I think getting them in early can't hurt. Of course, I already had my essays written (a friend of mine gave me last year's secondaries in May).•

You sent in Iowa's Secondary!! or are you just talking about sending in a paper copy of your AMCAS 2002?

 

[Barton]

Secondary.

 

[sc]

Originally posted by Barton:
•Secondary.•

How did you get their secondary application already?

 

[sc]

I was under the impression that Iowa screens before sending secondaries. If a secondary is offered, they direct you to a web site. Am I completely off base here?

 

[Barton]

I don't know if they are screening or not. The secondary is on the web, but you need a login/password (which they send you) to access it. You submit a few separate things on the web and send them a check via snail-mail. The letters of rec are a biaatch, though. You have to use their forms. I was allowed to use 1 letter from my school's letter of recommendations office file, but the other 2 have to come directly from the writer's and be on their stationary.

 

[sc]

Barton,

Sorry to keep bombarding you with questions but I really want to go to Iowa next year and want to be on top of things in order to make that happen to the best of my ability. How did you go about getting a password for the secondary and where exactly is it online? Do I just need to wait for them to look at my AMCAS paper copy? Thanks for all of your help!

 

[Barton]

SC-They send you the login after they get your AMCAS printout and they've received your name and preliminary info from AMCAS. They said they prelim info on about 600 applicants. Give them a call as per their website. They told me they had the necessary info and would be sending me a secondary.

PS-are you an iowa resident? do you know how much of a factor that is? I was born in IA lived there for 3 yrs, spent lots of summers there, both my parents are UI alums, my whole extended family lives in IA, etc, but I'm a MN resident.

 

[sc]

Originally posted by Barton:
•SC-They send you the login after they get your AMCAS printout and they've received your name and preliminary info from AMCAS. They said they prelim info on about 600 applicants. Give them a call as per their website. They told me they had the necessary info and would be sending me a secondary.

PS-are you an iowa resident? do you know how much of a factor that is? I was born in IA lived there for 3 yrs, spent lots of summers there, both my parents are UI alums, my whole extended family lives in IA, etc, but I'm a MN resident.•

Thanks for all your help. No, I'm actually an Illinois resident. I was part of a summer research program at Iowa last summer and fell in love with the school and Iowa City. The school is also in a wonderful location as far as family goes. All I know about out of state acceptances is that Iowa accepts a greater percentage in comparison to most other state schools.

Where else are you applying?

Good luck! Maybe we'll see eachother next year.

 

[coop]

back to the original topic for a moment, I've gotten 3 secondaries, I submitted this week washu and yale. essays for pritzker are getting finished up and I'll send it off by the end of the week. I figure if i have time now better to do them then let them start to pile. Also I got the impression from emails that these schools will start the process as soon as you put in the secondary, but I don't know that that's the case.

 

[Matrix]

Did your pre-med committee/advisor finish writing your letter of recommendations?? when was it done?? Doesn't your application get processed + considered until you have ALL your requirements sent in, which includes letter of recs?
I'm certainly not disagreeing on sending out your secondaries ASAP if you're fully satisfied with your essays + have your recommendations sent in already. But I'm the type of person who's not satisfied with just one of two drafts. Since my letter of recs won't be out until end of July, wouldn't it be better to take a few more days to revise my essays before sending out my secondaries?

 

[Barton]

Matrix-You might as well wait. They won't look at your app until it's complete (letters and all). Luckily, all my letters are done, so I had the luxury of submitting everything.

 

[rohitbest]

Originally posted by Matrix:
•Did your pre-med committee/advisor finish writing your letter of recommendations?? when was it done?? Doesn't your application get processed + considered until you have ALL your requirements sent in, which includes letter of recs?
I'm certainly not disagreeing on sending out your secondaries ASAP if you're fully satisfied with your essays + have your recommendations sent in already. But I'm the type of person who's not satisfied with just one of two drafts. Since my letter of recs won't be out until end of July, wouldn't it be better to take a few more days to revise my essays before sending out my secondaries?•

yeah, matrix, i had my letters sent to the schools about 2 weeks ago, because i thought amcas would be a little quicker. so most of the schools should have them, so i dont' see the point of waiting to send my secondaries. I think they'll start interviewing based on them and the mcat scores they'll get.

 

[coop]

yeah my letters also got sent out a couple weeks ago, which is why i've been returning the secondaries. for the secondary essays I usually write a draft, sleep on it, revise, send to SO for a reading, revise on her comments, sleep again and one final revision which so far has been very minor.

 

[sc]

Originally posted by Barton:
•I've sent in four secondaries: SLU, Pritzker, MCW, and Iowa. I think getting them in early can't hurt. Of course, I already had my essays written (a friend of mine gave me last year's secondaries in May).•

Barton,

What were the questions of the Iowa secondary...I know you said there wasn't that much to fill in online.

 

[BlackPuma]

has anybody received any secondaries so far?

things kind of became quiet

sppppooookyyyy