How much effort and time do secondary statements take compared to the primary statement?

[mrh125]

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I'm up to a relative large number of scrapped drafts for my personal statement ("why do I want to be a doctor?") and it's very time-consuming. I'm thinking about applying to 40 different schools because I'm a premed in California, and if they take as much time as my primary that's obviously going to change. How much effort and time do secondary statements take compared to the primary statement?

If I have to pick apart each of my secondaries in the same way I'm doing to my primary, that's going to take quite a significant amount of time for me. Also, are a lot of secondary apps pretty redundant?

 

[gobigorgohome22]

Secondaries should take a day or two. Maybe longer early on. Once you do like 5-8 of them, you'll have basically all the essays you need done. All you'll have to do is tweak them for each specific school because most schools have the same few prompts. You should look at starting to pre-write secondaries for some schools because prompts stay the same from one year to the next.

 

[mrh125]

Secondaries should take a day or two. Maybe longer early on. Once you do like 5-8 of them, you'll have basically all the essays you need done. All you'll have to do is tweak them for each specific school because most schools have the same few prompts. You should look at starting to pre-write secondaries for some schools because prompts stay the same from one year to the next.

Good to know. How nitpicky do I need to be about grammar and showing not telling? On the primary statement I have to write in a different writing style than I've ever used before.

 

[Chipster.]

Good to know. How nitpicky do I need to be about grammar and showing not telling? On the primary statement I have to write in a different writing style than I've ever used before.

Pretty nitpicky on that whole grammar thing.

 

[mrh125]

Pretty nitpicky on that whole grammar thing.

Ok, i'll work on it. It's not exactly my strong suite, but good to know.