How much time do you spend on secondaries?

[swtiepie711]

I'm having trouble guaging how much time to spend on each secondary - how much time are you spending on these essays?

 

[jackieMD2007]

Join the club kiddo--just another one of the many factors in this hellish, I mean, wonderful process.

I have been spending about 3-7 days depending on how easy it was for me to write the essay in the first place. For example, Columbia had me stumped for awhile, but I got it in in 4 days. I had a weekend in there, though. Send the essays in when you're happy with them.

 

[SpeakLittleB]

quite some time. i feel like since we spent so much time on our ps and the first app already, we should see the effort through. i'm writing the short responses pretty quickly, but several drafts on the essay. the only real time-saver for me is just editing myself instead of asking others like i did for the ps.

 

[thadarknyte]

do you guys write the essay with the same "importance" that the personal statement had?

 

[jackieMD2007]

Well, unless you want to spend three weeks to a month on your PS, I would say "No" you aren't giving it the same importance. But the questions are more direct and often require a shorter response. You've gotta put it together in a reasonable time frame. I think this is a different skill than the PS.

 

[notdeadyet]

I'm having trouble guaging how much time to spend on each secondary - how much time are you spending on these essays?

Depends on the secondary. Some of the ugly ones (U of Chicago comes to mind) are taking me weeks.

 

[Pkboi24]

I'm spending about a couple hours on each, depending on how long the essays are. I'm getting really tired of this process. But then again, maybe that's where I will fail. Here's a question for you guys:

What do you do with essay questions that ask you for special circumstances or experiences? If you don't have any that come to mind, do you just BS something or leave it blank?

 

[Robizzle]

Personal Statement - convince them you want to be a doctor - a good one.
Secondary Essays - convince them their school is what will make you a good doctor.

take whatever time you need, don't base it off how we're doin' it!

 

[BuckerPark]

take whatever time you need, don't base it off how we're doin' it!

Agreed. This is our last attempt to make an impression on the school (ok, yeah, LORs too...but that's a little less under your control). Everybody said about submitting AMCAS: early is good, CORRECT is better. I'm kinda taking the same approach here.

I also equate this approach to the whole interview tactic where people suggest you take a couple moments to compose an answer. It shows depth of thought and careful consideration. So, while I wouldn't necessarily sit on secondaries for weeks on end, I would give it time to formulate a well written response and not some BS that is going to stick out like a nun in a topless bar.

My goal: submit within two weeks of receiving the secondary.

 

[braluk]

im a pretty quick writer, and i edit quickly so i tend to spend no more then an hour or two on them if i sit down and focus. Of course this is dependent on how many 2ndary questions there are, but for the most part, the average is around 1 to 2 hours

 

[CavalierMD]

With my first few secondaries I was looking at a week turn-around. But once you get the hang of it and questions start repeating themselves, you get a lot of wear out of a few key paragraphs with minimal tweaking to fit new word/character limits. Now I'm knocking them out in about 3 days. But again, it's personal. It's still early in the game... taking an extra day to feel really good about your essays is still worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Severus]

Some -- like JHU or AECOM -- not so long. Columbia and Baylor are taking me awhile, though.

 

[jackieMD2007]

Bumping this thread--lets get some more opinions. We talk about this like 3x a day.

 

[leahmaria]

Bumping this thread--lets get some more opinions. We talk about this like 3x a day.

I feel good about the quick, no essay ones I can turn around in a day. The longer the length is, the longer I spend writing it...I figure for the secondaries it's more about what you say than how you say it...and for the short ones, i figure it's about fitting everything in in the length requirement I'm given. (One of the Rush essays gave 1000 charachters to discuss two experiences!). I've taken anywhere from a few days to two weeks to get them in.