How much time do you spend on secondary essays?

[AspiringOne]

Honestly, I feel like a giant slob with my secondaries. It's not that my essays are bad, I feel like most of them are actually quite decent.....but compared to the work I put in my PS, I just feel lazy. Part of the reason is that I can only get a couple of people to proofread my secondary essays as oppose to the PS which I had several people read (thank you SDNers ).

Anyone else feel this way? I think I am at the stage where I am torn between the advantage of taking more time to try to refine my essays vs the advantage of submitting the application as early as possible.

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[Kaydubz]

Advantage of taking the time to write a solid / unique / interesting secondary always > submitting early. Unless we're talking like a month.

 

[mikey1984]

hi, first time post here.

already submitted over half of my secondaries. I did go over my essays multiple times to make sure they answer the questions and are decent. but they are def. not like my personal statement which i have spent months on... and have asked my premed advisor to read over...

is this going to affect me? I am applying to a lot of schools, therefore I have a lot of secondaries.

and how do one get SDNers to read one's secondary essays? is this service free?

Thanks very much for any help
Mike

 

[AspiringOne]

Advantage of taking the time to write a solid / unique / interesting secondary always > submitting early. Unless we're talking like a month.

Well thats the thing. I write them and read them over and they seem pretty solid to me. But I guess since there are so many topics and questions I wonder if inspiration will strike me (as it sometimes does) AFTER I've submitted, at which point it would be too late. It isn't the writing of the essays that really worries me, but more the content.

I revised my personal statement multiple times before I was satisifed with it and wrote many anecdotes for it. It was after alot of proofreading (by myself and others) that I felt it was adequate....but I don't have access to such proofreading now . And that's the problem.

 

[fizzle]

hi, first time post here.

already submitted over half of my secondaries. I did go over my essays multiple times to make sure they answer the questions and are decent. but they are def. not like my personal statement which i have spent months on... and have asked my premed advisor to read over...

is this going to affect me? I am applying to a lot of schools, therefore I have a lot of secondaries.

and how do one get SDNers to read one's secondary essays? is this service free?

Thanks very much for any help
Mike

No, you post your secondary in a thread, then you must post each SDN member $5 per post

Seriously, though, I'm hardly getting any of my secondaries read by anyone.

 

[ami1983]

Well thats the thing. I write them and read them over and they seem pretty solid to me. But I guess since there are so many topics and questions I wonder if inspiration will strike me (as it sometimes does) AFTER I've submitted, at which point it would be too late. It isn't the writing of the essays that really worries me, but more the content.

I revised my personal statement multiple times before I was satisifed with it and wrote many anecdotes for it. It was after alot of proofreading (by myself and others) that I felt it was adequate....but I don't have access to such proofreading now . And that's the problem.

i mean, theres only so much and so many ways you can write 200 words on a non-academic struggle or some other specific topic. the PS is much more open, and rightly so you should spend much more time on it!

 

[Kaustikos]

i mean, theres only so much and so many ways you can write 200 words on a non-academic struggle or some other specific topic. the PS is much more open, and rightly so you should spend much more time on it!

Or answering a question that you already answered in your personal statement.

In the end, though, a LOT of these secondaries will repeat themselves. The only ones that don't, and literally suck, are the ones asking you to basically tell that school why they're awesome.