How much time does it take to construct a great application??

[johnwandering]

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I am planning to finish it after I am done with the MCAT in June

However, I'm really worried that it's going to take a LOT longer than I thought it would...
How long did it take you??

 

[murfettie]

forever, my thumb hurts..

 

[jm192]

You can do most of it in a day if you really wanted to do so.

The Personal Statement is where you may stall. Once you've finished that, no time at all.

I spent several weeks mulling over what to write about, e-mailing it back and forth among a few professors, and editing it.

 

[johnwandering]

I am, however, asking for a "quality complete application"

Not the kind I'll be writing in a day




I've heard from people that it takes about 3-4 weeks??

 

[jm192]

I am, however, asking for a "quality complete application"

Not the kind I'll be writing in a day




I've heard from people that it takes about 3-4 weeks??

Oh. YOU want a good application. My mistake. I thought you wanted to submit a poor one, like the rest of us.

You shouldn't even ask if you're going to take an attitude about it. No one is going to give you advice to half-butt your application.

Have you LOOKED at the application? At all?

There's alot of name writing, course entering, and extra curricular listing. It's hard to do most of this stuff with poor quality.

There is a small space in the activities section to briefly describe each activity and or award. But really, they want a brief description. If you're spending days trying to figure out how to write that to perfection, you're wasting time.

Personal statement can take 3-4 weeks. But if you grab a few coffees and sit down in front of the computer and just pound away, you could have all the rest of it filled out in less than ONE DAY.

 

[johnwandering]

Are you serious???

There was no attitude in that post whatsoever. I wrote it with a clean intent. The quotations are obviously there to emphasize what I was looking for, not any kind of sarcasm.



This post, on the other hand, has a bit of spin on it

Thanks for answering my question by the way***

 

[AH3]

Most of the stuff you fill out is just basic informational stuff. Courses, grades, name, address, etc. The only things you even have to think about are the personal statement and the work/activities list. Those won't take any more than a week if you devote time to them, but I'd suggest starting to plan out your personal statement. Even if you're a good writer, it is a pretty unique type of assignment that is hugely important to your application, so I'd make sure it's your best work. I've heard of some people writing theirs in a day, while others write theirs over a course of weeks or months.

 

[SirGecko]

Are you serious???

There was no attitude in that post whatsoever. I wrote it with a clean intent. The quotations are obviously there to emphasize what I was looking for, not any kind of sarcasm.

Your post still came off as you being a little bit of a condescending jerk, whether you intended it or not. (my advice would just be to be more careful about what you write in the future or don't care when someone takes it the wrong way) He's right, the application really doesn't take that long to fill out once you have your personal statement written up. It is a form with very little room for ambiguity (just the personal statement and brief descriptions of your activities) this isn't like secondary applications where you get questions to answer.

 

[Frazier]

For the record, I did not have a beard [nor gray hair] when I began writing up my application... Also you may notice that my clothes have seemed to disintegrate over the app time period, yet the MSAR under my foot still holds strong.





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[addo]

The only parts of the application that will take you time will be your activities, because you got to make sure you have a good description, and the personal statement. The letters of recommendation are out of your control once you request them, so you cant do much about them. Entering coursework is a bit time consuming, as in maybe an hour or 2 at the most.

The questions really comes down to the personal statement, and it is what is coming down to for me. I am having such a hard time with it, and i am afraid i am going to stall on it about a week or two longer. However, it is an integral part of your application, and a part that you have the most control over at this stage.

 

[d1ony5u5]

Now I'll write for the dissenting opinion.

Mine took about 2-3 months of pure agony. I agree that most of the application is straight forward, but the ECs and the PS were a complete time suck. At the time I was also working full time in a research lab (which was probably like 1.5 X full time), so that could account for some of the delay...

On the other hand, I did put a lot of effort into making absolutely sure that every part of my app fit with the others. I first researched all the secondaries of the schools I was going to apply to, and figured out how to connect the answer I intended to write in them with the rest of my app.

For example, for the ones that ask about overcoming difficult situations, I made sure to set up the stage in my PS by mentioning something on which I could build. For the ones that ask about one activity and it's impact, I included well thought out (by my opinion) descriptions in the EC portion. All in all, it was difficult and time consuming, but I was confident it was a solid app when I submitted it.

 

[Dianyla]

I've been working on assembling all of the details to submit into AMCAS for several months already. My undergrad's premed committee letter service required at minimum a draft of everything that would go into AMCAS. I am eternally grateful for this, because the deadline on that was April 30th which put me ahead of the game. Now I'm just doing minor reviewing and editing of how I'm presenting things.

To estimate total time logged so far:
Work/Activities: About 8-10 hours of assembling details, writing, rewriting, etc. to consider how well I'm presenting and describing myself in these activities.
Coursework: About 5-6 hours to submit, check, and double-check everything. Bear in mind I have 5 transcripts spanning 15 years, though.
Transcript Requests: About 1 hour spent so far to add all schools, print out and mail requests. Will likely spend at least another 1 hour babysitting schools to ensure all 5 arrive in good time.
Personal Statement: About 20-25 hours into it so far, and I'm far from happy with it. I anticipate at least another 10+ hours of work on it as I receive more feedback and try to incorporate it reasonably.
Letters: About 10-12 hours total time, preparing envelope packets with copies of my CV and draft PS and committee paperwork. Then tracking everybody down in person, multiple times, and performing followup calls and emails to ensure all letters have been received. Lastly, thank you notes for all writers.
All other sections of AMCAS: Maybe 1 hour max to just fill in all the biographical and details fields.

Bottom line, it's adding up to 60+ hours spread across several months.

Many other premeds I've talked to seem to think I'm spending way more time on this than necessary. They might be right! OTOH, as a non-traditional, I have a lot more material to incorporate (good, bad, and ugly) and need to figure out how to wrap all of that up into a tidy package.

I think it's really a matter of professionalism to ensure that the entire application reflects a careful, thorough, well-crafted, and polished portfolio. I can't even imagine how someone could sit down in a day or two and just crank something out. 😱

 

[addo]

Transcript Requests: About 1 hour spent so far to add all schools, print out and mail requests. Will likely spend at least another 1 hour babysitting schools to ensure all 5 arrive in good time.

No kidding, I mailed in a transcript request to my main school, and they lost it or something. I had to go in person and order it again, and that took like 2 hours, from trying to figure out if they had gotten it, then printing new requests out and then waiting in line plus driving. I still need to make sure the transcripts get to amcas and tmdsas.
Moral of the story is you need to foresee situations like these. It wasnt such a setback because i dont have other things ready, but imagine if this was the last thing to do, youre applying borderline late, and they pull something like this.

 

[mvenus929]

I think it's really a matter of professionalism to ensure that the entire application reflects a careful, thorough, well-crafted, and polished portfolio. I can't even imagine how someone could sit down in a day or two and just crank something out. 😱

A lot of what you described has to do with things beyond your control, and those factors will be different for different people. For instance, this past cycle, I had all my letters together less than a week after I requested them. I spent maybe an hour contacting professors to get letters. My transcripts took maybe an hour (I tag teamed and talked to my professors and got my transcripts mailed at the same time).

Inputting the courses took me a couple hours, just because they don't do much to streamline the application.

My Personal Statement took me plenty of hours (probably 20, not including the time I was waiting to hear back from different readers), but you work on that the whole semester prior to submitting the application. It's an essay selling yourself with no particular prompt.

My activities section probably took a solid 3-4 hours.

So, beyond my PS, it took about a day to fill the rest of the application out. I spread it out over a few days to double check my work and everything, but there's no reason it should take more than a week to do.

 

[johnwandering]

Thank you everyone, and my apologies for my remarks
>_<



I will be more careful next time~

English is not my first language, so i perhaps I am getting my legs back after spending all my weeks in Korean chat rooms

 

[d1ony5u5]

I can see why Jm192 was offended by your response, but I thought the whole exchange was pretty funny!

Good luck with your app.

 

[Dianyla]

A lot of what you described has to do with things beyond your control, and those factors will be different for different people. For instance, this past cycle, I had all my letters together less than a week after I requested them. I spent maybe an hour contacting professors to get letters. My transcripts took maybe an hour (I tag teamed and talked to my professors and got my transcripts mailed at the same time).

Wow! I'm so envious that it went so smoothly for you. Again, being a nontrad, my situation is a lot more messy and complicated. I started requesting letters as early as January, and only 2 of the 7 had arrived in time for the premed committee deadline at the end of April. Thankfully 4 more arrived the following week and were still accepted for review. 😱

 

[familyaerospace]

Well, I'm more than a bit ahead of the game since I'm not applying until next year, but I have 6 of the 8 letters I want already in my Interfolio account (waiting on committee letter plus one letter from a non-profit that I've been working for several years).

I have my personal statement done, ready, polished. Don't ask me how long that has taken, but suffice it to say I've been working on it since December.

I am currently working on my disadvantaged essay which I think I am close to the end of thanks to one of my readers (Dianyla).

I have rough write-ups for 12 of my activities and waiting on some other factors to find out what I am going to use for the remaining slots (I have 4 solid possibilities and 3 slots).

I have all my classes in an Excel spreadsheet in order, by school and if they are BCPM. (Still need to add tags for the others). That should make my data entry section much easier.

By the time I am ready to apply next year, I should be able to fill out the entire app in a day or so and just wait for verification.

As for why I am starting early, I wanted to assure that most of my work was done before I needed to study for the MCAT. 🙂