I hate secondaries

[Strategy99]

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I am not a good writer and I feel that it is impacting my chances. Does anyone else just feel that secondaries are much more valuable to excellent writers?

Because there are so many applicants, it makes it much more difficult to have that "wow" factor in your secondaries. However, if you are an excellent writer, you can make a (relatively) bland aspect of yourself sound amazing. Schools like GW, GT, etc have 14k applicants.. even with unique aspects of yourself, you need to properly present it. I have some unique aspects, but its hard for me to present it on paper as passionately as I feel about them. That's why I want the opportunity to show that passion in an interview, but to get to that step, I need to succeed in my secondaries...


Does anyone know what I mean?

 

[psswrd]

.

 

[circulus vitios]

I know how you feel except I don't have any unique aspects.

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

So apply to the schools that don't have essays. Cinci, Wright State, Drexel off the top of my head.

 

[medguy13]

You are correct.

Well, actually, it's not so much the secondaries that suck, it's the secondary essays. I'd gladly pay an extra $50 for each school if I knew I wouldn't have to waste hours of my life writing these damn things.

 

[ijustwantsun]

Seriously. I am SICK of thinking about and talking about myself.

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

Seriously. I am SICK of thinking about and talking about myself.

You're going to love interviews!

 

[pepes1lv1a]

My friend and I were fb messaging back and forth about twerking and then this came out of nowhere...

As a physician, I will strive to provide hoes with the resources they need to twerk their derrieres. I hope to pioneer in such cutting edge procedures as vibrating buttock implants, because I feel that even cosmetic procedures can profoundly impact a hoe's relation to the world around her and improve her quality of life.

I am actually losing it

 

[Lucky Louie]

As a physician, I will strive to provide hoes with the resources they need to twerk their derrieres. I hope to pioneer in such cutting edge procedures as vibrating buttock implants, because I feel that even cosmetic procedures can profoundly impact a hoe's relation to the world around her and improve her quality of life.

I seriously hope you'd use this. Certainly would make your essay unique.

 

[cookiemonsters]

You're going to love interviews!

Yeah, but those are just half an hour each. I literally spent 6 hours struggling to write about my most humbling experience and how it will impact my interactions with my peers and future patients.

 

[rosaceae]

I am feeling the same way OP. I am not a bad writer, but I am in no way an excellent writer. It takes me a really long time to get something down that I can be proud of. Because it takes me so long, I have been churning out my secondaries pretty much 10-14 days (and one 16 days.. oops) after I receive them. I always have the most intense writers block so it blows my mind that people can turn these in in a matter of hours or just a few days. I am completely sick of writing and I always feel like I am repeating myself. I am about 75% done with the secondaries I have so far but I am waiting on 10+ more secondaries. 🙁 It feels like it never ends.

 

[starlight15]

I am feeling the same way OP. I am not a bad writer, but I am in no way an excellent writer. It takes me a really long time to get something down that I can be proud of. Because it takes me so long, I have been churning out my secondaries pretty much 10-14 days (and one 16 days.. oops) after I receive them. I always have the most intense writers block so it blows my mind that people can turn these in in a matter of hours or just a few days. I am completely sick of writing and I always feel like I am repeating myself. I am about 75% done with the secondaries I have so far but I am waiting on 10+ more secondaries. 🙁 It feels like it never ends.

I feel the same way! It takes me forever to write so I am a little glad I haven't been verified yet and don't need to be rushing THAT much quite yet...

 

[Doctor Strange]

I couldn't imagine spending more than a day on a secondary, let alone two weeks. I consider myself a great writer, but my secondaries responses were all very cut and dry. I put approximately zero creativity and minimal thought into my essays, and it didn't seem to hold me back in the least.

I don't know, I think maybe some people are over-thinking things a little.

 

[DaenarysDuhh]

So apply to the schools that don't have essays. Cinci, Wright State, Drexel off the top of my head.

I'll add Mayo and Rochester to that list if people do want to stack up on the no essay schools...

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

Yeah, but those are just half an hour each. I literally spent 6 hours struggling to write about my most humbling experience and how it will impact my interactions with my peers and future patients.

Haha yeah good point. My interviews were all over the map. 10 min to nearly 2 hours.

That sucks about your essay though. I was ok with essays like that one. Ohio State was the bane of my existence, though. Bunch of PC questions about like social justice and cultural exposure. So glad that's over.

 

[Amba]

I couldn't imagine spending more than a day on a secondary, let alone two weeks. I consider myself a great writer, but my secondaries responses were all very cut and dry. I put approximately zero creativity and minimal thought into my essays, and it didn't seem to hold me back in the least.

I don't know, I think maybe some people are over-thinking things a little.

Despite the fact that I am hardly into this app cycle yet, this x1000. It's important to put forth good essays, but it shouldn't take 2 weeks to write a "why school x" essay.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I know how you feel except I don't have any unique aspects.

I know how you feel except I don't have any unique aspects.

 

[circulus vitios]

It's a spammer. Look at his other posts. He appends a spam link at the end.

 

[nabilesmail]

Same, last cycle I applied to 35 schools, 4 II all of them at schools that had no secondary essays lols 😛

 

[Spinach Dip]

I support this thread with the burning passion of a thousand suns.

 

[thisandthat]

Secondaries have been the absolute most painful part of the entire pre med process for me. And that includes organic chemistry and the MCAT.

I have always considered myself a good writer but secondaries are a whole other beast, it seems. Yes, I am way over thinking them and probably putting in too much time and effort. That said, I would rather agonize over them now (and hopefully get a few II), then look back and wish I had been more meticulous.

I did add 5 schools to my list just because they didn't require essays. And I might add a couple more.

 

[jdfamily]

There are aspects of being a physician we are not going to like as well, but we shouldn't let those aspects keep us from living our dream job. Same thing applies here in my opinion. Don't let writing essays keep you from applying to your dream school.

 

[stargate16]

thisandthat, what are 2 of the schools don't require essays? I have Cincinatti,Drexel and Jefferson..I am finding the same difficulty with writing secondaries.

 

[thisandthat]

Here is a more complete list:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=8418202

Many of them are not OOS friendly. But I would recommend looking at NYMC, Albert Einstein, Rochester and Saint Louis.

Good luck!

 

[stargate16]

Thanks!

 

[PreMedRookie]

I completely agree. I struggled with my PS because I have trouble putting thoughts and 'feelings' into words. These stupid essays about what I will bring to the school...how in the world do you find something unique about yourself that they would care about??

 

[sc91]

I completely agree. I struggled with my PS because I have trouble putting thoughts and 'feelings' into words. These stupid essays about what I will bring to the school...how in the world do you find something unique about yourself that they would care about??

This might help a little. I tend to think now less of what is unique about myself, because let's face it, there are literally thousands of people who have done what I have done. What I try to get across is even though I've done what anyone else could have done, I've done it and want it, if that makes sense? I was able to be on the other side of an interview process (for picking RAs for college 🙂 ) and everything that was mentioned by each of the candidates was done before, but the ones that we picked were the ones that showed that they grew from that process, or that it was a worthwhile experience for them.

So what I guess i'm trying to get at is instead of thinking about something unique, just talk about an experience that you've learned and grew from. Yes, even though it might not be unique, the way you describe it to an adcom will be unique enough cause it's coming from your perspective?

ramble ramble ramble..

Side-note: Why can't I ramble like this with secondaries ugh

 

[star349]

i'm not sure about any of you, but my brain AND my computer decided to be dead after about 10 secondaries. so I have had one ENTIRE WEEK of no secondaries being complete! every time I tried, I ended up staring at the prompt for like 4 hours and writing crap that doesn't even make sense :[[[

in essence, I totally agree: secondaries have been the hardest part yet!!!! why couldn't I just be a better writer? TT.TT

 

[osprey099]

Not sure if I should have done this but I copy/pasted many of my secondary essays from one school to another. Most of them have similar prompts and only require some minor tweaking.

 

[QuantumQuark]

i'm not sure about any of you, but my brain AND my computer decided to be dead after about 10 secondaries. so I have had one ENTIRE WEEK of no secondaries being complete! every time I tried, I ended up staring at the prompt for like 4 hours and writing crap that doesn't even make sense :[[[

in essence, I totally agree: secondaries have been the hardest part yet!!!! why couldn't I just be a better writer? TT.TT

I was going through the same thing and finally got over the "block" last night and submitted another secondary. Just keep staring eventually it will come

 

[rosaceae]

Not sure if I should have done this but I copy/pasted many of my secondary essays from one school to another. Most of them have similar prompts and only require some minor tweaking.

It is really common to recycle essays like this and a good way to save on time.. my issue is that I notice the little subtleties in each question so I end up changing it almost completely anyway haha

 

[pepes1lv1a]

I have finished 20 secondaries, most of them requiring at least one essay. I had one question left before I could RELAX A LITTLE knowing I had finished everything I could for the time being. The question:. "What did you learn from your volunteering experience?" 1000 characters. So close. But I just. can't. do. it. anymore.

 

[psswrd]

.

 

[pyrrion89]

I thought you guys were wussies until I hit secondary #26 (UC Riverside - 12 essays) and I hated my life for a few minutes.

 

[ClamzoniofRI]

12 essays??

 

[rosaceae]

I thought you guys were wussies until I hit secondary #26 (UC Riverside - 12 essays) and I hated my life for a few minutes.

Yeah that is the one I am working on right now... The essays aren't hard.. just tedious. I decided to work on this one after hitting writer's block on my 6000 character UCSD essay. Still have two others lined up in the queue and waiting for six more 🙁

 

[yehhhboiii]

I thought you guys were wussies until I hit secondary #26 (UC Riverside - 12 essays) and I hated my life for a few minutes.

that's a lot to ask for a new school

 

[ES2]

I thought you guys were wussies until I hit secondary #26 (UC Riverside - 12 essays) and I hated my life for a few minutes.

I'm on this one right now 😴

 

[GoPelicans]

You guys should check out the U Kansas secondary if you want to see what pain looks like.

 

[jk1006]

You guys should check out the U Kansas secondary if you want to see what pain looks like.

ha agreed
i applied there last year, saw the secondary, said nope
and that was that

for not being that great of a school they sure ask a lot of questions

 

[yehhhboiii]

ha agreed
i applied there last year, saw the secondary, said nope
and that was that

for not being that great of a school they sure ask a lot of questions

and that judgment is based on what exactly?

 

[Mornhavon]

.

 

[gobigorgohome22]

Secondaries should go like this:

Question 1: Please put credit card information here

Question 2: Why are you applying (select as many that apply)

A: Because we teach medicine
B: Because we are cheap
C: Because we are cheap AND teach medicine
D: Your parents are making you

Thank you for applying to Nice Med School, you'll hear back from us with an admissions decision within one to two hours after submitting this secondary. We don't do interviews as we believe they overly select for sociopaths. Thank you once again!

+++++++++++++++++11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

Lets start our own medical school that does this!