I hate secondaries

[stherling]

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I've been sitting on my secondaries for weeks now.... my goal is to have them out the door by monday or tuesday. what i don't understand is the fact there are people over in the pre-allo forum who applied to 30-40 schools!! HOW??!! I'm applying to a pitifully small number of schools (not really by choice) and I'm having a hard enough time getting mine done. in fact, the only two i've submitted are washU and Harvard, because neither required any essays ;P

anyway. just bewildered and very sick of writing essays.... I haven't been able to recycle many, unfortunately.

 

[dr.z]

You are not the only one. I don't know if anyone really likes doing secondaries.

 

[stherling]

of course... i'm sure no one does. i just felt like venting...

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

of course... i'm sure no one does. i just felt like venting...

Yeah, well, I have 35! I have done 18 so far, so 17 more. I'm really not TOO worried about some of the essays, though. A lot of them seem to be rehashing of AMCAS essays, so I don't put too much into such essays, since they already have that information, and I think they are really asking the extra little questions just so that they can arguably justifiably ask for secondary money. Essays that require novel responses must be treated more carefully, of course.

 

[bottles999]

of course... i'm sure no one does. i just felt like venting...

Hang in there Stherling... I FEEL your pain and completely sympathize!!!! Submitted 13, 4 (almost 6 ready to send out monday or later today), and then 5 more after that.

Fortunately, one one more very unique answer, which does take more time. At this point after answering so many prompts that I usually have an answer to start from somewhere. The only harder question I find are the WHY "MY" School questions. You really need to look hard at the researchers and what their focuses are, the program architecture and how its run....ect. Takes time to look at all that.

This is all part of the weeding out process - They make it this misrible for a reason. 😉

Good Luck!

 

[huseyin]

Hang in there Stherling... I FEEL your pain and completely sympathize!!!! Submitted 13, 4 (almost 6 ready to send out monday or later today), and then 5 more after that.

Fortunately, one one more very unique answer, which does take more time. At this point after answering so many prompts that I usually have an answer to start from somewhere. The only harder question I find are the WHY "MY" School questions. You really need to look hard at the researchers and what their focuses are, the program architecture and how its run....ect. Takes time to look at all that.

This is all part of the weeding out process - They make it this misrible for a reason. 😉

Good Luck!

Hey:

I assume you guys are applying to Harvard MSTP, right? If you are applying to MSTP, there should be one, why Harvard essay????

 

[stherling]

Hey:

I assume you guys are applying to Harvard MSTP, right? If you are applying to MSTP, there should be one, why Harvard essay????

Eek. I didn't see it on the secondary. I'm not at home and can't check my print outs, but i'll make sure to take a look later tonight. where on the secondary was it?

 

[stherling]

i just checked my printouts.... can't find that question anywhere. Could you be more specific?

 

[bottles999]

i just checked my printouts.... can't find that question anywhere. Could you be more specific?

There is NO Harvard MSTP essay requirement. However there is for the Health, Science, and Technology (HST) program if elect to apply for that as well. Its listed in Item 8 in the application, but only if you select the HST option in 1A. You must select one of the two, if you look at Item 1B, when you select the MD-PhD. Thats where the essay came from, but if ya do the New Pathways you dont have the essay requirement at all.

Note: I am not counting the 100 character limit of - List your research interests as an Essay! That is just SILLY to call that an Essay.

Feels like it April 15 and not Sept 15 (Close enuff).

 

[stherling]

Awesome. I'm not crazy. AND I don't have yet another essay to write. woohoo!

 

[huseyin]

Awesome. I'm not crazy. AND I don't have yet another essay to write. woohoo!

sorry guys. I was wrong. As you can predict, I have chosen both programs, so the stupid essay appreared in front of me. Thanks to everyone who wakes me up.

regards,

huseyin

 

[JayQuah]

I've been sitting on my secondaries for weeks now.... my goal is to have them out the door by monday or tuesday. what i don't understand is the fact there are people over in the pre-allo forum who applied to 30-40 schools!! HOW??!! I'm applying to a pitifully small number of schools (not really by choice) and I'm having a hard enough time getting mine done. in fact, the only two i've submitted are washU and Harvard, because neither required any essays ;P

anyway. just bewildered and very sick of writing essays.... I haven't been able to recycle many, unfortunately.

Def feel your pain...all these people who are saying they turn secondaries around in 2 hours in the Pre-Allo form do NOT have to write about their specific research interests, or where they see themselves in 10 years...obviously

 

[Thundrstorm]

Only three left.... I can make it.


I keep fighting the urge to add one more school to AMCAS. Every time I think about my stats, I have a little panic attack.