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Please discuss.
Is it okay to take more than two weeks to reply to secondaries?
- Thread starter Giovanotto
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no
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Why would it even take two weeks? At max the long ones take a few days. Unless money is the problem, nope.
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Yes it's fine. Some secondaries have deadlines of 3 weeks, a month or no deadline at all. That being said, you should try to get them in as quickly as possible.
Anyone getting all their secondaries turned in within a few days probably isn't a full-time student or working a full-time job.
Anyone getting all their secondaries turned in within a few days probably isn't a full-time student or working a full-time job.
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Guys, I'm incredibly stressed. It takes me a lot of time to work these prompts. I'm trying to write 21 school's worth of secondaries at the same time. How can I possibly do it as soon as some of you are implying. Am I just really slow? Do they not have to be perfect?
I also only work 3 days a week, so no excuses there.
I also only work 3 days a week, so no excuses there.
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I mean, a lot can be reworked to fit multiple prompts!
It's absolutely fine. It's not going to help you, but I honestly only think it hurts you in that it puts you behind others that have applied sooner. For instance- three identical applicants - one gets secondary invite August 1st - waits to submit until September 1st. This will be viewed no differently than applicant 2 with a secondary invite on August 28 and submits September 1st. But if someone else received one on August 1st and had it in by August 8th, they'll be in (slightly) better shape.
There's this idea that schools will be offended if you don't turn them in immediately, and I don't think that's the case. I was waiting on a final LOR so I waited to submit all my secondaries so that I'd be complete when I submitted them and I was fine.
There's this idea that schools will be offended if you don't turn them in immediately, and I don't think that's the case. I was waiting on a final LOR so I waited to submit all my secondaries so that I'd be complete when I submitted them and I was fine.
It's fine to take more than 2 weeks, but of course, you should get them in as soon as possible. The first secondary I got was 1 month ago, and I've only submitted 6 out of the 20, 4 of which did not require essays. However, I'm also working 2 jobs and taking summer classes, so I'm really slow at it. I finally have time this weekend, so I'm looking to submit most of it, but you should just sit down and do it. After probably the 5th one, they're all the same, asking why this school, why DO, what have you done and why we should take you.
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It's not a real rule
Bingo! The vast majority of the essays can be tweaked to fit just about any school. You need to treat this like a job, 6-8h a day (when you are off) you have to be working on your secondaries. If you dont have any right now you can look up some of last years prompts and start working on them.
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I understand. I'm doing my best. Thank you for commenting.
I go on vacation tomorrow and got four secondaries today. Won't be finishing them until next week. Hope it is okay. No going to rush them and do them all in one night.
No internet or phone signal for the next week and I'm a borderline candidate. This sucks.
No internet or phone signal for the next week and I'm a borderline candidate. This sucks.
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I usually take two weeks. Sometimes more, sometimes less time. Depends on the school and their prompts. But I am sure schools will respect that people have other obligations in life. Don't lose sleep over it, you are good.
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As soon as possible is good, but there's no hard-and-fast two week rule. Quality over speed, if you have to choose.
its fine. only neurotic sdn will tell you otherwise. Many of the schools arent even ready to process applications anyways. Not to mention the DO cycle is much longer than the MD cycle. Relax! SDN just adds to the neurotism take a break from here if u have to.
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I've seen many of your posts and you're not in any better position to say this.
Like everyone said, the faster you get secondaries done, the better. I had about 20 secondaries and filled out my top choices before others. If you're applying to MD, you need to get them done quickly.
kenji gonna kenji. im trying to calm a poster down with the truth and here you are instigating. everyone falls victim to neurotism at some point. no need to encourage it.
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You're right that DO cycle is longer, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't complete the secondaries ASAP. You're competing with thousand other applicants, the sooner you get your files in, the earlier you get interviews. You're the silly one here. Everyone is encouraging of finishing the application early for a reason. Sure you can take your time, but don't whine when you don't hear back from any school when everyone else is getting interviews left and right.
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youre pointing out the obvious. its rolling admission, the faster you submit the better. As others have stated however, its not as imperative to do so as this is the DO cycle, not the MD cycle. You're also causing panic to rush out an essay rather than submitting a quality essay. No one wants to feel dumb or abnormal because they cant write quality essays fast unlike some of the posters in this thread (power to them). But everyones different. OP knows its in his/her best interest to submit fast, but its important for them to know not to kill themselves over not submitting in a day or two since this cycle is very different from MD.
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How can you presume that OP did not apply to MD? OP has 21 secondaries. I can tell you that some are from MD schools.
There is no where I indicated that OP needed to rush in lieu of submitting the best secondaries as possible. Nevertheless, the longer it takes to write paragraphs does not always correlate to higher quality. OP isn't writing a book, but answers to general prompts.
The title is "more than two weeks," where do you get a day or two?
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You completely misunderstood everyone's intention and unnecessarily called out SDNers that they are neurotic. I wish you luck with your endeavors, you will need it.
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-I gave him an advice regarding the DO cycle, not MD.
-Some people take longer to write paragraphs and organize their ideas than others.
-the passive aggressiveness is real.
I apologize for the disagreement, we have different opinions. I actually wish everyone (even you) best of luck.
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@Giovanotto : Take a deep breath and relax. As others have said, the earlier you get them in, the better. Mwoods18 gave a perfect example. The bottom line is that you should be finished with them early, regardless of when you got the secondaries, try and have all the MD ones done by the end of August, and all the DO ones done by mid-September (thought it's acceptable to be later at some DO schools). Some schools might care about a certain time limit, but as long as you're still submitting them early in the cycle it shouldn't be an issue at most places. The '2 week rule' is just a good way to keep yourself working on them at a decent pace, if you end up taking longer it's fine, especially if you submitted primaries early.
More importantly, make sure you're writing is solid even if the content is just okay. At a lot of places, you're not going to write secondaries so good that you'll be accepted for them, but you can easily write an essay which has bad structure or grammar that will get you rejected. While it's okay to 'recycle' essays, you should be careful in doing so. It's easy to think two essay prompts are similar when they're not. We were told by our adcom that we'd be surprised at how many secondaries they get that were obviously written for a different prompt and not re-worked well enough. Just make sure that if you recycle essays that they are actually answering the question being asked and not just talking about the same topic.
The final thing I'll point out is to look at the advice being given here. I think it's pretty telling that everyone that has said "it's not okay to take more than 2 weeks" is a pre-med, while all the med students and accepted students are telling you to write solid essays as fast as you can regardless of the time it takes. So once again, take a deep breath, relax, and do your best as fast as you can without worrying about '2 weeks'.
More importantly, make sure you're writing is solid even if the content is just okay. At a lot of places, you're not going to write secondaries so good that you'll be accepted for them, but you can easily write an essay which has bad structure or grammar that will get you rejected. While it's okay to 'recycle' essays, you should be careful in doing so. It's easy to think two essay prompts are similar when they're not. We were told by our adcom that we'd be surprised at how many secondaries they get that were obviously written for a different prompt and not re-worked well enough. Just make sure that if you recycle essays that they are actually answering the question being asked and not just talking about the same topic.
The final thing I'll point out is to look at the advice being given here. I think it's pretty telling that everyone that has said "it's not okay to take more than 2 weeks" is a pre-med, while all the med students and accepted students are telling you to write solid essays as fast as you can regardless of the time it takes. So once again, take a deep breath, relax, and do your best as fast as you can without worrying about '2 weeks'.
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What if you submitted within a few days but it takes longer than 2 weeks to get that last required LOR?
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The same idea applies. From what I understand they need your complete application to move onto the selection for the interview. The sooner you get it in the better! It is not lethal to cross the 2 week mark, you will be good. Just send it in ASAP.
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I've been writing mine in a couple days, editing for a few more, then submitting. Overall I'm at about a week for each.
And yes I work full time, med school is just a higher priority than being with friends right now.
And yes I work full time, med school is just a higher priority than being with friends right now.
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You're not "finished" with your secondary until everything is submitted. That includes LORs.
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Heard that. I'm working, and taking a 6 week intensive class. Just so happens secondaries started to roll in a day or two before an exam, with a final project and final exam the next week. What was Alanis Morrisette said? Life has a funny way...
OP, that being said, I prioritized my secondaries based on my personal rank of each school and when they rolled in. If there are few schools you REALLY want to go to, get those done (well) first. I write them very slowly, even though I know what I want to say, edit, rewrite, etc. I wouldn't be too concerned. Rushing your secondaries won't do you any favors. Schools get thousands. You want yours to be quality.
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Im rooting for you! Stay off of SDN and focus on you, something I need to do
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Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
