*~*~* Official Secondary Application Thread 2013-2014 *~*~*

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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
I'm fed up with doing secondaries already. I submitted 7, one is almost ready for submission, one is still waiting for me to work on, and 3 more to receive.

I have no idea how people handle 20+ secondaries, especially those MD ones with 10+ questions.
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yeah secondaries are starting to get me too. i'm applying to 19 DO schools and planning to submit every single one of them.
 
VinceViegel said:
Me too. Do they screen heavily?
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I was under the impression they did. Haven't had time to open the secondary and look. I know they will only take a D.O. Letter and want 24hrs of documented D.O. Shadowing. Need to research more into that to see if it is a hard core requirement.
 
I got a secondary from vcom today but haven't taken the mcat yet. Is this normal?
 
buctuong said:
no vcom for me!
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Maybe it doesn't go out all at once? I'm confused on which schools gave a secondary right after you apply. I know tcom does because I got the secondary email 2 seconds after I applied. Also I know lmu-dcom apparently has one on their website. But I don't know of others who do that. I guess vcom, because I haven't taken the mcat yet and received the sec
 
A bunch of us got Rocky Vista's secondary this morning
 
wjs010 said:
Maybe it doesn't go out all at once? I'm confused on which schools gave a secondary right after you apply. I know tcom does because I got the secondary email 2 seconds after I applied. Also I know lmu-dcom apparently has one on their website. But I don't know of others who do that. I guess vcom, because I haven't taken the mcat yet and received the sec
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maybe they screen very heavily and haven't gotten to my primary yet. otherwise, i would've received a rejection.
 
buctuong said:
maybe they screen very heavily and haven't gotten to my primary yet. otherwise, i would've received a rejection.
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Well you wouldn't receive a rejection yet bubba. It will take a thorough process for them o decide that unless all of your numbers are below their limit. If I recall, you have decent numbers so you'll most likely get a secondary. Good luck!
 
The worst part about these is making sure they are almost flawless... I keep questioning myself as to whether my word choice was the best it could possibly be, but then the clock keeps ticking and more people are submitting while i'm still editing.

If all goes down the drain, I'm applying to only Non-essay schools next year haha 😎

Btw, someone should make a list of schools that screen before the secondary... NOT COUNTING schools that just send them to bare minimum requirements, but actual reviewing of the apps and then screening.
 
Anicetus said:
The worst part about these is making sure they are almost flawless... I keep questioning myself as to whether my word choice was the best it could possibly be, but then the clock keeps ticking and more people are submitting while i'm still editing.

If all goes down the drain, I'm applying to only Non-essay schools next year haha 😎

Btw, someone should make a list of schools that screen before the secondary... NOT COUNTING schools that just send them to bare minimum requirements, but actual reviewing of the apps and then screening.
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if it comes down to reapplying next year, you'll have all the essays ready
 
buctuong said:
RVU's secondary is a beast
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I feel like for some of us who already submitted quite a few secondaries can copy paste most of these RVU ones since they are very general prompts.
 
Are we supposed to be capitalizing "osteopathic" when you use it in essays?

Is it technically a proper noun?
 
So I've noticed a lot of variation with how many letters schools want. Do they want the specific amount of letters? I ask because my school handles this and they upload all my letters to interfolio when I give them a list of my schools. Should I be telling them the specific letters I want uploaded then, they usually sell the committee letter and the rest of my letters.
 
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SD3321 said:
So I've noticed a lot of variation with how many letters schools want. Do they want the specific amount of letters? I ask because my school handles this and they upload all my letters to interfolio when I give them a list of my schools. Should I be telling them the specific letters I want uploaded then, they usually sell the committee letter and the rest of my letters.
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Any ideas?
 
Can anyone share how they are formatting their CV? Right now I have Education, Professional Experience, Activities (Including shadowing and volunteer), Honors & Awards (Took this straight from the AACOMAS), and Hobbies & Interests.

For non-trad students that went back to school to take their prereqs and not for a degree, should I put "Pre-med" or something or just leave it blank?

University of Nevada – Las Vegas
January 2012 – present
***Should I put anything here?****

University of Illinois at Chicago
▪ Bachelor of Science, Finance and Management

Also, are there any sections that I am missing? How detailed do I have to be when I put the shadowing and volunteering section in?

****I graduated about 6 years ago and I was involved in a few clubs during my undergrad - should I include that or is that too far out now?
 
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CFused said:
Can anyone share how they are formatting their CV? Right now I have Education, Professional Experience, Activities (Including shadowing and volunteer), Honors & Awards (Took this straight from the AACOMAS), and Hobbies & Interests.

For non-trad students that went back to school to take their prereqs and not for a degree, should I put "Pre-med" or something or just leave it blank?

University of Nevada – Las Vegas
January 2012 – present
***Should I put anything here?****

University of Illinois at Chicago
▪ Bachelor of Science, Finance and Management

Also, are there any sections that I am missing? How detailed do I have to be when I put the shadowing and volunteering section in?

****I graduated about 6 years ago and I was involved in a few clubs during my undergrad - should I include that or is that too far out now?
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Mine is:
Education
Course Assistance (did lot of tutoring/teaching)
Extracurricular Experiences (clubs)
Healthcare Related Experiences (shadowing, hospital volunteering)

I don't have a hobbies section because this is a resume I gave my LoR writers and not for schools so I didn't think it was appropriate.
 
So my dad got fired from his job, I do not think I will be able to send out the amount of secondaries I would like to. Going to have to start hunting for another cna shift or 3.
 
Do you guys think it is ok to answer the CCOM/AZCOM secondaries with the same responses? I mean at least in regards to the second question of why you.
 
I sure as hell did. I think they have different adcoms, no?

serenade said:
Do you guys think it is ok to answer the CCOM/AZCOM secondaries with the same responses? I mean at least in regards to the second question of why you.
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Has VCOM sent out the secondaries for this cycle yet? If so, could someone please post what the questions are?? 🙂
 
What's the official list of schools that have sent out their secondaries so far?

These are the ones I have so far

ATSU Arizona
ATSU Kirksville
MSCOM
UMDNJ/Rowan
NOVA
LECOM
AZCOM
CUSOM
 
i'm wondering the same thing! are they the same for the virginia/carolina campus?
 
Rocky Vista
ATSU-KCOM/SOMA,
CUSOM
CCOM
AZCOM
LECOM (both campuses)
MU-COM
MSUCOM
NSUCOM
Roawn
TUCOM (NV and CA)
VCOM (both campuses)
WesternU (both campuses)
 
Why does Touro-NV's secondary application only give you room for 3 volunteering experiences? Wtf
 
Eremba said:
I thought it said you can use extra sheets if needed....
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I just noticed that. How do you insert a new page into the PDF?

Also why do they want us to literally just rehash what we wrote on our primary?
 
serenade said:
I just noticed that. How do you insert a new page into the PDF?

Also why do they want us to literally just rehash what we wrote on our primary?
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I don't know how to insert into the PDF. I printed mine and then scanned all the sheets together when I was done so it was a whole new doc and will send it that way...

And I felt like that with a couple of my secondaries...all that stuff is on the primary so why do they need it twice? It feels sneaky like they're trying to catch us not putting the same thing?
 
Eremba said:
I don't know how to insert into the PDF. I printed mine and then scanned all the sheets together when I was done so it was a whole new doc and will send it that way...

And I felt like that with a couple of my secondaries...all that stuff is on the primary so why do they need it twice? It feels sneaky like they're trying to catch us not putting the same thing?
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Meh, it's irritating me regardless. But at least there aren't any essays.
 
How soon should you fill out secondaries?

I got one yesterday, but I'm retaking the MCAT in 2 weeks (July 26) and I don't want to fill them out until after I take the test. Is that too late?
 
zipideedoodah said:
How soon should you fill out secondaries?

I got one yesterday, but I'm retaking the MCAT in 2 weeks (July 26) and I don't want to fill them out until after I take the test. Is that too late?
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I'm in same situation as you. I decided to do secondaries after MCAT (7/25) bc if I do poorly on MCAT .. Submitting Secondaries early really wont matter ... What is your plan?
 
hojjung33 said:
I'm in same situation as you. I decided to do secondaries after MCAT (7/25) bc if I do poorly on MCAT .. Submitting Secondaries early really wont matter ... What is your plan?
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This is actually a retake for me.
 
Eremba said:
I thought it said you can use extra sheets if needed....
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This was for listing work experiences, but for volunteering experiences it didn't mention that we could use extra sheets. I listed only three.
 
From the class thread, these appear to be the prompts for this years VCOM-CC secondary:

Describe the top three reasons you have chosen osteopathic medicine as your professional choice in becoming a physician (Please use your own description and not one that widely describes the profession).

Professionalism and the ability to gain respect in the community in which you live is of utmost importance as you embark upon a career as a physician. What three professional qualities do you feel a Student Doctor must be able to demonstrate as he/or she makes the transition into the study and practice of medicine. How will you demonstrate those qualities as a medical student at VCOM?

Please describe a volunteer or service activity that played a large part in your decision to become a physician.
 
For interview invites what should we be checking? Will it come through email or a phone call? Or do we have to check each school's portal everyday?
 
DMU secondary received today! 🙂 filled out and submitted. Here goes....
 
OMG OMG! I just found my VCOM secondary in the junk email folder!! I though I got rejected by VCOM.
 
VinceViegel said:
So you can just copy paste from aacomas?
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That is basically what I did. It asks for the name of the physician/DO you shadowed and also asks if you have experience with a family practice physician.

I added after my shadowing experiences that my personal care providers are usually DOs.
 
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