Quality of Secondaries

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

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After spending 5 days of nearly non-stop writing and 16 secondaries later...

I can't tell if my essays are brilliant or nonsensical.

I cannot begin to describe the burn out that I feel from writing the same thing over and over again, but tweaked ever so slightly for each school's slightly different prompt.

Does the quality of secondary essays really matter all that much compared to the PS and the rest of the application?

 

[jdfamily]

Obviously it is an important factor for every medical school. The level of importance will very with every medical school. The safest thing to do would be treat each secondary as if it were your personal statement for that school specifically.

You are not the only one feeling burned out! Just the other day I felt the same thing. I think you will feel relieved and that it was worth it once you start getting interview invites. Just push through it and jump through the hoops like the rest of us and it will be over before you know it. Good luck!

 

[Noggin]

After spending 5 days of nearly non-stop writing and 16 secondaries later...

I can't tell if my essays are brilliant or nonsensical.

I cannot begin to describe the burn out that I feel from writing the same thing over and over again, but tweaked ever so slightly for each school's slightly different prompt.

Does the quality of secondary essays really matter all that much compared to the PS and the rest of the application?

32 secondaries later imagine how I am feeling...

 

[osprey099]

32 secondaries later imagine how I am feeling...

35 secondaries later here...

 

[GoPelicans]

I powered through all the 'easy' secondaries. Now that I have Duke, Case Western, Miami, et al staring at me, I want to kill myself.

 

[Govols13]

I actually eliminated schools from my list based solely off their secondaries (although my list was ridiculously large to begin with). I'm still at 30+ schools though....

 

[Noggin]

What is the general consensus....is it that more than 40 schools is overkill? Is 35 schools pretty much the maximum that people apply to?

 

[Pose]

Yeah...my brain is fried. I feel like I keep repeating myself, which terrifies me. What if I keep reusing the same ****ty essay? And I also keep writing very general responses to the adversity essays, because how can I give a specific example AND touch on their mission statement in 1000 characters?

I still have 10+ to go. Thinking of adding a few other schools to my last just because they don't have essays.

 

[GoPelicans]

What is the general consensus....is it that more than 40 schools is overkill? Is 35 schools pretty much the maximum that people apply to?

I'm doing 33 and I feel absolutely dead on number 28 or so.

 

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

What if I keep reusing the same ****ty essay?

+1

I'm worried that I'll use the same essay, but forget to change the name of the school. Many of these school missions/values are starting to blend together.

In other news, I discovered an error on my AMCAS PS. Yayyyyy!

 

[Noggin]

+1

I'm worried that I'll use the same essay, but forget to change the name of the school. Many of these school missions/values are starting to blend together.

In other news, I discovered an error on my AMCAS PS. Yayyyyy!

Oh no don't re-read your primary application after you submit! If you do that you're going to drive yourself crazy!

 

[gocanes1990]

I think its important to do decent on your secondaries, but getting it in early is prob way more important, they are still worth less thn your grades, EC, ps, Lor

 

[Burla]

After writing your PS, AMCAS essays, gotten LORs and ECs...etc. Why be lazy and do something half-a** on a secondary?

 

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

After writing your PS, AMCAS essays, gotten LORs and ECs...etc. Why be lazy and do something half-a** on a secondary?

It's not about being lazy...it's about burning out. If we were lazy, we wouldn't be trying to submit the secondaries as soon as possible per conventional wisdom.

 

[Burla]

It's not about being lazy...it's about burning out. If we were lazy, we wouldn't be trying to submit the secondaries as soon as possible per conventional wisdom.

For sure.

You were asking if they put more importance in one thing over another. My point was that if you put quality into everything else you are doing, I would make sure you do the same in the secondary. That being said, I would assume it depends on the school. For example, if the school screens then: PS, Stats > secondary to make sure you have a chance for an interview. But then again if only a select few get a secondary, you need to stand out.... 🙄

 

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

For sure.

You were asking if they put more importance in one thing over another. My point was that if you put quality into everything else you are doing, I would make sure you do the same in the secondary. That being said, I would assume it depends on the school. For example, if the school screens then: PS, Stats > secondary to make sure you have a chance for an interview. But then again if only a select few get a secondary, you need to stand out.... 🙄

Good point...if only the fire were still lit!

Which brings me to another question...I wonder how much stock the screeners put into reading secondaries or even PS to decide who gets an initial II? I always thought that the admissions committee, which I imagine to be a bunch of clandestine folks hidden behind cloaks 🙂, didn't fully discuss and evaluate an applicant until after their interview. The actual II are handed out by pre-screeners who base it on GPA, MCAT, status (URM, etc), and maybe LOR/EC to a small degree. I mean, some schools hand out up to a 1000 II from a pool of 10,000+. That's a lot of packets to read for a small committee. Please enlighten me if you have an answer based on evidence, not speculation.

 

[NCKSD]

Good point...if only the fire were still lit!

Which brings me to another question...I wonder how much stock the screeners put into reading secondaries or even PS to decide who gets an initial II? I always thought that the admissions committee, which I imagine to be a bunch of clandestine folks hidden behind cloaks 🙂, didn't fully discuss and evaluate an applicant until after their interview. The actual II are handed out by pre-screeners who base it on GPA, MCAT, status (URM, etc), and maybe LOR/EC to a small degree. I mean, some schools hand out up to a 1000 II from a pool of 10,000+. That's a lot of packets to read for a small committee. Please enlighten me if you have an answer based on evidence, not speculation.

Your whole post was speculation

 

[dahassa]

Good point...if only the fire were still lit!

Which brings me to another question...I wonder how much stock the screeners put into reading secondaries or even PS to decide who gets an initial II? I always thought that the admissions committee, which I imagine to be a bunch of clandestine folks hidden behind cloaks 🙂, didn't fully discuss and evaluate an applicant until after their interview. The actual II are handed out by pre-screeners who base it on GPA, MCAT, status (URM, etc), and maybe LOR/EC to a small degree. I mean, some schools hand out up to a 1000 II from a pool of 10,000+. That's a lot of packets to read for a small committee. Please enlighten me if you have an answer based on evidence, not speculation.

I think it will depend on the school. For the most part, I agree with you. Clearly stats are extremely important. But once you reach the stats range for a particular school how do schools decide who to interview? If Duke is looking for students in the 35-37 mcat range and 3.7-3.8 GPA, how many students will fall in that range? Probably thousands but they only interview ~500. At some point, other criteria has to be used in order to narrow the pool of applicants. Depending on the school, recs/EC/secondaries will be weighed differently.

Obv none of us actually knows what goes on during the pre-interview stages. The only personal experience I have involves interviews. While I had some blind interviews, for the most part my interviewers knew my application backwards and forward. As I have elaborated in a previous post, I had an interviewer totally destroy my PS during the interview, resulting in my only waitlist. At another school (my top choice), I spent a lot of time on my secondaries. I tried to make them humorious and interesting. My interviewer loved me before I walked in. His exact words were something like "I really feel like I know you from your secondaries. I don't always get that feeling but yours really stood out." And then during the interview it was relaxed and we had a great convo. It was one of my best interviews.

So to summarize, none of us knows how much of a role secondaries will play. Personally, I put a lot of effort into mine and I think it made a difference. I don't know if it helped me get an interview but I def think it effected my acceptances and actual interviews. How many hours did you spent studying for the mcat? How hard did you work in UG to keep a high GPA? How much time did you devot to research, volunteering, and other EC? Secondaries are really the last hurdle before interviews. If it was me, I would put my best foot forward. I wouldn't want to hurt my chances in anyway when I am this close.

 

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

Your whole post was speculation

I have the right as the OP. Jk.

Yeah, I realize that...I just needed a starting point and wanted other people to correct me with useful comments (unlike yours ).

 

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

I think it will depend on the school. For the most part, I agree with you. Clearly stats are extremely important. But once you reach the stats range for a particular school how do schools decide who to interview? If Duke is looking for students in the 35-37 mcat range and 3.7-3.8 GPA, how many students will fall in that range? Probably thousands but they only interview ~500. At some point, other criteria has to be used in order to narrow the pool of applicants. Depending on the school, recs/EC/secondaries will be weighed differently.

Obv none of us actually knows what goes on during the pre-interview stages. The only personal experience I have involves interviews. While I had some blind interviews, for the most part my interviewers knew my application backwards and forward. As I have elaborated in a previous post, I had an interviewer totally destroy my PS during the interview, resulting in my only waitlist. At another school (my top choice), I spent a lot of time on my secondaries. I tried to make them humorious and interesting. My interviewer loved me before I walked in. His exact words were something like "I really feel like I know you from your secondaries. I don't always get that feeling but yours really stood out." And then during the interview it was relaxed and we had a great convo. It was one of my best interviews.

So to summarize, none of us knows how much of a role secondaries will play. Personally, I put a lot of effort into mine and I think it made a difference. I don't know if it helped me get an interview but I def think it effected my acceptances and actual interviews. How many hours did you spent studying for the mcat? How hard did you work in UG to keep a high GPA? How much time did you devot to research, volunteering, and other EC? Secondaries are really the last hurdle before interviews. If it was me, I would put my best foot forward. I wouldn't want to hurt my chances in anyway when I am this close.

Great anecdote! I kinda wished I hadn't rushed through everything in the hurry to be complete. After a while, it just became easier to copy/paste and then tweak for each essay that was similar to the last. Now, I'm starting to question my severe LACK of humor on my secondaries. I was straightforward with much of it considering the character limitations imposed by many schools and the bland prompts. I think USC was the only school that had an especially usual set of secondaries, which I had some fun with.

 

[Mornhavon]

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[TheShaker]

It's getting kind of ridiculous when well qualified people feel the need to apply to 30-40 schools.

Truly a rich man's game.

FAPplicants win this game too.

 

[sh0rtstop34]

It's getting kind of ridiculous when well qualified people feel the need to apply to 30-40 schools.

Truly a rich man's game.

Anything over 25 is overkill…I did 21 and feel like that's a lot

 

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

Anything over 25 is overkill…I did 21 and feel like that's a lot

You also got a 42 on the MCAT...

But I agree.

 

[CarlosDanger]

kind of wish I could read an example of someone's funny essays...I want to stand out but I feel like trying to be funny is risky. Mine probably come across as too bland and serious--oh well. Also, why am I not in bed right now? This is what happens when I start drinking coffee at 11:00pm. Taking a nap in the afternoon doesn't help either.

Aaaaand, scene.

 

[Burla]

^best name^

I understand applying to a lot of schools but it sucks taking out thousands of dollars in loans to just apply. May as well spend the extra money now rather than risk not getting in. Slash a year's future salary if you don't get in this cycle.

 

[random1234]

It's getting kind of ridiculous when well qualified people feel the need to apply to 30-40 schools.

Truly a rich man's game.

It's really quite cruel on medical schools' part. I hope that someday, sometime soon, they will make the admissions process less of a lottery.