Receiving Secondaries

[thestudent]

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I am planning to submit my primary application in the next few days and I was wondering what the turnaround time is approximately for getting the secondaries back from schools. Are they sent by regular mail or do you just access them online/by email?

 

[Tropicana100]

Best link for you:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=293658&highlight=creighton+secondary+essay&page=53

 

[Husky85]

depends on the particular schools. some schools with get back as soon as you are verified by amcas, others will take up to a month. some will have you do an electronic secondary while others will be snail mail

 

[thestudent]

thanks for the link. lots of good info. do the secondary essay questions generally stay the same year to year? I'm trying to get a feel of how much work all my secondaries will be.

 

[Tropicana100]

thanks for the link. lots of good info. do the secondary essay questions generally stay the same year to year? I'm trying to get a feel of how much work all my secondaries will be.

They rarely change.
Check out last year's essay's:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=293395&highlight=Secondary+essays&page=7

 

[thestudent]

yea haha...i just went through all of the schools i'm thinking about. doesnt look as bad as i expected.

 

[gatrandy]

How long do you have to fill out 2nd apps? The schools deadlines for secondaries seem to be Oct/Nov/Dec according to MSAR, but I heard from my school that you only have 2 weeks after first receiving them to return them. Which is true! ?

 

[ryandote]

How long do you have to fill out 2nd apps? The schools deadlines for secondaries seem to be Oct/Nov/Dec according to MSAR, but I heard from my school that you only have 2 weeks after first receiving them to return them. Which is true! ?

There is an Oct Deadline for Primary AMCAS application. Commonly there are Nov/Dec/Jan deadlines for secondary submittal. Occasionally there are 2-4 week deadlines for secondary submittal.

The whole process isn't perfectly uniform, so I should just add this statement to my signature:

CALL THE SCHOOLS YOU ARE APPLYING TO


edit: in all cases, earlier is better. However, the quality/early tradeoff has to be a personal consideration.

 

[medstuddude]

do letters also have to be turned in with the secondaries within two weeks ?

 

[viciouz]

Yes most likely. Otherwise your application will be incomplete thus putting you on hold and keeping you from getting an interview.

 

[medstuddude]

Yes most likely. Otherwise your application will be incomplete thus putting you on hold and keeping you from getting an interview.

yeah but interfolio takes 10 days just to receive and send out your letters. There is no way most schools will receive your letters within 2 weeks

 

[viciouz]

Well you should already have most of your letters already on their way to your letter service. And yes most schools are flexible with deadlines, but you wont get that interview until your complete.

 

[HailMary]

I haven't checked many others, but Columbia and Tulane both have their secondaries up. So much for a break!!

 

[medstuddude]

it is. that is not what I meant. Lets say I requested interfoilo to send the letters out now. It takes them ~ 10 business days to send them out. Also, 3 to 4 days in the air. That is 2 weeks.

 

[viciouz]

WoW... I thought interfolio was faster then that. I guess you can start sending them now since some don't screen.

 

[ryandote]

You don't need to mail them in the same packet or have them arrive on the same day. You DO need for them to be received by the school before you will be "complete" and put in line for review.

In all of the applications I completed, letters and your secondary were kind of considered separate things. ie, when you checked your status online, there was a checkmark for "secondary" - "fee" - "letters"

 

[CarolinaGirl]

I know MUSC has their secondary on-line but they don't open it up to people until the 1st of July.

 

[Phoenix.]

it is. that is not what I meant. Lets say I requested interfoilo to send the letters out now. It takes them ~ 10 business days to send them out. Also, 3 to 4 days in the air. That is 2 weeks.

Well, my post-bac pre-health program has all of our LORs (including their committee letter), and they say that it takes THREE WEEKS from when we request that they send our letters out, to when the school will receive them. Of course, they won't begin to process our request until we drop off a check for each school, and we have to fill out a form for each school. They made a point of claiming that the three weeks would have no ill-effect on our application process:

"Allow three weeks for processing. NO EXCEPTIONS! We have received notification from Medical schools that the timing of your committee packet does not delay the processing of your application."

That's a ridiculous claim. If I get my secondary in ASAP (either no or little essays involved), the ONLY thing holding up the processing of my application would be the three week delay in getting my LORs in. How can they say it does not delay the review process?

Anyway, this looks like a total pain, and I wish I could have used interfolio instead. You guys using interfolio shouldn't be annoyed with the 10 day turn-around.... Now, it looks like I'll be making frequent 20 minute drives to where I did my post-bac (where I will no longer be taking classes - I'll be working this year), just to submit each and every request with a check or cash. I relish wasting the gas. Grrr. Lovely process. Real user friendly. What I wouldn't give for a paypal option at my post-bac!

 

[146233]

You still can use Interfolio. Just have "your post-bac" send all of your letters to Interfolio.