Secondaries Timeline if you are in the Peace Corps!!

[Coclean]

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I've seen a lot of variation on this info here on SDN so I thought I would ask. I'm shipping out to serve in the Peace Corps in June and as such will be AWOL from civil society for a while. I plan to submit my application (which is already completed, already reviewed and ready for updates) in June of 2009....I will complete my PC service in August 2009 and get back to the states in September 2009 with a research job waiting for me (I'm a bit of a planner).

If I submit in June when will secondaries come to me?
Once I get a secondary how long will I have to turn it around?
Can I make a note on my application letting schools know that I am serving and have sporadic communication ability?
Would it be worse to submit in June and have slower 2ndary turn around or submit in July and have faster turn around?

I plan to submit from Africa and I plan to take my vacation time around apps and be in a capital city, or even pop up to Madrid to stay with a friend....but I need to know what weeks are best to take off etc. Submitting is feasible via internet, LOR have already been requested and safely filed for all research mentors etc...most will also be happy to update if needed later.

 

[Dr.Watson]

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[Coclean]

Ans when were those first MD/PhD interview days??

 

[Dr.Watson]

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[haricot]

congrats on your peace corps assignment! where will you be going? i did peace corps in west africa and had a great time. a few things...

1) don't be opposed to writing a new personal statement in a year or two. you'll have really interesting things to write about from your experiences, and peace corps will make you a very unique mstp applicant -- use it to your advantage.

2) you'll most likely have some flexibility in your close-of-service date. this sort of depends on your country director, but where i was, it was standard to leave up to three months early...which could make things a bit easier for applying.

3) you can find pretty much all schools' secondary questions on sdn -- you might want to get the previous year's questions a few months before you submit amcas so that you can think about them while in your village/site and work on them on trips to a place with a computer.

good luck! pm me if you have any questions...