secondaries

[echoyjeff222]

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I'm wondering how the summertime goes in terms of writing secondaries. Do the secondaries come in a particular time (assuming I submit when the AMCAS opens) or randomly? Should I start preparing even before the essays come out? It sounds like you only have a short time to write the secondaries, which is why I'm a little bit confused about what to do. thanks.

 

[DrHart]

I think some schools are quick to send secondaries and others are slower. I get the impression that July-November is the period of time in which most secondaries are sent, that is if you submit AMCAS in June. I've heard from many people that it is well worth it to prepare some secondaries before you are sent. Definitely check around to see if some schools have sent out the same prompts for the last few years, and if so you might expect to get the same question. The nice thing about secondaries is that a lot of them go for the same topic: "Discuss your research, what are some of your passions or hobbies, overcoming an obstacle, why medicine?, why our school, etc. - Stuff that, after one or two essays, you can reuse some (obviously not all)

 

[DylanE]

Different schools send them out at different times. Usually you can look at the class thread from the previous year and prewrite at least some of them. Like the other poster noted, most ask pretty similar questions so it's worth it to have a few prewritten responses you can copy over and edit for individual school. Of course, make sure you put in the right names in the right secondaries. It might seem like overkill, but by the middle of my cycle I was so burnt out on writing them that I just didn't send back more than a few.

 

[Premixis]

Definitely prewrite your secondaries. It will take a lot of stress off of the application process, and you won't feel rushed to submit all of the secondaries you receive within the two week time frame that is typically suggested. A quality secondary can only help.