Secondaries

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kt.charlong

Future Cardiologist
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What the F is a secondary!?!? I see a bunch of people talking about them...I feel so incompetent....*cries* Please fill me in...

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When you send in your AMCAS (primary) application, you select all of the schools you want to apply to. The schools then receive your AMCAS (they all receive the same AMCAS application) and then send you a secondary (if they screen, you must be qualified in order to receive that secondary). The secondaries usually have some more specific essay questions and ask for other info sometimes, like SAT scores, etc. Oh, and they also screw you over by charging another $60-100 per secondary which is always nice.
 
after you submit a general application for medical school through amcas, the individual schools will then send you a "seconday" aka "supplemental" application that is specific to their institution.


They mostly consist of boring essays and repeating the same thing that was on the primary application

Aren't you the one who is like 8 years old? You don't need to worry about secondaries. You should be playing with polly pocket
 
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kt.charlong said:
What the F is a secondary!?!? I see a bunch of people talking about them...I feel so incompetent....*cries* Please fill me in...

Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!! BREATH Bwahahahahahaha! You're joking, right?
 
skoaner said:
Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!! BREATH Bwahahahahahaha! You're joking, right?


Whats so funny, did I miss a joke here....
 
skoaner said:
Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!! BREATH Bwahahahahahaha! You're joking, right?


She is one of the younger members here you idiot - why do you have to be so harsh when someone asks a question? I'm sure there was a day when you had no idea what the hell a secondary was.
 
Oh...thats what he was laughing at...oh well, I guess there are a few on every forum...
 
Its not so much that they're laughing at you, kt.charlong, but that we're right in the middle of the process and we all come on SDN to vent and find people that understand how we're feeling just now. When someone like you comes around, it makes us realise that we're just jaded twenty-somethings who are READY to be doctors NOW!

As for your questions, I think you'd be served well to go to a bookstore like Barnes & Noble or whatever you have in Canada and just look up the process. When you come onto these boards, you'll find lots of supportive people that will try and help out, but you'll also find lots of stressed out college students and professionals that will assume you to have the knowledge that you're starting threads to find. I'm not saying that you won't get some solid advice here, but it just seems that if you have a rough idea of what to expect from the process (ie university, MCAT, application, secondaries, interviews, etc.) its easier to form more directed questions and this forum can be much more useful to you.

As everyone knows, I can go on forever about anything, so PM me or IM me if you want to have a chat about this.

Cheers,
DrYo
 
Do many secondary applications require more letters of recommendations? I'm just worried because I'm having trouble finding enough professors to write for the primary application.
 
It depends on the school. The standard is science and non-science, clinical if you have it. Some schools will ask for specific letters, but I don't think you usually want to go at it with less than three or four letters.

The primary application doesn't require letters of recommendation--its the AMCAS app and its the whole listing your experiences, personal statment, inputting your grades thing. No letters required for that part. If the schools you designate request a secondary, they're all going to want your letters of rec. Can you clarify what you mean by securing profs for the primary app?
 
clenny said:
Do many secondary applications require more letters of recommendations? I'm just worried because I'm having trouble finding enough professors to write for the primary application.
Contact the schools you are applying to and tell them your situation and they normally (did for me) will waive certain ones. But I can say for certainty that they are going to want at least one science professor that has taught you.
 
oh thanks for the info. For some reason I thought there were letters required for the primary application as well and then more for the seconaries. I should be ok then.
 
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