Secondaries

[Premed315U]

---

Members don't see this ad.

When do secondaries start arriving if you submit June 1 and you're an April MCAT taker? I'm making plans for the summer, and plan to travel. Would it be a bad idea to travel in August?

Thank you.

 

[none]

HIGHLY variable. Depends totally on the schools you applied to and hopefully people's experiences this year will not apply to you.

 

[Premed315U]

Here's my dilemma: I'm taking classes all summer until August. I want to do fieldwork for my major, though it's not required.
I'll be applying to East coast schools.
Are secondaries paper applications? Are any online so that I could complete them while away from home?
thank you.

 

[none]

Once again, HIGHLY variable. Some online, some off. Sorry to say it, but if this is a major concern of yours, you're going to need to research each school you plan on applying to.

 

[Premed315U]

Okay, thank you none. I'm not sure how to go about researching. Could people please post when they started receiving secondaries from the following:
Hopkins
Harvard
UPenn
Yale
Dartmouth
NYU
Cornell
Columbia
Mount Sinai
Tufts
Boston U
Thanks bunches 🙂

 

[mpp]

I received Dartmouth secondary about three weeks after I submitted the primary (which took over a week to submit and a week to straighten out the credit card bill). I did not apply to any other schools on your list.

 

[EpiII]

The standard line (which this year was not adhered to) is that AMCAS takes 6-8 weeks to verify your application. Then they submit the app to the schools who then send secondaries.

If that holds true, the schools might start sending you secondaries at the beginning to middle of August. As was stated earlier, the schools each have their own unique way of doing things. Some are all online, even paying the fee, some are online, but you mail the check, some are all pony express and some e-mail you the secondary, but then you pony express it back to them finished, etc.

What is more, what the schools did this year might change for next year! I have heard rumors that some schools may ditch AMCAS because of this year's ongoing debacle. That would put everything I just mentioned in turmoil as well.

Bottom line, June-July travel would be best from what we know now, but if you are a strong applicant, a couple of extra weeks might not hurt that much, but some secondaries have deadlines.

 

[Premed315U]

How much time do secondary questions usually take to answer? How much time do you put into each application?
Thanks

 

[mpp]

Some time as long as it takes to write out a check, put it in an envelope with a stamp, and drop in the mailbox. Others have an essay to write and a table to fill out your grades for the pre-requisite courses. Others have several essays and can take days to complete.

 

[Premed315U]

In your experience, which tended to take the longest and which takes the shortest amount of time?

 

[mpp]

If you are curious, <a href="http://www.geocities.com/lvnh6791/paperamcas2002.htm" target="_blank">here</a> is a list of schools that have secondaries on-line. You can see some secondaries for yourself...