Secondary

[V4viet]

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Hi guys, I was wondering, do they only send out secondaries if they see something in you that they might be interest in or does it not matter? I'm a little confused the secondaries.. thanks

 

[OSUdoc08]

Hi guys, I was wondering, do they only send out secondaries if they see something in you that they might be interest in or does it not matter? I'm a little confused the secondaries.. thanks

-Some schools have a secondary available online to fill out to everyone
-Some schools automatically mail secondaries to all applicants
-Some schools send secondaries to people with a minimum GPA (often 2.75 or 3.0)
-Some schools send secondaries to people that have a GPA & MCAT in a certain range (this is relatively rare)
-Some schools read your primary application first and review this prior to sending out secondaries (this is very rare)

 

[ShyRem]

Most places send secondaries to EVERYONE. A few do "screened" secondaries where they only send you a secondary if they are interested in you. If you don't get a secondary, you probably won't get an interview either. (There are a very few exceptions to this.) Most of the time everyone gets the secondary, the institution pockets a whole bunch o' money from folks they have absolutely no intention of interviewing.

And, btw, secondaries cost. Up to $100 each. In addition to the primary fee.

 

[scpod]

Most places send secondaries to EVERYONE. A few do "screened" secondaries where they only send you a secondary if they are interested in you. If you don't get a secondary, you probably won't get an interview either. (There are a very few exceptions to this.) Most of the time everyone gets the secondary, the institution pockets a whole bunch o' money from folks they have absolutely no intention of interviewing.

And, btw, secondaries cost. Up to $100 each. In addition to the primary fee.

Yes, I think quite a few schools use secondaries to help finance the admissions department. For example, in 2003-2004 PCOM took in $170,000; KCOM took in $146,000. Their secondary application fees are only $50 and $60. Still, that's a pretty good source of income. I have more respect for the schools that screen your application before sending out secondaries. Some schools will accept your secondary money before telling you that you don't meet their minimum requirements. I don't really agree with that.

 

[Hoberto]

I agree with everyone. Be prepared to send out secondaries to all the schools you applied to. Almost all of them use the secondary as a money making scam.

You can also check the websites of the schools for online secondaries and send those in early if the school doesn't have a policy against that. Almost all the secondaries ask for some type of Why DO? essay so you could work on writing that up now too.

If you are trying to gauge dollar amounts figure $100/school and you'll have some extra for when the interviews start rolling in.

 

[V4viet]

thanks for all of your replies... I agreed with everything,. it's so unfortunate that school is such a big business and from day 1 of college to professional school we have to keep on feeding them rediculous amount of money.. text books does not cost $200+ etc..and they only buy back for $30... oh well we gotta do what we gotta do.. it's an investment in yourself i guess..