The Worst Secondaries

[Mr. Three-Wiggle]

I have to nominate Minnesota-Duluth. It has 13 or 14 essays asking different variations of "why do you want to be a doctor catering to a rural or American Indian community?" UUUUUUGH. And there are no character/word limits. Humorously this was the first secondary I recieved, leading me to believe they would all be equally awful.

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[braluk]

haah well at the very least, that just means that you will have such a diverse array of secondary essays that you can apply them to pretty much any random question youll get along the way with other secondaries. I suppose its also a weeding out process, to see who will really go through hell to get to heaven

 

[Dr Durden]

Wow, that's double Duke's historical average. And for much less than half the prestige.

 

[deleted106503]

Have fun with that . Only half-full thing I see about this is that it gives you a chance to stand out, which the non-essay secondaries don't.

 

[Monkey12]

I have to nominate Minnesota-Duluth. It has 13 or 14 essays asking different variations of "why do you want to be a doctor catering to a rural or American Indian community?" UUUUUUGH. And there are no character/word limits. Humorously this was the first secondary I recieved, leading me to believe they would all be equally awful.

I second that! This was also my first secondary, and I really feel like I'm repeating myself over and over because each question seems sort of related. I still need to sit down and take a serious look at the questions. I haven't been verified yet and so don't feel too much pressure yet. What did you think about questions?

 

[etf]

the worst secondaries are the ones that only ask for your credit card number. at least with essays, you feel like someone's going to read them...

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

Wow, that's double Duke's historical average. And for much less than half the prestige.

Yeah...I thought Duke's was notoriously the worst! It sounds like a cake walk compared to this one!

 

[modelslashactor]

I disagree. Give me a secondary with no essays any day of the week, at least that means they might look at the PS or activities. Plus, the ones that don't ask for essays are at least admitting that their interview invites are very numbers based.

 

[Monkey12]

I disagree. Give me a secondary with no essays any day of the week, at least that means they might look at the PS or activities. Plus, the ones that don't ask for essays are at least admitting that their interview invites are very numbers based.

I totally agree!

 

[Gabujabu]

I totally agree!

I second that. They already have a primary app (~10 pages), 3-5 recommendations, and a personal interview. I can't imagine how someone can read 1000s of those a year and want to add substantially to the length with so many essays!

 

[beaverfetus]

I'm sure worse will come along, but U chicago was no walk in the park (three one pagers)

 

[MasterMD]

I have to nominate Minnesota-Duluth. It has 13 or 14 essays asking different variations of "why do you want to be a doctor catering to a rural or American Indian community?" UUUUUUGH. And there are no character/word limits. Humorously this was the first secondary I recieved, leading me to believe they would all be equally awful.

that is why its on my no longer applying to list haha ... thats the only dreadful one ive seen so far..

 

[MasterMD]

I'm sure worse will come along, but U chicago was no walk in the park (three one pagers)

i actually thought it was really easy, but i also had a lot to say for each essay.. i did little outlines for each and i enjoyed it. i hope they read them thoroughly!

 

[MaiPenRai]

I also applied to UMD. And it was an awful application to fill out. The worst part is, I DON'T want to be a rural physician but I AM from MN so I was told by my premed committee to fill it out. It would be great to go there, but I know I am not what they are looking for...14 essays later, they have made that reasonably clear to me. And if you type into the application, there are character limits...

 

[Depakote]

U of MN was the worst secondary I have filed in my 2 previous rounds of application.

 

[Monkey12]

U of MN was the worst secondary I have filed in my 2 previous rounds of application.

how is the twin cities app?

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

the hardest essay so far for me: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE ENTERING A "PROFESSION"? I can't imagine having to read through a thousand of those! the poor adcom members. my answer was pretty ridiculous.

 

[Depakote]

how is the twin cities app?

That was Twin Cities.

 

[Monkey12]

That was Twin Cities.

I heard they screen pretty hard, is that true? How many essays?

 

[butmylipshurtrealbad]

I don't know if this cycles' s is out yet, but UC Davis was the worst for me, I pretty much gave up and sent in sh*tty answers. It was just so sneaky! They make you think you're all done with the ridiculous questions, and then there are a ton more short essay questions on the next link... Needless to say, I did not get an interview at Davis!

 

[Depakote]

I heard they screen pretty hard, is that true? How many essays?

Dunno about the screening, I got the secondary post-screening with a 3.49 (3.3 Sci) and a 32. Same as Duluth, 14 or so essays. Plus they wanted a few of your recommenders to fill out a form grading you on how great an applicant you are... b/c aparently your LORs don't cover that.

 

[DoctaJay]

It has got to be Georgetown's secondary. I can'twrite a 8.5 x 11 page on why I would want to attend their school? What other reason could I possibly that other than its close to my home state of Maryland? Its not like they are dedicated to community service, their tution is out of this world, buying a house in the area is impossible, and they have the most expensive secondary fee. Lol, I wish I could put all that in the essay.

 

[notdeadyet]

I got the secondary post-screening with a 3.49 (3.3 Sci) and a 32. Same as Duluth, 14 or so essays. Plus they wanted a few of your recommenders to fill out a form grading you on how great an applicant you are... b/c aparently your LORs don't cover that.

Do you know how mandatory those forms are, Depakote? I'll give them a call if you haven't. I use interfolio and there's now way that I can go back and contact my recommenders and nickle and dime them for cover sheets from various schools.

If they're highly recommended, I'll just submit and keep my fingers crossed. If they're absolutely mandatory, I may have to drop UMinn from my list. Are you OOS or MN res, by the way? Best of luck.

 

[Requip]

Do you know how mandatory those forms are, Depakote? I'll give them a call if you haven't. I use interfolio and there's now way that I can go back and contact my recommenders and nickle and dime them for cover sheets from various schools.

If they're highly recommended, I'll just submit and keep my fingers crossed. If they're absolutely mandatory, I may have to drop UMinn from my list. Are you OOS or MN res, by the way? Best of luck.

Even if its a committee letter? How many of the recs need to be that way?

 

[jackieMD2007]

I'm going to go with Rush's:

1. Cite two examples of working with people which highlight your leadership skills and problem solving ability. (1000 Characters, including spaces)

TWO examples, people. 1000 characters. We are talking TWO LITTLE paragraphs. I did it, but talk about a squeaker. This is why I GOT Rush on 7-5 but didn't submit until 7-16. (11 days!) I was sweating that one big time.

 

[Robizzle]

It has got to be Georgetown's secondary. I can'twrite a 8.5 x 11 page on why I would want to attend their school? What other reason could I possibly that other than its close to my home state of Maryland? Its not like they are dedicated to community service, their tution is out of this world, buying a house in the area is impossible, and they have the most expensive secondary fee. Lol, I wish I could put all that in the essay.

"because your matriculants average GPA's and MCATs are pretty close to mine"

 

[Depakote]

Do you know how mandatory those forms are, Depakote? I'll give them a call if you haven't. I use interfolio and there's now way that I can go back and contact my recommenders and nickle and dime them for cover sheets from various schools.

If they're highly recommended, I'll just submit and keep my fingers crossed. If they're absolutely mandatory, I may have to drop UMinn from my list. Are you OOS or MN res, by the way? Best of luck.

I was oos for MN.

Dunno how manditory they were, but they were a huge pain in the butt, delayed my processing substantially. I should have just written off MN when I saw the essays, I should have just written off MN when I saw the hoops they wanted my recommenders to jump through, but I still did all that... then they rejected me post-secondary. Pretty fast too, IIRC.

 

[jackieMD2007]

"because your matriculants average GPA's and MCATs are pretty close to mine"

NOW we know how you get those secondaries done in less than five minutes!!

 

[swifty100850]

What's even more ridiculous is that these schools with horrible secondaries (Duke, Georgetown), only take a 1/4 of the applicants they interview. Didn't they develop a good enough idea of us from all those f'n essays? Jump? How high? Next to bad secondaries, my next biggest beef is with low post-interview acceptance rates.

We're human and need to apply to over a dozen other schools, give us a break! Don't make us fly around the country and drop a ridiculous amount of money so that you could reject us for responding to interview questions "too slowly", Georgetown.

 

[CTtarheel]

so far i'd have to say its a tie between UConn and USC for me. UConn asks for 6 essays (3 pages single spaced) and USC asks for 4 250 word essays, although USC's essay topics are really vague and its hard to know what they're really looking for.

 

[Homer Simpson]

Have you guys seen UC Davis's app?

 

[SeminoleFan3]

UK had 6 short essays and then 1 long one for OOS applicants. Louisville doesn't look too short either.

 

[Hoberto]

MSUCOM, that thing required this weird rehash of your primary on their weirdly formatted Word document. (I could totally help them improve that stupid thing.) It was terribly long and didn't allow enough space to type in all the information they wanted. I mean, there wasn't enough room for me to put in the name of my employer!? Come on. I ended up reformatting the whole thing, but what a pain in the butt. They wanted my work and education history since high school, plus hours per week for each activity. They wanted a few essays, five references, money and wanted everything back to them in 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS. You ever try to get LORs written, sent and received in 2 weeks?

I managed to get the thing in in time and even got an interview and acceptance, but geez!

 

[jocg27]

I'm going to go with Rush's:

1. Cite two examples of working with people which highlight your leadership skills and problem solving ability. (1000 Characters, including spaces)

TWO examples, people. 1000 characters. We are talking TWO LITTLE paragraphs. I did it, but talk about a squeaker. This is why I GOT Rush on 7-5 but didn't submit until 7-16. (11 days!) I was sweating that one big time.

I remember it well from last year...it was awful..there were a lot of those 1000 character questions, too, from what I remember.

 

[Johnny_one_eye]

I'm going to go with Rush's:

1. Cite two examples of working with people which highlight your leadership skills and problem solving ability. (1000 Characters, including spaces)

TWO examples, people. 1000 characters. We are talking TWO LITTLE paragraphs. I did it, but talk about a squeaker. This is why I GOT Rush on 7-5 but didn't submit until 7-16. (11 days!) I was sweating that one big time.

I agree the number of questions suck and it's hard to answer them briefly, but I like the questions and the brevity helps keep me from rambling I did almost finished the app in 1 night (hopefully will finish it tonight). I DO think it sucks they require a copy of my birth certificate though UGH

 

[chaldobruin]

I've heard U of Chicago has a nasty one

 

[chitowndr]

U Chicago is giving me fits (party because I want to come back to Chicago, and thats probably my top choice, but dont hold me to that Northwestern, Loyola, UIC, or Rush )



I also think its interesting to see what some people think... People with solid numbers, and I would imagine less writing/conversational skill prefer no essays, whereas people who might be excellent writers/conversationalists and might not have 3.8s or 35, prefer many essays, so they can distinguish themselves...

 

[Dr John Galt]

It has got to be Georgetown's secondary. I can'twrite a 8.5 x 11 page on why I would want to attend their school? What other reason could I possibly that other than its close to my home state of Maryland? Its not like they are dedicated to community service, their tution is out of this world, buying a house in the area is impossible, and they have the most expensive secondary fee. Lol, I wish I could put all that in the essay.

I second that emotion

 

[novawildcat]

Georgetown's 1 page single spaced essay was pretty painful. I just filled out University of Toledo's and it had a pretty damn hard statement to write about. I actaully sat there for about 90 minutes racking my brain before I was able to put something down.

 

[leahmaria]

I didn't feel like writing what "a life in discovery" meant to me for rosalind franklin....the number of schools i'm applying to in chicago is dropping...

 

[gmsquid]

Maryland, Northwestern and Georgetown are hard. Maryland's Professions essay took me forever to write a good answer to, NW's three essays are all challenges, and Georgetown's 1 page on why you wanna go there is tough.

 

[Twitch]

I nominate UCLA. Or maybe I'm just burned out with secondaries.