too many secondaries!!!

[Jtak]

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i'm buried under secondaries and i have not yet completed one. i'm getting two secondaries a day and i'm still filling out my first! does anybody have a system that will make filling out secondaries easier? i already have a dozen of these bastards to complete. i've found that listening to 50-cent's P.I.M.P. makes me just pissed off enough to start yet another essay. any ideas?

 

[idq1i]

So, what's your sencondaries' budget?

 

[Jonkst]

How many schools did you apply to? Jeez, two secondaries a week sounds kind of exciting...

How long are you guys spending per secondary? I found that the first one I spent a long time on, but I've lost the excitement now, and I think I spend about 4 hours per. Write something, have a friend or two edit it, and submit it.

Why can't every school be like MCW?

 

[carrigallen]

get going with those secondaries - once you write 1-2 essays, the rest are much easier. the really important thing is just to get them in the mail. Be sure to check at each school to confirm that they've received everything.

 

[Deuce 007 MD]

Cut and paste. Most schools ask the same thing or a variation on the same theme, eg why _____ school?, why medicine?

 

[Paws]

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a whole filing set-up thing going on where I bought a big box of manila folders and just went to town on all my schools. Now they are in a metal rack on my kitchen table (ok, 'desk') and I try and make sure I keep everything organized.

This way I can have all the school info, mailings etc in one place; and I keep an update on the outside of the file: date notified, date completed, amount paid, etc. email or by mail.

Ok, maybe I'm really an organization freak 🙄 but what the hey! a little organization in the begining can save ALOT of hassle as I go along. Now once a secondary is mailed, I can focus on the next one. And the cut and paste/borrowing technique is BIG

 

[DW]

well, one thing i did was get the "easy" secondaries out of the way quickly. Basically, some schools really dont want much besides your coursework, address, and other trivial info along with your money, so i sorted those out, and did them all in one sitting. You figure if you get the easy secondaries like harvard, einstein, BU, etc, out of the way that would make the total task seem less daunting. then you can work on recycling essays like the other posters have mentioned.

 

[marbach16]

Originally posted by Jonkst
Why can't every school be like MCW?

word.

 

[exmike]

Originally posted by Jtak
i'm buried under secondaries and i have not yet completed one. i'm getting two secondaries a day and i'm still filling out my first! does anybody have a system that will make filling out secondaries easier? i already have a dozen of these bastards to complete. i've found that listening to 50-cent's P.I.M.P. makes me just pissed off enough to start yet another essay. any ideas?

Too many eh? perhaps you'd like NONE AT ALL more?

 

[mute360_CO]

Too many secondaries??? Awww, poor baby! I'll play a song on my miniature violin for ya... Seriously, it's a good thing so good luck and I hope you get as many interviews! 🙂

 

[Jtak]

don't get me wrong ... i'm excited that i have secondaries to complete. i don't have a budget ... i've saved up enough to complete all of my secondaries and hopefully go on a bunch of interviews. i'm as nervous as the next guy about getting into ANY medical school so i'm gonna complete all of my secondaries asap. i was just wondering if anyone else was as stressed about getting these done. free kobe.

 

[PrincessCKNY]

Originally posted by DW
well, one thing i did was get the "easy" secondaries out of the way quickly. Basically, some schools really dont want much besides your coursework, address, and other trivial info along with your money, so i sorted those out, and did them all in one sitting. You figure if you get the easy secondaries like harvard, einstein, BU, etc, out of the way that would make the total task seem less daunting. then you can work on recycling essays like the other posters have mentioned.

That's exactly what I did. Except I did the secondaries that required essays by order of due date. (Of course, my top choice school got bumped up to the top of the stack.) 🙂

 

[tBw]

This is exactly where most people fall down. They get their primaries in early, arrange LOR, transcripts, etc...then when 2ndaries come in they sit on them. Not intentionally, but before you know a month or maybe even two goes by and you still haven't done them. At that stage you have thrown away all advantage you had in working so hard to get things in early.

Set aside an evening to work on them. Group them into similar sounding essays and see if one theme could answer several. Keep one that just asks for prereq work to hand as they pretty much all ask for this so its easier to copy it than search for it every time. And for new 2ndaries set a deadline for yourself for doing them (like 4 days - not 3 weeks) and stick to it. It's the same amount of work whether you do a good job today and get it in early or a rush job tomorrow and get it in late...

 

[efex101]

Yup, I am doing them as they come. I have completed and sent off about 10 already...out of 32 holy ****!

 

[Jonkst]

You applied to 32 schools! Jeez... I'm feeling stressed enough with 14, and I've only gotten 6 secondaries so far.

Hey, but you'll get to see the whole country on interviews, eh?

 

[idq1i]

You people must be rich.

I applied to 9, and I was complaining about cost

 

[missmod]

I feel the same way but I'm barely getting one a day!

Okay, so what I did was start a little notebook where I've written down the addresses to each of these schools and their phone numbers. It may seem trivial, but it's so annoying to have to keep on going to their website when it's time to send the check or send the rec.

I did all the ones that don't require essays right away.

Then I wrote down all the essay questions for each school and a lot of them really are similar. I take them with me to work and whenever I have some free time, I just outline a few points I want to address for each essay. That way, when I get home and I have to write them, I can just kinda follow my outline.

All these checks that I'm writing!!!...

 

[efex101]

Nah I am not rich but just making sure I get in on the first try. I will probably go to a lot of interviews at first and if (if i get lucky) I get accepted at one school early, will drop a lot of interviews....all this is a gamble really.