Unusual Timing question for Medical School Addition and Secondary Responses

[DBC03]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm quite busy now that my summer classes, job, research projects, etc. have started up. My application has been verified and I am slowly adding medical schools as I carefully look at all requirements. I am also receiving secondaries, and my pre-health advisors recommend returning secondary responses within a 1-2 week time frame if possible (as they are time stamped), but to be sure to write carefully. I am putting a lot of thought into these, and despite some pre-writing I'm still finding it's taking longer than I hoped. Is there any wisdom to adding medical schools slowly so I can keep up with the secondaries as they come in (add a few more every few days, which is honestly probably as fast as I can keep up regardless), or would it be better to just add all at once and deal with getting secondaries in later? My goal is to get nearly everything complete by August, but I am still waiting on a few LORs, so I don't see any reason to rush adding medical schools. I have added all schools that screen heavily, so at this point I'm primarily looking at schools that send secondaries to everyone.

 

[efle]

advisors recommend returning secondary responses within a 1-2 week time frame if possible

They're wrong, you are fine taking longer

 

[DBC03]

So is it better for me to sit down, make all my phone calls and apply to everything tomorrow, or is it just as well that I wait a few days while I work on current secondaries?

They're wrong, you are fine taking longer

Yeah, I knew going into this summer that it would be tough. I almost dropped the class, but have realized since then that it was a good idea that i keep it (necessary for too many schools). And unfortunately I really need some cash to pay for these applications and there's no real way around it. I can, however, work my research schedule however I want, so I am going quite a bit slower than I originally planned.

I just want to make a comment for future readers. For high achieving and highly intelligent students, many applicants simply do not research, understand, or plan for the time and effort it will take to apply to medical school, especially secondaries. When applying to medical school you must take the attitude that is your job for primary summer and assume it is nearly full-time employment . When I tell applicants this I often get back comments but I have school, a job, travel, etc, and that is my point. All of those are under your control and you need not to have so much. If that means not taking a class or dropping a job or especially, travel, you need to understand the amount of time and effort this will take.

I concur with @efle on this. Even the schools that note a specific turn around time frame, do so mostly for trying to keep some semblance of control on all the applications coming in.

 

[efle]

So is it better for me to sit down, make all my phone calls and apply to everything tomorrow, or is it just as well that I wait a few days while I work on current secondaries?

Your complete date is what really matters. Whether you get the secondary now and submit in 4 weeks, or get it in two weeks and submit it after two more weeks, it's the same complete date.