When did you submit most of your secondaries?

[kimchifarmer]

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[StephBee]

I've got a few more that I'm working on right now, will be done by tomorrow. there are still about 5 schools that haven't sent me secondaries (either they pre-screen or are really slow (stanford!))

 

[FlowRate]

There is no "really early" in terms of med school applications. The sooner you send things, the better, period. Anything past 3 days is late.

 

[chrisoc13]

There is no "really early" in terms of med school applications. The sooner you send things, the better, period. Anything past 3 days is late.

Well 3 days is pretty unreasonable for many people. I tried to stick to the 2 week rule. I tried to finish all applications by two weeks from when I got them. Going to school full-time over the summer and working made it impossible to get them done in 3 days. Especially since sometimes I got 3 or 4 a day (22 schools applied to).

But yeah I was mostly done in July. Some in August. A few in June.

 

[FlowRate]

Well 3 days is pretty unreasonable for many people. I tried to stick to the 2 week rule. I tried to finish all applications by two weeks from when I got them. Going to school full-time over the summer and working made it impossible to get them done in 3 days. Especially since sometimes I got 3 or 4 a day (22 schools applied to).

But yeah I was mostly done in July. Some in August. A few in June.

I stuck to the 2-week rule, too, but 3 days is a much better rule if possible.

 

[StephBee]

😛 I would've gone by the 3 day rule but I literally recieved 17 secondaries over a 2 day peroid. No way could I have done that many in 3 days. It's been a week since that wave and I've got 12 done, 5 to go and no work tomorrow night.

UCLA's secondary was a beast. everyone says Duke's is rough but I think UCLAs was wayyy worse. 9 essays O_O

 

[itellitlikeitis]

UCLA's secondary was a beast. everyone says Duke's is rough but I think UCLAs was wayyy worse. 9 essays O_O

UCLA had essentially a one paragraph character limit for all the questions while Duke was open ended... Duke is (or at least was in case LA and Duke completely revamped their secondaries) hands down much worse than LA could have ever been, especially since all of UCLA's "essay" prompts were also optional


I think the timing of returning the secondaries nowadays will not have as dramatic of an effect as it did a couple of years ago since everything is done online instead of on paper (still want to get them in early- I had all my stuff in by the end of August when I applied). As long as you have the stats, your application will more often get filtered to the top of the pile whereas it becomes more important for people with below average stats for the school to try to get their applications in more earlier to try to get more attention amongst the pile that they're in.

 

[StephBee]

UCLA had essentially a one paragraph character limit for all the questions while Duke was open ended... Duke is (or at least was in case LA and Duke completely revamped their secondaries) hands down much worse than LA could have ever been, especially since all of UCLA's "essay" prompts were also optional.

"Optional" 😛 I feel like even thoug they were only 800 characters, there was so many different aspects to cover, it took me longer and trying to figure out what to mention and what not to mention. At least with Duke's, it was 3 essays and I was able to just write until I felt like I got the point across. 🙄

Two of my schools still require you to mail in the secondary. Seems so silly, especially since they're online and for hawaii, I actually have to type the essays IN the PDF and then mail it to them. isn't that why they created the internets 😛

I just added up all of the essays I saved copies of (there were some shorter ones or ones that wouldn't allow me to copy and paste) all of my secondaires. It amounted to over 25 pages of single spaced, 12 point font. Kind of amazing if you think about it. ( I've only had 1 essay so far that I"ve been able to use for more than 1 school)

 

[itellitlikeitis]

"Optional" 😛 I feel like even thoug they were only 800 characters, there was so many different aspects to cover, it took me longer and trying to figure out what to mention and what not to mention. At least with Duke's, it was 3 essays and I was able to just write until I felt like I got the point across. 🙄

I must just be some outdated dinosaur then. I remember UCLA was really, really simple (basically just expand some more about stuff on your primary application like what was your most important volunteering activity, what you thought your greatest honor was, what leadership position you valued most), while Duke had about 5 or so questions like "describe professional behavior" and "describe a real ethical dilemma that you had to seek out aid to deal with and not some pantsy BS story that you pulled out for other schools" and "what are you strengths and weaknesses but describe them in a way where you talk about how both of them will make our school a better place if we choose to let you in"

 

[StephBee]

UCLA's probably wouldn't have been so annoying if I hadn't done 15 other secondaries before it (over a 2 day peroid). FOr duke, there were 3 essays: moral dilemma, most humbling experience and the 3rd you chose from a set of 4, I chose what the most compelling part of my application is. Duke was like the 3rd one I did so I wasn't burnt out yet so ti didn't seem that difficult. I'm trying to force myself to do georgetown's one right now but 5,000 characters for 1 essay is a lot 😛

 

[cyanide]

There is no "really early" in terms of med school applications. The sooner you send things, the better, period. Anything past 3 days is late.

I sent most of my secondaries in about a month after receiving them...

I don't think it hurt me.