Worth submitting secondaries over a moth later?

[DenTony11235]

I applied to 34 schools and completed applications for 21. I have several schools I still haven't finished that I'm still working on. Am I just wasting my time finishing those up?

Stats: 3.37 sGPA, 3.55 cgpa, 37 mcat, decent ECs

I have FAP, so it'll probably be free to finish those schools up.

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[Afford]

I'd be worried about burnout. I did 16 secondaries and the last few were torture. As long as you finished ones with a range of safeties, mid, and reaches, I think you have a chance.

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

Skip it. It'll cost you $$$ for each one and your window to submit has already passed. It just weakens the possibility of actually getting an ii. With your already weak gpa, it's just giving $$$ to the admissions office.

 

[DenTony11235]

I'd be worried about burnout. I did 16 secondaries and the last few were torture. As long as you finished ones with a range of safeties, mid, and reaches, I think you have a chance.

Skip it. It'll cost you $$$ for each one and your window to submit has already passed. It just weakens the possibility of actually getting an ii. With your already weak gpa, it's just giving $$$ to the admissions office.

Should have clarified, i have FAP, so it'd probably be free to submit any more. The schools indicate that the secondaries are due far in the future. Is it really a 100% waste of time and effort? Has no one gotten an acceptance with a late secondary?

 

[Afford]

You can get in with a late secondary. It's just that most schools are rolling admission, and they won't review your file until you're complete. I don't know why the rule is to send the secondary within two weeks, but the longer you wait, the lower your chance of getting an interview because there are already many qualified people who are done. Since they're free, I would just finish them, but you don't have to.

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

With FAP at least it won't cost you, other than your time, anything extra. Send them in. But, as Afford mentioned, most med schools have rolling admissions so the longer you delay, the lower your odds.

Has anyone gotten in with a late secondary? Yes, but those often go to particularly strong students. Maybe you have a "great story" though and that will make the difference.

 

[AORiverContra]

I was wondering about this too. Are we already at the point where it's considered "late" to turn in the secondary??

 

[Afford]

I was wondering about this too. Are we already at the point where it's considered "late" to turn in the secondary??

I think the general rule is July is early. August is on-time. September is late. October and on is really late.

 

[DenTony11235]

Right. But do adcoms pay much attention on how much time after sending out the secondaries it took to get them back?

 

[bluejay456]

Finish them. There is really no reason not to. You have put in a ton of work already and it would be silly to stop now with only 61% of your apps complete.

I dont want to be 'one of those premeds' but I submitted some secondaries to top 25 schools after the 2 week period and have already gotten interview offers from a few of them. The 2 week rule is more of a rule of thumb IMO. Put yourself out there and see what happens.

 

[moisne]

I turned one of my secondaries app in a week before deadline - I was accepted. I thought I was screwed, maybe just lucky. Finish and pray for the best - especially since it's free!

 

[VanEman]

If you have the energy, do it! Let them take you out of the running, don't take yourself out of the running...you might be pleasantly surprised!

 

[ridethecliche]

FAP means that most schools will waive the secondary or charge you half of the cost. You still have to pay for the primary.

Once you're done with apps, it's hard to go back. I submitted most of mine in mid august and decided to add a few more in late august and it was torture finishing all of them. After how many I did, 16 feels like nothing though. You can reuse so much material after the first 5-10 apps.

It's definitely not early anymore, although a mid sept completion isn't the worst thing you can do. I know there are a few schools I'd like to add, but I just don't have the energy for it.

 

[deeproots]

All of my secondaries were submitted over a month and a half after receiving them. I got burnt out after rushing to finish the primary application combined with working 50+ hours per week. I only applied to 7 schools and I've gotten 5 interviews (out of the other two: one school I'm not expecting to hear back from, and I just submitted the secondary for the other like a week ago). My stats are average (30 MCAT, ~3.9 GPA).

 

[Germanicus89]

Yo, I lurk on the Adcom "ask me anything" threads and remembered this response from hushcom. Do with it what you will.

Hey! I was wondering how ADcoms feel about the unofficial 2 week deadline for secondaries. Do you recognize when a student took longer to complete your school's secondary, and do you count this against them?

I think this is a premed urban legend. If your chances get hurt because of a lag in completing your secondary it's because that's the nature of rolling admissions, not because someone is in the admissions office with a stopwatch.

Really, I care about the strength of your application. Speculating the timing of it is just that: speculation.

 

[DenTony11235]

Yo, I lurk on the Adcom "ask me anything" threads and remembered this response from hushcom. Do with it what you will.

I actually really appreciate you bringing this to my attention. I'll keep hammering away.


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[unnumzaan]

The point is that we are late in the cycle overall, not that someone is counting the time between when you received the secondary and when you return it.

 

[DenTony11235]

The point is that we are late in the cycle overall, not that someone is counting the time between when you received the secondary and when you return it.

I hope so


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[DejaVu42]

I hope so too. The earliest secondary I've submitted that required essays was 22 days, but the vast majority have been ~45 days. There's a few that I submitted this week that I've had for >60 days. To hell with the two week turnaround, I never gave that any credence, but I do realize I'm pretty late in the cycle. My stats are fairly strong 3.76c, 3.86s, 39, so I pray I still stand a chance at semi-top schools. With my window closing I know I've shot myself in the foot and would've had much better opportunities earlier on though. I've submitted 24 and still have at least 6 more that I want to get to in the next week.

 

[infinitessimal]

Just want to put this out there - I applied to 20 schools, and though I have not received a huge number of invites, planning out the trips for the ones I do have has been a drain on my time and money. Moreover, I just came back from a couple interviews and don't feel I could do 20 of those with the same enthusiasm and not get all the schools and experiences jumbled in my head. If you applied to schools within your range and think you have a good shot of getting invites to at least half of them, I really think that would be enough.

 

[kthxbai]

Just want to put this out there - I applied to 20 schools, and though I have not received a huge number of invites, planning out the trips for the ones I do have has been a drain on my time and money. Moreover, I just came back from a couple interviews and don't feel I could do 20 of those with the same enthusiasm and not get all the schools and experiences jumbled in my head. If you applied to schools within your range and think you have a good shot of getting invites to at least half of them, I really think that would be enough.

Wow, I hope you're not as out of touch as you seem. No one likes humblebrags, and especially not here.

Getting IIs to half the schools you've applied to isn't something that happens to the vast majority of applicants. And calling the 7 you've got from top schools as "not a huge number of invites" is just kicking everyone else here.

 

[infinitessimal]

Wow, I hope you're not as out of touch as you seem. No one likes humblebrags, and especially not here.

Getting IIs to half the schools you've applied to isn't something that happens to the vast majority of applicants. And calling the 7 you've got from top schools as "not a huge number of invites" is just kicking everyone else here.

First of all, it's not a huge number because you can easily find people on these threads with 12+ interviews, who have already gone on half of them and have a better vantage point about the time and energy drain that I was talking about. I just meant that while I'm not at that point, I can already feel this after just having two interviews.

Second, the names of
schools that invited me have nothing to do with my point. I'm not complaining, but providing something else you might want to think about because you WILL think about it later down the line. I talked to applicants on the interview trail who say they simply can't afford to travel to all the interviews they were offered, and in hindsight, they applied to too many schools. If OP completed 20+ secondaries and is applying to schools within stat range, they might feel the same way down the line. Please don't call me a humblebrag for bringing up another factor that might weigh into OPs decision (especially since it seems money might be an issue) with information you could only see from my mdapps.

 

[claduva94]

First of all, it's not a huge number because you can easily find people on these threads with 12+ interviews, who have already gone on half of them and have a better vantage point about the time and energy drain that I was talking about. I just meant that while I'm not at that point, I can already feel this after just having two interviews.

Second, the names of
schools that invited me have nothing to do with my point. I'm not complaining, but providing something else you might want to think about because you WILL think about it later down the line. I talked to applicants on the interview trail who say they simply can't afford to travel to all the interviews they were offered, and in hindsight, they applied to too many schools. If OP completed 20+ secondaries and is applying to schools within stat range, they might feel the same way down the line. Please don't call me a humblebrag for bringing up another factor that might weigh into OPs decision (especially since it seems money might be an issue) with information you could only see from my mdapps.

I honestly didn't see it as a humblebrag. It was genuinely good information. I can corroborate the claim that filling out more than 20 secondaries and attending interviews is indeed draining. I am thankful for the situation I am in but that doesn't make the stress of traveling go away.

 

[Kevindurant35]

Can confirm. Have 14 interviews, have done 4 and I am drained. I obviously won't pull out of any until I have an acceptance but many of the points that infinite is making ring true

 

[DenTony11235]

Just want to put this out there - I applied to 20 schools, and though I have not received a huge number of invites, planning out the trips for the ones I do have has been a drain on my time and money. Moreover, I just came back from a couple interviews and don't feel I could do 20 of those with the same enthusiasm and not get all the schools and experiences jumbled in my head. If you applied to schools within your range and think you have a good shot of getting invites to at least half of them, I really think that would be enough.

I appreciate your input. I'm filling out these secondaries at my own pace, though, and they cost me nothing nor do they commit me to attending the interview. At this point, I may end up with 0 interviews or all interviews, and I'm starting to worry a bit about the case of the former since its been over a month for some schools and I can see some red flags in my application. I would really rather have too many II's than too little, so as long as I have whatever little time and energy I can spare, I'll hammer away. I just wanted to see if submitting over a month later is a definite rejection or not.

Congrats on your successes, hope you get some acceptances this cycle. We'll be seeing each other in the medical school student forums soon enough.


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