Writing Secondary Essays Before Personal Statement

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cristinayanginthemaking

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I was reading a SDN article that advises people to write the secondaries before the personal statement and work/activities section. Has anyone actually written their secondaries before their personal statement?

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I didn't do this, but I definitely wish I did. My writing was definitely better in my secondaries than my personal statement simply because I had more practice laying out my ideas and telling my story in a clear, compelling way. If you're on top of it, this could be a great strategy. It would also be very nice to not be scrambling in July/August to turn around secondaries quickly
 
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Agreed, my secondaries were much better than my primary due to all the practice i got, definitely are what got me a large portion of my interviews imo.
 
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According to this article, the admissions game is changing in the sense that some application services will let schools put their secondaries as a portion of the primary application. Like, your primary AACOMAS app.

So given that data, I'd say yes, you should write your secondaries first. Or at least have them both ready in time to submit your primary application. At least for the DO schools to which you apply. AMCAS is still like it used to be apparently.
 
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