You guys are alcoholics. (just kidding) but I feel ya. lol
D is not verified but couple of schools sent secondaries this morning.
Up to 6 secondaries. Son is texting me with every secondary he gets with bunch of frown faces and moans. I need to start drinking early in the morning. Lol
@momworried same here not URM…from what I have seen it does make it harder…good luck!
I undersand the worry and anxiety that come along with our kids applying.
WOWM said- **There is some empirical evidence that some files get pre-reviewed or fast-tracked. Once committee letters go out, an awfully lot of IIs seem to go out a day or two later, esp to highly desirable applicants (like high stats URMs)
Noticed she said HIGH stats URMs. I would hope that the belief is NOT that MED schools are taking in every URM who applies.
They are indeed URMs who fit into Upperclass, High Stats students as well. just saying.
There was an African American kid in the 2013-14 cycle with a 43 score.
If a student classified his race on his MCAT demographics as a URM, and if the student scored fairly well (ie in the range of the med school’s accepted range), they will likely get a letter from that med school who are looking to increase diversity by encouraging them to apply there. An example of this is Harvard.
DS is not verified yet either but finished two secondaries. He is spending most of the weekend pre-writing as many as he can. He ended up applying to 19 schools. I think he has too many reaches on the list, but he had a finite amount of money for his applications.
He has an online friend that scored a 525 out of 528 on the new MCAT. It will be fun to see where that kid goes. There is another guy on SDN that scored a 527.
D submitted her applications for both the MD and DO schools later than I would have liked, they were submitted in mid to late June. I was surprised when she emailed today that she has two secondarys already. She ended up applying to 21 schools total.
My D just asked me if I thought it was OK for her resume for her secondary apps be two pages or should she stick with one page? She has it on one page now, though she has more info she would like to add. (sorry if this has already been discussed. I don’t know how to do a search within a thread.)
Each school will have specific requirements regarding length for secondary items. Be sure to read and follow all directions exactly.
(Failing to follow the directions will get your application round-filed.)
Son is flooded with secondaries. He got 20 out of 26. But he’s powering through. Submitted 17 in the last week. He managed to write 3 basic essays that seem to fit a lot of different prompts with minor modification. Duke seems to be the hardest so far. The essays are all very different with no word limit. He keeps putting it off and waiting for inspiration to strike. @bajamm the only one that asked for a CV so far was Columbia. And it was optional. CV, as I understand it is different then a resume and is usually several pages. He chose not to add it since it wouldn’t contribute any information that already wasn’t on the primary. The consensus on SDN was ‘if It doesn’t add any new info, don’t submit it’. But I can see that he’s very stressed. The days that he’s not at work, he’s in front of his computer writing secondaries. He has submitted request for his committee letter to be released to AMCAS. But that won’t happen until after August 1st. He wasn’t able to submit one of his secondaries, even though it was ready, because that school doesn’t accept it until LOR are all in.
DS has been paring his list of schools down based on the secondary. He has been pre-writing since he is not yet verified, but has already submitted three that don’t require verification. Luckily his letters are in. It is a very stressful time. His research project goes on hiatus for a few weeks in July, so he will have time to pour over the remaining secondary prompts. He is eternally grateful that his state school does not require the secondary and sometimes regrets not applying EDP.
So… is it true that most secondaries do not pre-screen? My daughter has gotten many, which is great, but she says it’s not that big of a deal because not that many schools pre-screen. She says she’s paying $100 a pop to get someone to look at her app. How soon after you submit your secondary can you REALISTICALLY expect an interview request?
Varies, but you could also receive an outright rejection, or wait for months before receiving II or rejection. S had friend who submitted secondary in 2008 (Georgetown?) on a Saturday with his $125 fee and within 2-3 hours received a rejection. I’d like to think someone read friend’s secondary but was it just a way of generating revenue???
Only about a dozen schools pre-screen, most of them are CA publics; all the rest send out secondaries automatically.
And even schools the pre-screen secondaries can auto-reject applicants as soon as the secondary is received.
D1 and her then BF both applied to Wake Forest, both made it the pre-screen and received secondaries, both completed the secondaries and sent in their $$$—and both were rejected in under 18 hours. (Submitted Wednesday mid-afternoon–rejection email waiting in their inboxes the next morning. You’ll never convince me the adcomm actually looked at their apps, much less read their essays.)
Within days of your file being marked ‘complete’–or-- not for months and months. D2 got 3 IIs within 4-5 days of her committee letter being uploaded in August and her first interview in late August. D1 had an II arrive in mid- April.
This process really isn’t predictable on an individual basis.
Plus there’s a whole lot of “hurry up and wait” involved.
And all of the above is why I recommend adult beverages PRN throughout the cycle.
I understand that you can’t get a II until your file is complete. But can you get rejected if you submitted your secondary but committee letter is not in? Just curious.
^^Assuming the applicant has passed any pre-screen and receives a secondary, the applicant’s file has to be “complete” before any decision is made. This includes rejections.
One exception to the above: Mayo. It doesn’t use LORs as part of its multi-step screening process. In fact, Mayo specifically says NOT to send LORs unless they request them. So at Mayo it’s possible to get rejected post-secondary, but pre-LORs.
So how do the med schools that reject you right off the bat make their decision? They obviously don’t read your secondaries if the turnaround for rejection is that short. They have to make the decision based on something. They don’t just pull names out of a hat.
IMO schools who reject you right after secondary is submitted have already made decision based on primary, mainly GPAs/MCAT. But if you have say 12/13k apps, send all applicants secondaries knowing that you have already rejected 8/9k, but these 8/9k submit secondaries not knowing they have no shot along with $125 fee, you have a nice little revenue stream. Just my opinion.