application advice from the b. family (plus happy 4th)

happy fourth of july!!!! spence and i are still on our cruise celebrating our nations birthday. what are you doing to celebrate???

i thought i'd share a few of my favorite 4 of july pins....just for fun!!!

anyway....

applications were rough for spence and i
it was a really stressful time of life.  i was in the middle of a large job hunt. spence was in the middle of studying for the mcat and working full time. but good news...we survived.

we started the application the first day we could. we made a plan but didn't turn it in until the middle of july. spence wanted to make sure everything was perfect. i was a nervous wreck that because we turned it in late we wouldn't get any response.

here is what i would suggest.....
-start early. we spent about 80 hours filling out the first amcas application. add a few more hours for the tmdsas (texas) application and a little bit for the do application. we decided to focus on the amcas first and really try to polish as much as we could.
-spence and i took turns. i filled out all of his classes, grades, etc....he wrote all his essays. i typed in his service, leadership and work hours. he wrote more essays. i checked, rechecked, and rerechecked the application. he wrote and rewrote essays. yes there were that many essays!
-don't get stressed. though this is easy to do try to avoid it. don't worry about when you turn it in. if you're not ready to turn in your application...don't turn it in yet. wait till you feel ready and confident.
-be prepared for more...the first application is simply that...the first. you'll have secondaries. spence was asked for secondaries from every school he applied to (hum...some schools just want money!). so we were in the mix of applications from may to november.
-save your essays under topics. for secondaries you can usually take a general essay you wrote and make it work for that school. there will be a bit of changing to do but it helped us out!

so basically start early, plan for a bit of time, share in the work, and don't stress....

and once you've turned in your application
go CELEBRATE!!!!