First time posting on this site but been following this forum for a while. I feel like I have to respond because I have seen so much well-intentioned but bad advice... it is truly the blind leading the blind on sdn! I am re-applicant who applied in 2018-2019 and took a whole year off before reapplying. I mentioned being a reapplicant in my personal statement and currently have 15+ interview invites and multiple acceptances from MD schools, including a couple top 10/ top 20 schools. I talked about being a re-applicant at every school I interviewed at, even schools that I am not technically a reapplicant because it is my first time applying to them. I even re-interviewed and was accepted from a school that waitlisted me 2 cycles ago! Every school has viewed being a re-applicant positively because of the growth I have done (except for maybe the places that have rejected me pre-interview, but WTH knows lol?).
I am ORM, cookie cutter EC's, research but no publications, 3.7 GPA, Illinois resident. I applied with a 518 MCAT last time and had to retake it this cycle because it expired... my new MCAT, which was taken this year, is 522+ (I am mentioning this to give hope to "high stat" reapplicants because I have seen it baselessly repeated on this site that there is a strong bias against us... obviously I am only one data point, but this seems to be total BS at most schools: even Stanford, which is arguable the hardest school in the country to get accepted, has a re-applicant essay!)
I want this post to give hope to re-applicants and quell some insecurities about SDN advice that may very well be myth (re-applicant bias, etc.). I've realized that there is a very fine line between applicants who get accepted verse rejected and an even finer line between people who get accepted verse waitlisted. Keep working toward your goal and eventually you will cross this line! Don't worry about things you can't control like "reapplicant bias," high MCAT retake bias" (if your situation happens to be similar to mine), "multiple MCAT attempt bias," "schools don't re-interview applicants bias," or "cookie cutter EC bias" (I might have made some of these up, but I hope you get still my point haha). My final advice and response to your post is to not hide being a re-applicant in your application and interviews, they are a part of your life story, own that **** and talk about it confidently!