Could Use some Advice on a unique reapplicant situation

[SadreapplicantQQ]

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So long story short, I started my apps, submitted my primaries, and then decided I did not want to start medical school in a year (bad decisions due to a relationship) . I withdrew my apps/didn't send secondaries to any schools. By October I changed my mind. I didn't want to waste an enormous amount of money so I just applied to the four SUNYs. I got 3/4 II, did so-so and got waitlisted at 2, bombed my Buff interview and got the R.

So I guess I have a couple of questions regarding my situation and reapplying. Does anyone have knowledge of whether adcoms see old apps and interview notes when looking at reapplicants. Will all other schools who I didn't send a secondary care or think I'm lazy if I just reuse my old personal statement? For 'how gave you improved', can I just write I applied earlier with a better school list?

stats ORM, state college 3.86 & 522, have continued gain experience in clinical setting and helping those less fortunate this last year.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

If you are ready to start medical school this summer, you should try very hard to get off one of the 2 IS WL's you are already on.

SUNY schools are great, and a great deal.

As @gonnif and others have posted, late in the season, many schools are going to be looking to fill those last few WL spaces with great applicants who have no other acceptances and therefore, have not hit "Commit to enroll" on AMCAS. So stay in contact with the 2 SUNY schools, following their explicit and implicit instructions as to how they want to hear from you about updates and staying on their wait list. (As a WL applicant, I think it is fair to call ONCE, asking if they have a ranked or tiered WL and if they are able to give you any information about where you stand on their WL.)

If you have to reapply, schools will see that you are a reapplicant, but I doubt they will bother to see much else. Your LizzyM is high enough that the SUNY schools will likely reinvite you, especially if you apply early in the season. On interviews, you will have to be prepared to answer the question why you did not get in anywhere with such high stats. Do NOT mention anything about relationship problems. Hopefully, you can also honestly respond that you were very busy and passionate with your school work or your gap year activities, and therefore a bit ambivalent about taking (another) gap year, so you limited your applications to just a few and applied late. And that this cycle, you will be applying broadly AND are now a better applicant (and improved person) as a result of the extra year working with those less fortunate.

Remember that most of the time, once you get a II, the interviewers at these schools are not full-time ADCOMS and do not have interest or time or access to read your prior applications or notes from a prior year interview. As an interviewer, I only know that the person is a reapplicant that cycle, and I may ask them why they think they did not get in the first time around, and what they have done to address those deficiencies, but that is it. I would be very satisfied with an applicant who honestly answered that they did not think they were yet ready to apply, so only applied to a small number of state schools and did so late.

 

[SadreapplicantQQ]

Ty for the response

"As @gonnif and others have posted, late in the season, many schools are going to be looking to fill those last few WL spaces with great applicants who have no other acceptances and therefore, have not hit "Commit to enroll" on AMCAS."

- With new traffic rules is this still a thing? Can they see who was accepted or not anymore? Also, month-wise, how late in the cycle are we talking?

 

[gyngyn]

High stats re-applicants are in a difficult position in that they will be presumed to have been interviewed and not accepted (despite excellent scores).
Widely available admissions software makes it quite easy to see what happened in a previous cycle at the places you interviewed.
Your IS public schools are likely to be more forgiving in this situation. You will be a re-applicant at all the schools to which you submitted a primary application, sadly.
Hopefully, there will be waitlist movement sufficient to reach you this cycle.

 

[SadreapplicantQQ]

"Widely available admissions software makes it quite easy to see what happened in a previous cycle at the places you interviewed"

Could you specify what you mean? Like the interview notes/comments would be available to Adcoms?

Also many schools ask on their secondaries questions about reapps. Do you think I would get any leeway if I explained my situation there? Would incomplete schools care about a verbatim PS beyond just the reapplicant stigma?

 

[Med Ed]

"Widely available admissions software makes it quite easy to see what happened in a previous cycle at the places you interviewed"

Could you specify what you mean? Like the interview notes/comments would be available to Adcoms?

Widely available admissions software like Amp, which is one of the big players in this market. How a give school decides to configure its process will be unique from place to place, but nothing prevents data from prior cycles being available. How that data gets used, if at all, is another question.

Also many schools ask on their secondaries questions about reapps. Do you think I would get any leeway if I explained my situation there?

I depends on what the situation was and how you explain it. Your description in this thread is not overly abundant with details.

 

[SadreapplicantQQ]

Widely available admissions software like Amp, which is one of the big players in this market. How a give school decides to configure its process will be unique from place to place, but nothing prevents data from prior cycles being available. How that data gets used, if at all, is another question.



I depends on what the situation was and how you explain it. Your description in this thread is not overly abundant with details.

If I just framed it as " I submitted primaries, but blank event occured, and it made me reevaluate whether I wanted to matriculate the following summer. I was ambivalent because I was very fufilled with my activities and was in the happiest era of my life. Eventually I talked myself into applying because I was heavily pressured by my MCAT expiration and ended up only submitting to a small number of state schools, not sending secondaries to the vast majority of places I applied. "

From what Ive seen on this forum adcoms dislike reapplicants because there's the assumption there something wrong with them, but in your experience , how does this play out of reapplicants who just applied with poor strategy/timing?

What if I just said I gave poor interviews and there wasnt enough time in between said interviews to dramatically improve my interview skills the way I have over the 'offseason'.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

If I just framed it as " I submitted primaries, but blank event occured, and it made me reevaluate whether I wanted to matriculate the following summer. Eventually I talked myself into applying because I was heavily pressured by my MCAT expiration and ended up only submitting to a small number of state schools, not sending secondaries to the vast majority of places I applied . "

It is always better to frame it in terms of a positive. Many times in life, we are ambivalent about taking the next step bc we are enjoying what we are doing right now, and I think your interviewers will be able to relate.

If you are already doing a gap year, then it makes sense that by July, after only doing a month or two of your gap year activities, you were not feeling a necessity to move on to the next step because you were still taking it all in and diving into your gap year(s) which you suspected would be even more rewarding if you could devote two years to them. Moreover, it is hard to take the time away from your gap year job/activities to fill out applications and go on interviews, especially if one has just started a new job. Hopefully this is something that is true in your case, bc you do want to be genuine. But I would avoid the story about the failed relationship etc. even if that was the primary reason for your indecision in your mind.

 

[Med Ed]

If I just framed it as " I submitted primaries, but blank event occured, and it made me reevaluate whether I wanted to matriculate the following summer. I was ambivalent because I was very fufilled with my activities and was in the happiest era of my life. Eventually I talked myself into applying because I was heavily pressured by my MCAT expiration and ended up only submitting to a small number of state schools, not sending secondaries to the vast majority of places I applied. "

From what Ive seen on this forum adcoms dislike reapplicants because there's the assumption there something wrong with them, but in your experience , how does this play out of reapplicants who just applied with poor strategy/timing?

What if I just said I gave poor interviews and there wasnt enough time in between said interviews to dramatically improve my interview skills the way I have over the 'offseason'.

I think you are grossly overestimating how much adcoms will care about this. There is also little benefit to oversharing an overwrought explanation. All you have to say is something like "For personal reasons I truncated my application process last year, and sent my complete application to only four medical schools." If someone is curious it will come up in an interview. If no one is curious then you've saved yourself some trouble.

 

[candbgirl]

Actually, it sounds like you are still ambivalent . You keep asking about reusing your PS from last year. You’ve had a whole year of experience since that PS was written. Even if you did nothing to enhance your application you did something. Did anything reinforce your decision to apply/attend medical school? Why do you think that this is the time to reapply? Did you notify schools that you were withdrawing or did you just not submit secondaries to every school except the four schools you interviewed at?

 

[SadreapplicantQQ]

Actually, it sounds like you are still ambivalent . You keep asking about reusing your PS from last year. You’ve had a whole year of experience since that PS was written. Even if you did nothing to enhance your application you did something. Did anything reinforce your decision to apply/attend medical school? Why do you think that this is the time to reapply? Did you notify schools that you were withdrawing or did you just not submit secondaries to every school except the four schools you interviewed at?

No did not notify schools I was withdrawing my application, don't see how that would matter considering that incomplete applications are withdrawn, not rejected. Seems like added hassle for an adcom to manually withdraw an app rather than have it never reviewed.

The quality of PS from last year cannot be reproduced with the time I have between now and June 1st. The current PS got me 75% II success rate for apps submitted in October. If the 22 schools where my secondaries were not submitted would not hold it against me, I of course would want to use the stronger PS.

If you have experience in medical schools admissions and would like to read it and share whether you think it's memorable or average I can PM you. I can write a new, unmemorable PS that wont help or hurt easily, and would be fine replacing an old average PS with a new average PS.

 

[gyngyn]

The quality of PS from last year cannot be reproduced with the time I have between now and June 1st. The current PS got me 75% II success rate for apps submitted in October. If the 22 schools where my secondaries were not submitted would not hold it against me, I of course would want to use the stronger PS.

I do not recommend submitting the same PS in a re-application.
It sends the wrong message.

 

[965978]

I do not recommend submitting the same PS in a re-application.
It sends the wrong message.

How about same theme but re-written?

 

[gyngyn]

How about same theme but re-written?

No problem.

 

[CarrotMink]

You're definitely fine. SUNY's will reinterview you no problem, albeit with a small bias because they may see your previous application. As long as you can provide a solid reason as to why you didin't get into any school (small school list etc.), you have a fantastic shot! You can even add schools you didn't apply last time and you'll be treated as a first time applicant. I'm a reapp and ended up getting interviewed at all the schools I did my first cycle.. so there's that

 

[965978]

I’m a reapp and ended up getting interviewed at all the schools I did my first cycle.. so there's that

I’ve heard this so many times from so many people that they got II’s at a school that interviewed them the year before.

This makes me feel that either 1) schools have perfected the art of evaluating applications or 2) there is some separate subcommittee that schools use to screen re-applicants that have interviewed in the past