Do I have to rewrite secondaries in all cases?

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fullblownrig

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I submitted some secondaries on the due date due to personal issues and was obviously rejected. I think my secondary essays were good tho so do I have to rewrite them because I feel like the bigger issue was my late submissions

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It will become an issue when we compare your applications and discover that you just used your old essays.
Writing can always be improved.

If you really like the old essays, send them to schools where you have not previously applied.
 
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I submitted some secondaries on the due date due to personal issues and was obviously rejected. I think my secondary essays were good tho so do I have to rewrite them because I feel like the bigger issue was my late submissions
There are very few writers who can't improve their writing, as gyngyn says. More importantly however, if you want to show improvement and growth in the past year, you won't be doing it with last cycle's essays. If you just submit what you wrote a year ago, you will be saying nothing about what you've done since then. That won't exactly impress adcoms with your commitment, dynamism, and growth.

Think less about "rewriting" and more about improving and putting your best foot forward.
 
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If you submitted on the due date, were the essays particularly good?
They were good but yeah of course i can improve them a little. I'm talking more along the lines of essays that are very straightforward like talk about a time you were nervous pr what challenges did you have during the pandemic. things like that that are difficult to change a lot.
 
I rewrote everything - Personal Statement, W/A, Secondaries. I thought my essays were good from last time too, but I still made sure not to even look at my stuff from my first cycle until I had the new stuff done so that I knew everything I was writing was fresh. Even my COVID essays were worded differently and expanded upon better. Reusing the essays from a cycle where you didn't get in looks bad imo.
 
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