for all you reapplicants ---- personal statement question

[waitingwaiting]

For all you reapplicants,

Did you re-write your personal statements? The major problem with my application this year was my MCAT scores. I have a lot of extracurriculars and stuff, so nothing has really changed there. Is that bad? Thanks for your advice :wink:

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[Aggiemaj]

I talked to my professional school advising office, and they said it was not good to submit the exact same essay as a reapplicant. I rewrote mine, but I still kept some of the same concepts that I thought were strong in my original essay. The advising office also said I needed all new letters of recommendation (just FYI).

Another thing that I did was to set up a meeting with one of the schools I interviewed at, but was not accepted. I talked with them (via phone) about my application as a whole, from the paper copy to the interview. He also gave me some tips concerning my personal statement, and I tried to incorporate those in the revised essay.

 

[waitingwaiting]

Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it. So the meeting with the committe member helped huh? Did you get into that school this year? I talked to someone from the school that I 'm currently waitlisted at and they said my application was good exept for my MCAT scores. Did you keep the same recommenders and just ask them to write new letters? Or did you add new people writing the recommendation letter? Thanks! Oh yeah, did a lot change on your application from one year to the next?

 

[Zack90]

I was reapplicant from last year... and accepted this year. My problem last year was also my MCAT score. I did REWRITE my personal statement - to add a last paragraph of what I did over last year to improve my application, what I learned from the experience, etc. But, my major points remained. I also kep SAME recommendation letters - no need to change them - I was told they weren't my problem.

 

[Ceez]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Zack90:
•I was reapplicant from last year... and accepted this year. My problem last year was also my MCAT score. I did REWRITE my personal statement - to add a last paragraph of what I did over last year to improve my application, what I learned from the experience, etc. But, my major points remained. I also kep SAME recommendation letters - no need to change them - I was told they weren't my problem.•••••how do you find out what's in your LORs? mine were sent to schools confidentially and i have no idea what my profs said. they could have said i work for al-queda for all i know.

 

[Zack90]

I asked mt pre-med advisor who saw them since she wrote my school's composite/committee letter.

 

[Aggiemaj]

I am currently getting ready to reapply to the school that I met with. As far as letters of recommendation, I kept one of the same people and asked two new ones to write a letter for me. They had both volunteered last year, but I had already asked other people, so I decided to let them do it this year.

I wouldn't say my application changed too much between last year and this year. I graduated in December 2001, so since then I've just held my full-time job and added a few volunteer opportunities on the side. When I met with the Dean of Admissions about my application, he said they would take my full-time job into consideration when they were looking for improvement/enhancement since last year.

Hope this helps!