Late applicant

[Roscoe11]

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so I applied pretty late last cycle (in January after taking the MCAT for the first time). Am I still expected to rework all of my essays including secondaries?

 

[Goro]

Yes. Schools that keep copies of your files will look at the old ones and compare.

so I applied pretty late last cycle (in January after taking the MCAT for the first time). Am I still expected to rework all of my essays including secondaries?

 

[Roscoe11]

Yes. Schools that keep copies of your files will look at the old ones and compare.

As in start from scratch or just improve upon?

My biggest improvements in the past 7 months have been more along the lines of EC's and academia. I have taken on new volunteer work, gotten A's in Biochem, Endocrinology and Anatomy, and started working in a pathology lab in addition to continuing to work as a scribe in the ED(which I will have been doing for two years next month)... I have been speaking with my Anatomy professor in order to become a TA for Anatomy lab (if he needs any more), and if I am not called up from the waitlist that I am currently on I will be taking an international volunteering trip...

I know not to submit the same EXACT stuff, but I also do not believe my PS was my downfall. Applying so late most likely hurt my application the most, but the entire time I was studying for the MCAT I just figured I would be applying for this cycle(2015-2016) and that the opportunity to apply for 2014-2015 cycle had long passed. Once I saw that the deadline for some schools had technically not passed, I submitted, said a hail mary and waited, but my application was probably DOA at most places. More than a handful of places seemed quite willing to let me donate to their "late submission secondary application fund," although I doubt its tax deductible... Anyways, it had never crossed my mind that if I did not get in than I would have to rework all of my materials...

Reading through my personal statement, nothing has been significant/life changing enough within the past 7 months to start from scratch, just enough to change/rework some things...Being that there is a lot more freedom with the personal statement I have have found it easier to change, but as for secondaries I find it difficult to rework everything when most of the time the question itself has not changed...

Do you fully expect to see a 100% different PS or is a hybrid still acceptable, especially when other areas of my application have seen improvements/changes?

Thanks!!

 

[Goro]

You can always improve. You don't have to do a total rewrite, but other Adcom members have said that keeping that 100% same essays shows laziness.

As in start from scratch or just improve upon?

My biggest improvements in the past 7 months have been more along the lines of EC's and academia. I have taken on new volunteer work, gotten A's in Biochem, Endocrinology and Anatomy, and started working in a pathology lab in addition to continuing to work as a scribe in the ED(which I will have been doing for two years next month)... I have been speaking with my Anatomy professor in order to become a TA for Anatomy lab (if he needs any more), and if I am not called up from the waitlist that I am currently on I will be taking an international volunteering trip...

I know not to submit the same EXACT stuff, but I also do not believe my PS was my downfall. Applying so late most likely hurt my application the most, but the entire time I was studying for the MCAT I just figured I would be applying for this cycle(2015-2016) and that the opportunity to apply for 2014-2015 cycle had long passed. Once I saw that the deadline for some schools had technically not passed, I submitted, said a hail mary and waited, but my application was probably DOA at most places. More than a handful of places seemed quite willing to let me donate to their "late submission secondary application fund," although I doubt its tax deductible... Anyways, it had never crossed my mind that if I did not get in than I would have to rework all of my materials...

Reading through my personal statement, nothing has been significant/life changing enough within the past 7 months to start from scratch, just enough to change/rework some things...Being that there is a lot more freedom with the personal statement I have have found it easier to change, but as for secondaries I find it difficult to rework everything when most of the time the question itself has not changed...

Do you fully expect to see a 100% different PS or is a hybrid still acceptable, especially when other areas of my application have seen improvements/changes?

Thanks!!

 

[Roscoe11]

You can always improve. You don't have to do a total rewrite, but other Adcom members have said that keeping that 100% same essays shows laziness.

awesome, Thanks so much for the input!!

 

[Roscoe11]

you never have to do a total rewrite of the whole thing but to save you alot of trouble its a new company launching thats gonna evaluate the perfect school match for you and also it will help you with those essays as well as finding out what you need to improve to get in the school of your choice im on there subscriber list you should to http://edumatchme.org/

thanks, but no thanks, I'll do my own due diligence on schools

 

[B-wildered]

Hey,
I am in the same boat as you. In applied late last cycle (NOV).
I rewrote my PS and all my meaningful experiences. Since I was running against deadlines coupled with my lack of experience in writing, my documents did not really portray myself in a way that I wanted. However, I recycled many of the ideas, but the "writing style" was considerable different for this cycle.

 

[lilahmy3]

Im in the same boat as well. Hope I don't have to rewrite my personal experiences, they were solid. Spent a year fixing and revising them. My only problem was I took the mcat so late

 

[Roscoe11]

I did not do a whole lot of rewriting of my personal experiences/extracurriculars...my personal statement on the other hand...

I started out reluctant to change it, but by the end of it very little remained the same