Personal statement re-write?

[penguinalhernia]

Hey all! So I'm gearing up to re-submit my primary here in the next several days. I got 4 interviews last cycle and am sitting on 2 waitlists. I was able to get feedback from one of my rejections and it mostly revolved around interview skills.

My main question is, to what extent should I re-write my personal statement? I've almost completely re-written my W/A and MMEs but I'm really struggling with the PS. I was very happy with it the first time around. My motivation for going into medicine really hasn't changed much in the last year. I'm planning on deleting one of my larger paragraphs and adding in a different story to build on a teaching theme that I've built into my narrative. And I have a follow-up to a very meaningful patient story I included. So I won't be copy-pasting the exact same thing. There's parts of it I will be refining and making sure I have stronger takeaways. But I especially love my introduction and think it's very strong. Large parts of the essay will be staying pretty similar. I'm worried that changing too much will weaken my narrative and won't be true to me anymore, but I also don't want AdComs to think that I'm lazy for not rewriting. Any advice? Thank you!!

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[chilly_md]

That amount of editing sounds good to me. From the number of interviews you got, I would also suspect interview skills would be the best area to improve. At least one school confirmed that for you.

Hopefully you get off one of those WL's though this month.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hey all! So I'm gearing up to re-submit my primary here in the next several days. I got 4 interviews last cycle and am sitting on 2 waitlists. I was able to get feedback from one of my rejections and it mostly revolved around interview skills.

My main question is, to what extent should I re-write my personal statement? I've almost completely re-written my W/A and MMEs but I'm really struggling with the PS. I was very happy with it the first time around. My motivation for going into medicine really hasn't changed much in the last year. I'm planning on deleting one of my larger paragraphs and adding in a different story to build on a teaching theme that I've built into my narrative. And I have a follow-up to a very meaningful patient story I included. So I won't be copy-pasting the exact same thing. There's parts of it I will be refining and making sure I have stronger takeaways. But I especially love my introduction and think it's very strong. Large parts of the essay will be staying pretty similar. I'm worried that changing too much will weaken my narrative and won't be true to me anymore, but I also don't want AdComs to think that I'm lazy for not rewriting. Any advice? Thank you!!

Also hoping you get off WL's, but to answer your question...

I have found that many schools will ask an applicant to provide another open-ended essay of around 4000+ characters that asks the applicant to write a new essay about themselves that is completely different from the PS. To that end, I feel strong candidates should be able to have enough material to write 2 or 3 personal statements. You can probably edit the ones you have a bit, but the consensus from interviewing admissions professionals is that they want to see a new essay whenever possible. You cannot fall in love with your PS like you would your first novel, and we don't give prizes to those applicants with the "best" personal essays. Search the forum for LindaAccepted's interviews with admissions professionals.

 

[MaryAccepted]

I agree with @Mr.Smile12
Also, there's a new gap year to account for upon reapplying. The new application should demonstrate further evolution or further accomplishments, so reusing the previous personal statement becomes a missed opportunity to stay current about your professional insight and development. It may be possible to re-use a portion of the previous statement, but never if it messes with the flow or "direction" of the narrative. Again, this is an opportunity to shed light on a gap year as a time of experience, opportunity and growth as a future doctor.