I'm a reapplicant. Although I have returned my Pitt secondary yet this year I plan on using the same essay for that question. In my case I don't believe that is the reason I was rejected to their school last year. However if you feel that perhaps your topic or the ideas you conveyed in the essay you used last year then perhaps you should do a little tweaking at least.
For example my essay for my application to Michigan this year remained the same essentially. However, I tweaked the point I was trying to get across to make it a bit more clearer. The experience that I cited remained the same though.
By the way just out of curiosity did you take the Aug MCAT? How many schools did you apply to last time? What numbers did you apply with(if you don't mind telling throuh PM or something)? Or at the very least..."Why do you think you were rejected the first time around?" (Hope I'm not bein' tooo nosy. If I am, it's cool. No pressure to answer.) 🙂
I had a 3.81 and 28L with good ECs(volunteering, research, publications, etc.) last year. I interviewed at Vandy and Loma Linda and was on the infamous "hold for interview" list at Wake, GW, Penn State, and UCI. I decided to retake the MCAT because I thought it was the only weakness in my app. But after reading posts on SDN seems like quite a few people got in with 28's. Perhaps it was my dreadful "L." Apparently MCAT the thinkers I Cain'ts written ideas intelligigibilly. 🙂 hehe