Reapply people

[Chargers]

For all who reapply before, I have some question. Did you reuse your personal statement and secondary essays? If not, did you change them a lot. How would you suggest me to change.

BTW how did you know which areas on your application to improve? I mean I called and emailed those schools that rejected me, and all of them just made a bunch of excuse about not being able to discuss about my file or having to make an appointment with the admission director while knowing that I live 2000 miles away from the schools. How did you go about this?

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[Instatewaiter]

For all who reapply before, I have some question. Did you reuse your personal statement and secondary essays? If not, did you change them a lot. How would you suggest me to change.

BTW how did you know which areas on your application to improve? I mean I called and emailed those schools that rejected me, and all of them just made a bunch of excuse about not being able to discuss about my file or having to make an appointment with the admission director while knowing that I live 2000 miles away from the schools. How did you go about this?

I reused most of my PS but changed some parts. I also updated it to include things I had done since I last applied. For the run of the mill secondary essays I re-tuned them but most of the important ones I completely rewrote.

Make an apt with the admissions director near you.

Additionally you could post your stats and ECs and let the folks on SDN tear you appart.

 

[Mobius1985]

BTW how did you know which areas on your application to improve? I mean I called and emailed those schools that rejected me, and all of them just made a bunch of excuse about not being able to discuss about my file or having to make an appointment with the admission director while knowing that I live 2000 miles away from the schools. How did you go about this?

Call and ask to make a telephone appointment for a future day and time with one of the deans to discuss your application. I had no problem (eventually) speaking with someone who was willing to be very honest about the weakness and strengths of my application.

I agree with Instatewaiter, if you want more immediate, and bluntly honest suggestions, post your numbers and ECs here.

 

[armybound]

I reused about a 3 sentence chunk of my original PS that I liked. otherwise it was new.

I asked my pre-med adviser how I could improve.

 

[moe_4eva]

Call and ask to make a telephone appointment for a future day and time with one of the deans to discuss your application. I had no problem (eventually) speaking with someone who was willing to be very honest about the weakness and strengths of my application.

Completely agree with this advice. I absolutely credit my eventual acceptance to the dean of admission's advice and critique.

I used the basic outline from my PS, but rewrote the bulk of the material.

 

[Giddyup5]

was on the same boat last year. And i hear your frustration getting good advice from adcom members. I was able to speak with 2 schools out of the 10 i applied last year to discuss my application....a good idea is to try to do it during the summer when they are usually less busy and have time to talk!


Some generic advice, both schools told me to rewrite everything. It is ok to include stuff here and there, but applying to the same school again with similar essays just makes you look lazy.

And last year for my descriptions of activites and jobs i was very short and concise. Since that didn't work this year i was long and detailed. Who knows if it helped but i overall with all my improvements i've had a much better app season.

 

[Blade28]

PLEASE don't simply reuse your essays! At least amend them with your new (gap year) experiences!

 

[Great 08]

I amended it but kept most of it the same. Even the catchy opener!
But I applied more broadly 26 schools instead of 18 (about 8 were reapps) and brought up the MCAT.
After interviewing for postbaccs I was given some really helpful suggestions on how to improve. Never actually called back the schools.

 

[EpiPEN]

Post interview last year a lot of schools told me they couldn't accept me because I applied too late. So I essentially just used the same essay this year. Or rather, I should say, the contents about my passion/background and all that is the same but I helped to save someone's life (go go EMT training) this past year so I used that as an opener instead.

 

[dfleisch]

What are some suggestions to do in the gap year. I have a 3.69 GPA and 30 MCAT and have taken all advanced chemistry and bio courses being a double major. I also did research in school and have EMT experience. What are possible suggestions to do in the gap year?? Most interesting masters degrees require two years. The one year special masters degree is expensive and am not sure I am interested in it.

 

[RxnMan]

I thought I had suggestions for what to do during a gap year in the FAQ. You can also search for "gap year" and "year off" and you'll get tons of suggestions. Most people set up some research opportunity.