Reusing application materials

[deleted1112460]

I am planning to submit my apps and would like to know how much material I can reuse from last year, if I only had submitted a primary, but not secondaries? Last cycle, I had submitted my primary but withdrew prior to submitting secondaries due to personal reasons and it being late in the cycle.

I will be updating my PS and replacing several activities with new activities to reflect my new experiences (clinical and non clinical) and wanted to know if this is okay.

Thank you in advance!

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[Dee2daK]

As long as your activities are up to date and your PS has been rewritten to reflect your current status/feelings/motivations, then you should be fine.

Old activities can probably be left anlone unless your descriptions were poorly written. I’d also review the MME to make sure it reinforces your application and PS, and that it is still your most meaningful - maybe a more recent one is.

If you didn’t even submit secondaries, there’s a good chance your primaries never made it to any person’s eyes as a complete application. My assumption would be that your applications would only be compared against last year’s complete packets, and any new school you add this year won’t even be able to see last year’s primary. Still be prepared to address why you withdrew your application if any schools ask.

I don’t personally think this is a big deal, but I’ll defer to the experts.

 

[deleted1112460]

As long as your activities are up to date and your PS has been rewritten to reflect your current status/feelings/motivations, then you should be fine.

Old activities can probably be left anlone unless your descriptions were poorly written. I’d also review the MME to make sure it reinforces your application and PS, and that it is still your most meaningful - maybe a more recent one is.

If you didn’t even submit secondaries, there’s a good chance your primaries never made it to any person’s eyes as a complete application. My assumption would be that your applications would only be compared against last year’s complete packets, and any new school you add this year won’t even be able to see last year’s primary. Still be prepared to address why you withdrew your application if any schools ask.

I don’t personally think this is a big deal, but I’ll defer to the experts.

Thank you for the detailed response. From what I’ve understood from other threads, those that withdraw prior to completing secondaries are still considered reapplicants, which is what prompted me to ask.

But my intuition agrees with everything you mentioned since without secondaries an application is not deemed complete.

 

[LindaAccepted]

I guess the good news is that you won't need to rewrite secondaries. 🙂

Kidding aside, I agree with @Dee2daK that if you update your activities and MMEs to reflect what you've done and learned in the past year and your older activity descriptions were well written, you don't need to up date them. Updating the PS is definitely a good idea to reflect growth and maturation that have occurred since you submitted that first app. And let's face it, most writing and reflection can be improved a year later.

 

[OMSWeebHours]

Definitely update the statement... It is possible schools may compare it to the previous things you submitted. And if it looks too similar, well, I wouldn't expect good results.

Obviously you can still mention some of the old stuff since it is relevant but rehaul the personal statement so it is very different. Since you didn't submit secondaries, you may be in a favorable situation, as rewriting those is an utter nightmare (almost had to if I didn't get lucky with a school I had connections to in the end). Secondaries are a lot to handle so I'd say make sure you have a lot of time to write them with care. Turn in your high priority secondaries first and don't miss the due dates, but be sure they are well written. Some people overbook their schedules during application year and/or rush them and I heavily advise against that.

Your PS is arguably the most important part of writing your application, but secondaries are on another level due to the sheer volume. If you don't underestimate them and set aside a lot of time over the course of about 1-2 months, you can probably handle them. If you know qualified people who can proofread them, that is great as well.

Also, this may seem like fatalistic advice, but don't build your hopes up or bank on one school. Many hear radio silence or get rejections from most schools even if they put a lot of care into applications. We rarely get our first choices either so make sure you are perfectly fine with attending any school you apply to.