Rewriting the Personal Statement

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If you are a reapplicant, would you rewrite your personal statement and supplemental essays? I am going to contact the school which I applied to this year in May regardless but I wanted some opinions from SDN members.

 

[parabolic]

Yes. No question.

If you're re-applying, it means you've had time to improve your application-- volunteering, taking/retaking more classes, taking/retaking the PCAT, working in a pharmacy. To do these things and then submit the exact same essay would make no sense to me. You'd want to incorporate into that essay why you are reapplying, what you have done to make yourself stand out as a better candidate this year, how the application process changed your views on pharmacy, anything at all to show that you have continued to improve and haven't just vegetated for a year.

Not rewriting would (to me, but I'm no authority on it) be indicative of a candidate's laziness. So if you find yourself in the position of reapplying, best of luck to you, and rewrite those essays. 🙂

 

[nerv12345]

why would you re-write them? it's not like your personal experiences suddenly changed over the past year.
if anything, just add the experiences you gained within that year and modify your existing essays to make them better grammatically, remove "less important" experiences (for the sake of staying within the word limit), etc

 

[GATTACA CTAATGT]

The only thing that really will change is that perhaps my PCAT score will improve and I will have some experience working in a pharmacy. Unless there is a question in the supplemental asking how you improved, I am positive the adcoms can understand how much my PCAT score improved without actually pointing it out to them. It's probably the first thing they look at anyways along with GPA.
The only point I will add to the essay is that I will receive my degree in Bio-Chem which will add to my experience in the field. Other than that, my interests in subjects such chemistry and math, which are crucial in being a pharmacist, remain the same. I do not know how I can change really change that portion of the essay. I could see your viewpoint parabolic but nerv12345's suggestion is more feasible. It did take me quite awhile to type, revise, and revise again the supplemental and personal essay.

 

[SoccerCoach10]

I reapplied this year and my essays were pretty much the same, I just tweaked a few things here and there and added some things that changed since the last admissions cycle. Everything worked out, as I was accepted this year! I would just re-tweak your essays, if needed. Your updated stats and degree will definitely be a plus. Good Luck to you!

 

[fiorio]

absolutely yes, my PS and essays looks like a total joke from previous cycle, after being rewritten they look much professional and i got in the ones i want.😀

 

[mrblah]

absolutely yes, my PS and essays looks like a total joke from previous cycle, after being rewritten they look much professional and i got in the ones i want.😀

I think people don't need to "re-write" them, but "revise" them. I had the same experience as you. When I re-read my essays that i wrote when interview time rolled around, the first essays i wrote were utter crap. The later revised essays that I later submitted to other schools were a dramatic improvement over the first essay or two ( I'm a lazy bastard, everytime I had to submit a new application, I revised my essay, so my best essay went to my last choice school 😕)