Should I change my PS even though I know it’s good?

[sasukeuchiha33]

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Hey everyone- so I’m going to be a reapplicant next year and am a little hesitant on what to do with regards to my personal statement.

I’ve been calling a ton of admissions committees to try and get feedback, and one of the schools that rejected me was courteous enough to give me a quick 2 minute “consult.” Basically, it confirmed my suspicion which was that my MCAT was just too low. I asked her about my personal statement, and she said my personal statement was actually the thing that made them hold onto my app as long as they did. I was relieved after the call to learn the likely reason for my rejections was my MCAT and not anything else, but now I don’t know what to do for next year. The consensus on her with the Adcoms seems to be that reapplication need an entirely new PS, but there’s a very good chance that if I changed my PS, it would be worse than what is now. And before people say “tweak it a little bit,” why would I want to risk anything to make it worse when I got feedback from a school telling me they loved it?

Basically, will I really come across as lazy by schools if I keep my personal statement the same, especially now that I know it was a strong point of my application? I just don’t know what’s worse- risking coming across as lazy or changing my PS and probably making it worse, esp when I know from an adcom that it was good. How bad would it look if I just submitted the same PS verbatim this cycle? I am getting my MPH this year so maybe if I absolutely have to change it I can talk about how that ties into my goals for being a physician somehow? It’s not like my reasons for wanting to be a physician have changed in one year haha.

 

[vinylradical]

If you are a good enough writer to write one excellent PS, you are good enough to write another excellent PS. I definitely understand where you are coming from though, when I thought I might be a reapp I dreaded redoing my PS with all of my being. So much time and effort put into perfecting my story, felt irreverent to mess with it. Your story or motivation doesn't have to change though, just talk about it in a different way. Think about the gospels of the Bible, same story, 4 different ways of telling it haha. Use different anecdotes, use a different hook/conclusion, find a slightly different angle whenever possible.

 

[Goro]

Hey everyone- so I’m going to be a reapplicant next year and am a little hesitant on what to do with regards to my personal statement.

I’ve been calling a ton of admissions committees to try and get feedback, and one of the schools that rejected me was courteous enough to give me a quick 2 minute “consult.” Basically, it confirmed my suspicion which was that my MCAT was just too low. I asked her about my personal statement, and she said my personal statement was actually the thing that made them hold onto my app as long as they did. I was relieved after the call to learn the likely reason for my rejections was my MCAT and not anything else, but now I don’t know what to do for next year. The consensus on her with the Adcoms seems to be that reapplication need an entirely new PS, but there’s a very good chance that if I changed my PS, it would be worse than what is now. And before people say “tweak it a little bit,” why would I want to risk anything to make it worse when I got feedback from a school telling me they loved it?

Basically, will I really come across as lazy by schools if I keep my personal statement the same, especially now that I know it was a strong point of my application? I just don’t know what’s worse- risking coming across as lazy or changing my PS and probably making it worse, esp when I know from an adcom that it was good. How bad would it look if I just submitted the same PS verbatim this cycle? I am getting my MPH this year so maybe if I absolutely have to change it I can talk about how that ties into my goals for being a physician somehow? It’s not like my reasons for wanting to be a physician have changed in one year haha.

You can always tweak it.

 

[KnightDoc]

So you had a single school that rejected you tell you in a 2 minute consult that your PS was good. Perhaps the admission person was trying to be kind after a rejection and not pile more on you? Perhaps your belief that you had a great PS and it couldnt possibly be better has been your focus the entire cycle as your MCAT was poor? Too many premeds are overly optimistic, seeing everything in the best light thru their rose colored glasses. Your intention is now to reapply immediately, which many medical schools warn as the most common mistake of reapplication, with the very same PS that was unsuccessful, something that is warned against by many.

Get your head out of the clouds, throw away the rose colored glasses, and examine this is the harsh light of reality.

Your points are all very well taken, but OP's dilemma remains. A sucky MCAT could very well render an otherwise winning application DOA, so how is OP supposed to know that the PS needs changing? Changing it for the sake of changing it might be unwise if it wasn't the problem, and if it really is good, which is certainly possible. The risk of turning a 10 into a 9 or an 8, just for the sake of not appearing lazy to an adcom seems real.

I guess the takeaway is that not changing it definitely carries risk, so OP needs to find a way to make it better, even if it is already great, which it might be, even with only a single 2 minute consult. I don't think anyone on SDN would seriously question the fact that a bad MCAT could kill an otherwise decent application, and that, if that indeed is the problem, a higher MCAT is the solution, not a rewritten PS. No?

 

[alm414]

So you had a single school that rejected you tell you in a 2 minute consult that your PS was good. Perhaps the admission person was trying to be kind after a rejection and not pile more on you? Perhaps your belief that you had a great PS and it couldnt possibly be better has been your focus the entire cycle as your MCAT was poor? Too many premeds are overly optimistic, seeing everything in the best light thru their rose colored glasses. Your intention is now to reapply immediately, which many medical schools warn as the most common mistake of reapplication, with the very same PS that was unsuccessful, something that is warned against by many.

Get your head out of the clouds, throw away the rose colored glasses, and examine this is the harsh light of reality.

If I remember correctly, the OP actually had a good application besides their MCAT. I recognize their profile picture - they jumped from like a low 500 to 520+. I’m not sure if that changes your advice in terms of reapplying immediately after a failed cycle, but it’s a huge improvement in their score so I see why they’re eager to reapply with the new score.

 

[candbgirl]

So did you retake the MCAT and do significantly better?

 

[sasukeuchiha33]

So you had a single school that rejected you tell you in a 2 minute consult that your PS was good. Perhaps the admission person was trying to be kind after a rejection and not pile more on you? Perhaps your belief that you had a great PS and it couldnt possibly be better has been your focus the entire cycle as your MCAT was poor? Too many premeds are overly optimistic, seeing everything in the best light thru their rose colored glasses. Your intention is now to reapply immediately, which many medical schools warn as the most common mistake of reapplication, with the very same PS that was unsuccessful, something that is warned against by many.

Get your head out of the clouds, throw away the rose colored glasses, and examine this is the harsh light of reality.

Yikes, this is a bit harsh. What is “the harsh light of reality” even supposed to mean here? How does an adcom telling me my PS was good and my not wanting to change it on that basis equate to me having my head in the clouds? There are no rose colored glasses here- I’ve been the harshest critic of my app this entire cycle precisely because it was unsuccessful. I’ve been looking for any way I can improve, not ways to justify an unsuccessful application. Yeah I guess “perhaps” the lady could’ve just been trying to get me off her tail, but if this is the case, why on earth would she go out of her way to tell me that she and the admissions committee loved my personal statement? This certainly isn’t what I would tell someone if I was trying to rush them off the phone. I’m going to choose to believe she meant it. Thanks for the very harsh and judgmental remark without actually answering my question.

 

[sasukeuchiha33]

You can always tweak it.

Thanks for actually giving me a reasonable sounding answer haha. Between people telling me to overhaul it and write a totally new one in spite of the positive feedback I got and others telling me I’m delusional, this is the route I’m probably going to take. How would you suggest I tweak it? Should I mention something about my MPH?

 

[Goro]

Thanks for actually giving me a reasonable sounding answer haha. Between people telling me to overhaul it and write a totally new one in spite of the positive feedback I got and others telling me I’m delusional, this is the route I’m probably going to take. How would you suggest I tweak it? Should I mention something about my MPH?

That's your job to figure out

 

[gyngyn]

There is always a way to make things better. A re-application with the same PS would be a non-starter at my school.

 

[orchid46]

I would change it if I were you. I definitely get where you're coming from, but I'm sure you could come up with another good premise--you can mention the same activities just maybe change the theme or the specific anecdotes or something. If you don't change it, it might be fine but you also might risk them viewing you as lazy so if I were you I would opt to avoid that risk.

 

[ingobingo]

N = 1 but I have a friend who was a reapplicant (albeit he applied MD/PhD both times if that makes a difference) who did not change his personal statement because he felt that it didn’t need changing and was successful this cycle (went from 0 As to 6 As). I personally would have at least tweaked the essay a bit as others have mentioned to minimize any risk of coming off as lazy/etc.

 

[KnightDoc]

N = 1 but I have a friend who was a reapplicant (albeit he applied MD/PhD both times if that makes a difference) who did not change his personal statement because he felt that it didn’t need changing and was successful this cycle (went from 0 As to 6 As). I personally would have at least tweaked the essay a bit as others have mentioned to minimize any risk of coming off as lazy/etc.

Clearly, this is undoubtedly possible. I'm pretty sure the wise adcoms are really preaching to the masses here. As @gyngyn said, anything could always be made at least a little better, and, at least at her school, a resubmission with no changes would apparently be seen as a sign of laziness or arrogance that would not be acceptable. That obviously does not apply everywhere, if, in fact, the problem was elsewhere and it was satisfactorily addressed.

My takeaway, though, is that @gonnif is right, and that, as a group, we suck at judging our own strengths and weaknesses with respect to this process. As a result, the best advice, and the clearest path to future success for most of us, is to rip apart a failed application and begin again from scratch, rather than slapping a little lipstick on our pig of a prior application and crossing our collective fingers.

JMHO. I've spent enough time here that I feel like I'm a reapplicant with the advantage of never having applied before, so let's see how things shake out for me this upcoming cycle. It just might turn out that I haven't learned nearly as much as I think I did, but no one will be able to say I didn't put a lot of time and thought into my application! 🙂

 

[candbgirl]

OP did she tell you not to change it? I can’t tell from what you wrote.
How many interviews did you have?
How many apps did your submit?
I understand you not wanting to change your PS or being afraid to change it but remember only one person told you that it was great. And remember you have a whole year more of experiences to add to journey.

 

[KnightDoc]

OP did she tell you not to change it? I can’t tell from what you wrote.
How many interviews did you have?
How many apps did your submit?
I understand you not wanting to change your PS or being afraid to change it but remember only one person told you that it was great. And remember you have a whole year more of experiences to add to journey.

My take isn't that she said not to change it. What she said was that it was so good that it was the reason OP wasn't rejected sooner on account of the sub par MCAT score. OP's inference about it not needing to be changed is reasonable, from that one bit of feedback, but, as everyone else has been saying, that's only one person's opinion, and OP did strike out everywhere, including the school where they claimed to have loved the PS.

So, OP is left with the choice of not changing it and risk being dinged at schools like @gyngyn's for that fact alone, or digging deep and finding a way to make it even better to enhance OP's chances everywhere on the reapp, and risk turning something good into something less good.

 

[RickyRic]

You specifically asked about your PS, so the adcom may have just been nice. If she had voluntarily mentioned your PS then I would hesitate to change it.

If you really want to keep the PS verbatim (which sounds like a bad idea) you should have several people read it. If you're still in college, or just fresh out, your school may have a writing center or some type of service to give feedback on essays for students.

 

[candbgirl]

You specifically asked about your PS, so the adcom may have just been nice. If she had voluntarily mentioned your PS then I would hesitate to change it.

If you really want to keep the PS verbatim (which sounds like a bad idea) you should have several people read it. If you're still in college, or just fresh out, your school may have a writing center or some type of service to give feedback on essays for students.

Good catch. It was the OP who brought the PS up and not the admissions person. I think that makes a huge difference. If the person you were talking to started the conversation with “your PS is just amazing” or you were spontaneously told that during the two minutes it might be different. But you specifically asked. Think hard about resubmitting the same PS.

 

[YCAGA]

I think this is one of those things that might not make 100% sense if you break it down logically, but the “rules of the game” are pretty clear…as posted by the adcoms here. You can’t reapply with the exact same PS

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hey everyone- so I’m going to be a reapplicant next year and am a little hesitant on what to do with regards to my personal statement.

I’ve been calling a ton of admissions committees to try and get feedback, and one of the schools that rejected me was courteous enough to give me a quick 2 minute “consult.” Basically, it confirmed my suspicion which was that my MCAT was just too low. I asked her about my personal statement, and she said my personal statement was actually the thing that made them hold onto my app as long as they did. I was relieved after the call to learn the likely reason for my rejections was my MCAT and not anything else, but now I don’t know what to do for next year. The consensus on her with the Adcoms seems to be that reapplication need an entirely new PS, but there’s a very good chance that if I changed my PS, it would be worse than what is now. And before people say “tweak it a little bit,” why would I want to risk anything to make it worse when I got feedback from a school telling me they loved it?

Basically, will I really come across as lazy by schools if I keep my personal statement the same, especially now that I know it was a strong point of my application? I just don’t know what’s worse- risking coming across as lazy or changing my PS and probably making it worse, esp when I know from an adcom that it was good. How bad would it look if I just submitted the same PS verbatim this cycle? I am getting my MPH this year so maybe if I absolutely have to change it I can talk about how that ties into my goals for being a physician somehow? It’s not like my reasons for wanting to be a physician have changed in one year haha.

Improve it and show that you are a growing, dynamic individual, as well as one who is always willing to improve. There are very few writers whose writing cannot be made better. I believe you when you say that you have a good PS, but I doubt that is is perfect and beyond improvement.

Whenever I have asked admissions directors should reapplicants submit the same personal statement that was part of a rejected application, the answer is "no."

Presumably this year you've done something (in addition to improving your MCAT) that is noteworthy and maybe builds on the story you told in your PS. Tell them about it.

Beyond that bit of general advice, it is impossible for someone to advise you how to improve your PS without reading it and knowing what you've done during the past year and more about you.

Good luck with the reapplication!

 

[sarcasmrules]

I'm going to share a quote about chess: "If you see a good move, look for a better one".