Medical Should I rewrite personal statement and essays for reapplications?

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TheBoneDoctah

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I had a low UG GPA and am currently in an SMP program for academic repair, in which I’m doing quite well. I applied in this current application cycle and received several II’s and am currently on several WL. In spite of my low UG GPA, I feel like my application was very strong: Over 100 hours of shadowing, a lot of clinical volunteering with marginalized communities, and a strong personal statement. I haven’t done any additional volunteering since my AMCAS submission in May 2020, due to COVID and the SMP taking up all of my time. The SMP actually advises against doing any volunteering because the point of this year is GPA repair. Because the curriculum is quite rigorous, they want us to focus on that.

So, my question is as I reapply, how should I modify my personal statement or do I need to? Again, I don’t have any more recent volunteering experiences to add to it and I feel like my current PS perfectly tells my origin story/passion for medicine and health equity. And my story has not changed.

As a secondary question, I don’t think my activities will change at all. Is that ok?

And finally, I can see some of my secondaries changing, as I talk about this past year. But do I need to change my secondaries which speak about research, working with marginalized communities, etc.?

As a last note, I feel good about my list because I applied mainly to schools that like reinvention or value my SMP and mid/low tier schools.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you may provide!
Update your application as you see fit. I agree that your main focus should be on GPA repair. How is your non-clinical volunteering?

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I guess to ask the question more specifically, is it ok to submit the same PS and activities or will schools look upon that poorly? Similarly will it look bad if I only change a few of the secondaries where I can talk about the SMP? So basically, I am submitting the majority of the same primary application + many of the same secondary essays + my strong SMP academic results.
600+ hours clinical volunteering, 200+ non-clinical, 100+ Tutoring
I would update your PS. State what was different this time around. What have your learned. How have you grown. Obviously there's not much you can do with having the same exact number of PS or activities.

I cannot speak for medical schools regarding whether it looks bad. Every reviewer and adcom has different expectations. But tbh, a strong SMP means a lot in itself and I think you can hone in on that during your rehash of your PS and secondaries.
 
I agree with the above. Although the reasons you want to be a doctor are the same, you can rewrite your essay and maybe take on a different angle. Most of what's in your PS will be the same, but you did do an SMP (which is huge).
 
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Thanks so much for the response! How about secondaries? Can I submit many of the same secondaries or do I need to rewrite them? Like "Why this school" or "Discuss your experiences with marginalized communities", etc.
I am not sure what the ADCOM perspective is here... I have no idea if they would even know if you didn't change anything. Maybe @Goro could shed some light on that. My guess is that they don't have the time/energy to pull up your previous year's essays and compare them word by word...I could be wrong though.

IMO, you are reapplying and I would take that as a "fresh slate." Something didn't work the last cycle. Rewash and try again. I would likely rewrite most of my essays...but that's me. Not sure if it's required or not. You may have the same experiences, but maybe you could beef up what you learned from those experiences, or say things in a slightly different way that may sound better.
 
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