Ajc8509 Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 I had applied to and received an interview at my school of choice this past year and was placed on the waitlist. I am now in the process of re-applying and was wondering if it would look bad to reuse my personal statement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paproof Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 You should be able to use some of the main themes throughout, but it's important to improve your essay by discussing what you've done SINCE last year to make yourself a better applicant. Also, you don't want them reviewing your file from the year prior and realizing you used the same essay out of laziness... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeyf456 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I wasn't planning to use the same essay at all but was wondering if I should shift the focus of my essay to what I have done to round out my application since last cycle. It was reassuring to see that at least one person is recommending something similar to what I have been planning :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulKubin Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 I probably wouldn't recommend it. If it didn't work the first time, it's not going to do much better the second time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliB Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 It depends. Your personal statement, along with the rest of your application, got you the interview. It was enough to make them want to meet you. You also made their waitlist, so you didn't tank your interview (but might be worth looking at how you could do even better there). Keep in mind that there's no guarantee they'll re-interview you next application cycle. I didn't (I did get more than a dozen interviews and multiple acceptances the following year, however, the school I wanted, where I'd been waitlisted, didn't even offer me another interview). Are you only applying to that one school? If so, yes, you might take a hard look at your essay and shift the focus and/or start from scratch. But you also can't just assume that the AdComm will be all the same people. Are you applying to multiple schools? Make sure you consider how an essay that focuses on what you've done in one short year might appear to schools that didn't offer you an interview last year ... or to schools that are seeing your application for the first time. I didn't change my essay much at all. My motivation for becoming a PA and how I got here hadn't changed one iota ... and that's the question your CASPA is supposed to answer. What I'd done in the past year to continue to improve myself as a future clinician was already captured in the stats and other sections of my application. I did improve some wording in my essay, added a few details here and there as you can almost always find ways to improve something you've written 6 or more months ago, but I only added a few sentences along the lines of "over the past year, I've continued to XXX, as well as xxx" - just enough to draw their attention to those details that were already added to the application (coursework, experience, etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleygirl Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 You should be able to use some of the main themes throughout, but it's important to improve your essay by discussing what you've done SINCE last year to make yourself a better applicant. Also, you don't want them reviewing your file from the year prior and realizing you used the same essay out of laziness... Hi paprof! I didn't want to start a new thread so I decided to ask you here if that's okay. I'm working on my personal statement; lately I have been stumbling pretty often on articles about personal statements and statements of purpose written in LaTeX (like this one - Why to Submit Your Personal Statement in LaTeX Format?) But I didn't find anything about LaTeX on the sites of schools I'm applying to. Can you give your opinion on this? Is it important to write a ps in LaTeX? Thanks! And sorry for taking your time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JermaineBattle Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 Hi paprof! I didn't want to start a new thread so I decided to ask you here if that's okay. I'm working on my personal statement; lately I have been stumbling pretty often on articles about personal statements and statements of purpose written in LaTeX (like this one - Why to Submit Your Personal Statement in LaTeX Format?) But I didn't find anything about LaTeX on the sites of schools I'm applying to. Can you give your opinion on this? Is it important to write a ps in LaTeX? Thanks! And sorry for taking your time! I was also wondering about this so it would be great if anyone could give a proper answer :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtorr_ca Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 I'm same boat as far as interviewing at multiple places & then being waitlisted. I am you're playing the cycle. For my personal statement, I wrote about different things as far as what led me to this point of wanting to become a PA patient interactions I've had that made an impact on me and also a little other sprinkled details about the population I live in etc. But how do I address things that I've improved since my last application cycle if the school has a supplemental essay for re-applicants asking the same thing? I'm at a crossroads because I don't want to write the same thing twice so I'm not sure how to address that. suggestions? My last question is if I'm applying to a couple programs I didn't apply to last year will they frown upon me talking about my improvements from the previous cycle or will it not matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smgimie108 Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 Same question. Is it worth mentioning you are a reapplicant if you are applying to new schools? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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