New PS & DS when reapplying? Forum

Harry_Pluxen · Post by **Harry_Pluxen** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:43 am

Hey,

Must applicants submit new personal statements and new diversity statements if they are reapplying to the same schools? I will be reapplying this coming fall. I have made major changes to my DS and PS from last cycle, but the overall structure and theme remains the same in each one - its just been improved, edited and refined more. My reasons for wanting to attend law school have not changed...and those reasons come out best through my existing essays. I can't change the essays and still express my interest in law school and commitment to attending if I write brand new essays.

Must an applicant start from scratch if they are reapplying?

benwyatt · Post by **benwyatt** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:23 am

Post removed.

Harry_Pluxen · Post by **Harry_Pluxen** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 12:34 pm

benwyatt wrote:
Harry_Pluxen wrote:Hey,

Must applicants submit new personal statements and new diversity statements if they are reapplying to the same schools? I will be reapplying this coming fall. I have made major changes to my DS and PS from last cycle, but the overall structure and theme remains the same in each one - its just been improved, edited and refined more. My reasons for wanting to attend law school have not changed...and those reasons come out best through my existing essays. I can't change the essays and still express my interest in law school and commitment to attending if I write brand new essays.

Must an applicant start from scratch if they are reapplying?
You certainly don't have to start from scratch, but I (and I suspect many others) would suggest you do.

As far as having made major changes goes, it could make it look like you were lazy the first time around and submitted a sloppy application because you didn't want to put in the work to actually make your PS the best it could be.

Regarding the bolded, you don't even have to discuss that stuff in your PS so if that's your only concern, stop being lazy and write a new statement.

HTH

First, thanks for the advice - I appreciate it. Second, do you think I should approach my Diversity statement in the same way also? Start from scratch?

Do you think it would hurt my application if I submitted a heavily edited version of an old PS? It's not that the PS I submitted last cycle was bad or anything. It's just that I had a year (more or less) to think it over - add new content and really flush out the ideas. It didn't just edit for grammar or condense paragraphs, but did more fundamental edits. It's not a brand new PS, but very different...

Also, why do you suggest not discussing reasons for wanting to attend law school in my PS?

benwyatt · Post by **benwyatt** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 12:40 pm

Post removed.

Harry_Pluxen · Post by **Harry_Pluxen** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 3:29 pm

benwyatt wrote:
Harry_Pluxen wrote:
First, thanks for the advice - I appreciate it. Second, do you think I should approach my Diversity statement in the same way also? Start from scratch?

Do you think it would hurt my application if I submitted a heavily edited version of an old PS? It's not that the PS I submitted last cycle was bad or anything. It's just that I had a year (more or less) to think it over - add new content and really flush out the ideas. It didn't just edit for grammar or condense paragraphs, but did more fundamental edits. It's not a brand new PS, but very different...

Also, why do you suggest not discussing reasons for wanting to attend law school in my PS?
I'm no DS expert, but I would say your DS is probably fine as it is.

If I were looking at your applications (and per spivey they do often check to see if you wrote a new PS) and I saw that this one was essentially the same with substantial edits, I'd probably be pleased to see that you put some more work into it, but I would also wonder why, after a year, you didn't think of anything else you could write 2 pages about. It's hard to say for sure without being able to compare the two side-by-side, but that's my instinct on it.

I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't discuss reasons for wanting to attend law school in your PS, I'm just saying you don't have to. "Why law" is a question that many great PS's don'e explicitly answer and what I was getting at before was that if you're reluctant to change your PS because you couldn't come up with another reason why you want to go to law school, you shouldn't let that hold you back.

Good advice, thanks!

If I could draw an analogy. Think of it this way: my personal statement has the same premises as last year, but I draw a different conclusion based on those premises. A better more supported conclusion that fits better with the facts and experiences that are mentioned in my PS.

debdeb2 · Post by **debdeb2** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 9:22 pm

It depends on why you weren't admitted. Schools will verify that you applied before, and may have a note as to why you were not selected. Some schools may require all new essays, but you'd have to check that requirement school by school.

Some schools are more open to being contacted about why you weren't admitted/what you could do to be a stronger applicants - smaller mid-tier schools will *sometimes* have time for that. Schools that don't allow post-application contact about rejections will just straight up say that, so don't bother those guys. I would normally tell you to try that gambit in June, though - they're probably getting busy now, and will be busy until March.

Did you apply too late in the cycle last year? If that's the case, it's possible that your application wasn't bad at all and they had already filled their class. Revising your essays and making sure they're solid should be sufficient. You'd be better off submitting what you have now then fussing with revisions through the fall, because you'd be better off going complete as early this cycle as possible to avoid "waitlist January."

If you submitted in early fall last year and had reasonable numbers, it's possible your personal statement or letters of rec raised red flags. You can PM me if you're worried about that scenario -

Harry_Pluxen · Post by **Harry_Pluxen** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 9:26 am

debdeb2 wrote:It depends on why you weren't admitted. Schools will verify that you applied before, and may have a note as to why you were not selected. Some schools may require all new essays, but you'd have to check that requirement school by school.

Some schools are more open to being contacted about why you weren't admitted/what you could do to be a stronger applicants - smaller mid-tier schools will *sometimes* have time for that. Schools that don't allow post-application contact about rejections will just straight up say that, so don't bother those guys. I would normally tell you to try that gambit in June, though - they're probably getting busy now, and will be busy until March.

Did you apply too late in the cycle last year? If that's the case, it's possible that your application wasn't bad at all and they had already filled their class. Revising your essays and making sure they're solid should be sufficient. You'd be better off submitting what you have now then fussing with revisions through the fall, because you'd be better off going complete as early this cycle as possible to avoid "waitlist January."

If you submitted in early fall last year and had reasonable numbers, it's possible your personal statement or letters of rec raised red flags. You can PM me if you're worried about that scenario -

I applied in late January - not he best idea now that I look back. Received several wait lists, which ultimately became rejections earlier this week when classes officially started.

Never asked my schools why they rejected me...I applied to Tier 1 schools only, so perhaps they are "too busy" to talk about that sort of thing, as you mentioned. As for the edits to my PS & DS, I have already done most of the major content changes (see previous post). Right now I'm just working on fine tuning and edits for clarity on my (1) day day off each week.

debdeb2 · Post by **debdeb2** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:36 pm

to me, waitlisting means that you were considered competitive and just applied too late during the rolling cycle. Aim to wrap up in October, and you should get in a few places.

This is the more cynical side of things, but this:

Let's say T14s have "buckets" - they want at least X% URM, Y% female, Z% public interest, etc etc. They don't want to overfill any of the buckets, particularly in this more PC age, when demographic data is posted publicly. If your bucket is a popular applicant bucket - Ex: SWM with solid numbers from a quality school, let's say - you want to get into your bucket really early.

In this land of zero-sum buckets, once "yours" is filled, it only opens up again if the school did their attrition calculation incorrectly. So if it fills by late November and stays filled, it's unfortunately sort of like you paid to chill on waitlists. I cannot speak directly to how law schools handle late applications when they know their class is effectively filled, but I've never seen a school say to late applicants "don't send us your application fees because we have no more spots left."

Law schools have been shrinking their classes due to the economic tides shifting, so mathematically the odds favor the October applicant, regardless of bucket. Good luck -