I am a reapplicant this cycle, after an unfavorable outcome last cycle due to a very low LSAT score (140's), and am wondering about my personal statement. I am applying again to the same schools I got denied/ WL from, and do not know whether or not I should change my personal statement, or just revamp what I already have.
The personal statement that I submitted last year dealt with a very specific part of my undergraduate experience, and now that I have graduated and am taking a gap year, I do not know if I have to change it, or if it still could apply post graduate. I want to maximize my chances of getting into the schools I want, but I also do not want to have to go completely back to the drawing board. Any advice or help?
Thanks everyone!
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I think I'm the guy that @sko03 mentioned! And if you scroll this message board, you'll see me mention this to a few other folks - yes, reapplicants should write new statements. You can reuse any addenda, CF explanations, letters of rec, and your resume (just be sure that it's up to date!), but everything else should be new.
The rationale for this is that I'll have your previous app on file and I'll scan through it prior to reviewing this year's app. When I'm scanning, I'm just trying to create a baseline for what you said last time, what were your stats, when did you apply, etc AND NOW I'll compare that versus what I see in this year's app. So it's a bad look if you're asking me to re-read something I just read a few minutes prior, you know what I mean?
So my suggestion is that you should 1) write about why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer; if that's not what you did last year, then it's what you're doing this year!, 2) if you did write about why you want to go to law school in the last PS, then you can try to adjust this year's PS by keeping the same rationale for the "why" but giving different examples to build around it (eg, if something was the center point last year, make it a side example this year).
Fingers crossed for you!
You should either write a new one or change it significantly, especially now that you are not a KJD anymore.
One of the admissions consultants mentioned in his session that you should change your PS if you're a reapplicant!