essaysnark wrote:
This one is tricky. While we agree with what you're saying in concept hailmary, the fact is that you didn't make it in with that essay last year. Sure, if done well, the 25 Things represent the "core you" - meaning, they are things that would not change in a year. However, this is a new opportunity. Taking a clean-slate approach is always recommended in terms of presenting a fresh pitch. We'd strongly suggest that reapplicants look at this with new eyes and see what might be seen.
Admittedly, not very helpful in terms of what you should actually DO with this essay as a reapplicant... but definitely this will challenge you to show your very best to the school (not that you didn't try to do that last year...).
EssaySnark
I agree with what you saying, but the problem is: What if you were a weak candidate and the 25 random things essay is what helped you get on waitlist, and not in the ding pile, early on. Most of my random things were about my childhood, upbringing, adversities and accomplishments - none of those stuff will change or should be changed. Obviously, you can change the wordings, but the actual content will not change.
I think adcom should shed some light on how reapps should approach this essay. This is a tricky one.
Agreed. This is weird. The story related questions are the easier ones to tackle in reapps.
It's similar to a resume in the sense that, assuming I thought about my accomplishments exhaustively and included the best from them in my initial application's resume, the job I had 4 years ago and have since left isn't going to change and I'm therefore sending in the same stuff. It sucks but unfortunately, my time machine's broken...