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MBAGuide
Joined: 24 Jul 2019
Last visit: 03 Sep 2026
Posts: 2,541
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 29
Location: India
Concentration: Operations, Marketing
Schools: Insead Sept'18 (A$$) ISB '19 (A)
21 Aug 2026, 02:22
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A very common question from ISB aspirants. The short answer is yes, you can reuse parts of your old essays. But that should not be the starting point for the reapplication.
The first thing I want to know is why you were rejected the first time.
This is where I see many reapplicants go wrong. Many assume the problem was their GMAT score alone, so they retake the test, improve by 20–30 points(sometimes over a 100 points even) and then largely resubmit the same application. This is also why I think applicants over-index on the GMAT. The score is the variable they feel they can control, so they keep pulling that lever.....another attempt, another few points....while leaving the harder question untouched. [color=#b20080]It is much harder to assess whether your career story was convincing, whether your goals were sufficiently researched, or whether your essays showed the kind of critical thinking the school was looking for. [/color]
What to really consider during ding analysis?
When I do ding analyses, the GMAT is rarely the entire root cause. Often, I find some combination of weak essays, limited career progression, a career story that doesn't connect the past to the future, or goals that were never researched deeply enough.
Its not like applicants who got rejected have not thought about their goals and their feasibility. The problem is that the goal could belong to ten other applicants from the same industry.
“I want to move into strategy consulting to work on larger business problems” tells me very little.
What problems?
Why those problems?
Why can't you do that from your current role?
Why now?
Why does an MBA change your trajectory?
Even when a reapplicant discusses a ding analysis, I first go back to the entire previous application.
What was the career story?
What did the applicant emphasise?
What did they leave out? How specific were their goals?
If they interviewed, what did the interviewers keep probing?
Where did the applicant struggle to explain their choices?
For example, I have seen applicants who wrote polished essays about wanting to move into product management, only to discover during interview they couldn't explain which product problems they wanted to solve or why their existing experience gave them an edge in solving them. The thinking underneath is the problem.
Can you actually reuse an old essay?
Absolutely.
Many of my reapplicants who eventually get admitted reuse significant portions of their previous essays. If a story is strong, authentic and still relevant, there is no reason to throw it away simply because the application was rejected.
What usually changes is the context around that story.
You may have taken on a bigger role, made your goals more specific, developed a better understanding of the industry you want to enter, or found a much stronger answer to why a particular school is necessary for your next step.
That is what will make the second application different. So as a reapplicant, don't ask if your old essays would work still.
But instead ask: “What did my previous application fail to communicate, and in addition to that what is different about my candidacy today?”
Once you can answer both in the best way possible, you will know which parts of the old application are worth keeping. and which ones need to be rebuilt.
Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alumna, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)
Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/| Message(WA): +91 9971200927| email- [email protected]
The first thing I want to know is why you were rejected the first time.
This is where I see many reapplicants go wrong. Many assume the problem was their GMAT score alone, so they retake the test, improve by 20–30 points(sometimes over a 100 points even) and then largely resubmit the same application. This is also why I think applicants over-index on the GMAT. The score is the variable they feel they can control, so they keep pulling that lever.....another attempt, another few points....while leaving the harder question untouched. [color=#b20080]It is much harder to assess whether your career story was convincing, whether your goals were sufficiently researched, or whether your essays showed the kind of critical thinking the school was looking for. [/color]
What to really consider during ding analysis?
When I do ding analyses, the GMAT is rarely the entire root cause. Often, I find some combination of weak essays, limited career progression, a career story that doesn't connect the past to the future, or goals that were never researched deeply enough.
Its not like applicants who got rejected have not thought about their goals and their feasibility. The problem is that the goal could belong to ten other applicants from the same industry.
“I want to move into strategy consulting to work on larger business problems” tells me very little.
What problems?
Why those problems?
Why can't you do that from your current role?
Why now?
Why does an MBA change your trajectory?
Even when a reapplicant discusses a ding analysis, I first go back to the entire previous application.
What was the career story?
What did the applicant emphasise?
What did they leave out? How specific were their goals?
If they interviewed, what did the interviewers keep probing?
Where did the applicant struggle to explain their choices?
For example, I have seen applicants who wrote polished essays about wanting to move into product management, only to discover during interview they couldn't explain which product problems they wanted to solve or why their existing experience gave them an edge in solving them. The thinking underneath is the problem.
Can you actually reuse an old essay?
Absolutely.
Many of my reapplicants who eventually get admitted reuse significant portions of their previous essays. If a story is strong, authentic and still relevant, there is no reason to throw it away simply because the application was rejected.
What usually changes is the context around that story.
You may have taken on a bigger role, made your goals more specific, developed a better understanding of the industry you want to enter, or found a much stronger answer to why a particular school is necessary for your next step.
That is what will make the second application different. So as a reapplicant, don't ask if your old essays would work still.
But instead ask: “What did my previous application fail to communicate, and in addition to that what is different about my candidacy today?”
Once you can answer both in the best way possible, you will know which parts of the old application are worth keeping. and which ones need to be rebuilt.
Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alumna, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)
Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/| Message(WA): +91 9971200927| email- [email protected]
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