To re-write or not to re-write, a tale of personal statements

Cristo

So I applied to University in January 2008, got an offer from the University of Exeter, come exam time my grandmother passes away a day before my exams and I choke and I miss my offer by 2 points.

Now here's the sucky part. I resat some exams here in November to get my overall grade up and I'm re-applying to University in January 2009, among which Exeter will be my first choice.

The problem is I wrote a WINNING Personal Statement for my application Jan 08.
It more or less got me the 5 offers from the Universities I applied to, however, I am unsure of whether or not to use it again in the upcoming application cycle.

The way I see it, I'm generally a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of guy, but in this case I'm not certain.

Will Exeter admissions see my personal statement, remember it and say "what a slacker, he couldn't even bothered to re-write his personal statement *DENIED*" or do I re-write, possibly fuck it up and lessen my chances?

The thing is my statement has everything in it about me that makes me look like an appealing candidate. I spent DAYS pouring over it, and it paid off but I have absolutely no clue whatsoever how to re-write or even paraphrase it if it came to that.

All help is much appreciated )

Lerage

I'm tempted to say don't bother rewriting it. Maybe tweak it a bit, especially if you've spent your year out doing something interesting/relevant, but admissions most likely read so many thousands of personal statements for different courses that it would be difficult for them to remember anyone's in particular.

Also, since you've pulled your grades up, that's probably what they'll most be interested in, so I wouldn't worry too much about your statement, especially if it's already near perfect!

Cristo

Well, I HOPE I pulled my grades up. I finished my resits on Thursday but I won't get my results and see whether I've improved until 6th January, but I really feel like I have - think positive!!

But yeah, it's because I went through the IB Curriculum which is ridiculously undervalued by every University ever. It's retarded, I got over what A-Level students usually need to get in to Exeter but thanks to my incredibly hard and demanding but seriously misunderstood curriculum I didn't get in.

I'm of the same opinion as you though.

Kate of Lokys

Unless your personal statement was this one, nobody's going to remember it. Go ahead and reuse it.

corcorigan

You'll want to explain why you are reapplying this year.

Also, reapplying to the same place can be problematic - some universities will not even consider you. But then others will take it as a sign of commitment.

You must also be just about the only person to not get their offer for such a minor miss. Bad luck.

Rook

Nobody writes a winning personal statement, a friend of mine once wrote a losing one though. Outside of your grades nothing much else really matters and even then most universities will bend over backwards to get you on their course if it's not something that's super popular.