by Kelly Wilson
Can You Use the Same Essays for Different Schools?
As admissions consultants, we often hear college and graduate school applicants ask, “I’m applying to multiple schools, and each one requires essays/personal statements. Can I use the same essay for different schools?” Understandably, applicants want to maintain the quality of their essays and avoid burnout when having to write so many drafts. We can sympathize. Even better, though, we have some practical solutions for determining when and how to use an essay for more than one school. The good news is that what makes practical sense in terms of efficiency also makes sense in terms of quality – if you view the process as “adapting” rather than “reusing.” Reusing an essay more or less verbatim is very rarely advisable. On the other hand, the core content of some application essays – personal statements, in particular – includes information that is central to your candidacy and would naturally be relevant to share with multiple schools. And sometimes when you rework an essay/personal statement for additional applications, its quality improves as you reflect further and discover new subtleties.
So, if multiple schools ask similar questions, it’s logical to consider adapting some or perhaps even a significant portion of an essay you wrote for one program to fit another program’s prompt. One thing to keep in mind is that required essay lengths tend to differ from school to school, and your messaging will likely vary according to the nuances of each question. Most importantly, many application essays/personal statements demand some discussion of the specific program the candidate is applying to, so this content would certainly need to be revised for each school.
When considering revising an existing essay for a different school, start by reading the new question out loud to make sure you clearly hear and understand exactly what the school is asking. Many times, an essay prompt will have more than one question within it, and you don’t want to overlook any of them and not deliver the information the admissions committee has requested. I also suggest highlighting key words in each school’s essay prompts and checking against them later in the review process to ensure that your essay touches on all the main points. Be guided first by the question and then, more broadly, by your understanding of the character of the school/program – and adapt your essay content accordingly.
Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when attempting to adapt an essay for one school into a submission for a different school:
1. Create a list of the essays you need to submit and the qualities you wish to highlight in each one.
When juggling multiple essays/personal statements, consider using a spreadsheet to track each question, the school asking it, and which experiences, accomplishments, and skills you can associate with each question. This will help you see where you might be able to adapt one school’s essay for a different application.
2. If you do any name-dropping, always be sure to double-check the names!
Always check very carefully (and then check again) to make sure you have the correct school and resource names in your revised essay. You don’t want, for example, to refer to the University of Michigan in an essay you’re planning to submit to the University of Chicago. Sending an essay that discusses why you want to go to UPenn to the Yale adcom won’t be good for your chances of being admitted! And believe me, it happens.
3. Never simply cut and paste an entire essay, even if two schools have very similar questions.
As I noted earlier, some schools ask similar essay questions, but no two questions will ever be exactly alike. Whenever you are writing, adapting, or editing an essay/personal statement, keep the school you are writing for front and center in your mind. Tailor each essay as much as you can to discuss and apply to each program’s unique culture, personality, and “flavor.” And when you feel you are nearly done, reread the essay prompts and go back to those highlighted words to ensure that you have truly answered every question the adcom posed.
Do you need help writing (or adapting) your application essays? Could you benefit from an expert’s assistance in identifying the strongest elements of your experience and profile? Schedule a free consultation with an Accepted admissions expert.
As the former executive director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and assistant dean of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School, Kelly Wilson has 23 years’ experience overseeing admissions committees and has reviewed more than 38,000 applications for the MBA and master’s programs in management of information systems, computational finance, business analytics, and product management. Want Kelly to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
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