<p>Well yeah, but does that really mean that the reapplication ** by itself** hurts you? You were the one that invoked the concept of statistical correlation, so let's talk about that concept. The fact is, most people who apply are not straight out of undergrad. Most applicants have significant work experience - certainly sufficient to satisfy the B-school. Hence, if you have sufficient work experience and are rejected, that means that there is something deficient in your app. Maybe your GPA is too low. Maybe your GMAT score is too low. Maybe your personality is such that you don't have leadership qualities. Maybe your work experience is just mediocre. Maybe you don't do very good work and so the rec's that you get are lukewarm. The point is, there has to be some reason for why you got rejected. This isn't a random process here. The B-school will admit those people who it thinks are the best, and reject those that are deficient in some way.</p>
<p>And the fact is, if you are deficient in some way as to cause you to become rejected, and you apply again, you are STILL probably going to suffer from that same deficiency that got you rejected the first time. For example, if your GPA is bad, then your GPA is always going to be bad. It's not like you can reapply and present a better GPA. Your GPA is your GPA. If you do poorly on the GMAT, then you will probably always do poorly on the GMAT. Yeah, you can retake it, but the fact is, if you're just not good at that test, then you'll probably never be good at it. You can boost your score through studying, but probably not by a game-changing amount. If you have a bad personality, your personality will probably not be any better when you reapply. The fact is, it's very hard to change your personality. If you do bad work, then you will probably always do bad work. </p>
<p>So the point is, we have to look at these exogenous correlating factors. Let's face it. The quality of the reapplicant pool is lower than the quality of the first-time-applicant pool because the former contains all those people who had near-irreparable deficiencies in their qualifications.</p>