Applying to UCs Again?

<p>I had a question about personal statements, though it's more related to the UCs in general rather than specific personal statements.
So, I applied to the UCs during my senior year of HS (Fall '07). Thankfully (or not!-depending on our opinions of personal statements in general) the UCs have kept the same prompt (for one of the questions at least) from then until now.
I know that if you've applied to the university before, they have your previous application and information on file. My question is, since they have your previous application on file, will they see your old personal statements as well?
In that case, could they use those previous personal statements to your advantage (or disadvantage) based on what you write in two different application cycles?
I personally don't have plans to write on similar topics, but someone who had read my personal statement recently mentioned a theme I had written about two years ago and HIGHLY SUGGESTED I write about it...</p>

<p>Bump…</p>

<p>Never assume that they will see anything but what you sent in with your latest application. Even if they had stored the previous applications, they wouldn’t want to go though their records to find it when they spend maybe 10 - 20 minutes on each application.</p>