Hi,
I am applying to a school’s main and summer program. They have similar (not identical) prompts, and my essay could work for either prompt. Would it be fine to submit the same essay to both schools? What about sending a nearly identical essay with just a few words changed? Would it be disadvantageous if the school read the same essay earlier (i.e. first for the summer and then for the main)?
I wouldn’t recommend doing that because there is a chance that the school’s regular admissions committee might also be the committee that oversees the summer program admission. Now, If you have an essay that fits a prompt from two different schools, you could send that essay to both schools.
Also, if the same essay got you rejected from regular admissions, it probably would get you rejected from the summer program as well
Nah. The summer programs are money makers. The bar is lower.
To the OP - there are a couple of girls/boys schools who I know share AO’s with their summer program. You can PM me for information. FWIW - kiddo did attend one of these programs and the AD knew kiddo from the summer program and knew 2 years worth of essays. As @Calimex noted above, some summer programs have no affiliation with the actual BS and do not share staff. Some schools are rented out to organizations or summer camp programs. On the other hand, some schools do share staff. I can tell you about the ones we are familiar with who share.
The answer, like so many others, is “it depends.” As @Golfgr8 states, some schools share their admissions staff with the summer program. In that case, no, don’t reuse. Other schools have separate admissions staffs for the summer program. For them it does not matter. But as @CaliMex correctly states, for almost all schools for summer, if you can pay, you can go. So personally, I would do a new essay, but not spend a lot of time on it.