<p>When you apply for transfer, the colleges ask if you have applied before.
Well, when they look at your transfer application,</p>
<p>do they pull up your freshman application too?</p>
<p>Because if they do, re-using essays will not be possible.</p>
<p>does anyone know of this?</p>
<p>Im trying to reuse one of my short answers for commonapp.</p>
<p>I had that question myself and still haven't found a tried and true answer, but I feel like it's okay to reuse the essay so long as it's changed slightly and reflects an improved command of language and ideas.</p>
<p>So many people will surely say that it must be completely new, but it seems so silly; in my case senior year of high school, I used an essay about what Tchaikovsky's music meant to me, and sure enough, two years later, his music still means what it did to me two years ago, so why write a new essay about a work of art or music that inspires me when I already have one that embodies my feelings/thoughts?</p>
<p>thanks for the reply wayward :)</p>
<p>Well if you were rejected, might it not be a bad idea to change up the essays? Some schools have said that if you applied previously, you do not have to submit new essays, but that depends on each individual school.</p>
<p>I would think long and hard about using the same essay. Who knows why you weren't accepted as a freshman? But the essays could have failed to impress. If the key thoughts in the essay remain valid, then at least add something, improve the essay in some way.</p>
<p>I know that my son felt that he had grown since his essays and they weren't an accurate reflection of him anymore.</p>
<p>I think some schools pull up your application, some probably don't. Sometimes they say you don't need to resubmit scores, hs transcripts etc. if you've applied previously. So they may only have a clerical person pull those elements.</p>
<p>Bottom line: look carefully at the old essay and find some way to improve it, even if not major.</p>