2ndtimesacharm

Hmm...hope I'm allowed to bump in these forums because...bump.

Thanks fuzzlogician - great advice there. I think there is one prof at the old school I could try to reach out to, actually. She didn't know too much about what went down last time, but she was more present than anyone else. I will give it a shot... As for letter writers, I can think of at least one other prof who knew me fairly well, but I'll need to reach out to at least one from my previous two. I guess we'll see how that goes...Unfortunately I live in a separate city now as well, and I can't easily set up an in-person meeting. Thanks again for taking the time to respond - much appreciated.

Hey all - I need some advice, and would really appreciate your input. (long post ahead) So, a couple of years ago, I was accepted into grad school right out of my undergrad. I was told my application was among the best submitted that cycle. Unfortunately, my heart was completely out of it by that autumn (on top of having some financial and, I would say, emotional issues). I ended up not going to any classes at all, and dropping out after a semester (my transcript for the first semester shows 2 incompletes and 1 F-grade - yuck. Beautiful academic record completely marred!) But I needed time away to get my bearings. It's now been two years, and I finally feel like I'm actually ready to settle down into academic work. I have a better sense of why I want to do this, and I think also a better support system in place to help me get through. So, my dilemma. I want to apply to the same school I got into last time, as well as one or two others. I'm wondering how I should, first of all, approach the profs who gave me recommendations the first time around. I did not keep them in the loop, and I can't imagine how I should explain this to them. Will they even be willing to write me more recommendations at this point? I'm terrified of this! Secondly, when applying to the same school I got into last time, would it be wise to use the same writing sample? My undergrad was in English, so I suppose not much changes for a while...but I do wonder. Thirdly, aside from explaining more or less what I explained above in my SoP, what else should I do at this point? As I said above, any and all input would be greatly, greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advance!