Advice on Re-Applying After Once Dropping Out

[2ndtimesacharm]

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!

[fuzzylogician]

Do you have other letter writers you could ask that would be as good as the original? I'm going to guess that probably not. I think you should ask the same people again, and you will probably need to give some kind of explanation of what happened. It can be about as vague as you explained it here. It should be clear to anyone that you had some kind of problem fitting in or making it work, since it's not normal for students to flunk out of all their classes in their first semester and leave. Something obviously must have come up. The main question that people will now have is how they should know that whatever it was is over with, and this won't happen again. This is something you could directly address in your SOP or in a supplemental document. If you can get a letter from someone who you can confide in, it will probably also be useful to have someone's continued support expressed in a letter, along with confidence in your ability to overcome the problem and do a good job this time. 

Since you were only there for a semester, you probably don't have any established relationships with the professors from your old school. However, I think it might be wise to reach out to someone there and have a chat. For example, if there is a DGS or chair who might be accessible, or if you had an assigned advisor. If they are unaware of what happened, you need to explain it. If they are, you should follow up and let them know you're better now and are considering coming back. They should be able to give you some kind of idea of your chances of being re-admitted. Since you'll need the vote of confidence of the same people you interacted with before, reaching out to them and explaining the situation might be helpful. If, on the other hand, you burned a bridge there, that too is good to know so you don't waste your resources on this school. 

[2ndtimesacharm]

Do you have other letter writers you could ask that would be as good as the original? I'm going to guess that probably not. I think you should ask the same people again, and you will probably need to give some kind of explanation of what happened. It can be about as vague as you explained it here. It should be clear to anyone that you had some kind of problem fitting in or making it work, since it's not normal for students to flunk out of all their classes in their first semester and leave. Something obviously must have come up. The main question that people will now have is how they should know that whatever it was is over with, and this won't happen again. This is something you could directly address in your SOP or in a supplemental document. If you can get a letter from someone who you can confide in, it will probably also be useful to have someone's continued support expressed in a letter, along with confidence in your ability to overcome the problem and do a good job this time. 

Since you were only there for a semester, you probably don't have any established relationships with the professors from your old school. However, I think it might be wise to reach out to someone there and have a chat. For example, if there is a DGS or chair who might be accessible, or if you had an assigned advisor. If they are unaware of what happened, you need to explain it. If they are, you should follow up and let them know you're better now and are considering coming back. They should be able to give you some kind of idea of your chances of being re-admitted. Since you'll need the vote of confidence of the same people you interacted with before, reaching out to them and explaining the situation might be helpful. If, on the other hand, you burned a bridge there, that too is good to know so you don't waste your resources on this school. 

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. 

[2ndtimesacharm]

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

[svent]

I'm sort of in a similar position as you, except I'm switching fields, spent 2 years in grad school instead of just 1 semester, my grades weren't quite as bad as yours, I'm not applying to the same school, and I've taken non-degree classes for my new field at a few other schools since then. So I do have some options, but my best 1 or 2 LORs will probably still come from undergrad.

Not sure what you want people to say. Ask your LOR writers for another LOR and briefly explain what happened however you want to word it. Either they'll say yes or no. If yes, it's all good. In fact, they probably have the old letter on their computer somewhere, so it won't even be that hard for them. If no, say you understand and move on to asking someone else.