Do POI's between schools talk?

[cherry12055]

Does anyone know if it's typical for professors between schools to talk with each other about potential grad school applicants? I'm applying to two different schools for two different POI's who both worked on the same paper (and they were the only two authors on it), and I'm anticipating my personal statement (at least some of it) to be relatively similar for the two since they have essentially the same research interests. Do you think it's likely for them to a) talk about the students applying and b ) go as far as to share the personal statements to see if I wrote the same thing? 

Not sure if anyone would know this answer! But thanks! 

[TakeruK]

Yes, they probably talk to each other. Application materials are supposed to be confidential though, so it's unlikely that they will share specifics of your application. It is also unlikely that they will compare notes about you with each other, because well 1) it's not really ethical and 2) to be honest, we're not interesting enough that faculty will "gossip" about us in this way! But they will probably know that you are applying to work with them

However, you don't have to worry about having the same personal statement. With the caveat that my field may be different from yours, the expectation from faculty in my field is that students will write the same statement of purpose for every school. Most students will just change out the name of the school and the 3-4 sentence paragraph where you write why that particular school is a great fit for you. I mean, your letter writers (i.e. faculty members who are also on admissions committees) will be doing the same thing---they aren't writing a brand new letter for every school.