Reapplying: what to change and what not to

If you reapply, change something a reader can see. The common mistake is resubmitting the same file with a year added, which reads as no new information. The most useful changes are usually the plainest: a better result in whichever component was weakest, a relevant piece of work that now exists, a statement rebuilt around what you have done since rather than what you still want.

Do not change everything. If your subject choice was well reasoned, keep it — switching field to improve the odds produces a great many people three years into something they picked for the wrong reason. And ask for feedback wherever the institution offers it. Many do, most applicants never ask, and the answer is occasionally one specific fixable thing.