Reapplying after dropping out (by choice)

[bodwiser]

Hi All,

 

(Not sure if the is the right forum for this sort of a question. Please excuse me if not)

 

Here is my background:

 

I was enrolled in a decent PhD economics program (top 30) back in 2018. Soon after I started out in August, my personal life took a a turbulent turn and pretty early on (circa Dec'18 - Jan'19) I decided to drop out of the program and return to my home country, due to urgent family+personal reasons. Now that things are returning to normal slowly but surely, I want to pick up the pieces and get back on track.

 

So I am planning to apply for next year's cycle. But I have a ton of questions that are making me pretty concerned. Could you guys please share your thoughts on these ?

 

1) Whether I should talk about these developments in my personal letter, in detail? (emphasis on "detail")

2) I am skeptical about whether the schools I am applying to will buy this. (For understandable reasons) the schools might suspect that I dropped out because I failed my prelims (truth is, my aim was only to graduate with the Master's degree and come back ASAP)

3) Don't know if my previous letter writers will consent to writing a letter again.

3.1) Since nothing has changed between the last time they wrote it (2017) and this year I wonder if the same letter can be reused?

4) Will the fact that I was once enrolled in a PhD program, in general, hurt my chances of re-entry into another?

 

 

Thanks a lot, all!