i'm totally having this issue too. so, let's take the case of columbia (i pretty much believe that it's hopeless for me to be re-applying there, but i like the pain...or something). there's an essay on "what satisfactions do you expect from your career as a physician?" i re-read my essay from last year and i still think it's good, and so does a friend who sits on admissions at another med school. and most importnatly, my answer to the q hasn't changed.
meanwhile, i have a completely different PS, 4 of 5 of my letters are new, and about 1/2 of my post-secondary activities are different this time around. last year my app was complete at columbia around early december and my academic LOR's were from 1997. so several things are different/better this year.
so in this case, do you still think i should not recycle the secondary essay? part of it is that i'm trying to triage my time (have a job, school, and a ridic number of secondaries to do) and part of it is that for this particular essay question, i don't have a new answer so it would suck to rewrite from scratch. would end up saying essentially the same things.
grrr...what a headache. we must be serious masochists to do this all over.
anyway, would love anyone's 2 cents...thx