How long should your personal statement letter be?

[mthomas2]

I have officially completed my first draft of my personal statement. I think it's too long. So far it's 2 1/2 pages long. I know I still need to edit it and make it shorter but how short or how long should it be? Any advice would be helpful.

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[Vision34]

I have officially completed my first draft of my personal statement. I think it's too long. So far it's 2 1/2 pages long. I know I still need to edit it and make it shorter but how short or how long should it be? Any advice would be helpful.

Mine was exactly 2 pages (single spaced) but that was the length cutoff for SUNY. If your school doesn't have a specific length requirement, I'd say two pages would be average?

 

[cpw]

usually the cut off for most of them is 500 words. (or right at 2 pages) Try to condense if you can.

 

[hoosier1]

what is the personal statement for?

 

[4Eyes2010]

I have officially completed my first draft of my personal statement. I think it's too long. So far it's 2 1/2 pages long. I know I still need to edit it and make it shorter but how short or how long should it be? Any advice would be helpful.

You can call the individual schools you are interested in applying and ask them. Some schools I found required a one page personal essay asking you to describe why opt, how you came to know you wanted to pursue opt, etc. Other schools ask you to answer their specific questions that is limited again to one page.
Try to extract what really makes you unique, or what you feel really defines you and focus on that aspect. Remember that the admissions boards will be reading a Lot of essays, so the length isn't as important as the content. best of luck with your apps!

 

[a1bui]

Looking at the schools' website, when it says one page, or two pages, does it mean single, or double spaced?

Also, CPW said 500 words for most, but that seems too short...1 page single spaced is about 700 words for me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

I virtually called most of the opometry schools. The schools that ask one general essay say about 2 pgs (single spaced is ok). Basically just make sure you're not going around the central point with useless information. Oh yea, also don't use a lot of "sophisticated vocabulary" in personal essays if it is not part of your daily vocabulary...most schools want you to be yourself. I wrote 7 essays all together for 6 schools and will be sending them out in the next week.

Good Luck.

 

[rani82]

Hi DrSpontaneouz83,

What schools did you apply to if you don't mind me asking!

Thanks!

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

Rani,
I will be applying to PCO, SCCO, SUNY, NOVA, ICO, and UC Berkeley. What about you?

 

[rani82]

I am working on essays for SUNY, ICO, PCO, NOVA, and NECO - those are my top 5.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[beansandchips]

Looking at the schools' website, when it says one page, or two pages, does it mean single, or double spaced?

Also, CPW said 500 words for most, but that seems too short...1 page single spaced is about 700 words for me.

Thanks in advance.

Yeah, this is a whole thing for me right now. Depends on font, etc. My PS is just over 1 page, times new roman font 10. In ERAS however, when I tested it (as some progs state '1 page PS') it printed in Courier 12, equalling 2 pages.

Not to be really anal about this, but this regards a program that I am really set on. Don't want it to be too long/too short. Any ideas?

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

Considering many of us are paying application fees that are crazy, the schools will read what you have. As long as you don't write a book, don't worry....they will read it. Just try not to make it too long and full of repetitive information. My PS is 2 pgs single spaced , 12 in font and for PCO it is 2 1/2 pgs single spaced...they said it is ok.

Good luck.

 

[prettygreeneyes]

Yeah, this is a whole thing for me right now. Depends on font, etc. My PS is just over 1 page, times new roman font 10. In ERAS however, when I tested it (as some progs state '1 page PS') it printed in Courier 12, equalling 2 pages.

Not to be really anal about this, but this regards a program that I am really set on. Don't want it to be too long/too short. Any ideas?

WTF???

Isn't ERAS for medical residency?

http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/

The Pre-Optometry forum probably isn't the best place to search for answers...

 

[beansandchips]

WTF???

Isn't ERAS for medical residency?

http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/

The Pre-Optometry forum probably isn't the best place to search for answers...

Oh yeah. Sorry. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[keseyjane15]

what is the personal statement for?

its for my cv?

 

[shannon804]

WTF???

Isn't ERAS for medical residency?

http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/

The Pre-Optometry forum probably isn't the best place to search for answers...

Whew. I was just starting to sweat and wonder how I could have missed this part of OptomCAS :-D.

 

[Eyecrazy]

So 4500 characters is basically a little over a page. I am already past that limit and I still have the conclusion left! I know I'm going to have to shorten it, but I feel like doing so would take away from my personal statement. Any condensing tips?

Also, what is the difference between the personal essay section on optomcas and the "add an essay" button next to each school designation? Does that mean I have to type in my personal statement more than once?

 

[FutureEyeDr]

When you click on "add an essay" you then have to chose your uploaded essay from the list to attach it to that particular school.

 

[eyeballistic]

So 4500 characters is basically a little over a page. I am already past that limit and I still have the conclusion left! I know I'm going to have to shorten it, but I feel like doing so would take away from my personal statement. Any condensing tips?

Also, what is the difference between the personal essay section on optomcas and the "add an essay" button next to each school designation? Does that mean I have to type in my personal statement more than once?

Also, a bit confused by this....
There are two places to add essays. Does that mean each school will receive two essays from me? Should I be tailoring my essays for each school I'm applying to? Or am I simply submitting the same essay twice?

 

[Jonbrout]

4500 characters is the limit for Optomcas. For ME that was exactly 1 page single spaced and default font in word. People that are saying they are submitting 2 pages, etc are getting me all worried.

 

[eyeballistic]

4500 characters is the limit for Optomcas. For ME that was exactly 1 page single spaced and default font in word. People that are saying they are submitting 2 pages, etc are getting me all worried.

Me too.
That's why I'm wondering if they are referring to the "School Designations" page where there's another place to "Add an essay".

 

[Eyecrazy]

Also, a bit confused by this....
There are two places to add essays. Does that mean each school will receive two essays from me? Should I be tailoring my essays for each school I'm applying to? Or am I simply submitting the same essay twice?

I'm not sure if we should tailor the essays to each school or just submit the same essay to each one. I thought that was the purpose of the supplemental application...the essay just describes your general interest in optometry and the supps is specifically geared towards why you want to go to that school, right?

 

[MrsPotter]

I'm not sure if we should tailor the essays to each school or just submit the same essay to each one. I thought that was the purpose of the supplemental application...the essay just describes your general interest in optometry and the supps is specifically geared towards why you want to go to that school, right?

In the optomCAS essays, I just made each conclusion specific for each school while the body stayed the same. For the supplemental essays, the questions are different and more detailed so I didn't end up using anything from my "personal statement" on the supplementals. Basically, my personal statement was why I wanted to go to optometry school, then the supplemental essays were more like "this is why school X fits with my future goals. I'm not sure if that clears anything up, just the way I went about it.