Cut out anything that is non-essential or doesn't relate to the overall theme of your essay. Save your other material, as you may be able to use it for secondaries. A 4000 character essay that is focused is much better than a 5000 character essay that kinda rambles. Besides, adcoms are going to be flying through applications so fast this year that I doubt any committee members are going to be spending inordinate amounts of time analyzing our personal statements. Well, at least not until the interview stage.
