Changing PS after submission

[zestdoc]

How is changing Personal Statement after submission looked at? I submitted my PS to all programs on 1st September, however my advisor sent me a few edits now. I feel the edits are really nice. Would it be ok to change my PS now?

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[Pathinterpreter]

I have the same question. Somebody, please!

 

[swtiepie711]

To clarify, is the question can u change it now or should u?
From reading the ERAS pdf, it appears you can add a new PS and then change which one is assigned to programs, even after submission. However, if the program has already downloaded and printed it, they'll have a copy of the original.
Considering sept 1 was 2 days ago, I'd be tempted to make the changes and change PS assignments sooner rather than later (as not all programs are downloading stuff yet). Or you could always just change the version for the programs that haven't downloaded it yet etc. Anyone else think differently?

 

[smq123]

How is changing Personal Statement after submission looked at? I submitted my PS to all programs on 1st September, however my advisor sent me a few edits now. I feel the edits are really nice. Would it be ok to change my PS now?

The question is: How much do those edits really do anything to improve your PS? If they don't really improve it that much, just sound "really nice," then is it worth the hassle of changing your PS? Probably not.

 

[medc]

I'm in the exact same situation and I really want to change my PS. 95% of the programs I submitted to have not yet downloaded the PS. I tried it with one program but the problem is that now BOTH PS are in the post office. I think this is worst than just leaving the old one...

 

[sendwich]

I'm in the exact same situation and I really want to change my PS. 95% of the programs I submitted to have not yet downloaded the PS. I tried it with one program but the problem is that now BOTH PS are in the post office. I think this is worst than just leaving the old one...

if the school hasn't retrieved it yet, wouldn't it be safe to say that you can safely assign a new PS?

 

[medc]

if the school hasn't retrieved it yet, wouldn't it be safe to say that you can safely assign a new PS?

the problem is that they have 2 PSs in the post office now - the one I wanted to replace + the replacement... I think this is worse than just leaving the old one...

 

[ladybug7]

There's a thread about changing a personal statement after submission..but no clear cut answers. I'm in the same predicament as "zestdoc", where my advisor sent me some great edits..but I'm not sure it's ok to change now. How do programs look upon it??? thanks!!
*slightly stressing*

 

[zestdoc]

Thanks!

The question is: How much do those edits really do anything to improve your PS?

The content is the same. However, the language seems better.

If they don't really improve it that much, just sound "really nice," then is it worth the hassle of changing your PS? Probably not.

*still confused*

 

[Ludicolo]

*still confused*

smq123 means to leave well enough alone. Minor edits won't make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

The enemy of good is better.

 

[peppy]

In most specialties, the personal statement is the least important part of your application.
You will most likely discover that most of your interviewers didn't even bother to read it before they talk to you. As long as it is not full of blatant grammatical errors, I would leave it alone.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Minor edits are unlikely to change anything. Worrying about this is more likely to cause an ulcer.

That being said, if a program has not downloaded your PS, if you assign a new one you'll see two in the post office. When the program connects to the post office, both will be downloaded. After downloading, ERAS "processes" all of the documents downloaded. The new PS will immediately replace the old one, and programs will never see the old PS. At least, that's what I think will happen.

As mentioned, I'm not sure this is worth worrying about at all.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

You'll need to decide whether a "better" PS outweighs the concern of "I wonder why this person didn't fix their PS before sending it to me". Personally, I'd leave it alone.

 

[smq123]

Merging both threads, since they asked the same question.

 

[The Kahuna]

On a completely unrelated note, yet not really, can I submit my applications before I even upload a personal statement? Thanks.

 

[sendwich]

On a completely unrelated note, yet not really, can I submit my applications before I even upload a personal statement? Thanks.

yes.

 

[medc]

I called ERAS just to be sure.

If the program has not downloaded the PS they will see both but the old one will have a red mark next to it. But they will be able to download both.

 

[The Kahuna]

yes.

Thanks

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I called ERAS just to be sure.

If the program has not downloaded the PS they will see both but the old one will have a red mark next to it. But they will be able to download both.

This is not correct. I can only see a single PS for each applicant I have. The "red X's" are only for LOR's. Unless they've changed something in ERAS this year, which does not seem to be the case.

If I've already printed out your PS, then I can compare the old vs new one. But if not, the old one is erased by the new one.

... and, I just logged into ERAS to double check. I can run a report asking for all revised documents, and picked someone with a revised PS. He has sent me three PS's, one on 9/2, one on 9/8, and the last on 9/10. I can still only see one.

 

[DOCplucinski]

i actually had this issue recently. i noticed a HUGE error in one of my personal statements (applying for two specialties) so i fixed the error and emailed all the programs asking them to download the new personal statement.

i got replies from the majority of them stating that they will make sure to replace the old one in my file. i didn't receive any rejections from these programs so i'm assuming they haven't read my old personal statement. thankfully the error is in the last paragraph so may not be easily found if you did compare the two.

my advice would be to do that and just send a friendly email so they know not to confuse the two.

 

[Ludicolo]

i actually had this issue recently. i noticed a HUGE error in one of my personal statements (applying for two specialties) so i fixed the error and emailed all the programs asking them to download the new personal statement.

i got replies from the majority of them stating that they will make sure to replace the old one in my file. i didn't receive any rejections from these programs so i'm assuming they haven't read my old personal statement. thankfully the error is in the last paragraph so may not be easily found if you did compare the two.

my advice would be to do that and just send a friendly email so they know not to confuse the two.

This is a slightly different situation than the OP. Not sweating minor edits is one thing. If you accidentally sent a dermatology personal statement to a backup PM&R program, you'd best go about fixing that ASAP.