Excitement for a friend! Also question for me?

[DOPharmMD]

A very good friend of mine just got the good news!! And it's from UF!!!!!!
After trying so hard for some time to get into pharmacy school, my friend got the thick envelope she was hoping to receive! She got into the Jacksonville campus! I am applying for next year and hope that I too get in. I hope to be admitted to the Orlando campus, although, I don't care which campus I get into. I would also entertain the idea of attending the Nova campus (such lovely campus)! But for the price, I would love to be a UF alumni!

I'm currently finishing up my PS. Approximately how many words should it be? My PS is ~ 3 pages (2 pages and one paragraph on third page); a word count reveals I have 1,537 words.

My personal statement follows naturally. It describes precisely what I want to say. I think I'm hoping that it'll be a deciding factor for my acceptance to UF or Nova. Congrats to those who've received acceptances!!

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[eleanor_rigby]

is this supposed to be a blog entry or something?

 

[DOPharmMD]

is this supposed to be a blog entry or something?

I was hoping for an answer to how long should a personal statement be? Thx for reading! Any constructive criticism is also appreciated. Although, an answer to the above question is what I'm curious about.

 

[omnione]

I was hoping for an answer to how long should a personal statement be? Thx for reading! Any constructive criticism is also appreciated. Although, an answer to the above question is what I'm curious about.

PharmCAS limits personal statements to 4,300 characters, spaces included. That PS you refer to in your post seems a little too long

The non-PharmCAS schools have different requirements, so its best to look those numbers up.

 

[eleanor_rigby]

The committee or assistant dean has to read hundreds of papers. Be succinct and to the point because no one wants to read an essay that just drags on and on because it ends up becoming borderline bs. There are plenty of books with sample essays from successful med school and health professional applicants that you can pick up at the library.

You need to take out a third of your essay. Hell, if I were handed a three page statement and had to go through a few hundred, I 'd chuck yours into the trash. Verbose and long-winded is a no-no.

 

[DOPharmMD]

The committee or assistant dean has to read hundreds of papers. Be succinct and to the point because no one wants to read an essay that just drags on and on because it ends up becoming borderline bs. There are plenty of books with sample essays from successful med school and health professional applicants that you can pick up at the library.

You need to take out a third of your essay. Hell, if I were handed a three page statement and had to go through a few hundred, I 'd chuck yours into the trash. Verbose and long-winded is a no-no.

hehe!!! Thank you for your comments! The prior post mentioned something about 4000 + character ?? Now that seems a lot. Mine is about 1537. But I will have many people review it. I'm at least happy because at least it's done and I can erase at will. thx for your input.

 

[DOPharmMD]

Also, what do u suggest? 1 1/2 pages, 2 pages at the most... thank you.

 

[NDGirl]

hehe!!! Thank you for your comments! The prior post mentioned something about 4000 + character ?? Now that seems a lot. Mine is about 1537. But I will have many people review it. I'm at least happy because at least it's done and I can erase at will. thx for your input.

Ok, so I'm confused a little. First you said your PS was 1537 words, then in this you refer to it as 1537 characters it seems. There is a big difference between words and characters. Each word is made up of multiple characters. For example, the word character is one word but 9 characters. Also, each space counts as a character too!

For example my PS was 3,175 characters and was just over 1 page at 12pt font...after a little formatting it all fit on one page. Oh ya, and it was only 564 words.

 

[breeze2baby]

I hope you understand that the post meant "4000+ characters with spaces. There a borderline between characters and characters with spaces. You might have 1537 characters and it may actually be up to 2000 characters with spaces. So be watchful of this. Goodluck

 

[DOPharmMD]

Ok, so I'm confused a little. First you said your PS was 1537 words, then in this you refer to it as 1537 characters it seems. There is a big difference between words and characters. Each word is made up of multiple characters. For example, the word character is one word but 9 characters. Also, each space counts as a character too!

For example my PS was 3,175 characters and was just over 1 page at 12pt font...after a little formatting it all fit on one page. Oh ya, and it was only 564 words.

Wow! I mean this is real short. I mean, everyone else really only had a page of PS? I can imagine two, but one! Let's not talk pages, how about words. Is the goal to be no more than 700 words. Share with us the length of your PS.

Thx for those who contributed.

 

[HarcourtMonopol]

PharmCAS has a 4500 character limit including spaces. Mine was 751 words which equated to 4445 characters. If your PS has 1537 words in it and you're applying via PharmCAS, I think we can safely assume you'll be well over the character limit, unless all the words you used were one or two letters long, in which case I would suggest rewriting it.

 

[guestxyz]

I mean, everyone else really only had a page of PS? I can imagine two, but one! Let's not talk pages, how about words. Is the goal to be no more than 700 words. Share with us the length of your PS.

The personal statement that I submitted had 742 words (4478 characters including spaces). It runs about one page plus one paragraph long. I applied to two schools and was accepted to two schools. I think the personal statement can be a strong tool for getting your application to stand out, particularly if you don't have any pharmacy experience, which I don't. I did a lot of re-writing to pare it down to its bare essentials, but I do believe I ended up with a better statement than the original, longer version.

 

[pharmk011]

I had a problem with my PS being a little too long.. PharmCAS cuts it off at 4500 characters, including spaces... you can't type any more than that. It's very frustrating to try and cut down sentences when you have exactly what you want to say... so I suggest you re-write your PS or do a LOT of editing. (You can check how many characters w/ spaces you have using Word... as for word count, it'll depend on what kind of words you're using)

 

[bugslife]

A very good friend of mine just got the good news!! And it's from UF!!!!!!
After trying so hard for some time to get into pharmacy school, my friend got the thick envelope she was hoping to receive! She got into the Jacksonville campus! I am applying for next year and hope that I too get in. I hope to be admitted to the Orlando campus, although, I don't care which campus I get into. I would also entertain the idea of attending the Nova campus (such lovely campus)! But for the price, I would love to be a UF alumni!

I'm currently finishing up my PS. Approximately how many words should it be? My PS is ~ 3 pages (2 pages and one paragraph on third page); a word count reveals I have 1,537 words.

My personal statement follows naturally. It describes precisely what I want to say. I think I'm hoping that it'll be a deciding factor for my acceptance to UF or Nova. Congrats to those who've received acceptances!!

on a totally unrelated note... just out of curiosity, are you debating which degree to pursue (in your screen name)?

 

[DOPharmMD]

I'm currently finishing up my PS. Approximately how many words should it be? My PS is ~ 3 pages (2 pages and one paragraph on third page); a word count reveals I have 1,537 words.
My personal statement follows naturally. It describes precisely what I want to say. I think I'm hoping that it'll be a deciding factor for my acceptance to UF or Nova. Congrats to those who've received acceptances!!

Update! After I submitted my essay word count statistics, I received many candid replies about the need to edit it. Thank you so much for your time. It was obvious however, that in fact, in should be considerably reduced. After some careful editing, my essay is now 762 words, 3,649 characters w/0 spaces, 4421 w/ spaces, 5 paragraphs (~1 page & 1 paragraph on second page) I did not want to cluster the essay on first page, so I skipped a line at every new paragraph. What a difference it makes! It's harder to get started but it is so much easier to edit. Once again, thank you SDNers.

The personal statement that I submitted had 742 words (4478 characters including spaces). It runs about one page plus one paragraph long. I applied to two schools and was accepted to two schools. I think the personal statement can be a strong tool for getting your application to stand out, particularly if you don't have any pharmacy experience, which I don't. I did a lot of re-writing to pare it down to its bare essentials, but I do believe I ended up with a better statement than the original, longer version.

Like you, I believe strongly in the strength of my essay. Getting into pharmacy school would be such an accomplishment for me (emotionally and intellectually). You're living the dream! Congratulations on being admitted

on a totally unrelated note... just out of curiosity, are you debating which degree to pursue (in your screen name)?

Aha! I figured someone would ask someday. For a start, here are two links to satisfy your curiosity:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=337429
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=344108