Going below the character count?

[CaliforniaDreamer]

I started with a personal statement that was way over the character limit (8000+), and I have pared it down and down. Every time I delete an unnecessary word or phrase I feel like the entire PS is improved. I have now cut it down to about 5050 characters (~250 characters under the limit). Would this be viewed negatively? I think the PS is quite strong overall, and I was hoping that by being a bit lighter and shorter it would be a welcome respite for someone who had to read hundreds of applications.

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[CaliforniaDreamer]

Lots of people even go as low as 4000 characters. You're fine. 250 characters is like two sentences.

Wunderbar! Just needed an extra opinion.

 

[Banco]

Lol calm down, no one is going to even notice.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Lol calm down, no one is going to even notice.

It's also more of a general philosophy question though, I also only chose 2 most meaningfuls. I have seen people defend both sides of the coin on this issue.

 

[Styrene]

It's also more of a general philosophy question though, I also only chose 2 most meaningfuls. I have seen people defend both sides of the coin on this issue.

Why not choose three?

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Why not choose three?

I felt like I would be repeating information from my PS, and I believe I will have a lot to write for my secondaries, it just didn't feel necessary. I'm kind of trying to go with my gut on this whole application process.

 

[neuroresearchguy23]

I don't mean to tell you how to write your app but it might be a good idea to do three meaningful entries. My reasoning is this: if you have, say 12 or whatever entries, isn't it weird if you've done 12 things listed on your app and only 2 of them were meaningful to you? And by weird I don't mean socially abnormal, I mean it might seen odd to the admission's committee if you haven't done 3 things that meant something to you.. You know?!You don't have to pick something that's medically related but something that you enjoyed and made an impact on you. And if you're worried about repeating things from your PS, I'm sure there's something else about that entry which you could write about that isn't in your PS. I don't know, that's just my two cents! Sorry if it's unwanted. Also character limit on your PS isn't an issue. Write as much as you can, while making every sentence count. Best of luck this cycle!

 

[LizzyM]

On the other hand, it never registers with me which items have been identified as most meaningful. I tend to skip around the experience section looking for what I need to know and whether you've checked two or three won't matter to me.

 

[panda16]

On the other hand, it never registers with me which items have been identified as most meaningful. I tend to skip around the experience section looking for what I need to know and whether you've checked two or three won't matter to me.

Would you say that the MM blurbs are that important in your analysis of the specific activity? Like if something is clinical experience and marked as MM on someone's app, do you pay more attention to the fact that it was clinical experience period or do you evaluate what the applicant thought about that experience and how it impacted them? Or is that more of an interview thing?

 

[LizzyM]

Basically, I'm looking for information I can use to classify an experience or that I can use to personalize an interview question. So, if you did an activity, did you do it alone, did you do it as part of a group, were you the leader of the group, were you the initiator of the group? That's a classification scheme. As I've mentioned before, I like to be able to ask about travel or research specifying a specific place or time frame to make it more specific and more personal.