Having problem with my PS length

[Faefly]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I don't know how people can write Personal statements using 4500 characters only ( with spaces.)
How?

I keep cutting parts of my PS, and I am not getting there, and each part I cut, my ps becomes worse 🙁
So far I am at 5470 characters with spaces
I mean if I have to reach 4500, I need to change everything, and then what left of me?
Where is me in 4500 characters with spaces
There is no me in such thing, there is just what they want to hear
I want to be a dentist because it's awesome blah blah blah, no contents and no soul!
end of story!

 

[Carbohydrates]

I dont know how people write ANYTHING more than 4500 characters?

Jk. If you're having problem with the characters, move things around. Rewrite 3 sentences into one concise sentence.
Bring it to your friend for help. Bring it to your school writing center or something.
The point of limiting character is that you can tell the story but still be right on the topic and not go off tangent for 3 pages.

Good luck 🙂

 

[Dr5paceman]

you can cut a decent amount of words without cutting out ideas/actual content by:
rephrasing!!
getting rid of adverbs that aren't pulling their weight (most of them)
combining similar ideas/similar paragraphs
using simpler words

and have someone else read it. just because you may be really attached to an idea or the way that you phrased something, does not mean that it's actually working in the context of your essay. i struggled with it too. anything that's remotely not working, cut it.

stay on topic. keep it simple.

 

[DentistHopeful123]

You are going about this wrong. 🙂 Instead of cutting out the soul of what your trying to say in favor of why dentistry is cool to save space, you should be cutting out all these little points in favor of the other good stuff. I think that it's almost better to try and capture the spirit of why you want to be a dentist rather than trying to explain a bunch of points. This can save a lot of space! I think the best personal statements read like a story and flow very well from paragraph to paragraph. When you try and explain every little thing that you like about dentistry, which I suspect may be a little of what you did, then this becomes hard. Again, as my English professor would always say: "You should always tell a story when you write."

Once I had this quote in my mind it became a lot easier to write mine. I wasted six drafts trying to talk about all the things I liked about dentistry and it just wasn't working. I then remembered what I learned in my English classes about writing and just tried to share my story. I was able to completely rewrite in one afternoon and it was so much easier and better than before! Does yours maybe focus around a pivotal moment in life or a experience you had shadowing? Those are always good.

 

[Faefly]

You are going about this wrong. 🙂 Instead of cutting out the soul of what your trying to say in favor of why dentistry is cool to save space, you should be cutting out all these little points in favor of the other good stuff. I think that it's almost better to try and capture the spirit of why you want to be a dentist rather than trying to explain a bunch of points. This can save a lot of space! I think the best personal statements read like a story and flow very well from paragraph to paragraph. When you try and explain every little thing that you like about dentistry, which I suspect may be a little of what you did, then this becomes hard. Again, as my English professor would always say: "You should always tell a story when you write."

Once I had this quote in my mind it became a lot easier to write mine. I wasted six drafts trying to talk about all the things I liked about dentistry and it just wasn't working. I then remembered what I learned in my English classes about writing and just tried to share my story. I was able to completely rewrite in one afternoon and it was so much easier and better than before! Does yours maybe focus around a pivotal moment in life or a experience you had shadowing? Those are always good.

Thank you, I love writing stories.
My ps is like: I explained that it was my dream when I was a kid, and what happened that made me postpone my dream for some years, and how I started all over again when I came here. I talked about shadowing dentists here, and I also talked about volunteering in a hospital and what that taught me, and in the final part, I said why I want to become a dentist. So, it's is like the story of my life + dentistry. I don't know if that is what they are looking for...

I managed to cut it down to 4501 characters after posting here yesterday. I'll show it to the writing center this week. Hopefully, they will like it.

 

[Stanelz]

I hope you outlined it beforehand, If you still have trouble make sure you outline key points that you want to hit before even writing a new draft. Each sentence/paragraph should be intentional. Make sure not to repeat things. Imagine it from the adcoms POV. Does this sentence/paragraph make me look like I want to be a dentist or does it make me look like I am not sure about my career choice. Does this sentence/paragraph make it seem like I just want power and money or does it make it look like I want to help people? Does it seem boastful and arrogant? etc.

 

[Faefly]

I hope you outlined it beforehand, If you still have trouble make sure you outline key points that you want to hit before even writing a new draft. Each sentence/paragraph should be intentional. Make sure not to repeat things. Imagine it from the adcoms POV. Does this sentence/paragraph make me look like I want to be a dentist or does it make me look like I am not sure about my career choice. Does this sentence/paragraph make it seem like I just want power and money or does it make it look like I want to help people? Does it seem boastful and arrogant? etc.

These are good questions. I'll make sure to follow this when I review my Ps later. I will leave it now as it is. I need to be away from it a couple of days so I can look at it later with a new perspective. Thank you!

 

[Faefly]

I dont know how people write ANYTHING more than 4500 characters?

Jk. If you're having problem with the characters, move things around. Rewrite 3 sentences into one concise sentence.
Bring it to your friend for help. Bring it to your school writing center or something.
The point of limiting character is that you can tell the story but still be right on the topic and not go off tangent for 3 pages.

Good luck 🙂

Thank you, I'll show to my school writing center later this week, hopefully they'll help me. On the plus side, I did cut it down to 4500 ish character.

you can cut a decent amount of words without cutting out ideas/actual content by:
rephrasing!!
getting rid of adverbs that aren't pulling their weight (most of them)
combining similar ideas/similar paragraphs
using simpler words

and have someone else read it. just because you may be really attached to an idea or the way that you phrased something, does not mean that it's actually working in the context of your essay. i struggled with it too. anything that's remotely not working, cut it.

stay on topic. keep it simple.

Thank you, I'll try to do that. Hopefully the writing center will help me with that.
I did cut it down after whining yesterday here. It is not about 4500+ with space.

 

[popopopop]

Try a professional letter writer like someone on servicescape. It helped me tremendously and cutting down length is something they'll do regardless if you specify what you want.

 

[Typical Average Student]

Another thing to note is that your personal statement shouldn't look like a resume! So if you have anything on there that says something like... "I've worked at McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, The White House, Taco Bell, and volunteer at.... blah blah" that should be cut down to something like... "I've had extensive work experience that helped me..."