help with character limit in AACOMAS

[Oh_Gee]

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I'm having issues getting my PS to 4500 characters(including spaces right). Would it be unwise no leave to space between periods and the beginning of the next sentence?

 

[swolebrah]

Yeah man its insane how little space they give us for the personal statement. In for answer as well.

 

[Oh_Gee]

i feel like the AMCAS limit is doable. 800 more characters is much better. In what world does it make sense to counts spaces as characters lol

 

[NineIron]

I would keep the spaces after periods, when they see the final format of your PS it'll be hard to read.
Are you all using contractions? I'm thinking about keeping mine in although I've seen mixed opinions.

 

[ortnakas]

Yes, leaving no space between sentences would make it very difficult to read. Don't go that route. One space between sentences instead of two is fine, though.

 

[Oh_Gee]

Yes, leaving no space between sentences would make it very difficult to read. Don't go that route. One space between sentences instead of two is fine, though.

i guess...sigh 🙁

Thanks elliot

 

[Monkitty]

Reread and revise. Brevity is key here so rework as many sentences as you can into lean cuts of 100% prime English, no filler.

 

[Oh_Gee]

Do you all think that I should leave out the paragraph where i talk about the research i've done? from what i've read on SDN (lol) it seems like DO schools aren't really interested in that. If i get rid of that paragraph, i think I would make the limit

 

[Monkitty]

Cut it and see where it puts you. Trim it and see where it puts you. If it answers the questions "Who am I?" and "Why medicine?" consider including it. You'll have a place to put your research experience in your application, so unless your research REALLY impacted your decision to be a physician (as opposed to being a result of you wanting to be a physician) you might want to consider cutting it.

But again, revise revise revise. Step away from your PS for a a day or two, then reread it and see if you can't rephrase some parts.

 

[keels99]

I had to go through and eliminate sentences one at a time (I thought it was a 4500 word limit at first and went >1000 characters over.) If you continue to read it over and over, you'll begin to notice parts that don't necessarily add to the content of your PS and find sentences that can be deleted without decreasing the overall quality. I'm sure you can also find some people to read over your personal statements here on SDN and determine what could be deleted.

 

[Oh_Gee]

If it answers the questions "Who am I?" and "Why medicine?" consider including it. You'll have a place to put your research experience in your application, so unless your research REALLY impacted your decision to be a physician (as opposed to being a result of you wanting to be a physician) you might want to consider cutting it.

damn that was really good advice. Thanks!!!

 

[swolebrah]

Bump for more advice

 

[po10520]

kind of a dumb question, but is everyone writing a separate essay for DO schools vs MD? i know it specifically asks why do you want to be a DO, but the thought of writing an entirely new essay is so daunting

 

[68PGunner]

substitute words with ones that are shorter.
combine sentences.
cut a little details here and there that wouldn't affect the quality of your ps.

cut my amcas ps from 4900 to 4490 for do schools.

 

[Dr. Death]

I also had a research paragraph in my PS. I realized "Most DO schools don't give a rats @$$ about research and this has nothing to do with why I want to be a dr." So I cut and pasted it into my experiences section. Now I have 4496 characters.