How long is personal statement?

[MNgirl]

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This may seem like an ignorant question- but does anyone know how long the personal statements are supposed to be? My advising ofice has shut down for the summer due to lack of funding, and I am on my own on this one.

Also, is it bad to discuss one's race and gender it the statement?

Thanks for any help! (I know I need to get the app out ASAP, but my statement is holding me up).

MNgirl

 

[Methuselah]

MNGirl,
The statement is 58 lines with approx. 90 characters per line. If you're using AMCAS-e to complete your application, it has a help utility that specifies the character size, font, margins, etc. With respect to your question about mentioning your ethnicity, from what I've read, if there is something about your cultural heritage that you feel is relevent to your aspirations toward medicine, you should mention it. Good Luck!

 

[MNgirl]

Thanks for your help! I will need to trim my personal statement down a bit and hope it fits nicely into the AMCAS space.

MNgirl

 

[Shahedoc]

The personal statement was something that I had a little bit of trouble with as well. I did mention that I am a minority and a female because it does bear some relevance to the points I tried to make. I can offer this piece of advice- get everyone you know to read your statement. A lot of people pointed out grammatical errors that escaped me. Make sure it is someone who will be HONEST with you and tell you if your writing sucks or not, like my dear sweet dad did. Luckily he had lots of great suggestions to steer me along.
Good luck!