How long should my story be in my personal statement?

[Gavanshir]

Hi, quick question,

I'm starting my PS with a story, and I develop it to a point that it's quite long (3000 characters/660 words). I know that the preferred format is to only have a brief story or anecdote in the first paragraph but do you think there is anything wrong with this long of a story given that many of my motivations come across through the story line?

I will fill the rest of the essay by tying in the story with my personal experiences.

Thanks.

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[paradocs we are]

Hi, quick question,

I'm starting my PS with a story, and I develop it to a point that it's quite long (3000 characters/660 words). I know that the preferred format is to only have a brief story or anecdote in the first paragraph but do you think there is anything wrong with this long of a story given that many of my motivations come across through the story line?

I will fill the rest of the essay by tying in the story with my personal experiences.

Thanks.

Your PS should be answering two questions, "Why medicine and how have my personal experiences shaped this desire?" and "How have my experiences demonstrated my suitability for medicine?"

Talking about motivation for 3/5s of the essay is a bit unbalanced in my opinion. The second question is just as important.

 

[fireflygirl]

I think paradocs gave you some good advice. Think about both those questions as you write your PS, but for now, you may want to ignore the character limit. My general approach is to get everything down that I think is important and then go back and physically look at everything that is there and see where you can tighten things a bit. Sometimes you don't realise while you're writing, how many words you use to describe something that may not need that much attention.

 

[Gavanshir]

Thanks for your advice, and I certainly will take them into consideration, but my main question here really is whether it is ok to have a story that takes up 2/3 of the PS since most of the essays that I've read and that have used the story telling approach, only take up the first small paragraph of the essay.

 

[paradocs we are]

Thanks for your advice, and I certainly will take them into consideration, but my main question here really is whether it is ok to have a story that takes up 2/3 of the PS since most of the essays that I've read and that have used the story telling approach, only take up the first small paragraph of the essay.

If you can still successfully answer those two questions I stated above in your PS, then no one can tell you not to take up 2/3rds of the PS on a story. However, I'm inclined to think that it will be very difficult to answer both questions sufficiently if you tell too long of a story. Also, stories in my opinion can get boring real quick.

 

[Orbo]

For what its worth, my entire PS was a story and I've since been accepted to med schools. Hard to say if it was a positive or negative, but having read over it a year later, I still wouldn't have changed a word of it.

 

[tdsbird2]

it should be 5300 characters...in my opinion

 

[Character]

enough so that the entire ps in engaging. dont draw it out..the reader would lose interest.