How many characters are your personal statements?

[PerpetualBurn]

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I'm afraid mine is too short (3,300 characters w/o spaces; 4,100 with), but it does tell a story and get to the point. I've had several drafts so far, most of them over the char. limit, and this version, the best one by far, is on the short side. I could make it longer but don't want to do that just for the sake of making it longer. Any suggestions?

 

[Punkn]

I'm afraid mine is too short (3,300 characters w/o spaces; 4,100 with), but it does tell a story and get to the point. I've had several drafts so far, most of them over the char. limit, and this version, the best one by far, is on the short side. I could make it longer but don't want to do that just for the sake of making it longer. Any suggestions?

The application character limit includes spaces (and counts hard returns as 2 characters). So, you'll have at least 4100 characters which is about 77% of the alloted space. *shrugs* Sounds okay to me. I definitely wouldn't add anything just for the sake of making in longer. Good luck!

Edited to add: mine was 5292 characters

 

[Darkshooter326]

Mine was about 5000 characters, but I wittled that from about 7500. It doesn't matter at all. Adcoms don't care about length, if you said everything you need to say in 4000, that's probably better. Goodluck.

 

[Mr. Tee]

4100 is perfectly fine. Quality, quality, quality.

 

[maestro1625]

What was the maximum number? 5300? yeah, mine was 8 short of that.

I had to shorten my committee letter statement... its tough to cut stuff out and still make it coherent.

 

[DrVanNostran]

The main thing is quality as Teerawit said. Don't add for the sake of adding.

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

mine was 5299 😀

...only because I used the personal statement for my pre-health committee letter and cut it down.

The length does not really matter at all as long as it is good

 

[TPROrgoTutor]

5300. Took a long time to cut it down from the double that I gave to all profs writing LOR.

 

[prudvi]

I though I would bring this thread back after long time. just wondering what others in 2010 cycle have regarding this topic. My PS started from about 5700 charcters and after many revisions, it is now about 3850 charcters. Like others have said, I don't want to change it for the sake of length. But I am a little bit afraid that it is shorter than the average.

 

[aznb0y129]

Mine was 4822.

 

[LiveUninhibited]

I though I would bring this thread back after long time. just wondering what others in 2010 cycle have regarding this topic. My PS started from about 5700 charcters and after many revisions, it is now about 3850 charcters. Like others have said, I don't want to change it for the sake of length. But I am a little bit afraid that it is shorter than the average.

I had a lot of trouble getting mine down to 5300. If there's really nothing relevant to add then don't add it, though. If you can convey what you need to in fewer words then I'm sure they'll appreciate that given their workload. Adding 1000 characters of fluff is only going to hurt you because it'll detract from the quality stuff. Mine's something like 5290.

 

[Klemptor]

Mine is exactly 5300 characters. But I would like to echo what others have said: focus more on content than on length. You don't want to bore your readers with text that doesn't add meaningful content to your PS.