Is 1700 words too much for a PS?

[bd2010]

Hi! I'm a lurker 🙂

I'm trying to finally get my SOPHAS off but my Personal Statement has been giving me the blues. I'm not much of a writer so I've had several ppl take a look at it. Apparently it covered the bases but was a little too generic in the beginning. I finally broke down and wrote a pretty provocative introduction but it added 400 words to my statement.

I'm wondering, is that word count going to be discouraging for readers, will I get immediately tossed bc I can't follow directions, or will a provocative intro make up for the extra words? If I've literally trimmed down to the bare bone, would it be better to just go back to the old intro (which I didn't think was that generic btws) or stick with something that catches the reader's attention?

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[Awapi]

I'm not sure if you have tried to enter it into SOPHAS yet but there is a character limit even for personal statements. It's characters not words, but they estimate that it will allow about 1500 words to be entered.

Outside of that, when I was getting my application together I was applying for both an MPH and also for the Masters International track at all the schools. I emailed the schools to ask if they were looking for me to include the Masters International reasoning in my personal statement (since it would lengthen it) or if they would like a separate personal statement to make both more concise. Long story short, ALL of the schools emailed back and said that they were looking for CONCISE (all capped in many of the emails). Here are some specific quotes:

- "Succinct writing is a valuable skill"

- "should be the overwhelming majority of your succinct, concise, 1-2 page statement."

- "looking for a clear and concise statement of career goals that match your departmental interest."

I didn't mention the length of my personal statement to any of these people, but obviously a shorter length is preferred if three people from three separate schools went to the trouble of specifically mentioning it.

I definitely feel your pain, I like to free write and then shorten from there, and it's difficult, my first draft was almost 2300 words! But I spent many separate writing sessions shortening it down to a "concise" 1100 words. I got accepted to all the schools I applied to so far so I don't think they need the bulk.

I think you should definitely consider trying to shorten it if you can...good luck!

 

[intlhealth2010]

Like Awapi said, your 1700 word essay most likely exceeds the SOPHAS character limit. So you will have to do some shortening either way.

My original PS was about 1200 words, but in the end I decided to extend my introduction and include a few of my broader goals; i think my final PS was like 1400 words or something.

Is anyone really going to give a damn that I wrote 1400 instead of my original 1200? No. My PS is well-written, addresses some interesting points, and now has a proper intro that adds flow.


Also, some programs have very specific word limits. Ie one of my programs had a very strict 600 word limit, but others had a vague guideline like "around 1-2 pages single spaced".

At the end of the day it really just depends on what you have to say and how you feel best expresses that. I agree with Awapi that "bulk" isn't necessary. But I also wouldn't be afraid that an Adcom is freaking out over exact word counts.

 

[E24Gose]

Hello! My undergrad was in communications and writing. My siblings get embarrassed when I admit this, but I am a bit of a grammar nerd. I might have some advice for you on cutting your PS down without removing substance.

First, print it off and grab some colored pencils/high lighters, whatever.

-Circle all the 'that's you have in the paper. Go through and read each of the sentences with the word 'that' with and without it. Almost always, you can eliminate it entirely.

-Circle all your 'of's. Often times, you can find ways to rearrange sentences to make them more appealing by taking of out and restructuring. For example, say you wrote, "I not only want to be an academic, but a citizen of New York City." You can make this more concise by saying, "I not only want to be an academic, but a New York City citizen," effectively eliminating the 'of.' Mind, this does not work for all sentences and can get awkward. To avoid this, have your computer read to you with the text to speech option.

-Circle all the adjectives and adverbs. If you have one or two you're in love with, feel free to keep them. However, they are often unneeded. Too many adjectives can be a sign of sloppy writing.

-If you have written "in order to" you can always eliminate the "in order" part. It is redundant and a sign of a weak writer.

-If you have written, "my own," get rid of "own." This is also redundant.

-Circle the word 'so' and just get rid of it or replace it if needed.

-Words like necessary, communicate, utilize are not impressive. They can be shortened, cleaning up your writing. For the purposes of this type of paper, the committees want to see your thoughts in an organized concise manner. Necessary = need, communicate = tell/taught,etc, utilize = use (although some grammar geeks say you should never need the word use)

-The next trick, some people think is the oldest in the book, but it is actually the new status quo in publishing: spaces between sentences. Using a size twelve, typical font, you only need to place a single space between sentences. I believe the SOPHAS character counter counts spaces as characters, but Im not positive. Give it a try and let us know. Itd be interesting to see.

I hope any of this helps. If not, I apologize for wasting your time! Good luck!

 

[espre]

I'm wondering, is that word count going to be discouraging for readers, will I get immediately tossed bc I can't follow directions, or will a provocative intro make up for the extra words? If I've literally trimmed down to the bare bone, would it be better to just go back to the old intro (which I didn't think was that generic btws) or stick with something that catches the reader's attention?

1700 words is extremely long, and there is a risk of admissions personnel simply not reading all of it, or becoming bored. They get hundreds of applications, and time is limited. No matter how complex one's history and goals, a succinct and interesting statement can probably be done in under 1,000 words. If it's currently too long, and you don't think it can be shortened, then you can start again from scratch with the goal of brevity and clarity. Perhaps a very different approach will work better. Good luck - it's not easy, but is an excellent exercise, and will be good preparation for writing papers in grad school where there are often strict limits on assignment size to get students to use tight logic and incorporate only what is absolutely essential. After a while, writing compactly becomes easier. Remember, even though you may have a lot to talk about, the essay simply needs to be compelling, not comprehensive.

Something that helped me last year was to look at books of successful essays. You can browse the graduate school section at Border's or B&N. There are no public health essay books, but the same principles apply in all fields.The following were quite useful:

http://www.amazon.com/Essays-That-W...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294611328&sr=8-1
This one has good example essays as well as excellent advice for structuring thoughts and priorities before actually writing.

http://www.amazon.com/Successful-Ha...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294611671&sr=1-1

 

[solide]

Hello! My undergrad was in communications and writing. My siblings get embarrassed when I admit this, but I am a bit of a grammar nerd. I might have some advice for you on cutting your PS down without removing substance.

First, print it off and grab some colored pencils/high lighters, whatever.

-Circle all the 'that's you have in the paper. Go through and read each of the sentences with the word 'that' with and without it. Almost always, you can eliminate it entirely.

-Circle all your 'of's. Often times, you can find ways to rearrange sentences to make them more appealing by taking of out and restructuring. For example, say you wrote, "I not only want to be an academic, but a citizen of New York City." You can make this more concise by saying, "I not only want to be an academic, but a New York City citizen," effectively eliminating the 'of.' Mind, this does not work for all sentences and can get awkward. To avoid this, have your computer read to you with the text to speech option.

-Circle all the adjectives and adverbs. If you have one or two you're in love with, feel free to keep them. However, they are often unneeded. Too many adjectives can be a sign of sloppy writing.

-If you have written "in order to" you can always eliminate the "in order" part. It is redundant and a sign of a weak writer.

-If you have written, "my own," get rid of "own." This is also redundant.

-Circle the word 'so' and just get rid of it or replace it if needed.

-Words like necessary, communicate, utilize are not impressive. They can be shortened, cleaning up your writing. For the purposes of this type of paper, the committees want to see your thoughts in an organized concise manner. Necessary = need, communicate = tell/taught,etc, utilize = use (although some grammar geeks say you should never need the word use)

-The next trick, some people think is the oldest in the book, but it is actually the new status quo in publishing: spaces between sentences. Using a size twelve, typical font, you only need to place a single space between sentences. I believe the SOPHAS character counter counts spaces as characters, but Im not positive. Give it a try and let us know. Itd be interesting to see.

I hope any of this helps. If not, I apologize for wasting your time! Good luck!

Great tips! Thanks for taking the time to write this..

 

[ToxMan1]

I would try to stay in and around the 1500 limit given by the SOPHAS. I have played around with them. In fact, you can submit letters that go way above this limit......but again, try to stay around the 2 pg / 12 font/ single spaced convention. If you can't, and you go over a bit....its no big deal. Nobody will be sitting there, and counting things. As long as the PS is engaging, answers the questions, well written, and gets the ideas across without laborious drudging through crap....it will be a good letter-- and adcoms will be happy to read it no matter how many letters they need to have read...and no matter how many characters you use. I'm giving you this info as a sibling of someone who sits on an adcom. No one cares about length unless its poorly written. If the PS is poorly written, then length will be used as an additional factor to deem a PS as 'inadequate'. However...again, it has to be noticeably longer...nobody counts up each character.

 

[bd2010]

Thank you all so much for your help/advice! I ended up slashing and shortening it to around 1450 (hopefully without butchering it any further). I'm not very comfortable with writing so this has been a huge stressor for me for the past 2 months, but today I sent it and said 'eff it' I gave it my all and if its not good enough then perhaps I'm just not good enough! No big deal. I really appreciate all the help 🙂

 

[E24Gose]

Congrats! Now go get yourself a beer or something and relax (thats what I did!).