Is there a point where too many people edit your PS?

[PatchAdams25]

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Is there a point where too many people edit your personal statement? I have had like 20 people read it and some of them say it sounds great; others have all sorts of edits they want to make. I keep making the edits and sending it out to more people and I get the same mix of good/make more edits.... it is stressing me out like crazy!!!!!

 

[Benjoe11]

No I don't think so. I think it's just up to you to read through the noise and decide what changes really should be made and what wouldn't make a difference in the end. But the more eyes the better if you ask me.

 

[Dr.TonySoprano]

20? yeah. at the end of it, it wouldn't even be your own work. i think that's too much.

I had two people from my career center and a pre-health advisor look at mine. that's all it took.

 

[Espressso]

Is there a point where too many people edit your personal statement? I have had like 20 people read it and some of them say it sounds great; others have all sorts of edits they want to make. I keep making the edits and sending it out to more people and I get the same mix of good/make more edits.... it is stressing me out like crazy!!!!!

I'm in the exact same position and have reached a tipping point. I feel like you have to take these edits with a grain of salt.

 

[gyngyn]

Absolutely. For residency applications, we recommend no more than two outside reviewers for content, and a specialty-specific advisor.
We review for grammar centrally (as well as style).

 

[mimelim]

There are only a handful of people whose input I care about globally for a personal statement. Many others who will have constructive feedback about specific things, but really only a couple of people should be giving you full fledged feedback.

 

[ChrisMack390]

I sent mine to 3 people from SDN. One told me it looked great and ready to submit, one told me it was OK but needed x, y, z revisions, and one total me it was complete garbage.

Ultimately I had to decide what I liked and didn't like about it and chose which suggestions to accept and which to ignore. There is really no other way to do it and actually finish the thing.

 

[JustAPhD]

"Too many cooks spoil the broth" holds here.

This! No two people write exactly the same and each person will have a slightly different opinion on how to "season" your PS. Too much seasoning and you'll completely mask the taste of your own writing.

...can you tell it's almost lunchtime?

 

[PatchAdams25]

I have had probably 10-15 people on SDN edit it/give feedback and my pre-professional advisor who has known me for 5 years. My advisor made some good edits and said that it sounded really good. She said it definitely answered the "Why medicine" question while talking about my journey. One of my friends recommended using Fiveer, because there are some good services on there. I had one of the people edit it from there (said they had sat on medical school admissions for 15 years) and they said I have a TON of work to do. Essentially, after every single paragraph his edits said "This does not tell me WHY YOU WANT TO GIVE YOUSELF 250k DEBT AND STUDY 24/7.

In these experiences I was talking about how I worked with disabled/ederly people and enjoy helping them, I love challenging myself academically and medicine provides me with a life of being able to accomplish both of these. Yes I understand it isn't all happy go lucky saving the world as a doctor. There is a lot of BS that you have to put up with and a lot of sacrifice for both you and your family.

It is just weird when you have people edit it that tell you it sounds awesome (I had one person say it brought them to tears) and then other people giving you all sorts of feedback. I want to pull my hair out....

 

[iforget2]

I'm glad somebody made a thread about this! I'm in the same boat right now- sent mine to about about 10 people and have gotten the whole spectrum in terms of whether it was good or not. After 12 drafts I think it's time for me to just go with what I personally think is best and move on to the next part of my app, but it's difficult because I know how important the PS is, too.

 

[bate16]

Is there a point where too many people edit your personal statement? I have had like 20 people read it and some of them say it sounds great; others have all sorts of edits they want to make. I keep making the edits and sending it out to more people and I get the same mix of good/make more edits.... it is stressing me out like crazy!!!!!

20 seems quite a bit to me, but you should have at least a few look at it. However, I believe that at the end, you should narrow the list of editors down to a couple of people so that all of your essays have the same flow and syntax. You do not want to be turning in essays that sound different, which can definitely happen with many reviewers since everyone writes differently.

 

[PatchAdams25]

I'm glad somebody made a thread about this! I'm in the same boat right now- sent mine to about about 10 people and have gotten the whole spectrum in terms of whether it was good or not. After 12 drafts I think it's time for me to just go with what I personally think is best and move on to the next part of my app, but it's difficult because I know how important the PS is, too.

I'm on edit 7 right now.... I am just so bad at expressing myself with writing... Any time I talk about my desires to pursue medicine in person it is very smooth and everyone tells me I am doing it for the right reasons, but when I try to put it on paper I get 1 million different opinions.

 

[PatchAdams25]

Another question for everyone.... Do you think it is better to have people who know you edit it, or people who do not know you (like anonymous SDN people)??

 

[ChrisMack390]

Another question for everyone.... Do you think it is better to have people who know you edit it, or people who do not know you (like anonymous SDN people)??

The people that I know in real life were honestly much more helpful. Particularly those who are familiar with the experiences I was writing about.

 

[iforget2]

Another question for everyone.... Do you think it is better to have people who know you edit it, or people who do not know you (like anonymous SDN people)??

I've had both SDN people and people I know read mine, and I found that how many of the critiques they give you is mostly based off of their own background both as a person and as a writer. I had a good experience where I was discussing my PS with one of my editors in person and realized it was the first time I was talking about my PS out loud, since I was always just typing it and just reading it over and over in my head. Once I started to discuss my PS and read it out loud it really made a difference on structure, ideas, and flow.

 

[MaxPlancker]

You have to filter that edits that you receive back and judge for yourself. The thing is, most people that edit it will not give you a harsh, critical read of your statement. You need to find people that really care as if it was their own app. I've read many apps where people say their friends said it was good but I clearly saw it needed lots of work. Some people offer to read not to help you out but to help themselves. Be wary and choose wisely.

 

[Levrone]

Where are you all getting people to read your PS? I've messaged numerous people on the personal statement readers thread, and have not had anyone message back yet. Still hoping someone can read my PS and critique for me 🙁

 

[MaxPlancker]

Where are you all getting people to read your PS? I've messaged numerous people on the personal statement readers thread, and have not had anyone message back yet. Still hoping someone can read my PS and critique for me 🙁

Aww 🙁 I'll read yours if you want but I'm pretty blunt about things and very picky. Also won't have it back for a day or two probably

 

[jtd2081]

At the end of the day you are the person writing the statement. It is about you. If you are happy with the statement as it is then be done with it. Just because people want to make changes doesn't mean you have to listen to every single one of them. Just make sure you like the statement.

 

[WhittyPsyche]

The people that I know in real life were honestly much more helpful. Particularly those who are familiar with the experiences I was writing about.

I found it to be the opposite. People I know were a lot more emotionally moved and thought it was fantastic. However because they know my story, I think they filled in the gaps where I may not have been very clear.

People on SDN only knew what I presented to them. I think this was far more valuable. I was able to work on the transitions in the story better, clarify my points better, and make sure I was understandable to a broader range.

To second the earlier point, I stopped at 5 OP. Even that seemed to be too much. After all your grammar and content is fixed, more readers tend to just change your style to suit their own. In particular, I have done a lot of creative writing over the years and prefer non-linear story-lines, some really wanted a "first I did this, then I did that, then I did bla bla".


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[sharkbyte]

I think the idea of having 10 or 20 or even more people read your PS is kind of overrated. I had three people read mine - my mom, a close friend of mine who's an excellent writer/reader who had been accepted to med school, and a doctor I know personally. They all gave more or less the same feedback with small differences here or there. That way I was able to figure out the strong and weak points of it and edit it properly. Even with only 3 readers my final draft still looked nothing like my original.

When you get beyond 5 or 10 people you could receive wildly different opinions and then have trouble figuring out which feedback to incorporate and which to ignore.