My Personal statment is too long?

[ToZanarkand]

Today I found this from the AADSAS website. It says
Your essay is limited to approximately onepage (4,500 characters, including spaces)😱

Damn...Mine is 6200 characters without spaces. It is about 7500 characters with spaces. I don't think I can reduce it to 4500 characters, including spaces. What should I do? How long is your personal statement?

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[AmpedUp]

It needs to be 4500 characters, otherwise it'll tell you to trim down the number of characters at the bottom of the page.

Mines is near and under 4500 characters.

 

[ToZanarkand]

Did you include spaces also?

microsoft word shows it these way,
Characters (no spaces)
Characters (with spaces)

which one is the one the AADSAS want?

 

[dentalstudent00]

you are limited to 4500 characters. therefore, you have no choice but to reduce your personal statement or it will be cut off. take out the "fluff" that you thought was necessary but was really excessive and you should be fine. plus, you could always integrate the things you removed from the personal statement and place them in other portions of your application such as the optional essays or additional information sections. this part should be the easiest since its no longer a matter of what to write, but reducing your message down to a one page paper that summarizes everything you want the committee to view you as. rephrase and combine sentences to reduce wording. good luck! 😎

 

[i4everpaki]

My first draft was about 6500, then through revision revision, and help of SDN, friends, and prof. it is now 4500! There are a lot of people on SDN that are able to help you with your PS you just have to find them. Also I really recommend giving a visit to one of your prof that you know who is able to help you with the PS. I went to my linguistic prof and she was more than happy to help me. she really made the PS excellent.

 

[alexamasan]

My personal statement was pretty long also. What I did was just completely cut off what they didn't really need to hear. I wrote about my process of choosing dentistry and problems I've faced and overcome during the process. However, I ended up cutting out parts that didn't seem as important as the reasons why I chose dentistry. I took out parts like how I used to want to be a veterinarian and how I used to be a very anti-social person and how I've overcome that problem. After the editing, I ended up with talking about simply what I've learned during my process of choosing dentistry and why I want to be a dentist. Of course you don't need to write about what I'm writing about, but my advice would be to cut out things that aren't really that important.

 

[ToZanarkand]

Thank you all. I guess I don't have any other choice. Thank you again.

 

[Smiley25]

plus, you could always integrate the things you removed from the personal statement and place them in other portions of your application such as the optional essays or additional information sections. this part should be the easiest since its no longer a matter of what to write, but reducing your message down to a one page paper that summarizes everything you want the committee to view you as. ! 😎

Are there additional essays for AADSAS? Or are you talking about secondaries? I looked at the outline they have posted and I didn't see anything else except for manual dexterity (600 characters). They do ask you about ECs, work exp., shadowing-but you are limited to 150 characters(basically one, maybe two, sentences).

I'm only 400 characters over on my PS-trying to figure out what's best to take out....I'm wondering if I should leave out parts that are mentioned in my app. Such as, "

 

[dentalWorks]

I dunno about you guys, but I am keeping mine at around 3100 chars (including spaces).

These adcoms get 2-3000 thousand applicants that they each have to read through the personal statements. I think a shorter statement will draw their attention more to reading the WHOLE statement rather than just some parts of a lengthier one..... thats just my opinion

 

[Smiley25]

Such as, " I have acquired over fifty hours of shadowing in Dr. ____'s office where I was able to see many root canals, implants, extractions, and crown placements". -I have a list of all of this under my dental experience. Thanks for the help

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[fldnstrm]

Such as, " I have acquired over fifty hours of shadowing in Dr. ____'s office where I was able to see many root canals, implants, extractions, and crown placements". -I have a list of all of this under my dental experience. Thanks for the help

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You can always edit the initial post if you want.

 

[jj007]

Keep the essay in the AADSAS application concise. However, don't throw away your initial essay. You might be able to use it on the secondary application. Most secondaries require you to write additional essays.

 

[goffdent]

These adcoms get 2-3000 thousand applicants that they each have to read through the personal statements.

They probably only read a few hundred between them all (maybe....) Because each school as a formula for whether or not they want to offer an interview. If you have the stats that fit their minimum criteria, they'll look at your personal statement. They certainly don't read everyones essay. There's just not enough time in the day or enough sanity to go around.. ha ha

Also, If they do read many of them, they probably only read the first bits of it so make sure you:
1. Don't fluff around with your wording
2. Get to the point
3. Keep it interesting from the very beginning (if you hook their interest, they will read on... which you want)
4. Only put in relative info
5. Keep it positive

 

[Smiley25]

I disagree with the idea that they do not read them. Yes... they have a formula and if you have a low GPA AND DAT score they probably won't look at the rest of your application-especially the top schools. However, I do think if just one of them is low or average they read it to see if you can explain the discrepancy. They also read them if your stats are perfect.

Long story short- One of my classmates who was pre-med had an UNBELIEVABLE amount of achievements. 4.0, honors program, perfect MCAT, published research papers, etc.. Was rejected without an interview to two average state schools. She, along with several confused professors, called to see why she wasn't even given an interview. They told her it was because of her egotistical personal statement...? She's doing alright- Got into her top private school, but still.... could have used the scholarships offered at the state schools.

 

[marymatthews]

Are you sure the PS needs to be less than 4500 characters with spaces?
I thought it was 4700... last year's application it said 4700 characters with spaces

 

[doc toothache]

Today I found this from the AADSAS website. It says Your essay is limited to approximately onepage (4,500 characters, including spaces)😱Damn...Mine is 6200 characters without spaces. It is about 7500 characters with spaces. I don't think I can reduce it to 4500 characters, including spaces. What should I do? How long is your personal statement?

It is hard to imagine that you cannot say in 4500 characters what you wrote with 7500.

 

[marymatthews]

What do they mean by: 'Academic Enrichment Programs' on the AADSAS application?
such as what?