Personal statement a little over 1 pg

[imhopeful4961]

Hi neurotic M4 especially as I'm about to submit ERAS,

Wanted to gauge people's opinion on a personal statement that's longer than 1 page? I keep reading that the personal statement should be 1 pg and that was the advice I got from mentors. Currently mine is at 1 page and like 3 lines (total word count is 660) but I really can't shortened it anymore.

I think the main issue is that that I have quite a few paragraph breaks because I discuss 3 things/threads (1 paragraph each) and then have 1 paragraph intro and 1 paragraph about what i'm lookin for in a program (3 sentences) and a 1 paragraph conclusion (only 2 sentences long). I think everything I have to say about myself is on page 1 but the conclusion paragraph ends on page 2 (which just sums up everything).

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[Apollyon]

That needs editing. Yes, it can be shorter. I'm not your person, but, someone can help you.

 

[GoSpursGo]

It can be shortened. Whether it's with paragraph breaks or removal of a few non-essential sentences it's impossible to say without looking, but get it down to a page.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Let ChatGPT fix it for you.

 

[operaman]

Let ChatGPT fix it for you.

Came to say this same thing. I’d just copy paste in ChatGPT and ask it to make it shorter but keep the same message and structure.

This has actually been one of its best use cases for me - I can be a bit verbose and it takes a much needed buzz saw to my writing.

 

[wysdoc]

Hi neurotic M4 especially as I'm about to submit ERAS,

Wanted to gauge people's opinion on a personal statement that's longer than 1 page? I keep reading that the personal statement should be 1 pg and that was the advice I got from mentors. Currently mine is at 1 page and like 3 lines (total word count is 660) but I really can't shortened it anymore.

I think the main issue is that that I have quite a few paragraph breaks because I discuss 3 things/threads (1 paragraph each) and then have 1 paragraph intro and 1 paragraph about what i'm lookin for in a program (3 sentences) and a 1 paragraph conclusion (only 2 sentences long). I think everything I have to say about myself is on page 1 but the conclusion paragraph ends on page 2 (which just sums up everything).

Leave out the "Intro paragraph" and any lead-in phrases and filler words like furthermore, therefore, firstly, in conclusion etc and jump right in to what you want to say. You will be surprised how much junk you can weed out doing this. They know why you're writing this letter, so say what you'd like to say in it.

 

[rokshana]

Hi neurotic M4 especially as I'm about to submit ERAS,

Wanted to gauge people's opinion on a personal statement that's longer than 1 page? I keep reading that the personal statement should be 1 pg and that was the advice I got from mentors. Currently mine is at 1 page and like 3 lines (total word count is 660) but I really can't shortened it anymore.

I think the main issue is that that I have quite a few paragraph breaks because I discuss 3 things/threads (1 paragraph each) and then have 1 paragraph intro and 1 paragraph about what i'm lookin for in a program (3 sentences) and a 1 paragraph conclusion (only 2 sentences long). I think everything I have to say about myself is on page 1 but the conclusion paragraph ends on page 2 (which just sums up everything).

Yes it can be shorter… literally everyone can do it.
Most likely the 2nd page won’t be read.
And you will get judged because you couldn’t follow instructions.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

I promise that you can cut enough out of this to drop 3 lines without losing any substance…these personal statements are 95% hogwash anyway and everyone knows it. Don’t even bother with ChatGPT…hell cut a few random sentences out of the core of those paragraphs and see if you get the sense that anything is missing. My guess is that you won’t.

 

[mistafab]

Yo.. if you literally cannot get it to one page I literally won't read it.