Personal Statement Length

[aamartin81]

I have a number of great experiences, but having written my personal statement, I wonder if it is necessary to fill the 5300 characters provided by AMCAS. My essay is roughly 3800 characters and is a page and a half single spaced with 12 point Times. I could write more, but I feel that the way it is now is clean and concise as well as informative. I don't want to write for the sake of it, but am interested to hear others opinions.

Adam

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[OSUdoc08]

I have a number of great experiences, but having written my personal statement, I wonder if it is necessary to fill the 5300 characters provided by AMCAS. My essay is roughly 3800 characters and is a page and a half single spaced with 12 point Times. I could write more, but I feel that the way it is now is clean and concise as well as informative. I don't want to write for the sake of it, but am interested to hear others opinions.

Adam

No. That's a maximum.

 

[virilep]

it doesn't matter the length of it in any font size. it's all about characters. I know you think you're done, but the space u haven't used is very valuable. it's kinda like having a superbowl ad space and only using 20 seconds of your alotted 30. I would maybe try to add in another experience and how it shows another characteristic u have. I know people will way. "if u think ur done, then don't worry" but it's true that adcoms dont like reading bull****, but your goal is to add something on that'll make you stand out... and plus, it's only feb, u have 4 months to think of something else to put in ;-)

 

[Agent Splat]

If you said what you feel you needed to get across, you used the right number of words.

Simple as that.

Best,
mdb

 

[aamartin81]

Thanks for the input. I'm sure it will evolve as the months pass, but it is good to hear varying perspectives.

Adam

 

[RaistlinMajere]

Mine was around 3800. I opted for clean and concise as well.

 

[cheapdate]

Mine was around 3800. I opted for clean and concise as well.

that's amazing, i had such a hard time keeping mine under 5300 charaters. guess i'm too wordy

 

[BeatArmy]

I have a number of great experiences, but having written my personal statement, I wonder if it is necessary to fill the 5300 characters provided by AMCAS. My essay is roughly 3800 characters and is a page and a half single spaced with 12 point Times. I could write more, but I feel that the way it is now is clean and concise as well as informative. I don't want to write for the sake of it, but am interested to hear others opinions.

Adam

Are you counting the spaces? A page and a half sounds like more than 3800 to me. Mine was right at the max and almost fit on one page. I don't remember the font size, though.

If you are done, then fine, but before you start burning too many brain cells thinking about what to add, make sure you have counted the characters correctly.

 

[ead]

I have a number of great experiences, but having written my personal statement, I wonder if it is necessary to fill the 5300 characters provided by AMCAS. My essay is roughly 3800 characters and is a page and a half single spaced with 12 point Times. I could write more, but I feel that the way it is now is clean and concise as well as informative. I don't want to write for the sake of it, but am interested to hear others opinions.

Adam

You cannot possibly be counting spaces. My essay was less than 1.5 pages single-spaced/12 font. I was just BARELY under the maximum.

 

[aamartin81]

You cannot possibly be counting spaces. My essay was less than 1.5 pages single-spaced/12 font. I was just BARELY under the maximum.

I typed it into Word, and when the document opens, it lists the approximate character length at the bottom. From there, I copied and pasted into the actual AMCAS application (I accidently established one for this year thinking it was correct) and it gave back the same thing, right around 3800.

I took the advice of some of the previous posts and elaborated on one activity which I enjoy and now have around 4300 characters at definitively a page and a half, if not more. I have returns between paragraphs (5 in total) so that is most likely leading to some discrepancy, but unless I no longer can read english (left to right, top to bottom? - ha!), my essay is correct in character length.

Adam

 

[BeatArmy]

I typed it into Word, and when the document opens, it lists the approximate character length at the bottom. From there, I copied and pasted into the actual AMCAS application (I accidently established one for this year thinking it was correct) and it gave back the same thing, right around 3800.

I took the advice of some of the previous posts and elaborated on one activity which I enjoy and now have around 4300 characters at definitively a page and a half, if not more. I have returns between paragraphs (5 in total) so that is most likely leading to some discrepancy, but unless I no longer can read english (left to right, top to bottom? - ha!), my essay is correct in character length.

Adam

The character count that comes up in Word at the bottom when you open a file does NOT include spaces. Go under the Tools menu and select word count and it will give you character counts with and without spaces.
Or don't, your choice, but i think your current count is wrong.

 

[aamartin81]

The character count that comes up in Word at the bottom when you open a file does NOT include spaces. Go under the Tools menu and select word count and it will give you character counts with and without spaces.
Or don't, your choice, but i think your current count is wrong.

I sit corrected (don't know how to spell tou-che...ha!). However, at a page and a half, my length is 5020 characters. Any ideas of why the essay, when copied and pasted into the AMCAS application, is giving the number exclusive of spaces?

Adam

 

[AF_PedsBoy]

If I had to read 300 personal statements I'd be pissed off by the people using the maximum!

 

[synapse lapse]

You cannot possibly be counting spaces. My essay was less than 1.5 pages single-spaced/12 font. I was just BARELY under the maximum.

Me too, mine was 5100 characters. Anyhow, if you feel you got what you wanted accross, then you are fine

 

[AxlxA]

Wow you're already done? i am still thinking of what to write about since i dont have many experiences to choose from. Any tips for a guy who is just starting now?

 

[Biscuit799]

A good rule of thumb is to keep it around 1 typed page (in MS Word). Adcoms want to hear what you have to say, but I think we can all agree that they'll appreciate getting to the point w/o being overly wordy.

 

[rme04]

"but your goal is to add something on that'll make you stand out... and plus, it's only feb, u have 4 months to think of something else to put in ;-)"

and hey, maybe you'll get shot. apparently that gets you into Harvard these days.

-

 

[Homer Doughnuts]

I sit corrected (don't know how to spell tou-che...ha!). However, at a page and a half, my length is 5020 characters. Any ideas of why the essay, when copied and pasted into the AMCAS application, is giving the number exclusive of spaces?

Adam

Maybe you already figured this out but papers typed in word contain formatting spaces not visible to you but counted in the AMCAS application. This is why when you type a 5300 character essay in word and past it into the AMCAS app it won’t all fit. To get around this, paste it into NOTEPAD then save and re-open it pasting it into the AMCAS application. This will delete the formatting spaces allowing you to actually fit 5300 characters into the AMCAS application from word.

 

[crys20]

Mine is only 600 words but I think it's really good...And I think it will be a breath of fresh air for only the fact that it's short. Can you imagine reading all those? They all sound the same.