Personal Statement Length

[erdoc123]

Hi,

I just wrote my personal statement and it is about 2 pages long single spaced! I know its too long of a length but do I really need to cut it down to 1 page? I feel like its a pretty good PS and I would hate to take parts of it out.

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[AlternateSome1]

Hi,

I just wrote my personal statement and it is about 2 pages long single spaced! I know its too long of a length but do I really need to cut it down to 1 page? I feel like its a pretty good PS and I would hate to take parts of it out.

Have some people take a look who are less biased (maybe not family unless you have some very objective family members) and see if they could cut anything out. Two pages is a lot to sift through when you are dealing with hundreds of applications.

 

[Law2Doc]

Two pages is a lot to sift through when you are dealing with hundreds of applications.

Yeah, the consensus seems to be that program directors are going to want something that is 1 page long at most. Word of mouth is that something in the 750 word range is ideal, but I haven't seen a hard and fast rule to that effect. You don't want to give your life story, just enough of it that they know your motivations and want to hear more at an interview. Given the amount of time they are likely going to spend on each one, brevity is key.

 

[jouneih]

my PS is in that 750word range, but when i go to print it out from ERAS, it comes out almost to a page and a half! That can't be right, can it? Also, the ERAS printout has the name I saved the PS as.. and I know that PD's can't see that... so is there anyway to print it out just as they'll be seeing it?

thanks!!!

 

[Nuriko]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=549543

 

[erdoc123]

Okay...so I've shortened it to 1.5 pages in new courtier 10 font.
Is that okay or is it still pushing it?

 

[Law2Doc]

Okay...so I've shortened it to 1.5 pages in new courtier 10 font.
Is that okay or is it still pushing it?

Still pushing it. Do a word count. Seriously, if you are over 800 words, then you are probably on the long side, according to the word on the street.

 

[erdoc123]

Should the Personal Statement be Justified or Left Aligned? Does it matter?

 

[fakin' the funk]

Should the Personal Statement be Justified or Left Aligned? Does it matter?

Have you read the instructions on ERAS or any of the posts about the way the PS appears in ERAS?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Should the Personal Statement be Justified or Left Aligned? Does it matter?

You have no control over formatting of your PS. It will be left aligned.

 

[Still Kickin]

You have no control over formatting of your PS. It will be left aligned.

Does anyone know if the program allows you to put words in boldface and/or italics for empahsis?

 

[missbonnie]

it just plain text. Read the ERAS guide....it has pretty clear instructions on how it works.

But basically after you save your final PS in word or whatever you use, you need to save it as a text file, then close it and re open it again (to really get rid of all the special formatting).

It saves in the ugly courier font. And I personally found the spacing to be off too. Like 2 spaces between sentences is too much, 1 is plenty. And don't use tab to indent your paragraphes, just plan spaces. You can make these adjustments AFTER saving it as text only.

bonnie