personal statement question

[dentaldreams2021]

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[Charles_Darwin]

Hey guys,

I am working on my personal statement and I am hoping to submit today or tomorrow. I have a lot of things I want to say and I want to use my 4500 characters wisely, since we don't get a lot of room to elaborate on stuff in the professional experiences section (just 175 characters per activity).

Right now I have 7000+ characters and I am trying to cut it down hopefully without losing a lot of my content/main points.

My question is: Is it essential to have a conclusion paragraph? What are your thoughts on a conclusion paragraph? Did everyone include one in their personal statements?

Lastly, would there be a huge difference between a June 30th and July 1st e-submit date? I kind of wanted to have the June stamp. And be in one of the earlier batches. Thoughts?

Thank you! All feedback is appreciated 🙂

On my phone so don't have time to comment but there's no batches anymore so don't worry about the time stamp

 

[dentaldreams2021]

On my phone so don't have time to comment but there's no batches anymore so don't worry about the time stamp

There are no batches anymore? Could you please elaborate on that? 🙂 Thank you!

 

[dentaldreams2021]

Also one more thing about the personal statement - I didn't talk about any volunteer experiences because I don't have any :/ Will that put me at a disadvantage? I know a lot of schools like to see that you volunteered/helped the underserved but with shadowing, research, school, clubs, commuting etc I didn't have time. I plan to volunteer after my DAT though 🙂

I talked about my research, my initial motivation for dentistry, an anecdotal story with a patient when I was shadowing, my experience with dental technology, working with DentSim when I attended a dental school prep course, etc. Thoughts?

 

[okiedokeartichoke]

My "conclusion" was only 2 or 3 sentences long in a lil' paragraph of its own, but it tied my entire personal statement together because it brought the reader back to the point of my story. I don't believe a formal conclusion is necessary like in the formal essays you would write for school (i.e. 5-7 sentences, repeating the thesis statement, summarizing thoughts, specific --> broad, etc.). As long as you have something to at least tie your story together, even if it's 1 or 2 sentences, that should be fine. There's only so much space to use, so write wisely and concisely.

 

[FloorMatt]

I know of two people who got accepted to both columbia and stony brook (extremely competitive schools) and their personal statements were both well under 4500 characters. One of those people had 2800 characters and the other had 3500. I personally think that reading an essay that is the full 4500 would be really annoying to read as I would likely lose my attention if something was not interesting. Adcoms have to read hundreds of these. So if possible, I would say keep it concise and interesting. Just my opinion! mine is at 3500.

 

[DC206R]

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[Charles_Darwin]

I know of two people who got accepted to both columbia and stony brook (extremely competitive schools) and their personal statements were both well under 4500 characters. One of those people had 2800 characters and the other had 3500. I personally think that reading an essay that is the full 4500 would be really annoying to read as I would likely lose my attention if something was not interesting. Adcoms have to read hundreds of these. So if possible, I would say keep it concise and interesting. Just my opinion! mine is at 3500.

Anecdotal but I got into a super selective (18 people per year) program and out of the four required essays I only hit half of the maximum limit for one. The rest were like 25% of the limit.

But my ps is exactly 4.5k characters. It's not that I tried to make it hit 4.5k I spent a few months and 3 editing services to make it the best it possible could. In summary, I don't think it matters whether an essay is short or long as long as it's a really really good essay 🙂