Personal Statement too long

[megrxgirl]

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my personal statement is 4,772 characters with spaces. Pharmcas limits you to 4500 characters with spaces. I feel that my statement is very good and do not want to remove anything. My statement is dbl spaced. should i change it to single spaced or should i just submit it like it is with 4,772 characters?

 

[Bluhappy102]

Do not send it in with 4,700 if they specifically ask for 4,500. This would reflect poorly on your ability to follow directions and many schools won't even review your application. I suggest you edit some of your sentences and cut it down...not necessarily changing the content in any way...use smaller words, less comas, switch some words around, cut out the unnecessary stuff..it can be done.

 

[megrxgirl]

Do not send it in with 4,700 if they specifically ask for 4,500. This would reflect poorly on your ability to follow directions and many schools won't even review your application. I suggest you edit some of your sentences and cut it down...not necessarily changing the content in any way...use smaller words, less comas, switch some words around, cut out the unnecessary stuff..it can be done.

I definitely will not send it with 4,772 characters. Do you think I should change it to single spaced, or is it inappropriate to send a single spaced essay?

 

[DHG]

I definitely will not send it with 4,772 characters. Do you think I should change it to single spaced, or is it inappropriate to send a single spaced essay?

It may not count each line as a character. I know I single spaced mine, but put an entire line between paragraphs, and adding those extra lines didn't effect the character count at all... Get out your snippers. If I could cut mine back from 5200, you can whittle off 272 words. Try paraphrasing longer words to shorter ones, cutting off some adjectives alltogether, and rephrasing long sentances.

 

[megrxgirl]

It may not count each line as a character. I know I single spaced mine, but put an entire line between paragraphs, and adding those extra lines didn't effect the character count at all... Get out your snippers. If I could cut mine back from 5200, you can whittle off 272 words. Try paraphrasing longer words to shorter ones, cutting off some adjectives alltogether, and rephrasing long sentances.

ok, thanks alot!

 

[megrxgirl]

just got finished shortening my ps. It is now 4,490 characters. lol! I am cutting it close.

 

[KUMoose]

just got finished shortening my ps. It is now 4,490 characters. lol! I am cutting it close.

Speaking of snippers, do you double space between sentences? It's something I got into because of my Comp 1 teacher and it's second nature to me now. It's also about 100-150 characters. Also since you're putting it into PharmCAS figure 4 characters per paragraph (for indentation purposes). It's annoying because that caused me to write bigger paragraphs rather then my normal style of a paragraph a completed thought.

 

[megrxgirl]

Speaking of snippers, do you double space between sentences? It's something I got into because of my Comp 1 teacher and it's second nature to me now. It's also about 100-150 characters. Also since you're putting it into PharmCAS figure 4 characters per paragraph (for indentation purposes). It's annoying because that caused me to write bigger paragraphs rather then my normal style of a paragraph a completed thought.

i didnt double space between sentences. are you saying microsoft word doesn't figure in the 4 characters per paragraph? do i need to reduce my statement more? excuse me if i am being anal i am just extremely nervous about submitting something wrong and having them throw my app. out over a stupid little mistake. lol

 

[blizz]

If you try submitting your ps into Pharmcas with 4490 it probably still won't let you submit it, I did that and it said I was over the limit even though Microsoft Word counted it as that much. Word doesn't count the spaces between paragraphs, but the PharmCAS thing does. Just try to copy/paste and save on PharmCAS and see if you're within the limit, and if you're not then keep snipping!!

 

[megrxgirl]

If you try submitting your ps into Pharmcas with 4490 it probably still won't let you submit it, I did that and it said I was over the limit even though Microsoft Word counted it as that much. Word doesn't count the spaces between paragraphs, but the PharmCAS thing does. Just try to copy/paste and save on PharmCAS and see if you're within the limit, and if you're not then keep snipping!!

i copied and pasted my essay into pharmcas and saved it. it didnt say i was over the limit. will it tell me now if im over the limit or will it tell me when i esubmit?

 

[megrxgirl]

i copied and pasted my essay into pharmcas and saved it. it didnt say i was over the limit. will it tell me now if im over the limit or will it tell me when i esubmit?

nevermind, pharmcas rejected it. time to get the scissors out AGAIN !!!

 

[DownonthePharm]

Have someone read your essay and have them pick out the parts that may seem like your restateing or using too many discriptives. When you write something yourself you tend to get attached to it, but someone else will be much more vicious with those sissors!

 

[RascalCA4Life]

my personal statement is 4,772 characters with spaces. Pharmcas limits you to 4500 characters with spaces. I feel that my statement is very good and do not want to remove anything. My statement is dbl spaced. should i change it to single spaced or should i just submit it like it is with 4,772 characters?

hey dude! when u copy and paste to pharmcas, it doesnt care if u are double space or not, it automatically has no space at all....ok? so chill

 

[PHARMDhope2b]

hey dude! when u copy and paste to pharmcas, it doesnt care if u are double space or not, it automatically has no space at all....ok? so chill

Yeah exactly, a lot of your formatting will just disappear when u put it into pharmcas. so just relax. it will all be mostly single spaced. The schools know this already. Just make sure that the content is good.