Personal statement

[wander]

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What's the optimal lenght for your PS?

 

[MoosePilot]

What's the optimal lenght for your PS?

As long as it needs to be to cover what you want to say 🙂

Since it's the only chance you have to tell admissions who you are, use it all. Mine after multiple revisions was the maximum number of characters (which seems incredibly neurotic to me, but I didn't really intend it to be *exactly* max, just mostly fill up the space).

 

[wends]

it has to be max 5300 characters, with spaces included

 

[docmemi]

As long as it needs to be to cover what you want to say 🙂

Since it's the only chance you have to tell admissions who you are, use it all. Mine after multiple revisions was the maximum number of characters (which seems incredibly neurotic to me, but I didn't really intend it to be *exactly* max, just mostly fill up the space).

i like that answer!

 

[BassDominator]

About 1 page single spaced.

 

[MoosePilot]

If you're using Microsoft Word you can use Tools/Word Count to see how you're doing so far. Aim for the maximum or just slightly longer. It's always better to edit down than try to expand up, because expanding throws in redundancies and "fluff", which isn't likely to impress anyone.

I got a book, I think it's called "Essays that Work", that contains a bunch of essays different people have written that led to admission. It's good to get a feel for how far you can go and what tone you might think about using. It warns you in the book, but I'll reiterate, don't have a weak moment and think you can steal a bit of someone's great essay to make yours better. Not even a particularly good line, because I'm pretty sure ADCOMs have these books on their shelves and will notice quickly.

 

[ad_sharp]

Keep in mind that the adcoms will read thousands of these personal statements. If it is not very important, don't include it in your personal statement. Don't let wordiness leave a bad taste in their mouths because you feel like you need to fill the entire 5300 characters. Just include the things that make you stand out as an applicant. I've been reading many of the PSs for SDNers, and one of the major problems I see is that people want to be too wordy. Short concise sentence structure that is to the point is best. I'm tired of reading sentences that are 50 words long. Dependent clauses and compound sentences are often tiring to read. Use the punctuation to let the adcom's mind take a break every now and then. Hope this helps. gl.

 

[wander]

Thanks guys for all the inputs!!!

 

[bigdan]

ad sharp-
Great post. Karma if I could.
My first draft PS was around 8000 characters - everything I wanted to say. Then I molded and cut and whatnot.
I ended up with 5100 characters.
Good luck!

dc

 

[exilio]

Think of your personal statement as the preview version of your blockbuster summer movie.

You need to take all the exciting points and put them into a succinct and effective essay. Remember, the point of the essay is to grab their attention, just as movie producers want to excite the audience about their upcoming movie. Get the adcoms excited enough about your "preview" to want to see the main feature, you!