personal statements/essays

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Hi friends,
I just started working on this. How many of you actually used a service to get it reviewed? Just curious.

No experience with a service. But, probably the best advice I could give is to be sincere in your PS. Everyone's going to have a different story to tell, but being honest and sincere is important, in my opinion.
 
If you just want it checked for grammer and puncuation, use documentbandit.com. If you need help with antual content there are several services, but as posted above, it needs to reflect YOU and only YOU. Good luck to you!
 
Thanks forthe responses.

I will write the essay myself but I will have someone check the grammar and structure. I guess I don't need a service for that. Anyone w/ a English degree can do it.
 
Thanks forthe responses.

I will write the essay myself but I will have someone check the grammar and structure. I guess I don't need a service for that. Anyone w/ a English degree can do it.

I don't have an English degree, but I do have a journalism degree. I've edited many papers for friends before. I wouldn't mind to check it over if you want -- I know how hard it is to get readers. So far, only one fellow SDNer was kind enough to read mine, although she did make some great suggestions.

PM me if you want me to read it.
IUgrad
 
Check out your school's writing center, they should have consultations for free.
 
Yes, my school does have writing help which I am currently using for a literature class. I will use them for the med school essay too.

IUGrad, thanks for offering to help!
 
I remember my AMCAS instructions told us NOT to cut and paste from a word processing program. So, I couldn't do an auto spell check.

There's NO excuse for this, but I didn't really have anyone critically proof read my application. Low and behold, I discovered (after the fact, mind you) that I had a few spelling errors.... NOT COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I spelled Jello, "gello".....lol I can't remember the other faux paus, but man...

Fortunately for me, I was still a successful applicant, but PLEASE don't make the same mistake as I did.
 
You can write it in Word and use the automatic spell checker, then save it as a plain text file, then open it in Text (TextEdit on macs) to make sure it's clean and cut and paste it in. The automatic spell checker won't catch usage errors, though - better to have a real person (or three) check it. My proofreaders ended up finding no spelling errors, but did point out some things that didn't make sense (themes I had mangled trying to get it down to the word limit!).
 
My sister used a service to help develop her essay, since she was completely stuck on how to start it. It worked out alright for her in the end. I wrote mine myself, but I had the help of every person I know who is smarter than I am. Everyone saw my essay and helped me rephrase unclear statements, identify where I was just spinning my wheels and not driving the story forward, work on transitions, etc.
 
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