Shorter personal statement?

[ur2l8]

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Thoughts on having a shorter personal statement? I know we are allowed 5300 characters...Thoughts on having a 3000-3200 character statement? Would it hurt you? If so, what is the safe limit? 4500+? 5000+?

 

[tennisguitar]

As long as it's good, I don't think it will matter too much. However, it's a key opportunity to freely divulge the factors that have led you to this point and your ambitions, so that may take more words to do effectively. You need to strike a good balance, because having too ordinary a personal statement may bore the reader, but getting too creative can backfire too. Either way, it's just one component of the app, so don't lose too much sleep! Good luck!

 

[chillaxbro]

I honestly think that personal statements dont matter
5% of people will have exceptional PS that really stand out
90% of people will have the same ****
5% will write something that makes the adcoms reject them

Mine was the most generic piece of garbage, 3500 characters
Managed to snag 5 interviews (no acceptances tho)

I think you'll be fine as long as you don't do anything stupid

 

[ellesh]

Concise, but informative is the key, I think. My biggest piece of advice (that has been helpful personally) is to have someone like a premed advisor or medical student read through your essay and see if you make "Why medicine?" clear enough. If you can do that in 3500 characters, all the more power to ya!

 

[DaenarysDuhh]

I watched a few videos about how to right a PS and an adcom was saying that 5300 characters is kind of long, and he likes to see around 4000-4200 characters. At the end of the day, the quality of content and writing is far more important than character count, but you are leaving some space to advocate for yourself on the table!

Mine came out to 5299 characters after careful editing and review by me and 3 other people. Go figure.

 

[ur2l8]

I watched a few videos about how to right a PS and an adcom was saying that 5300 characters is kind of long, and he likes to see around 4000-4200 characters. At the end of the day, the quality of content and writing is far more important than character count, but you are leaving some space to advocate for yourself on the table!

Mine came out to 5299 characters after careful editing and review by me and 3 other people. Go figure.

Haha. Very nice....mine has gotten to be about 5300 as well. It's not very good...but with my 8 in VR, not surprised 😉

lulz thank you PS and BS on MCAT