VMCAS PS character limit problem

[amom427]

FYI for those whose PS is exactly 5000 characters I would check to make sure the end made it in the box. I read on VMCAS's forum that there was some sort of bug that only accepted 4990 characters of one person's PS. Here is what the admin of that site says when they asked for a solution:

This anomalie is caused by the verification process that the VMCAS system uses when counting characters. Although initial verifcation (character counts) are appearing to be under the 5000 character limit, the secondary verification is finding additional characters resulting in a character count over the limit. The only recommendation we have is to trim your personal statement by a few words, and continue to attempt to "save" the statment. Our apologies for this -- we are working to correct this verification issue for our next cycle.

So save your PS, then go back and double check it. And don't rely on the character count as my count was slightly different on VMCAS than on my Word program.

(I was going to post this in the applicant thread, but thought more people would benefit with it being a new thread.)

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[twelvetigers]

Something to consider doing if you are desperate to make it fit with what you have: try typing it all, from scratch, in the VMCAS box. Word can add extra hidden characters sometimes! You might get a few more letters and words in that way. Then, just copy what you've written, spell check it, and go back in to fix anything - don't paste from Word.

I haven't tried this to see if it works, but I remember someone mentioning it last year. And no, I'm not looking for the thread - just take my word for it.

 

[eventualeventer]

I pasted mine from Word and found that there were some extra spaces after the last sentence in each paragraph, so if anyone is at 5008 characters, go back and make sure you delete those. Also, if you (like me) were taught to double space after a period, use Word to search for " " (double space) and replace with " " (single space). You don't need the quotation marks, just put the cursor in the box and hit the space bar twice, then put it in the replace box and hit the space bar once, then hit "replace all". You should get enough for a few more words.