How long did you take to write PS?

Tina Cho

Hey guys,
Just wondering...
On average, how many days did it take for you to write PS for each school?
I know people would say take days as many as you need, but I was just wondering...
Thanks

danielznelson

I poured dozens of hours into mine before having @david.busis tear it completely it to shreds. Once I had his help, I spent maybe five hours or so writing out my PS (and it was from the ground up, mind you). Frankly, I didn't know how to stylize my writing for law school statements and it showed both in my drafts and in the amount of time I spent working on them.

lawschoolstuff16

several months! I spoke with a lot of professors and classmates before hand who told me to plan on working on my personal statement for 6 months. I took 8 months to perfect all the essays I wrote, and I definitely think it was worth it and made all the difference for me.

Cant Get Right

It was about a three week process for me, but I always let my writing stew for a while before calling it done. Allowing for a little time after a draft can do wonders for your perspective on it. I also worked with @david.busis , and having his guidance really expedited the process and hugely improved the finished product.

sarahmelton6

I have been working on mine for months. I keep it in the back of my mind and work on it when I feel like it. I have several different drafts that emphasize different learning experiences. I thought I would be able to write my PS very easily, but I realized that it is a bigger task than I estimated. Kind of like the LSAT.

DumbHollywoodActor

Same here for @david.busis 's extraordinary ability to expedite the process. I toiled in personal statement no man's land for 4 weeks before finally deciding that I needed David. He helped me transform an unruly 7 page PS into a taught and much-improved 2-page PS in about 4 days. Between that and 7Sage, it's the best money I've ever spent.

EmmaWI88

I spent a long time on it. Had a lot of people look at it to give me advice and make it more concise. Best thing is to write out your main thesis or what you want to get across and then make sure each paragraph supports that. Then make sure each sentence plays a purpose. I mean it's a personal narrative but you need to have some kind of structure to it. For me, personal statements are very hard for me to write; for some, it's easier.

stgl1230

I probably spent upwards of 75 hours on mine. I think I restarted my PS from scratch like six times. It took me over a month - I started in early October and didn't finish it until early November when I submitted my first applications. And then I changed it some more after that, too.

stgl1230

Also, I started out by writing a general personal statement. Then I edited my PS for different schools instead of writing a complete different statement for each program.

Tina Cho

Thank you for all! This is very helpful.
It seems we need to allow ourselves plenty of time to write an essay---sounds like it is not essays in school at all!
Appreciate all of your answers

David Busis

Thanks @danielznelson, @DumbHollywoodActor and @"Cant Get Right". @"Tina Cho", I always tell people to push out drafts as quickly as possible. It's the time in between, when you evaluate what you've written and figure out how to hone your message, that matters most.