Personal Statement Formatting

YesSarah

Okay I'm sure we've all been here. I finally got to a point where I was certain my PS couldn't get any better and then I found out the 2 page limit for schools is *double-spaced*. I eliminated quite a few things here and there to make it more concise but still have about 3 lines over. I've come up with a few ideas to get to 2 pages but don't want to do anything too risky. Here are my thoughts: eliminate space between paragraphs and indent, shorten space between paragraphs to a smaller font size (12 to 5), change the double-spacing to 1.9-spacing. What are your thoughts? Will anyone be able to tell?

Thanks in advance!

Maiiiiii

My advice from what I heard from my school's law advisor is to write the statement as best as you can without worrying about the length at first, then once you are done with it take it to a professional to proof read it and you will be surprised how much you can take out of your paper with out changing the meaning or content within it. She said to me that we as college student tend to be "wordy" so try that out if you haven't already! I hope this helps!

Good Luck!
Mai

David Busis

I'd be willing to wager my neat little "Admissions Editor" badge that you can meet the school's requirements and make your essay better by eliminating unnecessary words, phrases, and sentences. Try ignoring your essay for a day or two (so you can see it with fresh eyes), printing it out, and bracketing everything that doesn't seem totally necessary (which is easier, mentally, than just deleting).

I wrote a whole lesson on pruning words in the Admissions Starter course: https://7sage.com/lesson/eliminating-unnecessary-words/.

Good luck!

Sprinkles

@david.busis said:
I wrote a whole lesson on pruning words in the Admissions Starter course: https://7sage.com/lesson/eliminating-unnecessary-words/.

Beat me to it, David! This lesson helped me out tons and I was able to offer this advice to other people who have asked me to take a look at their PS

YesSarah

@david.busis I'll take a look. Thank you!

danielznelson

I definitely wouldn't try to cheat at all with the formatting. Even a slight difference could stand out among the hundreds of other personal statements. Whittling down is tough for sure. But you'd be surprised how much you can reduce just by rewording content. In other words, I imagine you'll be able to notably decrease your length without losing any idea you're hoping to convey.