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Related Discussions
Help! When Schools don't specify word count on Personal Essays
vanessa fisher
Alum Member
Just had a question regarding writing personal statements and other essays. Any insight from others would be appreciated!
@"David.Busis" also if you have any time/interest to add thoughts.
I'm in the final stages of writing my applications for here in Canada, and I notice that some schools have word limits for their personal statements and optional essays. University of Toronto and Western for example have very clear-cut word count limits and topics to focus on.
There are other schools though that don't offer any word length limit that I can see. I'm struggling with the latter because I don't know how long to make the essay. I'm especially struggling with this for my Osgoode application because they have SOOO many factors that they say to include or potentially include in the personal statement, but no word limit. Should I err on the side of doing a shorter essay? or does the lack of word limit mean they want it to be super long? Based on all the factors they say could/should be included, I could make it a 10 page essay.
Thanks for any thoughts!
Comments
Hey I'm Canadian and applying to Canadian law schools as well! There is a character limit for Osgoode, once you go to submit it on OLSAS you'll see that it's split into two 2,000 character essays.
Hope that helps!
@apawalter
oh wow, I didn't see that at all, thanks! Do you know if there are any other Canadian schools that don't have word limits? Or do they all have defined word limits?
@"vanessa fisher" no problem! I believe they all have defined word limits/character limits, or at least all the schools I'm applying to do haha!
@apawalter ok good to know, thanks
I think my friend @evonne-alkhatib might know. Her and I have been talking about her applying to different Canadian schools!
Cool! I think for some reason OLSAS (the ontario lsac type site for applying to Ontario schools) doesn't give the full info for all the application details for each school, which is why I got a bit screwed up. I'll go back to all the school sites directly to double check.
@"vanessa fisher" once you log into OLSAS, click on "School Submissions". All of the schools you previously selected that you plan on applying to will appear, and then you have to click on each school for the complete list of requirements and you can see their word limit when you click on the personal statement stuff!
Hey @apawalter
so I did a bit more research and now I"m even more confused. I see what you are saying about the two 2,000 word essays as stated on OLSAS, but if you look on Osgoode's website for requirements they have a totally different set of criteria for essays. Specifically a 4,000 word essay and a 2,500 word essay. Check it out: http://www.osgoode.yorku.ca/programs/juris-doctor/jd-admissions/application-components/personal-statement/
maybe it is because on OLSAS they break up the 4,000 word essay into two 2,000 word essays? And then leave a 2,500 word optional essay? I don't really get the logic as writing one 4,000 word essay is different than writing two 2,000 word essays
Yes I had the same confusion for York and had my 4,000 one all ready and then had to re-work it to split it into the two 2,000 word ones! But I just went with what was said on OLSAS because ultimately that's where you submit it! But yes I don't get the logic either haha, it would be nice if they had the same information/were clearer!
just wanted to make it clear that it's 4000 and 2500 characters, not words. 4000 characters is about 600-700 words.
lol. i noticed the same thing yesterday i was about ready to plug everything and was hyped to do 6000 word PS, then when i looked at the submissions it was a character limit, and the PS is actually closer to 1000 words.
Queens is 6000
Ottawa is 8000
Western is 5000
It is closer to 600-1000 depending on which school.
so yes in Canada people it is CHARACTERS!
i wrote my draft in word and then pasted it into the characters to see if it fit.
@apawalter ok good to know I wasn't the only confused one!
Best luck to you all!
@MichaelTheArchAngel and @thisissparta yes I meant characters
@MichaelTheArchAngel I'm not seeing a word limit for the Uof Ottawa PS on the OLSAS website. Did you get that info from their school website?
also @apawalter (or anyone else), was just curious if you see any room to make addendum statements in Canadian applications? It seems to me that addendums aren't as much of a thing in Canada. Have you come to the same conclusion?
In OLSAS, under application links/ school submissions you click into the school and it shows all documents that you have to input. When clicking the Personal statement link it will show the limit. You have to click all the way up until submission there will be that box to enter and it has the maximum.
@"vanessa fisher"
best of luck.
update: i specified mature student in all my selections, except York (they dont have one)
http://lawstudents.ca/forums/topic/44053-tips-for-prospective-law-students-from-a-former-admissions-committee-member/
this post mentions some addendum tips.
@MichaelTheArchAngel
I actually saw that, some good tips! But it doesn't look like she mentions adding extra addendum essays (unless I missed that the first read through, which is possible). I think she is just saying you can include some statements about diversity etc in your PS
Hey @"vanessa fisher" I don't think there's addendum's in Canadian applications either! Although York (and a few other schools maybe) have an optional personal statement where you can talk about things like diversity/equity, which I guess is kind of like a diversity statement where you could also explain addendum type things!
@apawalter
cool that's what I thought. I'm just having a hard time fitting in all the info I want to with the limited amount of essays. I've been out of school 9 years, so just struggling with whether to even talk much about my undergrad and that I worked part-time etc., or that I grew up poor. I seem to be using the optional essays more to expand on what I want to do with my legal career because I'm a mature student and have done so many things in the last 9 years that I feel I need to draw a really direct thread through it all. Just hard to fit everything in!
@"vanessa fisher" yeah I totally get that, it's really hard to fit everything in! Good luck with everything though, you'll get it to where you want eventually!
@"vanessa fisher" Both Dalhousie and Windsor (Dual) program does not have a character limit, if you were still wondering which Canadian schools do not have a limit. That being said, I think it is still important to write concisely
@JDtobeeee thanks that is good to know. So far I'm only applying within Ontario and Alberta. I did consider Dalhousie but read some bad stuff on it on the law students forum about how it has gone down hill. You know much about that?
I actually had one other question for you all as I'm working on final touches for Ontario applications through OLSAS. I notice that some schools seem to want sketch/verifiers and not resumes, and others seem to want both. But I can't see anywhere in the applications where you can attach a resume. Is anyone else having this issue?
@apawalter @MichaelTheArchAngel @thisissparta
Hey @"vanessa fisher" I'm actually not sure what the answer on that is haha! For my application I just submitted resumes on my OLSAS application because it said that they would send them to the schools who required them, so I figured then I'd be safe either way haha!
@apawalter that was actually what I was wanting to know. Do you remember where on OLSAS that you uploaded your resume?
@"vanessa fisher" I can't remember exactly but I think it was near the end of the application on the tab where you could submit other documents as well!
@apawalter
Cool thanks!
From Ontario here! It's under the "SAM" tab in OLSAS. You can upload anything that's on the list there but I had thought that the sketch/verifiers portion was sort of a resume? Do we still attach one?
@BD
From what I understood looking over different school requirements is that some schools just take sketch/verifiers (Osgoode I believe) and others take sketch/verifiers and resumes (UofT), so yes do upload resume as well as doing sketch/verifiers!
Thanks for the heads up on the SAM tab, just getting home from work so will do that now!
No worries!
And okay, awesome - I'll upload mine just in case
Thank you!