Personal Statement Word Limit

[kmeredithc]

Does anyone have any advice on how many words over it is acceptable to go on a personal statement? For example, one of the schools I'm applying to states that the personal statement should be an essay of "about 1000 words." I am currently at about 1300 words and can not get it any shorter for the life of me. Any thoughts?? Thanks!

 

 

[Gvh]

For me personally, I tried to follow the guidelines as much as possible, just as I would for any academic assignment. I also had a school state "about 1000 words" and I think that statement is around 1100 words. Another school explicitly states "must not exceed 750 characters with spaces", and I did not exceed it. I wouldn't push it either way, but if you're in doubt, email the admin assistant.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Gvh

[TKYU]

I would definitely email/call the admissions office just in case. You wouldn't want them to cut off the last 300 words from your SOP!

[kmeredithc]

Thank you both for your advice! I assume this applies to the number of pages too, in addition to the number of words.

[HermoineG]

I would not go over the word limit ever. They may think I choose to ignore their requirements or worse - didn't read their website!

[lewin]

1300 is too much for "about a thousand"; it's almost an extra single-space page! But I sympathize about the pain of letting go of words. I've probably had more practice, but just now I applied for a small grant and described the purpose, methods, and implications of two experiments in 800 words. So, a thousand should be plenty--you can do it.

Ask somebody objective to edit; second readers are better at seeing what's extra. 

Writing with brevity is something they're assessing with the statement, and a critical skill to develop for grad school because you'll always have word limits. Consider reading The Elements of Style, which is a classic, and has lots of advice on this. Famous line: "Make every word tell."