Personal Statement Lengths

[whereiscarmen]

Although most of my schools require 500 words, a few schools do not give length requirements.For one of these no length schools, I'm already at 1,000 words. I just hope it's not too much.

However, one of my schools requires 1,000-2,000 words. So can I assume that for schools without length requirements that 1,000-2,000 words would be okay too?

[jacib]

Although most of my schools require 500 words, a few schools do not give length requirements.For one of these no length schools, I'm already at 1,000 words. I just hope it's not too much.

However, one of my schools requires 1,000-2,000 words. So can I assume that for schools without length requirements that 1,000-2,000 words would be okay too?

I think for the ones that had no requirement, I tried to keep it close to 1000 words, even though one of my statements had a 2,500 word length limit. Some of them gave page limit instructions (2 to 3 pages). Mainly I did it by page length, and I tried to keep it from going on to the next page. I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem if it had gone on to the next page. I wanted to be sure I didn't start rambling... the first draft of my SoP was 3,000 words, then I had both my girlfriend and father read it and mark all the boring sections, because I knew not everything I wrote would be as interesting to any one other than me (they basically cut out most of the times when I went into too much detail).

Most of your schools were 500 words? Only one of mine was! That was the shortest and the hardest, because it meant cutting down a 1,000 word statement. Which size are you finding hardest?

[whereiscarmen]

At first I thought 1,000 words would be too hard, but now I think 500 is going to be the hardest. Somehow I have to figure out how to condense all of this important information into 500 words.

[fuzzylogician]

Even if there is no word limit, you don't want to write something so long that the committee won't want to read it. Try to keep it below 1,000 words or three pages, preferably two.

For the 500 word SOPs, I think the best approach is to choose your most important experiences and elaborate on them, rather than give less details about everything in your 1000 word essays.

Edited January 11, 2010 by fuzzylogician

[engwish]

OP: I, too, am starting my SoPs. For what it's worth, fuzzylogician and jacib are echoing everything I've been told by profs and graduate friends.

If it helps, some even offered some strict guidelines:

If it says 1000+ words, do 1000.

If it says 1000 words, do 750.

If it says 2-3 pages, do 2.

If it says 500 words, you better find the 500 best words on that messy Word doc!

That is, include only the most relevantly titillating information; I think it's a general rule that SoPs, especially the shorter ones, are largely used to judge an applicant's ability to whittle a surplus of information (like "your life") into its most pertinent essentials, and to present those essentials with insightful brevity. Anyone can do research, but few can identify and present their most salient findings in a concise and engaging manner, and it's that skill that'll help your app climb toward the top of the stack. Additionally, AdComs will certainly be reading loads of SoPs that not only reach their limits but even extend past them, so be assured that they'll be grateful to see that you know how to edit yourself.

For those unhelpful schools that didn't indicate any word or page counts, it never hurts to e-mail them. The onus is on them, not you, to set the parameters of the SoP, even if their intention is to see how you perform without guidelines.

[palindrome]

I am going to disagree slightly with some of the other posters. UC San Diego had no word limit (I wrote 1400 words, and I got a callback). Chicago's psych program specifically stated that the committee found that the best essays were around 1200 words.

There is no hard-and-fast rule. As long as your essay is engaging and there is no extraneous verbiage, it can be 1000+ words (so long as it's under the word limit)

Edited January 24, 2010 by palindrome

[sobolev]

Maybe it depends on the program too. I had no word limit, but mine was about 400 words.

[straightshooting]

I'm going to have to agree with palindrome. Excepting absurd lengths (1500+ words), if the intellectual bildung that you provide in personal statement is well-written and demonstrates that you are a highly qualified candidate, I have it on good authority that no committee member is even going to register that they've read a few hundred extra words. Certainly no one is going to actually count (submit in PDF if you're worried)! If cutting 100 words means that you don't get to discuss something that you deem important, then leave them! If you have a mediocre statement, of course, more length means more mediocrity--and no one likes that--but it's not the length that's the fundamental problem in that case, it's the mediocrity.

[chimerical]

I watched page limits more than word count and kept my SOPs to no more than two pages single-spaced. That ended up being approximately 1100 words. Trimming down SOPs is painful, but I really think most applicants should be able to manage around 1000 words. My initial draft was over 1500 words but I was able to cut it down without really sacrificing how much was actually said.