personal statement 5300 characters, with or w/out spaces?

BU Medical Sciences

from then onto June 1st, I'm going to be working full time on the required internship for my program, as well as taking a full load of courses at school
I may very well be working over 40 hours per week in addition to school
school doesn't get out until June 15th for me b/c of the trimester schedule I'm on

so it's not like I'm writing my personal statement now for fun (believe me, I got better things to do), I'm doing it because I'm going to be very busy in terms of time once the new year starts, and figured I'd write it now while there is no school and I'm only working 50-60 hours a week

it might help knowing details before telling somebody to get a life, and I do have a life that I'm very happy with thank you.

Reactions: 1 user

Cat's Meow

Membership Revoked
Removed 10+ Year Member 15+ Year Member Joined Sep 21, 2004 Messages 800 Reaction score 0 cardsurgguy said:

It's not as early as it sounds.

I'm currently a grad student and am not in finals or classes now since I'm in the middle of a 6 week break I have until school starts again in the first few days of january

from then onto June 1st, I'm going to be working full time on the required internship for my program, as well as taking a full load of courses at school
I may very well be working over 40 hours per week in addition to school
school doesn't get out until June 15th for me b/c of the trimester schedule I'm on

so it's not like I'm writing my personal statement now for fun (believe me, I got better things to do), I'm doing it because I'm going to be very busy in terms of time once the new year starts, and figured I'd write it now while there is no school and I'm only working 50-60 hours a week

it might help knowing details before telling somebody to get a life, and I do have a life that I'm very happy with thank you.


For real. There are a lot of haters on these threads.

vikaskoth

BrownWave
10+ Year Member 7+ Year Member 15+ Year Member Joined Aug 12, 2004 Messages 462 Reaction score 0 cardsurgguy said:

I know this is early, since I'm applying in June, but I was curious

I know the personal statement is 5300 characters as it says in the pdf file that I downloaded from aamc's website

is that 5300 with or without spaces, since my initial one I is over 5300 with spaces and under without spaces


the limit is 5300 charac with spaces. However every time you hit return, or when you paste it into amcas moving from one line to the next counts as two characters. This is not counted the same way in Microsoft word. I had around 5280 with spaces according to Word, and was ready to submit it, but when i pasted it, the amcas count came out to 5320 something, so just make sure you paste it just to see how many charac are tacked on by their 2 charac return policy. I didn't put two spaces after periods, and had to quickly cut out longer words for shorter synonyms.

PhotoMD

Full Member
Verified Member Physician Faculty 15+ Year Member Joined Dec 1, 2004 Messages 460 Reaction score 1

My apologies, it was my fault to assume you were the typical ugrad with a lot of time on his hands. A lot of ugrads have blinders on where all they can see is the med school light at the end of the tunnel, forgetting why they are pursuing it in the first place. So again, sorry.

Cat's Meow

Membership Revoked
Removed 10+ Year Member 15+ Year Member Joined Sep 21, 2004 Messages 800 Reaction score 0 PhotoMD said:

My apologies, it was my fault to assume you were the typical ugrad with a lot of time on his hands. A lot of ugrads have blinders on where all they can see is the med school light at the end of the tunnel, forgetting why they are pursuing it in the first place. So again, sorry.

2tall

1K Member
20+ Year Member Joined Jan 2, 2004 Messages 1,952 Reaction score 6

there are always opportunities to be more concise when writing. cardsurg, cut out a sentence and you shouldn't have any problems next year.

5300 characters in ms word does not always equate to the space amcas provides.

and don't use a day - it comes out as a question mark for some reason. annoyed the heck outta me.

synapse lapse

tokyo robotic
20+ Year Member Joined Mar 14, 2003 Messages 1,671 Reaction score 3 Cat's Meow said: For real. There are a lot of haters on these threads.
I hate you.

manfood.com

Senior Member
10+ Year Member 15+ Year Member Joined Sep 10, 2004 Messages 232 Reaction score 0

I'm glad at least you apologized, but still who cares if he was an undergrad. He needed some help and some people gave him was some smart lip service. hope you get what you need man in regards to that personal statement.

DeterminedMD

Vacation time yet?
10+ Year Member 5+ Year Member 15+ Year Member Joined Nov 4, 2004 Messages 181 Reaction score 0

Just so you know for all those secondaries you will be sending out, when they say:

Characters=letters AND spaces included
Words=just the number of words

Cat's Meow

Membership Revoked
Removed 10+ Year Member 15+ Year Member Joined Sep 21, 2004 Messages 800 Reaction score 0 Alexander Pink said: I hate you.
I hope someone craps on your face

virilep

What can Brown do for u?
20+ Year Member Joined Feb 12, 2004 Messages 1,572 Reaction score 11

i think it's a good idea to start thinking about ur PS. start brainstorming ideas and stuff. but Vikas is right. i thought the PS was the hardest part of everything. except the MCAT obviously. but yeah. make sure like 3-4 ppl read it for content and grammar. gluck!

Homer Doughnuts

Homer Doughnuts
10+ Year Member 5+ Year Member 15+ Year Member Joined Dec 2, 2004 Messages 247 Reaction score 1 cardsurgguy said:

It's not as early as it sounds.

I'm currently a grad student and am not in finals or classes now since I'm in the middle of a 6 week break I have until school starts again in the first few days of january

from then onto June 1st, I'm going to be working full time on the required internship for my program, as well as taking a full load of courses at school
I may very well be working over 40 hours per week in addition to school
school doesn't get out until June 15th for me b/c of the trimester schedule I'm on

so it's not like I'm writing my personal statement now for fun (believe me, I got better things to do), I'm doing it because I'm going to be very busy in terms of time once the new year starts, and figured I'd write it now while there is no school and I'm only working 50-60 hours a week

it might help knowing details before telling somebody to get a life, and I do have a life that I'm very happy with thank you.


Turd alert, Turd alert.