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I'm wondering what the most liberal acceptable standards are for formatting.

I've noticed that a lot of people are saying 12pt font with 1" margins, but to me this seems pretty restrictive, and I have seen nothing even implying this on admissions websites. For instance Cornell states that it should be two pages and legible (no less than 10pt font). Many other schools don't even specify two pages, (e.g. Duke, Georgetown), and I have yet to see a single website that even mentions margin size.

I ask for your opinions NOT because I want to write in 6pt font with 0.09 margins, rather because I want to have one cohesive PS that I can send to various schools without breaking any of their rules.

As of now my general PS is 2 pages, 11pt Times Roman (note that this font is different from, and slightly smaller than, Times NEW Roman). My margins are 0.8 and my word count is 1240.

I guess that what I am specifically looking for are the answers to the following questions:

1. Is the format of my PS outlined above acceptable at all schools?

2. If not, what schools would find problems with it? (Inclusion of their explicitly stated guidelines would be super helpful)

Thanks you guys.

Blindc1rca wrote:I'm wondering what the most liberal acceptable standards are for formatting.

I've noticed that a lot of people are saying 12pt font with 1" margins, but to me this seems pretty restrictive, and I have seen nothing even implying this on admissions websites. For instance Cornell states that it should be two pages and legible (no less than 10pt font). Many other schools don't even specify two pages, (e.g. Duke, Georgetown), and I have yet to see a single website that even mentions margin size.

I ask for your opinions NOT because I want to write in 6pt font with 0.09 margins, rather because I want to have one cohesive PS that I can send to various schools without breaking any of their rules.

As of now my general PS is 2 pages, 11pt Times Roman (note that this font is different from, and slightly smaller than, Times NEW Roman). My margins are 0.8 and my word count is 1240.

I guess that what I am specifically looking for are the answers to the following questions:

1. Is the format of my PS outlined above acceptable at all schools?

2. If not, what schools would find problems with it? (Inclusion of their explicitly stated guidelines would be super helpful)

Thanks you guys.

Yeah, I haven't seen too many restrictions either. The general consensus on TLS seems to be contradicted by the general consensus among law schools which is that the text be legible. I take that to mean the text must be of a reasonable size and an easy-to-read font.

Michigan's application even says they don't care how long your PS is.
So, yes, there seems to be a lot of flexibility.
I cannot stand 12 pt. font, because I'm weird like that, and have every intention of sending my PS in 11 pt. font unless otherwise specified.

Blindc1rca wrote: 2. If not, what schools would find problems with it? (Inclusion of their explicitly stated guidelines would be super helpful)

UCLA specifically states 2pages 12pt font. That is the only one I know off the top of my head.

These people have to read PSs all day, every day. Brevity is a good thing.

In general, I think 1240 is too high of a word count. Even if you have a remarkable story to tell, it can probably be written more concisely

is this 2 pages double-spaced? i figured it was, but all the ps's i've been reading on here have been a lot longer than mine...

re-applicant wrote:is this 2 pages double-spaced? i figured it was, but all the ps's i've been reading on here have been a lot longer than mine...

Yes.

Is anyone leaving a space between paragraphs?