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My personal statement has 3 lines on the third page. Is this a problem? I feel like I've cut out everything I possibly can.

unattended bag wrote:My personal statement has 3 lines on the third page. Is this a problem? I feel like I've cut out everything I possibly can.

It is a problem, cut it down to two pages.

Edit: If you can't figure out where to cut out three lines, post it in the PS forum and ask for help. I'm sure someone will be able to help you tighten it up a bit.

Make damn sure you follow all instructions in the materials you send in. I don't care what you wrote in those 3 lines, it will not outweigh the fact that if you send it in they will know you are incapable of following an extremely basic instruction.

Gotcha. Do I need to put anything at the top of the page, or can I just start typing the statement on the top line?

unattended bag wrote:Gotcha. Do I need to put anything at the top of the page, or can I just start typing the statement on the top line?

Put "Personal Statement" at the top, and your last name and LSAC # in the upper right hand corner.

A lot of schools are OK with anything double spaced and up to three pages, it will only be a problem with schools such as UCLA that have a 12pt font 2pg (aprox 700wrds) limit.

esq wrote:A lot of schools are OK with anything double spaced and up to three pages, it will only be a problem with schools such as UCLA that have a 12pt font 2pg (aprox 700wrds) limit.

Ehh, lots of schools have 2 page limits: --LinkRemoved--.

Knockglock wrote:

esq wrote:A lot of schools are OK with anything double spaced and up to three pages, it will only be a problem with schools such as UCLA that have a 12pt font 2pg (aprox 700wrds) limit.

Ehh, lots of schools have 2 page limits: --LinkRemoved--.

You're right. Guess I have only hit two schools in that category so far, UT & UCLA. Great link too, thanks.

Don't go over at all. 3 lines on one page would look stupid anyhow.

esq wrote:

Knockglock wrote:

esq wrote:A lot of schools are OK with anything double spaced and up to three pages, it will only be a problem with schools such as UCLA that have a 12pt font 2pg (aprox 700wrds) limit.

Ehh, lots of schools have 2 page limits: --LinkRemoved--.

You're right. Guess I have only hit two schools in that category so far, UT & UCLA. Great link too, thanks.

NP. After looking it over, it seems that some schools word it as "about two pages" or "try to limit to two pages." So i'm not sure if that's a hard cut off, I think I would keep it under two pages no matter what. They have to read thousands of these, no one is so special in their eyes that they need more than 2 pages to write their PS.

Knockglock wrote:

esq wrote:

Knockglock wrote:

esq wrote:A lot of schools are OK with anything double spaced and up to three pages, it will only be a problem with schools such as UCLA that have a 12pt font 2pg (aprox 700wrds) limit.

Ehh, lots of schools have 2 page limits: --LinkRemoved--.

You're right. Guess I have only hit two schools in that category so far, UT & UCLA. Great link too, thanks.

NP. After looking it over, it seems that some schools word it as "about two pages" or "try to limit to two pages." So i'm not sure if that's a hard cut off, I think I would keep it under two pages no matter what. They have to read thousands of these, no one is so special in their eyes that they need more than 2 pages to write their PS.

Regardless, three lines on the last page reeks of poor editing. You can always cut enough to get rid of three lines.

blowhard wrote:

Knockglock wrote:

esq wrote:

Knockglock wrote: Ehh, lots of schools have 2 page limits: --LinkRemoved--.

You're right. Guess I have only hit two schools in that category so far, UT & UCLA. Great link too, thanks.

NP. After looking it over, it seems that some schools word it as "about two pages" or "try to limit to two pages." So i'm not sure if that's a hard cut off, I think I would keep it under two pages no matter what. They have to read thousands of these, no one is so special in their eyes that they need more than 2 pages to write their PS.

Regardless, three lines on the last page reeks of poor editing. You can always cut enough to get rid of three lines.

I agree, as I said in the above post, in the eyes of adcomms, who read thousands of these, no one is so special they need more than 2 pages to write their PS.

Regardless, three lines on the last page reeks of poor editing. You can always cut enough to get rid of three lines.

I'll agree with that one. I've made sure that with my 3pg PS' the only thing on the third page is a clear why _______ law school paragraph, but three sentences from a paragraph that couldn't fit is kinda tacky.

blowhard wrote:Regardless, three lines on the last page reeks of poor editing. You can always cut enough to get rid of three lines.

Not only that, but most people's writing (including my own) gets better if you throw out like half the piece.

Thanks everyone, I'll find a way to cut it down. And thanks for that link KnockGlock

You're all crazy. Mine was a bit longer and it made zero difference.

kmap wrote:You're all crazy. Mine was a bit longer and it made zero difference.

Personally, I think it's about risk-management here. Do you think the reward of including 3 additional sentences is worth the reward of those 3 additional sentences? I don't think it's even close. Follow directions to a T, you don't want to stick out in adcomms minds for not doing so.

I guarantee you can pare down 3 lines and it won't make your essay even a single degree worse. You might even make it better by tightening it up.

Knockglock wrote:

kmap wrote:You're all crazy. Mine was a bit longer and it made zero difference.

Personally, I think it's about risk-management here. Do you think the reward of including 3 additional sentences is worth the reward of those 3 additional sentences? I don't think it's even close. Follow directions to a T, you don't want to stick out in adcomms minds for not doing so.

I guarantee you can pare down 3 lines and it won't make your essay even a single degree worse. You might even make it better by tightening it up.

I think we all need to apply to liberal dose of common sense here. The 2-page limit isn't designed to test your anal-retentiveness; it's a handy way for them to keep people from sending them 300 pages of autobiographical drivel. It's not like if you use an extra 2 lines they're going to pitch your entire application in the trash bin. Everybody needs to stop being so literal!

kmap wrote:

Knockglock wrote:

kmap wrote:You're all crazy. Mine was a bit longer and it made zero difference.

Personally, I think it's about risk-management here. Do you think the reward of including 3 additional sentences is worth the reward of those 3 additional sentences? I don't think it's even close. Follow directions to a T, you don't want to stick out in adcomms minds for not doing so.

I guarantee you can pare down 3 lines and it won't make your essay even a single degree worse. You might even make it better by tightening it up.

I think we all need to apply to liberal dose of common sense here. The 2-page limit isn't designed to test your anal-retentiveness; it's a handy way for them to keep people from sending them 300 pages of autobiographical drivel. It's not like if you use an extra 2 lines they're going to pitch your entire application in the trash bin. Everybody needs to stop being so literal!

Yeah, but I think 99% of the time you can cut out 2 lines without having it affect the strength of your essay. One of the schools necessary for the legal profession is conciseness. There's a difference between 2.2 pages with .2 pages of fluff, and there's another with 2.2 pages of absolutely tight, concise writing, where nothing can be taking out with weakening the essay.

Plus, if you think about it in risk/reward terms, is it really worth the extra risk. I doubt those 2 lines are what makes your essay.

Edit: I kind of think of it as a respect/humility issue. Adcomms read thousands of these. Do I really think I am so much more special thank everyone else that my story is so unique that I need to have a longer essay than anyone else? Most people don't need to go over 2 pages. There are definitely exceptions, but for the majority 2 pages is sufficient. Respect the adcomms time -- you want them to read and pay attention to every word so stay within their suggested limits. Plus, i'm sure schools' thoughts on the issue vary from school to school, and you can't really know which ones are okay and which ones treat a polite suggestion as something a little bit stronger.

kmap wrote:I think we all need to apply to liberal dose of common sense here. The 2-page limit isn't designed to test your anal-retentiveness; it's a handy way for them to keep people from sending them 300 pages of autobiographical drivel. It's not like if you use an extra 2 lines they're going to pitch your entire application in the trash bin. Everybody needs to stop being so literal!

It's also a way to measure how well you follow basic directions. If a school wants two pages and you give them more than two pages, that conveys to them that you don't respect the instructions. Even if they don't just pitch your application in the trash bin, you're still giving them something negative about you that's easily avoided by just editing down your PS. Given how competitive law school admissions are, common sense tells you that sticking within 2 pages is the correct response.

vanwinkle wrote:

kmap wrote:I think we all need to apply to liberal dose of common sense here. The 2-page limit isn't designed to test your anal-retentiveness; it's a handy way for them to keep people from sending them 300 pages of autobiographical drivel. It's not like if you use an extra 2 lines they're going to pitch your entire application in the trash bin. Everybody needs to stop being so literal!

It's also a way to measure how well you follow basic directions. If a school wants two pages and you give them more than two pages, that conveys to them that you don't respect the instructions. Even if they don't just pitch your application in the trash bin, you're still giving them something negative about you that's easily avoided by just editing down your PS. Given how competitive law school admissions are, common sense tells you that sticking within 2 pages is the correct response.

This.

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