Top Law Schools

2 pages is not enough! I have written and re-written this thing about 20 times and cannot, for the life of me, convey what I want to convey in an elegant manner within anything even close to 2 pages!

Then you aren't doing it right.

Post it here. People will be happy to cut it down. I've never, ever seen a PS that couldn't be effectively, if not more so, expressed in the 2 page limit.

This is what I did to cut mine down. Look for:

I believe, I feel, I think. Its a personal statement written by you they are your beliefs and feelings.

Look for the word has and have before a verb.

Anything that is an opinion.

the word also.

Try reversing the sentence structure some times this can help you take out three or four words.

Unless you are David Foster Wallace reincarnated, and possibly even then, your PS will be better at 2 pages than at 3 or more. Send me a draft, I love cutting things down.

OP, that is why you should post it on here to let us help you out. Or at least submit it to some professors who can take a look. The reason is, your essay will contain many words and phrases that are undoubtedly important to you because they stem from your experiences and resonate with you. But to someone who does not know you, those same words or phrases might seem hollow or excessive. It doesn't matter how YOU view the words on the page. All that matters is how an unbiased reader will view it on a cursory skimming.

If you can't cut your PS statement down to two pages, you will get owned in law school LRW and in life.

Also, OP, my personal statement was 2 and a half pages. I submitted that version to most schools. However, I made a shortened version for the schools that set the limit at 2 pages. And then there were some schools that required 500 and 600 word limits. Guess what? I took the same 2 and a half page essay and cut it down to a 500 word version. The exact same story told the exact same way, but without any fluff or fat. And it somehow maintained all of the important pieces. I assure you that you can get a 2 page version down.

A Little Fable

"Alas," said the mouse, "the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into." "You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up

-Kafka

quakeroats wrote:A Little Fable

"Alas," said the mouse, "the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into." "You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up

-Kafka

Das ist komisch.

BeachedBrit wrote:2 pages is not enough! I have written and re-written this thing about 20 times and cannot, for the life of me, convey what I want to convey in an elegant manner within anything even close to 2 pages!

Elegant = wordy and baroque?

Here's what you do:

BeachedBrit wrote:2 pages is not enough!I have written and re-written this thing about 20 times and cannot, for the life of me, convey what I want to convey in an elegant manner within anything even close to 2 pages!

HTH.

philosoraptor wrote:Here's what you do:

BeachedBrit wrote:2 pages is not enough!I have written and re-written this thing about 20 times and cannot, for the life of me, convey what I want to convey in an elegant manner within anything even close to 2 pages!

HTH.

WIN.

I learned in journalism classes that sometimes we'd have to "kill our darlings." I feel this way about most of my PS, but sometimes you just have to get rid of some parts that are special to you and no one else will give a crap about, to put it bluntly.

rayiner wrote:

philosoraptor wrote:Here's what you do:

BeachedBrit wrote:2 pages is not enough!I have written and re-written this thing about 20 times and cannot, for the life of me, convey what I want to convey in an elegant manner within anything even close to 2 pages!

HTH.

WIN.

+1,000

i just want to post in this thread because it has two instances of David Foster Wallace. and it's about long-windedness in writing.

that's special.

BeachedBrit wrote:2 pages is not enough! I have written and re-written this thing about 20 times and cannot, for the life of me, convey what I want to convey in an elegant manner within anything even close to 2 pages!

Then you need to change your mind about what you want to convey. Also, I guarantee that if you post it here, someone will be able to slash out most of the space-wasting crap for you.

you can post it and we could help you cut it down.

but you should do it yourself because if you can't be concise or recognize whats more important, then you're going to have an impossible time in law school/as a lawyer (you could probably be an academic, but you'll have to get through page limits on memos/exams to get that far)