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I'm trying to gauge how long it generally takes to write a PS. Taking into account revisions, editing, etc.

I'd say a good month is perfect for writing a PS. Longer or shorter depending on if you know what you want to write about.

Took me about a month and a half, but there were probably several weeks off in there, plus waiting for emails back from family/friends I had asked to edit it.

It also will depend on your writing skills and how far your first draft is from a finished product. Complete re-writes are going to take longer than just tweaking.

2 days. Not even kidding.

An hour and a half to meet an EA deadline.

I brainstormed topics for a few days, wrote the bulk of my essay in a single sitting, let it sit for a few weeks, then came back to it and changed/tweaked a few things. I took another week or so to further tweak and to get it reviewed by a few people, and then I was done. So probably a little under a month, but only a few weeks of actively thinking about the essay.

beachbum wrote:I brainstormed topics for a few days, wrote the bulk of my essay in a single sitting, let it sit for a few weeks, then came back to it and changed/tweaked a few things. I took another week or so to further tweak and to get it reviewed by a few people, and then I was done. So probably a little under a month, but only a few weeks of actively thinking about the essay.

Something like this.
I wrote one version, edited it two times. Wrote a whole new version after some critiques, then edited it at least 6 times ... so initially about 3 weeks, but completely, probably 6-8

Varies. Some spend significant time thinking about specific themes & content, then write & revise over the course of a few days. Others compose & write more quickly, while some agonize over the process for weeks.

CanadianWolf wrote:Varies. Some spend significant time thinking about specific themes & content, then write & revise over the course of a few days. Others compose & write more quickly, while some agonize over the process for weeks.

TITCR

It took me several hours with a few minor changes afterward. The point is that it really depends on you and how you write. There's no objective measurement for how long it should take.

thanks for the responses, looks like I'll have to get started soon after then June LSAT!

beachbum wrote:I brainstormed topics for a few days, wrote the bulk of my essay in a single sitting, let it sit for a few weeks, then came back to it and changed/tweaked a few things. I took another week or so to further tweak and to get it reviewed by a few people, and then I was done. So probably a little under a month, but only a few weeks of actively thinking about the essay.

Do not make the mistake I did. Send your first app to your most desired school. I found that even after many edits, I could always tweak a word or two to make it better. I also found it best to have it read by people that know you well and people that do not. The ones that know me well, while they could not give constructive grammar advice, etc., could tell me, "This does not sound like you." Needless to say, we are not friends anymore but I did accept their sound advice.

Also, make sure your PS fits into the narrative of the application. If you tell a story about a professor, that professor should be a LOR. I mean what does it say if you had this great relationship with a professor and than do not get his/her recommend.

You could easily do it in a day or night if you have a decent editor available to you for that time.

But most of us aren't sitting there cranking it out so give yourself a month or so to slowly work on it.

I wrote a PS for three weeks thinking it was the right topic, but it took me forever bc I didn't have any passion in my topic. And just out of boredom and frustration, I just vomitted out a compeletely different PS on an unconventional topic. It took me about 20 minutes because I was just freewriting. And then I reread it and liked it a lot. I came back the next day and decided to keep it. And never looked back. lol I don't know if this will help you but just wanted to tell what happened to me.

cool story right?

2 days to write crap

~a month to turn it into something good.

I spent about a month and a half on mine, with three drafts. It's really important to read through advice on writing a good personal statement before beginning your first draft.

It took me about 3 weeks and maybe 20 revisions to get the personal statement to where I was happy with it. This includes scrapping the entire essay a few times and starting over ( kept it to the revison count). I started brainstorming what I would write on my days off from the LSAT study- but really dove head first after the OCtober exam. That way I was able to have everything ready to submit on the first day after I decided not to re take in december. I found it to be invaluable to post in the personal statement board and swap statements with other TLSers.

I took about 3 weeks.

Honestly I just used the one I wrote for a writing class. Wrote it in about 1-2 hours and my cycle went just fine.

I completely re-wrote it like 10 times over 2 months.

kublaikahn wrote: Also, make sure your PS fits into the narrative of the application. If you tell a story about a professor, that professor should be a LOR. I mean what does it say if you had this great relationship with a professor and than do not get his/her recommend.

I've spoken to a few people who have had great cycles and this has been a common theme, which is not talked about a lot on TLS. Your PS is a good opportunity to thread together a singular message that defines your application and makes all the other little parts fit into a bigger picture. This makes the PS a more difficult task, and thus would require a little more effort, but it seems like it is worth it.

Six hours over 2 days.

You can write a personal statement in as short as a day - but it will likely be crappy. I think it should take you about one to two months to truly self reflect and think through the message you want to get across in your statement. You should think about underlying themes and how you want to demonstrate that theme. Also, you want to give yourself enough time to hone several working drafts before you finish. I found it helpful to have professors/friends read through my statement drafts and give me their advice. Remember that the personal statement is the only component of your application where you are 100% in control of the outcome. Good luck!

Star
2006 Harvard Law School Grad

Around 3 weeks to brain storm and write extremely rough drafts until I came up with the theme, topic and general structure, then like a week of editing and revising

3 months - 3 versions - 15 drafts or so

Plan for about 10-20 drafts. Time is only a matter of what kind of worker you are. I thought about topics for about a month, but it took about a week (pulling 12 hour days while working full time) to actually write it. When I get an idea, I like to roll with it non-stop for a few, consecutive days.