UPENN Personal Statement Length

[wayouteast]

"Please try to limit your statement to two pages, double-spaced, as a suggested length"

I am having trouble cutting down my statement to two pages, right now it stretches a few lines into the third page, any additional lines removed lead to further issues. Is this an example of a HARD page limit? Or will it be fine to go slightly beyond the length "suggested"

Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

A suggestion is just a suggestion, wayout, but a suggestion from an admissions committee is one that should be ignored only under the gravest of circumstances. Clearly, one skill that UPenn values is brevity, so show them you have that skill in spades! Something in your personal statement should go, or should be conveyed in a more concise manner. Perhaps there is something in there that belongs instead in some sort of addendum? Can you say in 5 words what you have been saying with 10? Prioritize everything in there - make a list of what you really, really have to say, from most important to least, and then consider how to structure it so that you hit the key points in those two pages and then stop.

A suggestion is a suggestion, but considering that you are trying not just to impress them but also to please them, it's a suggestion that you should take. It's like when a judge suggests that you might want to reconsider a particular legal argument that you were starting to make. He may not be telling you that you can't do that, but he is telling you that you are going to lose if you stay on that path.

If you must, start over. Rethink everything, including not only what you want to say but, perhaps more importantly, what they want to hear. You say cutting leads to further issues? I say that means you have new opportunities to write a better personal statement.

You can do it, wayout! Good luck, and let us know how it goes.