Will I get dinged for a 2pg PS if school allows up to 4pgs? Forum

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wintermutest

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Will I get dinged for a 2pg PS if school allows up to 4pgs?

Post by wintermutest » Fri Oct 26, 2018 3:49 pm

Hi all so hopefully my title made it clear that I'm not looking to have someone tell me that my 2.5pg PS will be fine for a 2pg max (I understand the importance of editing...and that's just annoying not to read directions).

But I am looking to hear people's thoughts on submitting a 2pg PS to schools that allow up to 4pgs (Berkeley comes to mind, I think UChicago is also 4 pg max). Is there the potential for them to ding me for perhaps not taking the opportunity to use up the full 4 pages? Numbers wise, I'm over the median for all and over the 75% for most schools I'm applying to, the PS just seems to be my biggest hurdle to jump at this point.

Thanks in advance :mrgreen:

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UVA2B

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Re: Will I get dinged for a 2pg PS if school allows up to 4pgs?

Post by UVA2B » Fri Oct 26, 2018 5:20 pm

If your PS demonstrates something interesting about you effectively, it won't matter if it's 2 pages, 3 pages, 4 pages, or anywhere in between. Give your application an interesting third dimension, regardless of length. I promise you that no admissions officer is counting page length, but they are reading the shorter, more interesting narrative and preferring it over the unnecessarily long PS that includes an attenuated "Why law" that is not at all related to their PS.

QContinuum

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Re: Will I get dinged for a 2pg PS if school allows up to 4pgs?

Post by QContinuum » Fri Oct 26, 2018 5:22 pm

No, I think quality is way more important than using up the maximum length. I used a one-page PS for all of my apps and did fine. (For some reason, I double-spaced my PS for some schools, bringing it up to two pages - can't recall if I did that to make the PS look longer!)

And remember, law schools (aside from Yale/Stanford) are very much numbers-driven. If you're above both 75ths, then you should be a shoo-in so long as you have a passable PS/LORs. You don't need to stress out about delivering a spectacular PS!

wintermutest

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Re: Will I get dinged for a 2pg PS if school allows up to 4pgs?

Post by wintermutest » Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:35 pm

QContinuum wrote:No, I think quality is way more important than using up the maximum length. I used a one-page PS for all of my apps and did fine. (For some reason, I double-spaced my PS for some schools, bringing it up to two pages - can't recall if I did that to make the PS look longer!)

And remember, law schools (aside from Yale/Stanford) are very much numbers-driven. If you're above both 75ths, then you should be a shoo-in so long as you have a passable PS/LORs. You don't need to stress out about delivering a spectacular PS!

QContinuum, once again you work your magic and my stress starts to melt away :lol: I think I've got a decent PS, and I expect my LORs to be pretty strong (one from a professor I took three courses with). I'll just stick with the concise 2pgs!

QContinuum

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Re: Will I get dinged for a 2pg PS if school allows up to 4pgs?

Post by QContinuum » Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:51 pm

wintermutest wrote:
QContinuum wrote:No, I think quality is way more important than using up the maximum length. I used a one-page PS for all of my apps and did fine. (For some reason, I double-spaced my PS for some schools, bringing it up to two pages - can't recall if I did that to make the PS look longer!)

And remember, law schools (aside from Yale/Stanford) are very much numbers-driven. If you're above both 75ths, then you should be a shoo-in so long as you have a passable PS/LORs. You don't need to stress out about delivering a spectacular PS!

QContinuum, once again you work your magic and my stress starts to melt away :lol: I think I've got a decent PS, and I expect my LORs to be pretty strong (one from a professor I took three courses with). I'll just stick with the concise 2pgs!
Haha happy to help! Best of luck. :)

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