Length of personal statement

Mona Olsen

My personal statement is of epic length. 2.5 A4's and a word count of 1600.
I've tried to edit it down, but my relevant work experience is using up a full page itself and I want to keep all that info in there.

Is it way to long?

paperclip2

Mona Olsen wrote: »

My personal statement is of epic length. 2.5 A4's and a word count of 1600.
I've tried to edit it down, but my relevant work experience is using up a full page itself and I want to keep all that info in there.

Is it way to long?

Hi Mona,

Yeah generally a personal statement is about an A4 typed page. If you are applying online then the colleges should get an idea of the breadth of your work experience from your info on the Employment field. The personal statement is to give colleges an insight into why you want to do the course, where your interest came from and how you developed it. Being able to be reflective and select the most pertinent information rather than producing a CV is preferred.

Mona Olsen

Thanks paperclip2. It's just I've done loads of volunteer work, and work shadowing, and I wanted make it clear that I know every aspect of the career path but talking about all those experiences. It's a hard course to get into (my 2nd try!) so I want to mention everything. My Cv is short as my professional history is not really that relevant, I've just expanded on skills etc in that rather than work history.
I guess I just have to keep editing and try to bring the work experience up in the interview.

paperclip2

Or expand your CV and put the volunteering and work shadowing in that maybe?

I'd think about picking the three or four best examples from your experience and focus on these with a good degree of detail rather than a long list. I don't know if you've done it already but if you spoke to someone on the course or who is working in the particular area you might get an insight into what aspects of your own experience to concentrate on in your statement.

Larianne

Hi Mona,

First of all, fair play for going at it again!

I would agree with Paperclip2. I would mention all that you have done but focus on one or two experiences describing briefly what you learnt from it.

1,600 words is quite long. I just checked my old PS and it was 865 words.

I'll send you a PM.

annacanna

ive run into HUGE problems

i am about to enter my personal statement in my CAO application but it will only allow 1000 letters. why is this?

im starting to panic as ive 600+ words and cant fit even 1 quater into that little space

Larianne

annacanna wrote: »

ive run into HUGE problems

i am about to enter my personal statement in my CAO application but it will only allow 1000 letters. why is this?

im starting to panic as ive 600+ words and cant fit even 1 quater into that little space

You are allowed to send supplementary documents with your application. Just write "see postal documents" in that section and send your PS via post. Make sure to state what section it belongs to along with your CAO number and name on each piece of paper you send off in the post.

annacanna

thanks

Mona Olsen

Larianne wrote: »

Hi Mona,

First of all, fair play for going at it again!

I would agree with Paperclip2. I would mention all that you have done but focus on one or two experiences describing briefly what you learnt from it.

1,600 words is quite long. I just checked my old PS and it was 865 words.

I'll send you a PM.

Thanks - am struggling with shortening it - but it has to be done!

Mona Olsen

annacanna wrote: »

ive run into HUGE problems

i am about to enter my personal statement in my CAO application but it will only allow 1000 letters. why is this?

im starting to panic as ive 600+ words and cant fit even 1 quater into that little space

As larianne said - you can submit it on a seperate sheet. There are no restrictions on the length but 600 words sounds fine.
http://www2.cao.ie/handbook/handbook/index.php
page 10 of the handbook explains supplementary documents.

Greenmachine

Just done a word contact on my CAO personal statement. 561 words seems fairly okay, from what others are saying. Now need to work on individual personal statements for the various institutes, I am applying too.
Was hard work narrowing everything down.