Personal Statement - Line limit help

[Guest]

I've written what i think is a good personal statement, and its just in the character limit, but its over the line limit.

If i take out the spaces between paragraphs then its ok, so my question is - Do I submit it as one lump of text (paragraphs are generally marked by a line broken off early, but not a space), or do I try and remove four lines some how (even though i've already had to reduce the no. characters by about 800, and i think i'm getting pretty near to my limit).

It would be great if I could get some replies today because i want to have finished my application by Friday.....

Thanks.

[ijakings]

There's no easy answer - it's up to you! One unbroken piece of text looks ugly, is difficult to read and might put potential admissions tutors off your statement. On the other hand if it's a well written and interesting statement they might read it anyway.

I personally would try and keep the empty lines to break the paragraphs - presentation is important and the statistics say something like the average personal statement only gets about a minute in front of the admissions tutor so try and make it easy on them!

[affinity89]

The line limit doesn't matter.

So long as you are below around 4000 characters, the ucas form adapts the line length to suit. Mine was around 52 lines in Word, but is now 46 on the form.

Just experiment by pasting it in there and seeing the preview.

Good luck.