I'm with you, Hank. It took me maybe 3 hours to write the rough draft of my personal statement and I think it's pretty decent. Of course, I will make revisions, but I will not do school specific personal statements.
I don't understand how people can spend so much time on the PS. Mine was about 2 pages 11 font, and I don't think schools want more than this. Is it just me, or are people's personal statements very long in Anna Ivey's book? Penn, for instance, specifies two pages in length and some of the examples in that book must be upwards of 4.