How long did you spend on your PS?

[How much time did you spend writing your personal statement?]

How much time did you spend writing your personal statement?

1 night

 8 (10.3%)

1 day

 3 (3.8%)

1-7 days

 19 (24.4%)

8-14 days

 16 (20.5%)

1-2 months

 18 (23.1%)

3-4 months

 11 (14.1%)

5 or more months

 3 (3.8%)

Total Members Voted: 78

[marlinspike]

I'm just curious about how long people spent writing their personal statements. I know I only spent one day, and I did about 75% of it during that night (I'm making an allowance of not including time spent on brush ups made for individual schools). I wonder how much of an anomaly I am.

[LuvHurtz]

I took the LSAT in June. Basically I worked on all my essays from the day after the LSAT up until I sent off my first batch of apps in September. I went through about three personal statements and I don't know how many revisions. I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

[Oddibemcd]

I had a flight at 7:00pm on a Friday. Started applications at 9:00am on Friday, submitted them at 5:00, including my PS and all optional essays I did. In retrospect, probably not the best idea.

[marlinspike]

I had a flight at 7:00pm on a Friday. Started applications at 9:00am on Friday, submitted them at 5:00, including my PS and all optional essays I did. In retrospect, probably not the best idea.

Hah, you're about like me (that's one day though, not one night). I did my main optional essays the same time as doing my PS.

[.....]

I had a flight at 7:00pm on a Friday. Started applications at 9:00am on Friday, submitted them at 5:00, including my PS and all optional essays I did. In retrospect, probably not the best idea.

Hah, you're about like me (that's one day though, not one night). I did my main optional essays the same time as doing my PS.

I did them all over one weekend. One night on the PS, the next morning on the addenda.

[bamf]

I spent so long writing a PS that I never finished.  I gave up after two weeks and wrote the PS I used for all my apps in three days.

[DelDad]

About two months.  Most of a month was writers block that produced nothing good.  But the feedback I got from other people on the crappy drafts led to a good draft that I refined after more people gave me feedback and as I adapted it for various schools.

[dcforlife]

Depends on how it's defined, I suppose. I started writing a draft the summer of 2004... every few months, I'd revisit it or write a fresh one. By the time I got to actually applying, I had about 9 different ones, though the one I ultimately submitted I wrote in about two sittings - one to write, the other to touch up.

I was going to college part-time though, so it was a looooooooong wait to apply after realizing I wanted to go. Had to fill it with something

[Journeyman]

Started fretting about it in mid-October, and it was in the applications by late November.  Did about 3-4 drafts.

[annita]

Totally depends on how you define "spend." I started messing around with ideas in July and August. Drafted some paragraphs in October, then buckled down and wrote a full draft, had it read by two or three other people, revised, revised again, all over the course of about five days toward the end of November. Sent off three applications. Found a major typo, revised again, sent off three more applications. Made a few more tiny modifications before I sent off my last four apps in December.