The personal statement is essential to the success of any application for a medical residency, fellowship, master's, PhD, law or other graduate program. And it requires a lot more than simply being a good essay.
Medical Fellowship
Medical Residency
Medical School
Law
Dentistry
Nursing
Physician Assistant
Physical Therapy
Pharmacy
MBA
Veterinary School
Other Master & PhD
College/University
* As of June 1, 2023
Want expert, one-on-one guidance for developing your personal statement from scratch, only a few notes, or a draft you don't feel very confident about?
With PS Development, we work one-on-one with you to guide you in developing, revising, editing and proofreading your personal statement.
Step 1: The Consultation
For the consultation, we:
After the consultation, we send you a detailed outline with notes to serve as a guide for you to follow when composing the initial draft of your personal statement.
Step 2: Revision & Critique (up to 3 Rounds)
In each round of Revision & Critique, we:
First, evaluate and critique the content of your personal statement relative to the plan established in the consultation. If any of the content needs to be replaced and for all new content that is needed, we tell you specifically what needs to be written, and where and how to write it.
For all the other content, we revise and edit it for:
Step 3: Final Polish
In the Final Polish, we proofread the personal statement for any final adjustments to be made.
To provide a high-quality service to you, we ask you provide us with a copy of your CV/resume or ERAS application, as well as additional information (e.g., Step scores) depending on the program/specialty you’re applying for.
After the consultation, and after each round of revision & critique, you have 7 days to make adjustments to the personal statement and submit it for the next round. (Additional days may be purchased.)
Consultations are scheduled during our regular business hours. Total completion time averages 2 weeks with Normal Delivery and 1 week with Rush Delivery.
Total time to completion depends on your availability for the consultation and the time you take to prepare your personal statement for the next round.
Our business days are Monday-Friday (8:00 AM-5:00 PM CT). The cutoff for the next business day is midnight CT.
Want an expert review and editing of your already drafted personal statement to make it an outstanding one for your application?
With PS Revision & Critique, we tell you the exact improvements needed to make your personal statement successful.
Step 1: Revision & Critique (up to 4 Rounds)
In each round of Revision & Critique, we:
First, evaluate your personal statement for any content adjustments to be made. The evaluation provides specific feedback on:
For all content to be replaced or added, we tell you what needs to be written, and where and how to write it.
For all the other content, we revise, edit and proofread it for:
Step 2: Final Polish
In the Final Polish, we proofread the personal statement for any final adjustments to be made.
To provide a high-quality service to you, we ask you provide us with a copy of your CV/resume or ERAS application, as well as additional information (e.g., Step scores) depending on the program/specialty you’re applying for.
After each round of revision & critique, you have 7 days to make adjustments to the personal statement and submit it for the next round. (Additional days may be purchased.)
Total time to completion averages 2 weeks with Normal Delivery and 1 week with Rush Delivery.
Total time to completion depends on the time you take to prepare your personal statement for the next round.
Our business days are Monday-Friday (8:00 AM-5:00 PM CT). The cutoff for the next business day is midnight CT.
Want an expert evaluation of your personal statement?
With PS Evaluation, we provide a thorough assessment of your personal statement's strengths and weaknesses.
In our evaluation, we provide detailed feedback covering:
PS Evaluation does not include revision, editing or proofreading of your personal statement.
To provide a high-quality service to you, we ask you provide us with a copy of your CV/resume or ERAS application, as well as additional information (e.g., Step scores) depending on the program/specialty you’re applying for.
Turnaround time is 2 business days with Normal Delivery and 1 business day with Rush Delivery.
Our business days are Monday-Friday (8:00 AM-5:00 PM CT). The cutoff for the next business day is midnight CT.
Want light editing and proofreading to finalize your personal statement?
With PS Proofreading, we make the final adjustments to your personal statement to ready it for your application.
In our review, we make corrections to:
PS Proofreading does not include any feedback nor detailed editing or revision, including to improve the length of your personal statement.
To provide a high-quality service to you, we ask you provide us with a copy of your CV/resume or ERAS application, as well as additional information (e.g., Step scores) depending on the program/specialty you’re applying for.
Turnaround time is 2 business days with Normal Delivery and 1 business day with Rush Delivery.
Our business days are Monday-Friday (8:00 AM-5:00 PM CT). The cutoff for the next business day is midnight CT.
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Speak with one of our editors over the phone, by live chat or via email.
Everyone faces challenges, but not everyone overcomes them. We're experts in taking your "red flags" and turning them to your advantage.
< 650 Words Except for applicants for medical fellowship or certain Canadian medical residency programs, personal statements shorter than 650 words likely lack needed development or important content.
650-725 Words: For 95% of applicants, this is the target word count range. In certain situations (e.g., extensive relevant personal or career experiences needing to be included and/or red flags needing to be addressed), this word count can edge higher.
> 850 Words: In most cases, a personal statement longer than 850 words is too long. At a minimum, it most likely contains superfluous content and/or vague or verbose writing and needs to be edited to streamline the text and make it more engaging to read.
Specific Requirements: Of course, if the program you are applying for has a stated word count requirement, make sure to follow it. This can apply to personal statements written for everything from a college application to medical fellowship or a PhD.
1,200 Words: No matter the program you are applying for, if your personal statement has more than 1,200 words, it has too much content. Personal statements are not intended to tell your whole life story. Go back over it to remove irrelevant content or content that is of secondary priority until it is below this 1,200-word threshold.
We require personal statements to be under 1,200 words before being submitted for our services.
We do not write personal statements from scratch, but we do consult on, evaluate, revise, edit and proofread them as we guide you in writing yours brilliantly.
Not the best writer? Don't worry! No matter whether English is a second language or you simply have trouble writing, we will guide you in what needs to be written and how. And in our revisions, editing and proofreading, we'll help you with the English.
Absolutely! We offer professional Editing & Feedback and Proofreading services for CVs/resumes, ERAS applications, MSPEs, letters of recommendation (LORs), letters of intent/interest (LOIs), CaRMS CVs and the CaRMS application, cover letters, application essays, AMCAS work & activities and med school secondaries.
We also offer professional Application Review & Strategy and Interview Coaching services.
Yes! We guarantee that we will provide you with high-quality, affordable editing and proofreading services, and that we will finish our work by the due date and time we've promised.
We guarantee we will use our unique experience and expertise to help you achieve the most successful personal statement possible, and that we will not withhold any recommendation we see will improve the personal statement.
See our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee for additional details.
We've been in business since 2008.
Whether you’re just looking for a free instant quote or are ready to purchase our services, start with Get Started, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
Under Select Your Category, choose Personal Statements.
Next, select your project type (Personal Statement), program type (e.g., Medical Residency – U.S.) and service (e.g., PS Revision & Critique).
Now, depending on the service you have selected (PS Development does not require a file to be edited), upload your file to be edited, or skip uploading a file if you would like only a quote. The fee is a flat fee and the turnaround time displayed is for one round of the service.
To purchase a service, upload your file to be edited (for PS Development, uploading a file to be edited is optional), if you have not already done so, as well as your CV/resume (for applicants for medical residency in the U.S., you can upload your ERAS application in place of the CV/resume) and any other supporting documents (e.g., letters of recommendation).
We accept MS Word files for the file to be edited. We accept MS Word or PDF files for the requested CV/resume file and any additional supporting documents.
For each uploaded personal statement to be edited, provide the additional information requested (e.g., specialty for which it is intended, the particular program or region being targeted, and a unique name).
To finalize your quote, select Normal Delivery or Rush Delivery for your delivery option.
Confirm your quote. To order the service, ensure you have uploaded a file to be edited (optional for PS Development), provided the additional details requested for the file and uploaded your CV/resume and any other supporting documents; add any comments; check the box next to the client agreement and click Add to Cart.
If you would like to purchase additional services (e.g., for your CV/resume, ERAS Application or letter of recommendation), repeat the above for each service you wish to add to the cart.
Once you have added all the services you wish to purchase to the cart in Step 1, proceed with clicking Checkout.
In the checkout process, you will:
Log in to your account or create an account if you do not already have one.
Enter your goals for the service(s) you are purchasing.
Depending on the program type, provide additional relevant information (e.g., Step or COMLEX scores).
Verify the delivery dates for the service(s) in your order. If you are purchasing multiple services, you can customize the order in which we complete them.
Complete your payment for the deposit, which is the total order amount. We must receive the total fee up front before we begin our work. We accept credit/debit cards and PayPal.
As soon as we receive your deposit, we will start working on your order. While we are working on your order, the status will display as In Progress in My Account.
As soon as we have completed our review or our consultation notes, you will receive an email notification, and the status of your service will be updated in My Account. If there is a remainder due, your next step will be to pay it to receive your completed review or consultation notes.
Edited documents, evaluated documents and consultation notes are released once the total fee for the service(s) in your order has been paid. They are both sent by email and made available for download directly from My Account.
The email containing your completed review or consultation notes will provide the name and contact information of the editor or consultant who completed the service for you. It will provide a link to instructions on how to review our feedback and recommendations, including how to accept and reject track changes and to remove sidebar comments.
The email will also provide a link for submitting your personal statement for the next round of review, depending on the service you have selected.
Editor or consultant name and contact information along with the link for submitting for the next round of review will also be posted in My Account.
If after reviewing our recommendations or consultation notes you have questions about the suggestions we have made, please contact your editor or consultant directly by email. You may expect to receive a response to your email within 1 business day.
If after following up with your editor or consultant, you still have questions, feel free to email our editor in chief, David Lombardino.
We are passionate about helping you achieve your goals, and hope through our editing, evaluation or consultation and answering any follow-up questions we will have helped you get one more step closer to doing so. We are proud of the work we do and would love it if you shared your honest experiences, positive or negative, for future clients to see.
We partner with TrustPilot, a third-party review service that sends email invitations to leave a review to all verified customers a few days following completion of the service. We hope that if you have any concern remaining when you receive this invitation, you reach out to us first so we can address your concern, prior to leaving a review.
Our goal is a five-star experience for every customer, and we look forward to achieving this for you.
Kai Tubb, an IMG, talks about using DLA's services to overcome low Step scores and match into emergency medicine.
View more client interviews in Our Stories.Applying to multiple specialties or programs? Each personal statement after the first one gets a 50% discount when submitted for the same service. And they don't even have to be submitted at the same time to get the discount.
Get Started to see your fees and turnaround times for all your personal statements.
Whether you're an international medical graduate seeking to overcome cultural barriers, or someone seeking a competitive edge or who simply doesn't know where to start, we know what details are needed and how to get them right.
Still have questions? See a list of our frequently asked questions or give us br> a call at 877-454-4957.