Really annoyed - UCAS saying my statement is 7 LINES over the limit!?

Hello,

Forgive me If I come across as a little agrivated. About a week ago I posted a thread asking why UCAS was saying my PS was 21 characters over the limit (when I knew it to be within the 4000 limit).

The general reaction was basically "UCAS is God," "just delete 21 characters," "don't get so worked up about it." So I go and delete 21 characters - now it's well within the 4000 character limit and is exactly 47 lines.

So I enter it into the UCAS form... and guess what. Thats right, they're telling me I'm now 7 LINES over the limit. I'm sorry but that is not true, I've tried calculating the lines by many different methods (not just word) and they're all within the limit. Besides, UCAS said the line number was fine before I deleted the 21 characters...

This had led me to conclude that there must be a glitch involved or something. Can anyone help?

This is ridiculous.

Thanks.

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Reply 1

JCM89

Life is nasty, brutish and short :dontknow:

Reply 2

tsxmitw

Thanks for your help.

Reply 3

EmersonDrain

I had this too - fiddled around a lot and eventually got a length that UCAS would accept but seemed a lot shorter than I'd calculated was okay. To add to the philosophical quotes: and so it goes...

Reply 4

angelmxxx

have you got gaps between paragraphs? cut them out

Reply 5

Bobifier

UCAS is God! Just go delete 7 lines, don't get so worked up about it :smile:

Reply 6

WiBurn

It's 47 UCAS lines. No other method outside of the UCAS input form will be 100% accurate.

Why did it tell you were over the character limit before and not the line limit? I'd guess the character limit is checked for first and not at the same time as the line limit which is a poor design choice by them but it seems that's just how it is.

Reply 7

wer343lit

You were probably over BOTH the character and the line limit beforehand. It told you to fix the characters, but fixing the character limit hasn't solved the problem of you being over the line limit.

Reply 8

headunderwater

Mine says I'm 7 lines over too, but then it lets me save it anyway, and when I click on "view all details" my whole statement shows up too. Is this right? Will the 7 lines be cut off?

Reply 9

tsxmitw

angelmxxx

have you got gaps between paragraphs? cut them out

In an English Personal Statement!? Sorry, no can do - I need structure and coherence, not a large block of intimidating text.

Reply 10

generalebriety

35mm_

Mine says I'm 7 lines over too, but then it lets me save it anyway, and when I click on "view all details" my whole statement shows up too. Is this right? Will the 7 lines be cut off?

Yes - you don't quite get a full A4 page for your statement.

Reply 11

headunderwater

generalebriety

Yes - you don't quite get a full A4 page for your statement.

Okay. Thanks :smile:

Reply 12

generalebriety

angelmxxx

have you got gaps between paragraphs? cut them out

What the hell? Don't do this.

Chances are that it just checked the number of characters first, found you were over and then didn't bother checking the number of lines. For what it's worth, people normally hit the line limit well before they hit the character limit. And if memory serves me correctly, it's 47 lines of at most 93 characters each or something.

Reply 13

beatleboar

No , your ridiculous.

Reply 14

matt1991

Yes it did that to me, too. First I would be x amount of lines over the line limit, only to find that once I had sorted it out, I was x number of characters over. In this instance UCAS is indeed 'god' so live with it lol :P

Reply 15

angelmxxx

Ok. Would you rather lose 7 LINES of your statement or not have gaps between paragraphs?

As long as your last line of each paragraph ends about half way across the screen and not at the end of the line, it won't look like a solid piece of text. I applied for history and english degrees and got offers, you are not going to be rejected for not leaving gaps between paragraphs when you have limited space.

Reply 16

tsxmitw

matt1991

I'm living with it unfortunately. My PS now looks pathetically small.

Reply 17

headunderwater

angelmxxx

You're underestimating the importance of presentation, even for a personal statement. I'm not saying you'll get outright rejected for not leaving lines inbetween paragraphs, but I would say if you can then most definitely do.

Reply 18

jaz_jaz

mine wouldn't fit :sad:

so I had to cut it down a little and stick paragraphs together.

Reply 19

matt1991

tsxmitw

I'm living with it unfortunately. My PS now looks pathetically small.

Don't get overheated about it; after all the point of the personal statement is to be only part of the assessment. If anything it is an exercise in being succinct and finding ways of expressing yourself within a limit.