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how long is a refernece meant to be?

the teacher is going to make my reference about 1000 characters long. is that too short?

and how long should the personal statement be? i am aiming for the max length. is that good?
I would expect your teacher will be quite competent in writing references. I would let him or her get on with it. It will be as long or short as it takes to describe you to the universities.

Your PS, likewise, will be as long as it takes for you to make all your points, within the maximum limits of course. Don't be concerned about filling or leaving space. Just concentrate on getting your message across.

As in so many things in life, size isn't everything.
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Juno
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The length for the reference is the same as for the PS - 4000 characters or 47 lines. If your reference is substantially shorter than that, they might be missing things out.

But there isn't much you can do about it. You can ask for certain things to be included, but since you don't write it you have no control over it. So try not to worry, and concentrate on the things you can change.
Juno
The length for the reference is the same as for the PS - 4000 characters or 47 lines. If your reference is substantially shorter than that, they might be missing things out.

But there isn't much you can do about it. You can ask for certain things to be included, but since you don't write it you have no control over it. So try not to worry, and concentrate on the things you can change.


Agreed - though I know of lots of applicants whose teachers have written them a statement much shorter than 4000 characters, simply because the teachers don't have time to write 4000 characters for every pupil.

With regards to the Personal Statement, aim for 4000 characters. If you write significantly less than that, you run the risk of looking like you don't have all that much to say. On the other hand, if you're struggling to hit 4000, I'd absolutely advise you to ask someone (a PS helper, for example) if you've missed anything out, as you don't want to end up waffling too much either. :smile:
My reference came to just a paragraph over a page of A4 - although it was in a sans-serif font, size 14.

As long as your teacher includes all relevant detail, the length doesn't really matter :smile:
Mine was 2 pages of handwriting.. so probably pretty close to the limit.

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