Let's be honest:
Are you going to submit the same personal statement (except school names, of course) to all schools you will apply?

Let's be honest:
Are you going to submit the same personal statement (except school names, of course) to all schools you will apply?

if the schools allow the word limit up to around 1,200-1,300, I would use my 'main' SoP (= whole story, anecote, flowery words). That main story took around 60-70% of the total length, and I tailored the last 30-40% to appeal to a specific school. If the word limit was lower than 1,000, I rewrote the whole SoP (pretty much summing it up so that I could make it look tailored to the schools)

Also, what do you think about writing on general? Not specifically on an event, aspect, or skill.

Yes, for most schools, the narrative of my personal statement has stayed the same. However, I have changed the one paragraph and tailored that to each individual school and why I want to go there

Well, I think it's not a taboo to write a general SoP, if your credentials are great. I know someone whose SoP borderlined on boring, kinda like elaborating his CV in longer sentences. But he has good grades, great LoR, and internship exp at the UNESCO. He got admitted into Berkeley, UPenn, and other places but not the Top 5. Other than him, all the succesful applicants I know who got into the top 5 and other schools in T14 all chose to focus on one or two specific events and built up their story from them.

SoP is a tiring process

if the schools allow the word limit up to around 1,200-1,300, I would use my 'main' SoP (= whole story, anecote, flowery words). That main story took around 60-70% of the total length, and I tailored the last 30-40% to appeal to a specific school. If the word limit was lower than 1,000, I rewrote the whole SoP (pretty much summing it up so that I could make it look tailored to the schools)

I used very little from my SoP and focused on each school. It is just like a cover letter for a firm. Each school has a specific flavor so to speak and I adjusted my recipe accordingly. There is only 1 school I never heard from (don't know if I was denied or accepted and didn't care (it was in the T14 but I had better offers anyway).

Out of 10 of the top T14 schools I applied to, I was accepted at 9 of them. I spent the time to do it right for each school, except one I didn't have time for. You may only get one chance at this. Don't you want it to be your best? I could see if you were applying to a bunch of Tier 2 schools but in the upper echelon it deserves your best. Aren't you worth it???

I was also advised about such mathematical perfection regarding SoP. So I am just sharing my personal experience. Could be different for others. But I didn't follow any such advice. In one line I can sum it up: My all other applications are just a mirror reflection of Yale. And Columbia found it genuine enough to have offered a substantial fee waiver for now. The same people now tell me with ex-post facto rationalisation that my SoP was 'organic' and 'authentic'. I followed the simple rule to clearly articulate my career narrative. And ensured that I don't end up sounding stupid in the SoP. Because the committee consists of high achieving professors.

It really is hard to say exactly why any of us got accepted. Perhaps in 24's case his grades & LORs were outstanding and his SoP middling, or vice versa, or maybe all were great.

I knew in my case that my grades were top echelon and my LoRs would likely be the same. So I knew that to get into the best schools, I would have to be at least very good or excellent to make sure I was competitive with the rest of the applicants.

All I know is it all worked for me. I was offered very good scholarships at every school but SLS. They don't offer scholarships or tuition assistance for LLMs.