You all know I strongly advocate that you Aim for Zero. The basic premise is that those who aim to excel (to be a +1) often fall flat and end up being a liability (a -1). I heard one of our surgeons telling his resident a line that really stuck with me, “Better is the enemy of good.” The resident had done a perfectly fine job of dissecting out a mass. But they wanted to get it _even cleaner_ than it was. In doing so, they ended up tearing some important vessels which set it to bleeding. It wasn’t catastrophic- the patient did fine- but there was blood loss that was unnecessary. The resident had done a good job. They messed it up by trying to make it better.
I see this constantly. Novice researchers will take an idea that is good and then tack on a bunch of other ideas and bells and whistles to make it the “perfect research project”. Then it’s either too complicated to do the project, or they start it and something happens because of the additions, or the data is too complicated to analyze simply.
Students on the anesthesia rotation want all of their patient’s vital signs to be “perfect”. They want to normalize HR, normalize BP, normalize ETCO2, everything. The problem is, in trying to make one number perfect, you often upset another number. Rather than trying to make the patient’s BP to be 120/80, I ask them, “well, is it acceptable?” Yes, the BP is acceptable. But it could be better! Now they’re using inotropes to get the BP “normal” and the patient’s suffering tachycardia as a result.
Those applying to vet school suffer from this a lot. The competition is so fierce that they are trying to eke the last 1% of improvement out of their application. This is most obvious in the essays and letters of intent. Students have asked, “The essay has a word limit of 2000 and I’ve only used 1800! Is that OK?” I’ve also seen students who have written an essay and then revised and revised and gotten feedback and revised some more and are still unhappy with it. Why are you unhappy? Because you don’t think it’s “perfect”?
Here’s the problem: there is no such thing as perfect. Everyone evaluates applications in a subjective manner, because evaluators are human. I’ve done research studies which show that even experienced evaluators differ on what they think is a good essay. There is no perfect essay for all evaluators. Stop trying to make one. Is it good? Is it reasonable? Is it your own voice, and reflects who you are and what you think? Did you do SOME editing and make sure SOMEONE looked over it? Then you’re done.
Put down the pen, walk away from the keyboard. Don’t agonize over getting the perfect application. There is no such thing, and you have less control than you think over whether you get into vet school or get a certain position. Very qualified candidates don’t get selected and very unqualified ones do. It’s the nature of the world. Do what you can, but be content with good. Trying to make it better will likely only fall flat.