Order of a PhD application in the United States I am applying to biomedical science PhD programs and have been working on personal statements for a while now. Many of the programs seem to have a very similar lineup with how they want the statement to look. However, they're usually ordered around a little differently.

I've found that there's a very good flow to my statement by starting with what influenced me (e.g. school/past research/etc.), current interests/faculty I want to work, career goals, research XP, and a closing statement that's usually geared toward why the school is a good fit. While this structure always varies between schools, I feel it's best done in how I sort of described here. Every now and then, a school is like "tell us why you like the school, tell us research experiences, tell us what motivated you, then tell us faculty you want and what you learned from research." This is sometimes hard to follow and ends up making my statement structure awkward.

Is it okay to not answer the personal statement points always in the order that they list the "points to consider including?"

Thanks
Does it look something like the following?

Please include information on

motivation
experience
Why this school?
...


If yes, I wouldn't worry about the order.
If, on the other hand, it is more like

Please include the following information in that order:

motivation
experience
Why this school?
...


then of course you should do that. However, I think it is rather uncommon to demand a fixed order, are you sure they want that?