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On the Common App, on the personal statement, it says that the essay is 250-500 words. I've revised and revised my essay, but I can't get it close to 500. I'm afraid that if I shorten it even more, I'll be taking away from the meaning. How important is sticking to the word limit?

By Bucephalus on Sunday, December 08, 2002 - 11:49 pm: Edit

My essay for the common application had 586 words and I kept it that way. I don't think admissions officers fret over the exact length too much. The 250-500 word limit is just given as an approximation so that kids don't write 10 page autobiographies. (My essay was 1 and three quarters of a page double spaced.)

By dotmom on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 - 05:29 pm: Edit

I read somewhere that the Common App will truncate anything over 500 words.

By duh on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 - 11:59 pm: Edit

you guys aren't being concise if you have problems meeting the length limit

By _0_ on Thursday, December 12, 2002 - 08:42 pm: Edit

And how will admissions officers do that dotmom? Count to the 500th word and completely disregard any that follow? I doubt it. Seems to me that that would be a serious waste of their time.

By asdfasfd on Thursday, December 12, 2002 - 08:49 pm: Edit

I'm not sure who said this, but some really famous writer opened a letter to one of his friends with, "I would have made it shorter, but I didn't have enough time."

By R on Friday, December 13, 2002 - 05:57 pm: Edit

Don't worry about word limit. It's crap, it really is. I've even read quotes by admissions counselors, "the guidelines are only for those who need them." Now, don't go sending in a 10 page novel of your life story, but I can safely say that if you keep it so that it can be read quickly and cleanly, there is no problem. My essay was about 1300 words, but literally took 3 minutes to read. Double spaced it was 4 pages. Looks like NYU didn't mind, cuz they accepted me.

Don't worry about it. It really doesn't matter =) (at least, for NYU it didn't. I don't know if its more strict at other schools).

Good luck.

-R

By jprin on Saturday, December 14, 2002 - 12:35 am: Edit

Thanks!

By Montreal on Sunday, December 15, 2002 - 02:37 am: Edit

Mine was 238 words... but i got deffered from Harvard, so don't take my advice!!!

By pãezinho on Saturday, December 28, 2002 - 07:48 pm: Edit

my essay is 1039 words! i tried to save it on the common app online... but it got cut in half..the textbox only fit around 639 words or something...1800 characters. I was SO nervous, but then I put the other half in the additional information section.