<p>Is that word count too long?</p>
<p>What is the average word count for the main essay on the commonapp?</p>
<p>Yeah that is too long.</p>
<p>Much too long.</p>
<p>are u sure?</p>
<p>im not gonna be penalized right?</p>
<p>If you cut your essay in half it will be a better essay. This is a fact.</p>
<p>Do you respect the Adcom's time? If you do, you won't send that overly long essay. You're setting yourself up for an auto-reject.</p>
<p>Way too long. The readers are going to be completely lost in your story and it will only end up hurting you. Slice it in half at least.</p>
<p>ive heard that 600 words is ideal. thats about 2 pages double spaced. not bad at all.
if youve written so much to begin with, it should be a breeze to condense it a little!</p>
<p>It won't be auto reject; its just way too long.</p>
<p>By the time adcom reads the last paragraph, he/she has already forgotten about your topic.</p>
<p>I think the 1300 word length is perfectly fine, if the topic can carry it and you've got a good narrative structure. Paring it by a third will almost certainly sharpen it. </p>
<p>In my successful ED application, my essay was 1500 words</p>
<p>The average length is probably around 600 words, but there is no limit set this year.</p>
<p>Cut it in half!</p>
<p>My daughter has an essay of similar length (for Johns Hopkins, they ask for 750-1000 words). Her common app is probably 900, which is probably typical this year, when there are no limits (from browsing CC I think essays are 650-900 on average). I saw them bot printed. The first is a page and a half (single-spaced but with spaces between paragraphs). The second looks just couple paragraphs longer. Hardly noticeable. She also has a single-page essay (I guess around 600, probably sorter than average). I do not think the longer ones take more time or effort to read. I would say 1300 is close to a reasonable limit.</p>
<p>Just because someone else got in somewhere with an extremely long essay doesn't mean that you should submit an extremely long essay. You have no idea whether they got in because of or in spite of their essay. They also may be an extraordinarily gifted writer.</p>
<p>If you are not an extraordinarily gifted writer, 1300 is way way way too long.</p>
<p>^^^ I think you're wrong.</p>
<p>BalletGirl, if you are going to give advice, you should give context. Explain what else you had going for you in getting admitted ED. Just saying you had a long essay and got in means nothing. You need to describe yourself fully, so people can understand that essay in context, if you think people should be following your example.</p>
<p>I've been cutting a 2200 essay down to <1400, and I've been told that length is acceptable by four schools. It's an issue of what you're writing about, and whether or not the topic warrants it. In my case, I have a weird "sort of" home schooled background that needs a pretty significant amount of explanation and context added to it.</p>
<p>Read it, and then read it again without certain sections. If it makes as much sense without the sections, you remove or restructure those sections. That's the way I'm going about it, anyway.</p>
<p>I'd cut, mine is 850 and trying to get it to 700-750
But it depends on the topic of your essay, obviously.
I'd say 550-650, maybe 700 is ideal.</p>
<p>So, I noticed that the essay section of the Princeton supplement to the Common App begins, "In addition to the 500-word essay you have written for the Common Application..."</p>
<p>Does that mean they expect your CA essay to be about 500 words, or is it fine as long as it's at least 500 words?</p>
<p>700-800 seems like the maximum...
you just have to make it short and concise
plus they have an additional information section
use that wisely
i mean 1300 sounds good if you have a lot to say and are a good writer but its risky
put yourself in the admissions officer's seat
reading 1300 word essays... it might hurt
if you can make them cling to that paper reading it then it might work
it has to be some sort of Stephen King novel or something
whatever works for yourself
just don't make it seem boring
usually when it's long it becomes boring</p>
<p>A Harvard rep came to visit my high school in the fall, and I talked to her about how the common application no longer sets a maximum word length to the personal essay. She was unaware that any such change had been made and encouraged that I produce an essay with a ballpark word count of 500 words. A reader of Harvard apps, she explained that the school receives so many applications and is especially concerned as to how it will process all of the apps under the time constraints of regular decision, as before they would read a bunch for early action.</p>
<p>Moral of the story: You can't go wrong in keeping it short and sweet; mine is around 650 words, which is plenty. A previous poster said Hopkins is looking for 750 - 1000 words: where did he/she get this figure and is it accurate? For their supplement, Hopkins asks for a "brief essay," which to me means something that is shorter than the common app's personal essay...any thoughts?</p>