<p>The JHU brief essay is 250-500 from what I have heard.
Mine is approx 370</p>
<p>Though there is a little I'd like to add</p>
<p>On the JHU interactive forums (run by both admissions staff and students at JHU) there was a post by an admissions officer that said that the longer essay is typically between 750-1000 words (specific to JHU).</p>
<p>I am a little confused. The 750 - 1000 words is referring to either the common app personal essay, right? Hopkins requires either the common app essay or question 1 on their supplements, so should these be 750-1000 words? Or, should question 2, which is the question about what you wish to study at Hopkins, be this length?</p>
<p>My personal essay for the common app is 650 words. Is this okay?</p>
<p>I'm sure you've sat in a movie theatre thinking "they could have cut 20 minutes off this 2 hour movie." Though you probably also saw the end of a 2 and a half hour movie and felt sad it was over. The later one was really, really good. The first one was good, but could have been better if it was shorter. So, is your essay like the last one, or the first one? In general, essays, like performances, are seldom too short.</p>
<p>How about 700 words? Too long?</p>
<p>It really depends on the structure of your essay.</p>
<p>For example, if you have a narrative with a fair amount of dialogue -- especially if it's an extended metaphor or allegory to something -- then it might work.</p>
<p>UChicago says two pages for their essays -- and I wouldn't think it double-spaced.</p>
<p>I could have sworn the common app asks for a statement between 250 and 500 words, so when I submitted mine it was 494. If that was brief, seven schools didn't mind.</p>
<p>Remember what you learnt in AP Language and Composition, guys ...</p>
<p>Your audience and your platform of delivery is the greater consideration for what you must shave: an excessive word count is relative. It should not be rambling, and it should be elegant. If you can sound elegant with over 1,000 words, why not?</p>
<p>The question then is, "what is elegant?" Submit your paper to someone else and see what he thinks should be cut out.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I could have sworn the common app asks for a statement between 250 and 500 words, so when I submitted mine it was 494. If that was brief, seven schools didn't mind.
[/quote]
The Common App specifies a minimum of 250 words. It's really interesting (in a bad way) that the Common App has absolutely no guideline for it, and schools seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that there is no guideline when students submit applications to them. The Princeton thing mentioning 500 words that was posted just a few days ago was the first time I ever saw a guideline for the main, personal essay from any school which is why I'm scrambling to basically cut my essay in half.</p>
<p>It's an unfortunate lack of communication from the Common App people.</p>
<p>should common app essays be double spaced?</p>
<p>tetrishead, I think they may have changed it since I applied, because I definitely remember making sure mine was under 500, and there must have been a reason (i.e., i must have seen that number somewhere)</p>
<p>@Xeneise
Well the consensus I've seen in the other subforums is 500-600, with 800 kind of being a top-end, but after trading e-mails with Grinnell and talking to someone at Tufts the opinion I got basically boiled down to make it as long as it needs to be if it's conveying something that absolutely must be elaborated on, otherwise <1000 is a good guideline. I'm personally aiming for <1400, as I don't really expect to get mine below 1,000.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on where you're applying, too. I'd imagine someone in admissions at a huge state school would have a different opinion than someone in admissions at Whitman.</p>
<p>Mine's 1300 and I was deferred from Swarthmore, whatever that indicates.</p>
<p>I've been told that I have excellent writing. I'm trying to cut it down a little more, but...I think the reason there is no limit is that it completely depends upon what you want to say. Personally, I doubt I could really say something meaningful in 500 words, and I'd rather someone skim something longer that actually does make a point. </p>
<p>Mmm, I don't know. I'm inclined to think that word count is probably the LEAST significant element of an essay's quality.</p>
<p>The word count itself tells nothing, but the act of shortening a paper tends to make it read more concise and intentioned (Unless you shorten it too much)</p>
<p>I definitely think my common essay (500 words) was pretty good, though if I had no word limit it would be closer to 650. (Last year I wrote the common app essay thinking it had to be under 500 words) </p>
<p>I actually met with the Tufts admissions officer who read my application after I had been accepted, and she mentioned my essay as one of the stronger points of my application. Still feel a little bad I ended up not going there (I initially enrolled), but that is the waitlist for you.</p>
<p>The problem is that most people can't distance themselves enough from their writing to know what can be cut out. Self-editing is very difficult, and you may feel that a paragraph is absolutely essential because it says so much about you. It is definitely a good idea to get someone else to read your essay with the specific instructions that they point out the weakest parts, parts that can go.</p>
<p>Yeah, I included an anecdote in my essay which significantly lengthened it. But after having it read by someone, they said that it didn't really add anything. Cutting it out would make my essay a lot more concise and focused, but I still like that story so much that it's hard to take it out.</p>
<p>dilemmas</p>