<p>My essay is 750 words at the moment, and I don’t foresee being able to cut out 250 words. Is this a problem? How long are others’ essays?</p>
<p>mine's around 750 too, and im not changing it</p>
<p>Awesome. For some reason I'm thinking Brown won't mind...that much</p>
<p>If you can fit it on one page without making the font, spacing and margins too obnoxious, then you should be fine.</p>
<p>i prefer double-spacing, which should equal about 2 pages. a college admissions advisor from brown who visited my school said they're not counting (in fact, what college would). when they say 500 words, i assume it means 1 page single-spaced, 2 pages double spaced at most. she said, consider re-editing if u get onto a 3rd, 4th page.</p>
<p>That's a little long. Don't cut it down too much if you feel like it would really take away from your message, but have somebody look it over for you and see if you can cut out some wordy phrases or find more efficient ways to say things.</p>
<p>Iv'e actually just done some editing and gotten it down to 650. Do you think that's alright ILoveBrown?</p>
<p>That sounds a little more reasonable to me. It's Brown -- as long as it's a good essay and not ridiculously long, they're not going to penalize you. Just make sure it's interesting!</p>
<p>Mine's 860 ):</p>
<p>They know about how long you are writing. You dont have to adhere to the limit to the word but i wouldnt be going oer like three hundred and fifty words. that's a tad excessive. Chances are that your message has been diluted at that point and you need to be far more succinct.</p>
<p>Anything you think is beautfully done in 850 words can be done better in 600, almost certainly.</p>
<p>It's true that probably none of the adcoms would actually count the number of words you use, but after reading tons of essays from other students, don't you think they would know how long a proper 500 word essay would be?</p>
<p>StayGold,
I don't mean to be rude but I'm just wondering why you wouldn't want to give the adcoms what they have SPECIFICALLY asked for. To me, it does seem a bit presumptuous of you to assume that the 500 word guideline does not apply to you. Maybe you're a great writer and have some great things to say, but I think there is a lot of value in keeping the essay around 500 words. It seems more important to thoroughly edit/slash your essay and respect Brown's request. IMHO.</p>
<p>"I don't mean to be rude but..." I love when people start posts like that, because it almost always means it's gonna be rude. It's great. Anyways, you really have to look at the school, I know that the Brown application is big on personalization and adding things if you like, explantions, extra recs etc., so a few more words should be fine.</p>
<p>I did that too! YEAH!</p>
<p>I was told to get it down to a reasonable number. If they ask for 500 words, 860 is too long. Try to get it down-that's what makes it hard. Writing less is so hard since you have to say so much in such few words. I would try for 600-650 tops!</p>