<p>If the instructions state that the essay should be approximately 500 words, how much longer can it be and still be considered acceptable?</p>
<p>Should my son use a font to make sure that all essays (ones that can be 700 words) fit on one page?</p>
<p>I don't know about the new rules, but my son wrote 10 apps, 9 saying no more than 500 words and one saying at least 500 words. His was exactly 500 word. Cutting back words usually=improvement.</p>
<p>If it gives a word limit but not a page limit, choose a font based on readability, not to fit on one page. Remember how many essays these adcoms have to slog through - they'll thank you for clear type!</p>
<p>Some colleges truncate the essay at a certain number of characters; some don't. My advice is just to follow the request. They want to see what kind of point can be made in 500 words. That's not a lot of words. So there is challenge right there. Good writing can get the job done in 400 words. So I would just stay within the parameters.</p>
<p>Good luck, and best wishes!</p>
<p>don't go over 750. it's no big deal if you go over. just be reasonable</p>
<p>One prompt for one of my son's supplements said no more than 100 characters! Talk about succinct.</p>
<p>Some schools enforce the 500 word limit, while some are flexible. Depends on the schools you apply to. Find out before you send. Even if the school allows longer essay, don't go more than 10% over the limit.</p>
<p>I think WashDadJr was always within 10%. My own opinion is that if you can't say it in 500 words, you can't say it in 600.</p>
<p>I've read one of the experienced college admission advisors here say don't go over l0%.</p>
<p>My kids were crazy madmen with the word-count device, playing with it until it read exactly 499 words. They felt safer that way! Since then I've read a few places saying "it's okay to go over a little bit."</p>
<p>Font faking won't work.</p>
<p>Here's a good thread with a good "editing" post:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=405636%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=405636</a></p>
<p>I wonder if the amount over that can be acceptable is related to the quality of the writing. That is, 550 words of painfully bad writing might be intolerable. 750 words of really enjoyable writing might be just fine.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. My son did edit his essay down but it is still 10% over. I am glad that two of the members posted that 10% over is acceptable since my son feels that he can not edit anymore without compromising his story.</p>
<p>Online college application programs that truncate the essay space do not distinguish between good and bad writing. It just gets cut off. You will know, I believe, if the program does this (you'll see it when you preview). I don't know how paper applications handle it. </p>
<p>LOL. My son had a 50 word "essay"! Most of his essays, when all was said and done, were under 300 words. He did several applications that asked four or five "short essay" questions (250 words or less).</p>
<p>I've always wondered if one of the reasons my son got into MIT was that his 500-word essay was exactly 500 words, and his three 100-word essays were exactly 100 words each. </p>
<p>My feeling is that the essay should be 450-500 words, because... no essay is that good when you have to read hundreds of them, back-to-back.</p>
<p>The essay in question is for one school. If the school rejects him for being 550 words, it was not meant to be.</p>
<p>Nj Mom: I totally agree; this discussion is ridiculous....A compelling essay that is 552 (or whatever) words, is not going to spell "rejection" when a so-called 550 word essay would be perfect.....Go with your gut...My d has the same idea as you; she is presenting herself as is, she refuses to change anything unless it is a glaring issue and says "if they don't want me, it's not because I wasn't myself, it's because it wasn't meant to be".......</p>
<p>NJMom.....I advise students on many essays and am in the thick of it now actually :). I also have two kids of my own attending selective colleges and they each wrote numerous app essays. I believe that the idea is to stay in the BALLPARK of what was asked. If a 500 word essay is the directions, then stay approximately within 10% of that....not much over 550. But if it is 560, it is not going to make a difference. What a 500 word essay needs to be is a one page essay single spaced, size 12 font. So, definitely try to keep about 550 words give or take some. Your son's essay at 550 is JUST FINE. An essay that asks for 500 words and is 700 OR over ONE PAGE, is not a good idea, in my view, no matter how good it is.</p>
<p>Soozievt: yes, absolutely stay about 10% within the limits of the numbers....We are definitely, however, receiving conflicting information regarding the spacing issue....It was my impression (possibly wrong) that it was personal preference whether to double space or to single space,with a double space in between paragraphs.....My d common app personal statement as of now is double spaced and appears to work well when read....Her school specific essays, however, she has chosen to single space with a double space between paragraphs....Given that we will now, supposedly, have the opportunity to amend the common app, do you think she should change the spacing of the personal statement (542 words) or it doesn't really matter? She has only send common app to EA school at this point....Thank you.....</p>
<p>I'm not positive if it matters but I prefer to see a one page essay and think that is the intent. That's what my advisees do and so did my kids. They write single spaced with double between paragraphs. I would stick with that. For high school, double space is nice as teachers comment on your paper and so forth. I think for college apps, it looks better to fit your essay on ONE page which I think is really the intent even though you are attaching the essay. I recall back when my kids applied, some apps had space on the app for the essay or let you attach it. The space was one page. So, I would keep it to one page. However, I doubt it is going to be a big problem if it is double spaced. I prefer the way I described and I do think that is the general intent. I'm sure personal preference is OK too. </p>
<p>I am not sure why your D's schools specific essays are single spaced but you don't want her personal essay to be single spaced. Why is it OK for one and not the other? Just curious. Is it that her essay would not fit on one page if single spaced? If that is the case, I feel her essay is too long. Oh, oops, I just reread that her essay is 542 words....which is FINE! My students would send that essay as single spaced with double between paragraphs. If your D was working with me, I'd have suggested that. Whether it truly makes any difference, I don't know. I don't see any benefit to the double spacing. They are USED to reading single spaced essays in fact.</p>
<p>EDIT...I just realized you are using an online app. It seems to me that online, in a text block, one should use single spacing. For instance, when I write up reports for students whom I interview for my alma mater for admissions, it is done online and I can't imagine double spacing the report in the online text block. I truly believe the intention is for a single space text.</p>
<p>Even our posts on CC are done that way, LOL.</p>