<p>Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore your interests, intended major, or field of study.</p>
<p>How much of this essay is supposed to focus on the "Why Cornell" aspect of the question? I'm almost finished with mine and it's turning out to be 75% my interests, 25% why Cornell. Is this terribly imbalanced, or is it just what Cornell is looking for?</p>
<p>Also, how strict is the "500 words max" rule? Because I have one more paragraph to go in my essay and it's already at 480 words... Should I begin cutting down? At the rate I'm headed, I'm expecting an outcome of maybe 560 words. Too much?</p>
<p>well just as a reference mine was slightly over 700 and actually was the ONLY part of any of my applications that had a typo. (a whole sentance does NOT sound right via poor poor construction T_T...oh well)</p>
<p>but i digress...</p>
<p>in addition, you have about the same percentages as I, about a 1 to 3 ratio</p>
<p>I am NOT worried about my length because I kept it light and interesting. That's all you have to do. Take 400 words. Take 700. Its all the same as long as it is entertaining, easy to read, and answers the question.</p>
<p>my advice, from ED acceptee this year. If you can, make it 500 +/- 30 words. Your why cornell aspect needn't be a huge chunk of the essay. As long as it fits, its good. Be specific about the why part do, make it so that it doesn't look like a find/replace cornell with pton/harvard/cmu/stanford/wherever else you are applying. Wikipedia is a useful resource, so are the admissions blogs.</p>