<p>In high school, we were taught to first spell out the acronym the first time we use it and put its acronym in parenthesis like so:
national basketball association (NBA)</p>
<p>and afterwards we can just use the acronym "NBA."</p>
<p>On SOP's, let's say I'm applying to a research program that is called ACES. Do I have to apply the above to the SOP and actually spell it out the first time or can I just use the acronym ACES every single time. Keep in mind, that the this is the name of the program I am applying for, so they definitely know what the acronym means. This is a trivial question, but I am very pressed by a strict maximum word limit, using the acronyms helps me save a few words.</p>