<p>How long is too long? I wrote an essay, and people love it, but it's around 900 words...I can cut it down to 700 or 800, but is that still too long?</p>
<p>As long as it fits comfortably to one page and keeps moving and doesn’t drag, just keep it at 800-900. </p>
<p>Harvard isn’t like Yale where they freak out about the word limit. Most people who I know who applied to Harvard, including me, had 700+ word essays for common app and harvard supplement. </p>
<p>If you can trim stuff that isn’t adding to your essay or isn’t integral to the meaning, then do so. But don’t cut out important stuff just for the sake of shaving off a few words.</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree with FlamingMango here and say 800-900 words is likely pushing the envelope when it comes to the supplementary essay. I’ve specifically asked my regional adcom if she had any expectations for the supp. essay and her response was the length should be “around as long as the CommonApp essay”. Your essay is over one and a half times longer than the CommonApp’s observed limit of 500 words – so I’d suggest doing everything within your power to shrink that word count. Now, I’m sure adcoms’ tolerance levels for lengths of essays will vary, but shortening probably isn’t a bad idea.</p>
<p>J.</p>
<p>I think <800 is a reasonable size, though. Closer to 700 is better, but I don’t think 750 is all that much too long. 850, probably all that much too long.</p>