<p>Does anyone remember the character limits for the personal essay, why columbia essay, and/or the engineering essay? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Mine was longer than the requirement and they had no qualms about it.</p>
<p>yeah, but doesn't it just cut the extra stuff if ur submitting the application online? either way, i'd personally prefer to stay as close to the limit as possible so if u happen to remember what it was, that would be totally awesome!</p>
<p>anyone else?</p>
<p>It's a suggested limit. It won't get cut off. Keep it in the range. It should be like a skirt, long enough to cover everything important but short enough to still be interesting.</p>
<p>The "why Columbia" section limits you to 300 characters (including spaces), and they recommended that the essay be between 250 and 500 words. I'm not sure about the SEAS part because I applied to the College, but I think it was longer than the "why Columbia". Hope that helps.</p>
<p>That does! Thanks.</p>
<p>The personal essay is just like a personal statement, right? Kind of like the common app essays.</p>
<p>^Yes, it is. You can even use the same essay that you used for the Common App, because the Columbia prompt is rather open-ended. I believe it asked you to write an "essay that conveys to the reader a sense of who you are." Something like that.</p>