<p>For the short essay:</p>
<p>"In the space available discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been most involved."</p>
<p>can you write a narrative? I mean like a story that shows how you came to realize the significance? Get it? What is the average length for that essay (word count)?</p>
<p>I honestly wouldn't overanalyze this section. The goal is for you to describe one significant experience you had while in high school. It is short (the one of the Common App is 150 words if I remember correctly). A little creativity is fine, but be careful of not obfuscating your activity.</p>
<p>I wrote a narrative and that should be fine. As for length, my essay was one side of a page, typed, size 10.5, and double spaced</p>
<p>I don't think word count matters. all it has to do is fit in the space provided hand written. Personally, I think a narrative is better just becuase its less straight forward</p>
<p>I think "making it less straight forward" is a really bad idea. You don't want the admissions counselors to try to interpret your essay in the two minutes they are reading it. In my personal opinion, the only people that try to obfuscate the EC essay is if you don't have the statistics or experiences to back it up. If you happen to have one of those ingredients, then use them instead of trying to put a smokescreen around your accomplishments.</p>
<p>To hec20008: this is your first post, so welcome! I'm not trying to be mean, but I think you might want to reconsider keeping it simple. As they say, K.I.S.S.</p>