<p>Hi,</p>
<p>On Stanford's website, the "long essay" (the one that must be answered for the Common App) can "not exceed the space provided, which is approximately the length of 1 page." However, on the Common App website, you upload the document with your personal statement. So, what exactly is the limit to the personal statement?</p>
<p>When you click the upload button, it tells you the limit, wihch isn’t pages but words, as I recall. You can always cancel, and after you’ve uploaded you can delete, so it’s not a problem to go through the process anytime to see what happens.</p>
<p>There is no limit to the personal statement. The only cue is the minimum 500 words. Apparently anything above that works. Most people aim between 600 and 700. As long as it is at least interesting to read, the length shouldn’t matter, in my opinion. Mine is long - 1000 words. It’s a quick read, and fun, so I’m not worried. If Stanford admissions reject me for the length of my essay, I will pee on Pine Drive.</p>
<p>I have not seen what the printed out Common App looks like yet, but when you are uploading your essay, it seems to look just like the word document you uploaded. So my guess would be that as long as it fits on one page, it’s fine (you can have it single-spaced, but use at least size 10 font).</p>
<p>The character count limit on the long essay in previous years used to be 4900 (including spaces), so you can use that as a rough guideline.</p>