<p>is this okay?! :( it fit under the character count limit and i couldn't cut it down without losing the transition and flow of the essay. i think it reads relatively well despite the length but will adcoms be angry for me not being able to follow the word limit?</p>
<p>actually it's probably closer to 880-90 words.. crap</p>
<p>too late to worry now isnt it?. but im sure its fine.</p>
<p>I don't think it'll be THAT big of a problem, but its way longer than it should be.</p>
<p>yeah, but i'm planning on using this essay for some schools with jan. 15th deadlines so i'm wondering if i should try cutting it down and just risk losing the overall flow</p>
<p>They could read an extra essay with the time they spend reading yours.</p>
<p>lol mine was 620 words. i hope that's not too long!</p>
<p>i got accepted at a school where the word limit was 250 and my essay was 720. if thats any consolation. in fact, i received compliments on that essay. apparently it was so good and flowed so well it didnt matter. if its REALLY good, leave it. if not, and u can admit it, cut it.</p>
<p>yeah if it keeps the reader interested from beginning to end, i dont see why it's a problem. people get into harvard with 1000+ word essays (some are even boring)</p>
<p>I got accepted into a top school with a Commonapp essay that was around 650 words...it's probably not a great thing to do, but I guess it's not an automatic application-killer, lol!</p>
<p>870 is too long. It won't automatically kill your application, but it will lower the rating they give for the essay portion of your app.</p>
<p>mine's 670 :/</p>
<p>If it's good, it shouldn't matter. I used my Stanford long essay (a little over 800 words) for the common app and I'm confident that it's a good enough essay that it won't be shot down just because of its length. You've already sent it, so don't worry about it.</p>
<p>It says around 500 words. Is 870 around 500? No. There's your answer.</p>
<p>Why would they put a guideline if it were ok for people to just blatantly ignore it?</p>
<p>870 words shouldn't matter at all as long as you present yourself well. What I mean is that, the time adcoms spend reading your essay has to be worth its time. If they feel like they wasted several minutes of their life reading your essay, then that's not good. And if you have too many useless information, then that's not good either.</p>
<p>there is normally a way of cutting it down without losing the flow too much. I had an essay that was about 700 words and I had to cut it down to 500 for the common app. I lost a little section that didn't really fit and changed some wording, and it all worked out fine :) Don't stress about cutting it down for other apps.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It says around 500 words. Is 870 around 500? No. There's your answer.</p>
<p>Why would they put a guideline if it were ok for people to just blatantly ignore it?
[/quote]
It's a guideline set by the common app so students know what length to shoot for. Otherwise, people would be turning in essays from 100 to 1500 words. Colleges themselves didn't necessarily dictate the common app prompt.</p>
<p>If your essay is good then the admissions officer reading it won't notice that the word count is over the limit. However, I've heard that admissions officers just stop reading if it gets too tedious.</p>
<p>I would cut it down. I thought my common app essay was perfect at 1,500 words.</p>
<p>Second draft: 900. Nothing left to do. Done.
Fifth draft: 700. Hmmm.
Sixth draft: 550. Not the same 550, either - only 200-300 of the original 1500 remained.
Ninth draft: 497. Much better flow than at first. I got in.</p>
<p>If colleges didn't like the terms of the Common App essay, they wouldn't use it.</p>
<p>I think what we need is actual admission officers' input on this. You and I and Pat and Mike may each have a different opinion on this, but the opinion that counts is that of the person reading the essay. Also getting in with long essays doesn't necessarily mean the adcoms approved of the length; it might just be that the rest of the application was too strong.</p>
<p>It also depends on which college you're applying to. Some colleges have tighter policies than others (like Yale I guess).</p>