<p>I am hearing two conflicting things on keeping the Common App main essay length to 500 words or less. While some college adcoms are saying that they don't want more than 500 words, some others say that 800 or so is okay. Also high school guidance counselors are advising that students that essays that go over the limit won't be dismissed if the essay is engaging and needs to tell the story beyond the word limit.</p>
<p>Who and what is correct?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>BTW, here is what the Common App says on its Web site:</p>
<p>Because the essay is an uploaded document, the online system cannot enforce a word count. Nonetheless, applicants are expected to adhere to the instructions specifying a range of 250-500 words. Since this essay must be uploaded, the file cannot exceed 500 KB in size and should be in .doc, .docx, .wpd, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .pdf, or .txt format.</p>
<p>On 1 August of this year, a CommonApp rep said that the word limit is “not a suggestion. It is a mandatory instruction.”</p>
<p>Another said, that keep the essay between 1 and 2 pages double-spaced and that it shouldn’t make a difference since words have different lengths.</p>
<p>A conundrum?</p>
<p>I’d also like to have a definitive answer to this question, though I don’t think there is one. It depends on the school, it depends on the admission officer reading the essay…there are obviously a lot of variables that might come into play.</p>
<p>However, I do think that one to two pages, double-spaced, is a good guideline. Will AO’s count every single word in your paper? Probably not…but an essay that goes on to a third and even fourth page might draw some unnecessary attention. I’m just going to keep mine as close to 500 words as possible, but not worry if I’m over by ten or fifteen.</p>
<p>Please refer to the guidance from the Common App Support Center that collegeparent quoted above: </p>
<p>“Because the essay is an uploaded document, the online system cannot enforce a word count. Nonetheless, applicants are expected to adhere to the instructions specifying a range of 250-500 words.”</p>
<p>This information is up-to-date, official and accurate.</p>
<p>I guess I am baffled a bit. The common app seems to cut off people’s sentences left and right in other areas such as the description of ECs. The title holds 44 spaces and the description holds 77. The short essay can be cut off. </p>
<p>But for the main essay, students are told they are expected to stay under 500 words which honestly, is quite a challenge even for adult experienced writers. The idea that since it is a pasted document it can’t be enforced is lame. </p>
<p>Require people all use one type of font eg times. Figure out how many 500 “W’s” or “M’s” (the largest letters) fill a screen and cut off pasted documents that exceed that size. </p>
<p>If the common app wants students to stay under 500 words then do something about it. Otherwise, it should be a guideline and over the next couple of years be phased in as mandatory once the common ap figures out how to enforce it.</p>
<p>I think some of the confusion stems from the Common App reverting to a 500 word limit after a 4 or so year “experiment” with a 500 word guideline (or no limit). When you ask students from last year’s graduating class about this, they of course tell you it’s just a guideline. Common App has done a poor job of explaining this change back to the way “things used to be”. Most of us don’t know how things used to be. And although the text used in the instructions is pretty clear, as pointed out by others, the way the essay is input into the application belies those instructions (see next paragraph).</p>
<p>Lakemom is correct in pointing out that other parts of the application restrict input and don’t let you advance in the application unless you comply with the space restriction, but the essay, being an uploaded document, cannot be enforced in the same manner. It would seem fairly easy to have a technical fix that would treat the essay like the rest of the application.</p>
<p>I put the question to an Ivy League school’s admissions department (or at least student representatives who serve on a help desk) that they gave a very practical, common sense answer: No admissions department has the time or cares to count words (although if they are reading it in Word format on their computer they should have that info readily available to them) and is not concerned about strictly enforcing a 500 word limit. Obviously, a 1000 word essay is going to be a problem unless it’s incredibly compelling.</p>
<p>My own thought, as with other parts of the application that students obsess over, is this: is an admissions officer going to deny admission to an otherwise qualified applicant who wrote a very good 550 word essay and is someone that he or she wants to admit merely on account of 50 extra words? The answer to that question has to be no. Only when Common App changes their software so that those 50 extra words are cut off could it even begin to affect the admissions process.</p>
<p>Finally, while I have done a fair amount of research on this rather inane question, and think I have reached a correct conclusion, I can’t say with complete certainty that I am 100% accurate.</p>