<p>Hi guys! I'm applying RD for Rochester this yr. and I was wondering if the short answers on the Common App are mandatory (It doesn't have a star next to it so I wasn't sure...) Also, for the 'faculty, staff, students, etc.' question, what if you haven't visited/interviewed? Would that count against you during admissions?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure they're mandatory...and even if they aren't, I'd do 'em anyway.</p>
<p>I have a question to add: how short should the short answers be? I'm typing about 3 paragraphs (300 words) for each. Too long?</p>
<p>yeah they're mandatory.</p>
<p>Um I limited mine around there about 250 words, so it should be fine. They won't penalize for going a few words over.</p>
<p>My short answers were like 90 words each because the common app only lets u plug in 600 characters (including spaces). Originally, my response was about 300 words but i had to shorten it drastically! If you do go over on the supplement part, the program will cut your words off, so be careful!</p>
<p>I simply printed out the supp. app. I wrote down 'No one in my family goes or has gone to the University of Rochester.' or something to that effect. For the others, I wrote 'Please see attached sheet.' and had the short answers printed out from a word document. Not that long, they range in length, probably from 150 to 300 words or something.</p>
<p>So what if you haven't interviewed/visited and you don't know any alumni/students/faculty/staff, etc.? Would it count against you?</p>
<p>yeah, after I spent a couple hours crafting responses to the supplementary questions, when I copied and pasted a pop-up told me about the 600 character limit. Arg! I wish that had been in the directions! Anyway, yeah, I had to cut down my responses too...it's tough talking about importance of diversity in only 3 sentences, lol. </p>
<p>kinda annoying</p>
<p>No, et. Visiting and all can help you, but if you're qualified, it won't be used against you.</p>
<p>I had the EXACT same problem. I spent about an hour making these long-winded creative passages about the importance of diversity in society with all these pretty intros and whatnot... only to find you could only imput 600 words... </p>
<p>Now I feel like my short answers are inadequate, lol (they're only about 100-120 words each because of the char limit...)</p>
<p>yeah mine are maybe 100 words each..just typed whatever would fit...took maybe 15 mins</p>
<p>lol, i had the same problem too. >.< i had to cut so much. i wish i had printed the supplement and sent it by mail instead</p>
<p>0_0 I wrote a 500-word essay for the diversity one and started cutting it when I found out about the 600 character limit...but I think I saw after that you could continue it in the "more information" section right??? or did I read wrong??? :(</p>
<p>I just got accepted ED and my supplemental answers were 1 paragraph, 2 paragraphs, and 3 paragraphs. I emailed them to check on this to see if it was fine and they said yes, since these responses were important to them. So, if your essay is long, yet good, it will be to your advantage to write a long one. Just really be sure you are not putting in unecessary info because they won't appreciate having to read a long essay that could have been condensed.</p>
<p>Good luck everyone :)</p>