<p>"Describe the courses of study and the unique characteristics of the University of Pennsylvania that most interest you. Why do these interests make you a good match for Penn?" is the topic description, but should we write according to that word for word, or is it actually a "Why do you want to go to Penn" essay?</p>
<p>What I mean is: when it says "why do these interests make you a good match for Penn?" is it asking specifically for why the school would want me, or can I literally write about why I want to attend?</p>
<p>how long is everyone's "why Penn" essay? 7900 characters seem pretty damn long if u ask me...right now i'm at 330 words - not even 2000 characters. i wonder who's really gonna right 7900 characters</p>
<p>bump.......................................................... how long is everyone's 'why penn' essay? mine's ~650 words, 3600 characters. that's awfully long right? or is the a good length?</p>
<p>yours cant be longer than mine as in if one word is added to it (obviously depending on the paragraph but if one line is added), its over 1 page</p>
<p>I was under the impression that it was 1 page for the Common Application print preview, which is more or less 7900 characters, or roughly 3 pages single spaced in Word.</p>
<p>I'm up to 6,484 characters and I'm not done...</p>
<p>its really vague whether its 1 page or 7900 characters for the Upenn essay.</p>
<p>a help section of commapp regarding the standard short answer section says that it is strongly suggested to keep it under 150 words, while the character limit is basically a guideline. </p>
<p>but in the Upenn case, the 1 page limit is vague, more so than the 150 words limit of the standard short answer Th.e character limit is precise, but may again just be a guideline.</p>
<p>either way the instructions suck. plus the upenn admissions office is closed until jan5. i think that they will not penalize people who kept it under 7900 characters, because they were following at least one set of directions.</p>
<p>As long as it fits in the 7500 char box, since they give you that option, it doesn't really matter. I do think that most people stick to the one page single spaced in Word format however. The most important thing would be to make sure your essay's not vastly generic and boring. If you can really elaborate on a few specifics for 7500 char then good for you.</p>
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[quote]
Describe the courses of study and the unique characteristics ... that most interest you.
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</p>
<p>Is it okay to focus more on the "unique characteristics" of Penn rather than specific "courses of study"? Because the latter isn't necessarily what sets Penn apart for me and catches my interest most...</p>
<p>That should be okay, depends on how your essay is formatted and how you write it I guess. For this to work imo though, you would need to be sure the unique characteristics are actually unique instead of something generic. Penn probably wants to see some detail in this essay, so mentioning specific courses can help. It really depends on how well of a writer you are. They don't expect you to know everything about the courses duh but they probably want to know where you want to go academically in the school. For my essay I had the first half talk about the research programs I liked and the second half I just talked about some cool traditions that only Penn had. But yeah, there's not set criteria for how much percentage weight you should give to either the courses of study or unique characteristics so its your choice which one you want to put emphasis on (do what comes naturally b/c its easier to write).</p>