Define "Brief"

College Essays
1

<p>I've been writing my "Why Swarthmore" essay today, and so far I think it's pretty good. I tell the reader exactly why I want to attend the school using very specific references to activities, programs, professors, courses from the website and people featured in the admissions DVD they sent me.</p>

<p>The only problem is, it's become quite long. Right now, I'm at the 2.5 page mark (double spaced). It's almost two if I 1.5 space it, and I still have to finish one paragraph and write a conclusion. This is after I've added a quarter inch to the top margins and bottom and an eighth to the sides. If I make it 11.5 sized Times New Roman, I come in at 2.3 pages. Currently, it's 866 words long.</p>

<p>On the CommonApp supplement, they ask me to write a "brief" statement--no page or word count limit. I tried judging it against the character limit for the text box below the "Upload Document Here" button. Mine is almost two and a half times too long.</p>

<p>Is my essay too long?</p>

2

<p>Yes :P</p>

<p>To me, "brief" would mean 250-300 words. </p>

<p>Maybe try and cut it down to a page?
Take out superfluous adverbs and prepositional phrases, and the paper should shrink significantly (unless youre a naturally succinct writer) without losing its content.</p>

3

<p>If I PM someone with it, could I get suggestions for how to shorten it up?</p>