<p>I was going to apply online, but now I’m wondering if I should, since I heard the CommonApp truncates anything that goes over the word limit. I know it would be simple to just not go over the limit, but to those of you who have applied online, what are your thoughts? Did you feel you had freedom to elaborate on your answers (some apps that I used left me barely any room to talk about stuff like employment, my extra curriculars, awards, etc.).</p>
<p>the common app does not cut off essays that are over the word limit. mine was about 520 words and it still showed up on print preview. as far as I know, colleges saw the full version of the essay. if you want to make sure, put your current essay in and check print preview, since that's what's sent to colleges.</p>
<p>I applied online, but I had some problems when pasting my essay into their window (it didn't like things like apostrophes and quotation marks), so I had to send that in separately. I was thinking about sending in the whole thing via mail (I didn't realize what the common app site did until after I submitted the essay), but I managed to cut my essay to 500 words with relative ease, so I didn't bother.</p>
<p>Online applications in general, I find to be very very restricting. They're often riddiled with silly javascripts and try to validate data client side (a big no no). The only one I've seen that is actually good is MIT's online app, but then again they made it of course, all these others are companies selling their services to colleges, often the people making the online apps known nothing of college anyway. For example, on the the online harvard supplement, the AP section doesn't even give me enough room to enter Computer Science (I had to settle for Comp Sci.) not a big deal, but not a big deal to fix either. Online apps have a long way to go I'd say.</p>
<p>i agree with frank</p>
<p>I agree with the person who agrees with frank.</p>
<p>i agree with everyone who agress with the person who agrees with frank.
princeton's online app isn't too bad either.</p>
<p>in defense of online apps:
1. the word limits aren't THAT annoying since you're supposed to stay within the limits anyway, and if you don't, then you're not following the rules. the only application that has been particularly annoying in this aspect is Columbia's, with 75 characters/line in some sections. in my experience, Harvard's online app (the CommonApp) is very forgiving.
2. you don't have to make trips to the post office, and you don't have to worry about your application getting lost in the mail.
3. you receive almost instantly an email from the college saying that they've received your app
4. if you have messy handwriting, colleges won't see it online
5. no wite-out necessary
I'm sure there's more, but that's just my two cents</p>
<p>I applied online. Didn't love it, but it worked. I thought the Yale supplement on the common app online was especially horrible.</p>
<p>Yale's Supplement wasn't atrocious.</p>
<p>You can always (for the common app) do it online, print it out, attach anything extra that you want--including an essay over 500 words--and mail it in. That's what I did for Harvard. This let me attach my comprehensive resume (which couldn't fit on the common app), as well as a supplementary recommendation and a sample article.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how strictly their restrictions are expected to be followed. I risked going beyond what they asked for as far as essay-length and such, and I got in. It really depends on if you wear out your welcome. If you do what I did, be very organized and sympathetic to the fact that you're running the risk of really, really getting on their nerves.</p>
<p>The Common App actually isn't terribly restrictive--I must say, though, that Columbia's online app made me want to tear my hair out. Penn's is eh. Brown's is pretty good (I appreciated being able to express my resume in essay-form). </p>
<p>But I enjoyed Harvard's, Yale's, NYU's, and P'ton's the most. Thank (enter deity of choice here) for the common app.</p>
<p>I did exactly the same thing you did, sax. I went well beyond the limitations on the essay and I got in also.</p>
<p>I like to put pen on paper and have something physically exist. Plus I have nice handwriting. ;)</p>
<p>can any one confirm that if the essay doesn't get truncated in the print preview online, the college will see the full version?</p>
<p>hzjames-What you get in the print preview is what the college gets.</p>
<p>My problem with the Yale supplement is that my EC essay (510 words?) somehow ended up taking more than a page and was truncated, so I had to print things out and do it by mail.</p>
<p>I hope everyone who is going above 500 words has done some serious, serious editing and made sure that they just can't live without those extra words. It's one thing to have a 510-word essay that could be, with thoughtful editing, 460 words. It's another thing to have a 550-word essay where every word counts.</p>
<p>If nothing else, the word limit (when followed strictly) should teach you to be concise. And that's not such a bad thing. ;-)</p>
<p>Yeahh I don't think they should have a strict character limit. Sometimes a 550 word paper can be read faster than a 470 word paper depending how how it's written. </p>
<p>I tried to use all short sentence structures, changed all the "do not" to "don't" all the would not to "wouldn't", it's still 20 words over.</p>
<p>Hm. That may help your word count, but contractions are weak. It's better, from a writing standpoint, to say "do not" rather than "don't," and "cannot" rather than "can't." It's not as casual.</p>