<p>My main common app essay is 519 words right now. I can potentially trim it down to 500 words - I know the words that I can take out, but I feel they would make the essay weaker. Is 519 fine, or should I submit the 500 word version that I personally feel is slightly worse?</p>
<p>I’ve got the same problem, but from what I’ve been hearing it seems to be fine if you’re a bit(even a lot XD) over. I’m not 100% sure though :’(</p>
<p>From what I’ve been hearing, you should be absolutely fine. I’m at 801 words right now unfortunately, but from what I’ve been able to look up, if you can fit everything on one page with single-spaced size 12 Times New Roman font, then you should be good. Two pages if you’re double-spacing. Luckily, I fit that criteria perfectly. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s 19 extra words. One hopes college admission officers can use their time more wisely than to sit there and count out the exact number of words.</p>
<p>^ummm…sorry to tell you but 500 words does not mean whatever you can fit on one page. It means 500 words and any more would be considered a grace period</p>
<p>I definitely would NOT submit an 801 word essay. </p>
<p>“One hopes college admission officers can use their time more wisely than to sit there and count out the exact number of words.”</p>
<p>Yes they do use their time more wisely. The software colleges use to review apps will automatically bring up the word count.</p>
<p>I’m not saying I’m submitting an 801 word essay. I’m saying that from most of my research, talking to people on CC, and talking to someone I know who works in an admissions office, this is what I’ve come up with. I obviously still have a lot of editing to do, but you’ve got to be joking if you’re trying to tell the OP’er that 519 words isn’t going to fly in an application.</p>
<p>Oh ok haha I just didn’t want you submitting an 800 word essay thinking it would be fine </p>
<p>519 is definitely good, that’s actually the exact length of mine haha</p>
<p>Oh no. I’ve had to edit a lot of mine, which is kind of a drag because I really liked it, but I’m sure it’ll still work alright with the cutting. What would you say is the highest I can probably go, in your opinion?</p>
<p>A lot of people suggest no more than 600, but honestly I think it’s more about what you’ve actually written and whether or not what you’re saying requires that amount of words.</p>
<p>I’m doing my best to cut it down. I’ve managed to take out most redundancies and extraneous details or words, but the fact is, I really do seem to need more than 600 words to write an essay that I can be proud of, properly answers the topic, says something about me, and displays my writing ability. Mine won’t be 800 by the time I’m finished with it, but it’s still going to be quite long. I know it’ll fit on one page if single-spaced and two pages double-spaced, so it doesn’t look or really seem that long, but I’m still not quite sure what to do here.</p>
<p>I’m not sure whether I should keep cutting and risk missing some of the targets I listed above, or leave it and miss the mark of 500 words.</p>