<p>Ive heard conflicting opinions on essay length. We all know there is a suggested length on the common app essay of 250-500 words. However, is there a penalty for going over.... is it frowned upon? is going over common place when aplying to big name schools? mine is 803 words and i honestly feel nothing can be ommited.. if it must be shorter i will i have to chose another topic. it has no "wasted words" or ne thing</p>
<p>from what i've heard, its +- 150 words. so in other words 350-650 is acceptable. i think 800 is way too much. also many times, there are things that you can in fact edit out. i had an 800 word essay at first, but after going over it a few times i pared it down to 450.</p>
<p>ya know what, ill look at it if you want. maybe i can help edit it.</p>
<p>I have said this on here many times, but I will repeat it again. If your essay is high-quality and doesn't have extraneous material, I don't think you need to cut it short, especially for the top universities. So many people worry about word length rather than content, which is a mistake. My common application essay and my activities "short answer" were both 750-800 words, as were my supplementary essays. It really doesn't matter as long as the writing/content is good and not repetitive or boring to the reader.</p>
<p>"brevity is the soul of wit" - william shakespeare</p>