<p>Just wanted to clear up some confusion regarding the length of the essays we require, as we've gotten a ton of questions about this through all forms of question asking (Tumblr, College Confidential, Facebook, and our general email account). </p>
<p>We suggest that your extended essay (the 'uncommon prompt') be approximately 500 words, or 1 page single/2 pages double spaced. This isn't a hard and fast guideline; 504 words is OK, and so is 450 words and so, probably, is 599 words. We're flexible, but please be courteous in staying at or around that marker-- essays that are overly long (say, hundreds of words/multiple pages over this guideline) are, frankly, not what we're looking for. Longer essays are not strictly better essays, and editing a paper or thought down to an appropriate length is a skill you will definitely need to (and want to!) refine in college, especially at UChicago! We hope that you can respect our need to balance reading your essay with the thousands of other essays we will encounter in a reading cycle by sticking at or near our suggested length. If you choose to create your own prompt, please provide the prompt at the top of your essay. This is not included in the word count (although please keep the prompt prompt-length; a 1,000 word prompt is not a good way to circumvent these suggested limits :) )</p>
<p>It is perfectly fine for a "Why Chicago" or "Favorite Things" essay to be shorter than 500 words, but up to this limit is still appropriate; I have read some very excellent 250-word Why Chicagos, and some very excellent 500-word Why Chicagos, and a few not-excellent 2 sentence Why Chicagos.</p>
<p>Please don't fret too much about this. We'll never stop reading; we want to give you and your thoughts our full and careful consideration, but staying within or near the guidelines we have set helps us do so for you and for every other student whose work we will encounter this year.</p>