<p>I was wondering what an appropriate length range is for the commonapp essay...is 1500 words too long? Thanks.</p>
<p>It says at max 500 words I thought</p>
<p>500 is the widely excepted limit. They won't kill you if you have 501.</p>
<p>500 minimum i believe. 1500 is too long though. I wouldn't go over 1,000. That's about 2 pages single-spaced. They won't read anything more.</p>
<p>from common app "Please write an essay (250-500 words) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below."</p>
<p>so 1500 would be WAY too long..
i say try to stay near 500 as close as you can.. anything above 550 might be pushing it.</p>
<p>One page size 12 font is the max. As spoken by a former admission's officer of brown and columbia.</p>
<p>wait, so what is the ABSOLUTE max and what is the smallest font size we can have?</p>
<p>so if I used a lot of I's in my essay, and it's 620 or something, but it only comes out to about 3/4 of a page, it's fine?</p>
<p>750 words is an ABSOLUTE MAX. don't go a word over or it will be a huge negative. If you do go that far over, it better be one hell of an essay too.</p>
<p>If you used alot of I's in your essay you probably wrote an autobiography, one of the most common (boring) application essays. You're not going to stand out. i am guessing you talked about how much you learned/grew.</p>
<p>well the essay is supposed to be about how you, i think that's fine</p>
<p>lol well you just sent me yours 1MX and I'd say it's all autobiographical =)</p>
<p>I tried to avoid generic, but you can read it and decide</p>
<p>edit: out of curiosity i word counted yours 1MX and it was 736. I certainly didn't realize while i was reading it, so i guess that's a good thing. So as long as you don't bore your reader i think going over (within reason) is ok.</p>
<p>On the most recent PDF version of the Common App (<a href="https://app.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/CommonApp2008.pdf)%5B/url%5D">https://app.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/CommonApp2008.pdf)</a>, the personal statement now specifies 250 words minimum. Is the 500 word limit still recommended/enforced? Would you consider 600 words too long?</p>
<p>i read 200 for the first 2 question and about 600 for the third</p>
<p>I've read on a college website, I don't remember which one, that it's OK if your essay has about 550 words, but 1000 words is way too much.</p>
<p>For the personal essay, commonapp.org says 250 is the minimum but doesn't explicitly give a limit. In fact, it doesn't even seem to imply any limit whatsoever; no "short essay" rhetoric, nothing.</p>
<p>
[quote]
This personal statement helps us become acquainted with you in ways different from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will demonstrate your ability to organize thoughts and express yourself. We are looking for an essay that will help us know you better as a person and as a student. Please write an essay (250 words minimum) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If I'm missing something please let me know, but either I'm blind or that's all that CommonApp has to say about the essay. There are no additional instructions on that particular page, though the topic might be addressed somewhere in their (rather poorly organized, in my opinion) cluster of generic pages.</p>
<p>Of course, as we're all well aware, most admissions officers wouldn't be pleased by a ten-pager.</p>
<p>EDIT: I'm not sure where I found the info, but I found a note I made to myself that the range is actually 250-500 words. I'm pretty sure this was explicitly stated somewhere on the CommonApp site, but the number "500" certainly isn't anywhere on the essay section of the application. Would anyone happen to know?</p>
<p>The online app allows a certain maximum number of characters in the essay box. [This was last year, I don't know if it's changed]. If you passed this limit and you want to save your app, you'll get a message saying that your essay has exceeded the character limit, and the remainder will be put in another page.</p>
<p>For me, shorter is better. The longer the essay is, the less likely it is to be engaging to the very end. You don't want to bore these guys, especially at a college where they receive a huge amount of apps. I wouldn't really want to be in a position where I'll be reading an essay and wondering all the while when I'll reach the end, no matter how interesting it is.</p>
<p>^ There's no essay box for the personal essay. It requires an uploaded document.</p>
<p>Yes, I noticed that Common App removed the 250-500 specifications and only mentioned a 250 word limit. I think they are encouraging people to choose an appropriate length, which I still believe to be around 500. My essay is 800 words right now (I may cut it down) but people who've read mine have said it flows very nicely and didn't find it long at all. So, it's really about the flow, not the length. A rough 500 word essay is longer than a smooth 800 word essay.</p>