<p>So I've been typing college essays and I'm kind of lost as to how long they should be. I've checked out threads on cc and some people say don't go beyond 600 words, while others say that any length is fine (within reason) so long as the writing is genuine. Here are the lengths of my first drafts of certain essays....They see really long but what's a good target range for my essays to cut them to?
General Commonapp Essay: 1300 words
UChicago Extended Essay Choice 2: just under 1300 words
Why UChicago Essay:500 words</p>
<p>Does the college specify for the “Why College?” Usually, 500 is expected or therebouts. </p>
<p>On length, it depends. Generally… 1300 words for a commonapp essay is not okay. It’s hard to keep an audience entertained for that long. If your essay is truly captivating for every word and nothing can be eliminated at all, go for it. But remember it’s inadvisable unless truly amazing. </p>
<p>Try this exercise: Ask someone else to read it and ask if they were bored AT ALL through it. If yes, you may need to eliminate some / a lot.</p>
<p>Everyone I’ve given it too has said that it was the type of essay where they wanted to keep reading the whole thing since it was really unique/interesting…but I understand your point since adcoms will be tired from reading thousands of essays they probably don’t want to read a 1300 word one…what’s a more reasonable length…1000? 800?</p>
<p>That would be fine. The guidelines don’t specifically say what length your essay has to be, but over the years the 500/600 rule-of-thumb has developed.</p>
what if I got it down to 800…</p>