<p>I've read quite a few of these (3rd edition-- I won't talk about 2nd edition because those essays are ancient and weird). Almost all of them go above the 650 word limit. </p>
<p>Why on earth did students submit essays above the limit? I know some of them are supplement essays, but most of them must be common app questions. I know that because a bunch of them addressed a prompt that went something like "Who are you?" (perhaps that was a common app prompt years back). </p>
<p>It's as if Harvard is saying that the best essays are above the 650 word limit. I can't find a way to write more than 650 words (the website won't let me). Do you think the quality of essays will go down because the limit is being enforced now?</p>
<p>Also, I'm planning on submitting a short-ish essay (500 words) for the common app. But for the supplement, perhaps to protest the enforced 650 word limit, I'm going overboard. I'm talking ~1000 words. Is that all right? I feel like most students will do this because our voice is being severely limited by the common app site. </p>
<p>"I feel like most students will do this because our voice is being severely limited by the common app site. "</p>
<p>First: it’s a commercial book. It’s not gospel. 2nd: however constrained YOU feel, obviously Harvard is perfectly happy admitted thousands of students within the 500 wd guideline of the common app. THAT’S why they adopted it – didja ever think that?</p>
<p>Plus 1000 when being asked for 500 IS too much. H wants your best 500 wd essay. Not your best essay. Don’t go into this thinking you’re a special case. That’s only trouble.</p>
<p>Don’t take it so personally. It is what it is. As T26E4 said, the common app is looking for your best 650-word essay.</p>
<p>Frankly, the word limits make a great deal of sense. They require writers to master the art of brevity, which requires the ability to judge what is important and what is not. Believe me, these folks are doing the typical essay writer a favor by forcing him or her to avoid wordiness.</p>
The latest version on my hard drive (which might not be the final version) was 622 words. (I’m a writer and English professor, so I gave her a lot of feedback.)</p>
<p>My son stayed within the word limit on the common app, and his supplement was a slightly shorter (about 450 words) essay about my father who had recently died. It was very personal and touching, and in a sense, its brevity added to its impact. It wasn’t the usual grandparent essay…he never actually met my father, who was quite an eccentric.</p>
The Common App Essay has only had a 650 word limit for the past two years. When my kids applied to college 4 and 5 years, there was no word limit – for example, my daughter’s Common App essay was slightly over 1000 words. So, I’m guessing most of the essays contained in the book are from that period.</p>
<p>So @gibby would you say it was common habit to go over the limit until two years ago? And would you say that if a new “50 Successful Harvard Essays” was published with only recent essays, the quality would be worse because of the enforced limit? </p>
<p>Also, did your daughter send a supplement? </p>
<p>As I said, two years ago there was NO WORD LIMIT so most Common App essays ran anywhere from 500 to 1500 words – at least that was the guidance suggested by my kid’s English teachers back then. And, I’m guessing if you look at the publication date of your book, it’s more than two years old, so all the essays in the book are at least older than the word limit instituted by the Common App. As to whether the quality was better then than now . . . I haven’t a clue.</p>
<p>FWIW: Admissions Directors got tired of reading lengthy essays, which are not always better, hence the word limit. And, yes my daughter did submit a supplemental essay of about 800 words, in addition to her Common App essay 1000+ words and a 150 word essay about an extracurricular activity (which used to be part of the CA, but is now part of Harvard’s Supplement).</p>
<p>Remember that that book isn’t published by Harvard admissions. We know that the essay authors got in, but we don’t know if they got in spite of their essays (which is common). </p>
<p>Show your ability to edit and make good judgment calls about which words and ideas are necessary. If you really have a beautiful, concise 800 words, that’s fine with me, but I don’t see that very often.</p>