<p>Is 720 words acceptable...?? or too much?</p>
<p>I think you can probably cut it down more.</p>
<p>i wonder if there are actually essays with a word count range of 250-500.
it seems so common to exceed the limit.
so…out of the essays that are 500+, do you think 720 is above, below, or the average word count?</p>
<p>ok so i don’t want to cut it down. haha</p>
<p>it’s definitely above the average word count. And yeah it’s too much</p>
<p>ONLY cut it down if it would improve the essay. </p>
<p>My essay for Columbia was 1,500 words long, and I was admitted two months early by a likely letter.</p>
<p>I spoke to the Assistant director of Undergrad addmissions (funny guy lol) and he said that going over a couple of words would’nt hurt you, but when I told him that I was off 200 words, he gave me this strange face and was like “we read over 25,000 applications, so it would be helpful for you too stick to the word count” and said that they don’t penalize you for going over, just not too over where you are already on the third page. </p>
<p>So, 1.5-2 pgs is a safe bet, regardless of word count</p>
<p>2 pages double spaced right?</p>
<p>haha double spaced, i am 1.5 sentences over the two page limit. </p>
<p>probably will skew the margins :)</p>
<p>I think you guys worry too much about word counts. My essay was THREE pages, SINGLE-SPACED, and it wasn’t a problem at all. I sent this essay to every school I applied to and it wasn’t ever a problem.</p>
<p>Write something well, and it doesn’t matter how long it is. My admissions officer even sent me a handwritten note about my essay…</p>
<p>Obsessing about the word count is counter-productive; spend that time perfecting your essay!</p>
<p>yeah…you’re right. i just don’t want my essay to be a tedious read. but even a poorly written sentence can be difficult to read so i guess there are better ways to improve the writing!</p>
<p>lolcats, assuming you were accepted to columbia, why did you decide on pomona?</p>
<p>It’s really difficult for me to make a rational argument for why I chose Pomona over Columbia. </p>
<p>Both are excellent schools and would satisfy all my requirements and needs. After visiting them, I liked the close, campus-based community Pomona offered, but I also loved NYC and the concept of the Core. </p>
<p>At the time I was also on Harvard’s waitlist, and I realized I would definitely pick Harvard over Columbia, but not necessarily over Pomona, which told me a lot about what I wanted. In the end I made a gut decision to go to Pomona. I don’t regret it for a moment, and I was pleasantly surprised to find nearly ten other kids in my year who made the same decision I did and chose Pomona. I can’t wait to start next month :)</p>
<p>There has never been a college application essay written that couldn’t have survived knocking a few more words off of it. By and large, most applicants SEVERELY overrate their editing abilities, and fall in love with every turn of phrase that have sprung from their heads onto the page.</p>
<p>Any decent editor can shave words, rearrange sentences, and more importantly tell you “this paragraph is tangential to your point, cut the whole damn thing”. There are always LOTS of ways to make your ideas more clear, more succinct, and more direct. Go back to Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and see what you can apply.</p>
<p>I totally agree with Denzera’s advice. While lolcat’s essay has been an exception, a general rule of writing that has survived the test of time is that shorter works are more palatable to the reader, and hence more capable of persuasion. And I also agree that editing takes time to learn.</p>
<p>yeah, do try to be as succinct as possible. My first draft was 2500 words, and the 1500 was a quite reduced final product.</p>