<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering what you guys think about my short answer and it's currently at 1080 characters but I need it to be at 1000. Thanks!</p>
<p>[essay]</p>
<p>I suggest you don’t post your essay, it’s all too tempting for someone to steal your idea. Try posting in the essay forum on CC and people will be all to glad to help you, just make sure you pm them the message not post it directly on the thread.</p>
<p>Are you referring to the Common App activities short essay? Where did you find anything in the Common App saying that it had a 1000 character limitation? I don’t see that. Or was that just a suggestion that your teacher or counselor made?</p>
<p>I assume it’s because if the essay’s too long, it won’t fit into the space?</p>
<p>Cut and paste right off the common app:</p>
<p>"Short Answer
Required Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below (1000 character maximum). "</p>
<p>Mauicougar, did you possibly look at an older Common Application? I just looked again at the 2012-2013 Common Application, and I do not see any mention of a length limitation for the short activity essay. It is on pg 5 , right under the heading “Writing”, and it reads a follows: “Please briefly elaborate on one of your EC activities or work experiences in the space below”.</p>
<p>Nope. It’s from the current Common App, Writing Section, Short Answer, next to the yellow dot that means a response is required. You must be looking at the paper version (which does NOThave all the instructions like the online version does because no one really uses the paper version anymore). You should use the online Common App. Waaaaay easier and neater than using the paper version.</p>
<p>Mauicougar, thanks a lot! We had printed it out, just to work on a “rough draft”, so we hadn’t seen those instructions. We just assumed that they would show up when we printed it off of the computer. Thanks a lot for explaining this. My son is working on editing his long Common App essay, but now when he gets to this short one, he’ll know that it has a 1000 character limit! Appreciate your help!</p>
<p>Actually, when you type your short essay in MS Word, it will tell you how many characters, but the Common App’s system of counting characters is different. Be sure to print preview to see if everything you cut and paste into the Common App actually appears. You don’t want only 3/4 of your short essay showing up… :)</p>