<p>Someone wrote up there that columbia n yale will toss ur essay out if its 1000 words… Are u sure??? Cuz im EDing in three or four days to Columbia and mine’s some 1100-ish but it is a VERY VERY VERY strong essay…</p>
<p>Anybody? A last minute freakout doesn’t settle welll</p>
<p>btw, i did apply last year with around a 1000 word essay and i was waitlisted by brown… R u sure it works like that?</p>
<p>Wow, you got waitlisted even though you gave them a 1000word essay? You must have had really strong stats and/or amazing essay. </p>
<p>Even so, give the people who are reading your essays a break. 
I read tryout essays for a club, and after the 10th one i get exhausted. So I have a decent idea of what they go through.<br>
I’m sure you can still make an extremely strong essay with less words. You can do it! :D</p>
<p>esthetique… thanx… im already on it… though i don’t know how shorter it can be than a 950… That’s somewhat the limit of my summarising capacities… that better, right?</p>
<p>Mine ended up being 660~670. (for Yale) </p>
<p>i just couldn’t get it down anymore. The original was 759, and cutting those 100 words made the essay sound worse than it already was :(</p>
<p>I’ll tell you wat… I know a sophomore at Yale who’s essay was 947, and in her acceptance letter they exclusively mentioned how cool they thought her essay was and that they were really impressed… I cut mine down from 1100 to 939 and (going capitals) I AM CONTENT!!!</p>
<p>Impetuous, since it Yale you talked about, I don’t think you should bring it down from 759 if it gets worse… Quality over quantity is the rule… My opinion, You don’t want to compromise on the awesumness of an essay just to make it a 2 min shorter read…</p>
<p>@asbjaved</p>
<p>I don’t know about last year or the year before that, but this year, Yale explicitly states on the website that they want BOTH the commonapp and the supplement essays to be approximately 500 words, since “concise writing is often better.”</p>
<p>759 is more than 50% above that suggestion, so I thought it was too long. I don’t want to risk getting a negative image at the onset. I mean, obviously, the longer the essay, the more sentiments and personal feelings you can express in it. However, I don’t think that is the point of a college essay. Well I was a bit exaggerating before. It’s not THAT worse. its just that it was hard cutting those words off :)</p>
<p>I spoke to a representative on the phone from Northwestern…they said keep it under one page and a half single spaced…</p>
<p>Then I talked to the University of Michigan rep and she said keep it in the 250 - 300 word range.</p>
<p>WHAT THE HECK?? 300 words sounds very little</p>
<p>@e5volcano</p>
<p>I highly doubt the UMich representative was referring to the commonapp essay.( 250~300 range is ridiculous). She was probably referring to an essay section of its supplement.</p>
<p>@impetuous</p>
<p>So you think the 1 page and half sounds more reasonable ?</p>
<p>Mine was about 900 words 
I hope this isn’t too much!</p>
<p>@e5volcano</p>
<p>Yes, I do. I’m almost 100% sure that no college will tell their applicants to limit their commonapp essay to 250~300 words. </p>
<p>I use calibri, 11 font with normal margins, and 1 page and a half comes to about 900 words. I think that’s too long. But since the admission officer mentioned that, keep that as your maximum I guess. (850 if you’re using 12)</p>
<p>As for me, since I’m applying to Yale which recommends that i keep both essays around 500 words, I will keep it shorter.</p>
<p>Mine is around 615 words. Ideally, it’d be a bit shorter but I don’t have any rambling or fluff so I think it’ll be alright.</p>
<p>I have 1700 words. Lol.</p>
<p>Do not write more than a page – no need to worry about the actual word count, but try to get it to around one full page, which usually equals 500 or so words.</p>
<p>You just do not want to go on to a second page unless your writing is <em>excellent</em>. Admissions officers are very busy people and should be able to find out a lot about you in just 500 words; if you write more than that, then you probably are not editing/cutting out as much as you should.</p>
<p>I recommend single spaced, no indent, two returns (i.e. one full white space/line) between paragraphs, Calibri or Cambria or Garamond font*, font size 11. This gives the essay a polished look and shows you put care into the appearance of the essay. (This recommendation is for uploaded Word document essays. Obviously, if it is a text box, then you have no real options with style.)</p>
<p>*almost anything is better than the default font (Times New Roman) – when you read literally 100s or 1000s of essays, other fonts are much easier on the eyes</p>
<p>so what it the avg number of words in these 333 posts, I wonder? any rainmen in our midst?</p>
<p>I wonder what admission people wd say?</p>
<p>One hears about some esays that virtually get you in ( I saw that one that was sent out by the U of C dean last yr, and that person got in; of course we dont know the persons other factors), but I wd think that the essay might like the doctors oath, ’ do no harm’. better to have an avg bland cookie cutter -and short- essay than something obnoxious, I bet.</p>
<p>I assume that ‘too long’ can satisfy the obnoxious criterion - correct?</p>
<p>So might the following be true:</p>
<p>for all colleges that require an essay…</p>
<p>*a real good essay can increase your app’s chances</p>
<p>*an avg , even to the point of bland, typical, and cliche will add zero to your app’s chances (but won’t detract either)</p>
<p>*a poorly written (spelling and grammar errors,obviously meandering and off topic, too long+?,) would **detract **from your app.</p>
<p>+how long is too long that wd actually get into the subtraction side of the accounting of the app’s chances? The last poster said the essay s/ not exceed one page; if it went to two or even three, and everything was on topic, no spelling or grammar mitakes, can THIS amt actually detract from your app - vs make it a ‘plus zero’?</p>
<p>I have to disagree with stephenfriedfeld. It’s not about pages, word-count, or font-size. It’s about how effortlessly your words flow – basically, how well you write. A good writer can craft a 700 word essay that reads like 450. And vice versa. </p>
<p>Certainly keep length in mind when writing an essay. But write first, edit later. There’s no rule that says an essay should be a page single-spaced. Mine was 3.5 pages, double spaced, one-inch margins, 12 pt. font, 790 words. And it could’ve been longer.</p>
<p>Mine was 780 words, 1.25 spaced, less than 2 pages. It’s a biographical essay in a narrative format, and I’m going to take the risk of keeping it at this length because shortening it would destroy the flow. But I agree that the writing has to be a certain quality to justify 2 pages, even more excellent to justify 3, and so on. People tend to overestimate their writing ability too, so get a counselor or English teacher to read it and then honestly tell you how it compares to the others they’ve read.</p>
<p>I used Times New Roman because it’s the most “professional” font. I’ll change it if it really gives a boost to do so. But does it?</p>
<p>Your font selection isn’t going to make an ounce of difference. Times New Roman is fine. Calibri is fine. It really doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>OP (2008) :</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>citation, anyone? I wonder where this was said.</p>
<p>Mine is 870 words, which is around 2 pages with a 1.5 spacing.
I thought it was a good length, but after reading this thread I’m worried it may be too long.</p>