<p>515 words weeee, might be more or less as I edit.</p>
<p>Don't worry that your essays are "too short." All of my friend's essays from '07 were 500 words or less. She got into Georgetown, Chicago, Hopkins, the works.</p>
<p>our school counsellor said we should aim for 500 and stop at 600</p>
<p>oh gawwd. my essay's keep getting longer. but it doesn't make much sense when it's shorterrrrrrrrrrrrrrr</p>
<p>i hate life. grrrrrrrrrr!</p>
<p>D's was about 850. She got into every school she applied incuding NYU, Barnard, Brandeis and GW. As long as it is below about 1000 words, I wouldn't sweat it. They are not giving you a limit for the number of words and I would be more concerned with the picture of yourself you are painting than the word count.</p>
<p>Eh... mine's around 700.</p>
<p>I said what I needed to say...</p>
<p>dang
mine's 1009...........................</p>
<p>How the heck do i shorten it 300 words??</p>
<p>779..as of now. But I'm making revisions that might shorten the length.</p>
<p>300 words? that's like NOTHING. mine's about 750? lol i just checked and i forgot haha</p>
<p>^ i think he means shorten it BY 300 words. hehe</p>
<p>anyways
mine's 662.</p>
<p>My final draft is only 428 words. I think it's a strong essay though.</p>
<p>stueydue,
my essay was about 1,300 words during the summer, but i got it down to 586.</p>
<p>go sentence by sentence and think, "what does this sentence contribute to the essay as a whole?" and then delete it if it's not that important. even if you think it's really clever or funny.</p>
<p>and then make sure you keep your essay moving. i know at first i went into way too much detail, and then left only a short part for the whole "personal" part of my essay. it'll bore the reader if he doesn't get into the heart of it until the last paragraph.</p>
<p>it's ridiculous how a "word limit" is assigned to the essays
If your essays are attractive, adcoms will read them even if they are 1500 words. On the other hand, I've read essays that are less than 500 words but quite boring
Honestly, it's about how you hook the reader. NOT about word length. The mere notion that a long essay is boring is ludicrous
My message itself is not short, for that matter. Did you get bored reading it? =P</p>
<p>Mine's 1060... but I'm in foster care, so I had a lot to explain. I am applying early to University of Chicago. I hope it's not too long...</p>
<p>my common app one is 544
my yale supplement essay is 518</p>
<p>in general they're around 500.. i think that's actually plenty of space to get what you want said out</p>
<p>My Common App essay is 780-ish words.</p>
<p>There's no maximum word limit: you can write as much as you want as long as it fits in the PDF the application creates. (After you upload your document, click "View Document" to see if your whole personal statement is there. If it is, you're fine).</p>
<p>You have to remember, though, that the people reading your essay are humans and have human emotions (i.e. irritability and boredom). Don't frustrate them with an eight-page PDF before they even start reading it. Also, a huge part of what they look for is the quality of your writing: Can you get your point across AND avoid becoming long-winded and tedious?</p>
<p>To sum it all up, be as concise as possible without losing the essence of your essay. I know it sometimes feels like you just can't let this or that part go, but if it's extraneous detail that just sounds nice, I suggest you weed it out.</p>
<p>My essay was 449</p>
<p>BTW, there IS a 500 word max.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Why Rex why? Why don't you read the whole thread? There so clearly isn't, my friend.</p>
<p>800! and not changinggg</p>
<p>1,055...</p>
<p>...It's one of the best essays I've written, and because it's on a personal topic of pretty high magnitude I feel like I can't cut it down any more without it losing meaning.</p>
<p>...But now this thread has me scared. I guess I'll start seeing what I can cut...</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, 366 words. I'm really happy with it:)</p>