How long are your Statements?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>Well, the Common App doesn't seem to provide any guideline regarding the length of the statement that we are supposed to submit, so I guess it's really up to me, but how long are your statements? I have about 350 words, and if it's not sufficient, I'm planning on to expand on it.</p>

2

<p>i can't remember but i feel like 350 might be too short unless you think it 'works' that way. I'd aim for around 500 probably?</p>

3

<p>are you talking about the supplement? isn't it 1000 characters max?</p>

4

<p>Yes, I realized that the Common App typebox limits to 1000 characters, and my 350-word-essay is more than 2000 characters. But you still can upload a document instead of typing it into the box, and my question shall regard that.</p>

5

<p>I answered this question in an earlier post. My D was just admitted ED and she realized this problem in early October -- luckily around the time we attended a local NU information session. At that time, NU just became aware of the discrepancy between the instructions in the common app supplement and on NU's own application. She was told she could disregard the 1000 character limit if she uploaded her essay -- rather than paste an answer in the box -- but was told to keep it to "about a page or a page and a half". I THINK her essay was about 500 words or perhaps a bit more. Don't quote me on the length but it was definitely more than 1000 characters.</p>

6

<p>Mine was around 500 words.</p>

7

<p>Mine's around 400</p>

8

<p>what the ****.</p>

<p>that makes me mad. I kept it under the commonapp limit. I'm guessing (hoping) a lot of other kids did the same.</p>

9

<p>Mine is slightly over 700 words, but it's a page long. A friend of mine who got accepted last year told me I should aim for a page to a page and a half, no specific word-count. Is he wrong? Should I cut it down a little?</p>

10

<p>I think that as long as you keep both the essay and the abstract to under a page it's fine. My essay is 1 page single spaced and my abstract is 1/3 of a page.</p>

11

<p>Mine was 500 words long.</p>

12

<p>I'm sort of curious how you fit 700 words on a page tertishead.</p>

13

<p>Mine was a little less than 400 words I think( for the why NU) and it was exactly 500 for the common app statement! :D</p>

14

<p>I emailed Northwestern Admissions and they said to keep it around 1000 characters...</p>

15

<p>That's a huge relief, because I wasn't looking forward redoing that today.</p>

<p>Thanks for the heads up.</p>

16

<p>mine was about Medill and internships and how they care about their students. and something else. i forget lol</p>

17

<p>I did a page... my friend applied ED and did the same, so it was kind of the blind leading the blind. </p>

<p>Too lates now!</p>

18

<p>i did early-- mine was 450, which turned out to look like 3/4 of a page, single spaced.</p>

19

<p>


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<p>That's how I felt too. I knew other kids weren't staying under the 1000 character limit, but I can't imagine it would hurt me if I could say it concisely enough.</p>

<p>Anyways, aren't you all just glad it's over?</p>

20

<p>yeah, after a lot of condensing, I felt like I said what I wanted to say. if I had to add more, it would have been a lot of BS.</p>