<p>I know the minimum is 250, but I can't seem to find the average word count for people's essays now. I've heard that the unspoken length is still around 500, but before I add the finishing touches to my essay, I want to know how long YOUR essays are. Thanks for any responses.</p>
<p>can anyone tell me their essay's length?</p>
<p>Just under 650 words.</p>
<p>1950 words.</p>
<p>Apparently thats about twice too high. The unwritten max is 750 words.</p>
<p>But for someone like me, who writes novels in his spare time, its hard NOT to write a few thousand words!</p>
<p>Mine's 580 or so, my teacher told us to shoot for 500, I still feel like I cut so much out though :-</p>
<p>Ok thanks so much for the replies!</p>
<p>Mine is a thousand words. Probably too long, but I can't cut anything...it's a story and it takes that long to tell.</p>
<p>Over in the parents forum, the professionals are saying 500 word target, 600 word maximum. Be careful, budding novelists!</p>
<p>umm 872.........which is apparently too long.</p>
<p>Can you have 872 words if it works and will be enjoyable enough for the college admission officer to read?</p>
<p>I feel like I'm going to cut away important parts if I do anymore trimming.</p>
<p>I need to cut off A LOT... I have 900.</p>
<p>about 630 right now.. i want it to be in the 500s though</p>
<p>I'm at about 880 right now.</p>
<p>I'm very tempted at this point to just write a haiku.</p>
<p>about 770...
I think it's OKAY to have it around 600~850 if your essay FLOWS well and reads fast (varied sentence structures, consistent tone, etc)...</p>
<p>i have 2 essays written so far, both a shy under 600</p>
<ol>
<li>And I never had to make any cuts! :-)</li>
</ol>
<p>Ouch, 500 words is short. Mine is 950 and I already cut out some stuff.</p>
<p>Mine's 582, but I'm shooting for 500.</p>
<p>My school's college counselor, who used to be a Senior Admissions Officer at Stanford, told us that, even without the limit, no essay should be over 600 words since it'll just annoy the admissions officers and reflect poorly on you. </p>
<p>He also said that any essay that's over that amount could not only be cut down but also made better in the process. I tend to agree.</p>
<p>my "important issue" topic is 713. I don't know if it can be cut down though, but it is risky anyway so I dont want to irritate admissions officers with length...idk.</p>
<p>just wrote a third. a bit longer...cut it down to 68x. Geez what's with all these people having 800+ essays?? that's almost DOUBLE the limit. I don't think adcoms will appreciate such a blatant disregard of the guidelines. But if you must, it had better be captivating for all 1000 of those words (or however many you have).</p>
<p>A general guideline I've heard at a few college seminars is to keep it within a page 12 font.</p>
<p>And yes, you should still aim for 500; 800 is too much. Some people have said it can be longer if your essay is really good, but remember, everyone's essays are going to be really good.</p>