<p>My "why chicago" is at 680 right now. I feel really passionate about this essay and do not really want to shorten it. Do you guys think it's too long?</p>
<p>No I don’t think so. Chicago is unique in the sense that a lot of emphasis is put on essays and creativity / passion shouldn’t be stifled by length.</p>
<p>From what i’ve read and heard, the short answers should be 2-3 paragraphs. I recommend cutting the essay significantly. I’m keeping mine to around 400 words at the most. I just figured that since they’ll have our common app essays and our Extended response essays, we can cut the readers some slack with an essay that focuses on the main points. Run on sentence, sorry!</p>
<p>I think as long as you feel everything in your essay is there for a reason - there are no unnecessary parts, redundancy, etc - you should be fine. Mine’s a little under 500 words. I know how you feel about not wanting to shorten it - my creative essay was about 1400 words (I know, yikes) but I really didn’t want to shorten it cause that would mean eliminating all the pretty language, and that’s such a huge aspect of it. I just single spaced it so it would (almost) fit into the 2 page length they suggest.
If it’s well-written, if it comes from the heart, and it just wouldn’t be as good if you shortened it, leave it.</p>