<p>I apologize if this comes across as paranoid venting, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on how the length of an application affects one's chances. In retrospect, I feel like my application should have been much shorter. Though Columbia only requires three letters of recommendation (2 teachers, college counselor) I sent in five (basic 3 + letter from my internship + another letter from another teacher, though this one deals more with character than academics). On top of that, I included a 625 word, two and a half page resume, much of it with facts I now realize I definitely could have left out. My essay is also 750 words. Would anyone know if the length of my essay could annoy an admissions offical to the point where it could hurt me? I really appreciate any thoughts you can provide. Thanks.</p>
<p>It could. Part of the reason why there are limits in place is to see how well the applicant can, well, follow directions. Also, it's a challenge given to the applicant to convey their accomplishments in a limited space. Anyone can write a bunch of stuff and describe every detail of their life; talented applicants should also be able to convey their experiences in a concise manner.</p>
<p>That said, if you had a good reason to include all the extra stuff, I'm sure it wouldn't be held against you as much as you might think. If your essay was very good and simply couldn't have been trimmed further without losing its basic essence, and your ECs were impossible to understand properly without the 2.5 page resume, then you have a 'right' to do what you did. Otherwise, you do run the risk of annoying the adcom. </p>
<p>I'm kind of in the opposite position of you - wondering if I should've included more stuff. I kept pretty close to the rules: 2 teach recs + school report, 550 word essay, no resume. Eh, we'll see I guess.</p>
<p>Thanks...there were a few things I wanted to clarify, and I wanted to add more stuff, hence the resume. The essay and letters of recommendation were cleared by my school's college office so I'm less concerned about those. I added the resume, however, without the consultation of my college counselor (very last minute). Figured if the admissions officer didn't want to read it, they wouldn't. Is that a fair assumption? Or are they obligated to read it?</p>
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Though Columbia only requires three letters of recommendation (2 teachers, college counselor) I sent in five (basic 3 + letter from my internship + another letter from another teacher, though this one deals more with character than academics).
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<p>was the last rec (the additional teacher) really necessary? don't your other four recs thoroughly cover your character? you should only include more recs if they add information that the other recs did not have. The internship one is perfectly fine and justifiable but i don't know if the third teacher rec was necessary. Worst that can happen though is that they just don't read it.</p>
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I included a 625 word, two and a half page resume, much of it with facts I now realize I definitely could have left out.
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<p>what?? are you joking?? HOW is your resume TWO AND A HALF pages?? you're 17! There are MDs and PhDs in their 40s whose CVs aren't 2.5 pages! (and if you don't know a CV is supposed to be way more extensive than a resume). I'm quite sure this will get a very hearty laugh from the admissions committee...you just need to pray that your application doesn't end up in the trash following the laughter. If you've been reading any of the threads on here about resumes you'd find out that i'm very anti-resume but a 2.5 pager is just completely and utterly stupid. This is not only immature but shows that you have an out of control ego. </p>
<p>i'd really like to see what a 17 year old's 2.5 page resume looks like</p>
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My essay is also 750 words. Would anyone know if the length of my essay could annoy an admissions offical to the point where it could hurt me?
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<p>this by itself would be no problem but given the rest of your situation i'm assuming you did not edit it well enough and could have cut at least 100 words without doing any damage to the substance. also this underscores the image that you don't think that the rules or boundaries apply to you because you think you're such an exceptional candidate which i'm assuming you're not, otherwise you would'v been smart enough to know not to include a 2.5 page "resume"</p>
<p>I think that if I were an admissions officer and saw how long your app was, well, I may be slightly biased against you in the first place even before starting to read your app for making me read all that extra stuff (because I'm pretty sure they do read the whole thing, though how thoroughly they do so is arguable, and likely variable).</p>
<p>does my resume really have the potential to tip me over the edge (in the negative direction)? i now realize there are lots of things i could have left out, but is it really that big a deal? i've been worrying about that and now i'm very nervous. i bascially didn't want to leave out a lot of ECs from high school so i pretty much included everything. a lot of space is also devoted to describing the functions of my ECs. for example, i used 90 words describing my internship.</p>
<p>about the third teacher letter, i included that because i knew this teacher a lot better on a personal level than then other two. whereas my relationship with the other two was purely academic, i talked a lot out of class with this third teacher. i'm also not too concerned about my essay since the college office cleared it and said cutting stuff out would take away from it. any further thoughts? please be candid like youve been so far.</p>
<p>after reading this thread I'm scared too .. I sent in 4 teacher recs and one rec from a professor I worked with</p>
<p>lol same i sent a big 'resume' too. But it could be reduced to 1.5 pages, I chose to make the font bigger for them.</p>
<p>Idk, i did include a letter at the beginning telling that I was just including this to give more descriptions in case they thought things were vague. I stated that I did believe much of these activities are indeed very important to me so they were free to evaluate it in any way they like.</p>
<p>I think this probably gives a more personable side to me rather than just being a resume stuffer. I also took out things that were already in the original app.</p>
<p>My counselor told me that the worst that can happen is that they won't look at the extra stuff. Unless your extra materials are extremely unnecessary (ie. repetitive, includes insignificant details, etc.), I doubt they will negatively impact you. </p>
<p>It's too late to change anything at this point, so relax! If you search this forum, you'll find both those who got in with a lot of extra materials and those who are against it. I guess this goes back to the one-factor-alone-won't-kill-you idea. In my opinion, if you're a well qualified candidate, merely extra details wouldn't kill you.</p>
<p>it really could matter less. My friend got in with nothing extra--bare minimum. I had an extra research rec, research paper, photo portfolio etc. etc...</p>
<p>chill out.</p>
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I had an extra research rec, research paper, photo portfolio etc. etc...
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<p>there is a difference between useful additional info like these and the kind of "resumes" that some of these applicants are sending</p>