Length

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>How important do you all feel essay length is? I am happy with my essay, and really can't change it without totally rewriting it, however it is over 700 words (750). Should I take the time to rewrite the piece of leave it as is? Oh, and I am using my own quote as a topic.</p>

2

<p>i'd like feedback on this too. i know it says the essay should be about 300 words, and mine is 400. Would mine be ok? What about more extreme cases like above?</p>

3

<p>This question was asked at a Princeton info session I attended recently. The answer was that going over a little bit (10-15%) was OK, but much more than that would be annoying to the readers.</p>

4

<p>the reader is not goign to enter your essay into word and get a word count. as long as he/she doesnt notice the difference, its fine.</p>

5

<p>I'm feeling along the lines of tongchen. My essay fits on 1.75 double-spaced pages with wider margins. I think as long as I can get it down to about 620 words I should be fine.</p>

6

<p>thanks you guys! also, does anyone know if we are supposed to double space or single space (or does it ever matter)?</p>

7

<p>I don't know anything about Princeton admissions, but I do know that making an essay 1/3 shorter will, in the vast majority of cases, make it better.</p>

8

<p>Princeton explicitly says not to double space, I believe</p>

9

<p>Oh geez, sherpa, princeton said 10-15%? That's like 45 words more, maximum! mine is 465...... definitely more than 15%</p>

10

<p>again, a difference of about 100 words is hardly detectable. But 620 words is a substantial difference. Unless all of your words are one syllable long, they will be annoyed by that much difference.</p>

11

<p>I would think that 400ish words wouldn't be a huge issue, but once you start getting to be over twice the amount of words that they asked for, that's when I think they'd get annoyed</p>

12

<p>my short essay was about 430, my long one was 660ish.. I think as long as it flows and isn't repetitive, it's fine.</p>

13

<p>My short essay is 350. My long essay is 600. I'm happy :) Oh and my summer essay is about 250, I think.</p>

14

<p>(I did major, major editing and cutting on all of them until every single word was perfect! So glad to be done at last!)</p>