"Long Essay" word limit

College Essays
1

<p>I am applying to Georgia Tech, and they have two essay requirements. One is the short essay ("Why are you interested in attending Georgia Tech, and what do you hope to contribute to our community?") and one is the long essay, for which there are three choices. The short essay has a limit of 1,000 words while the long essay has a limit of 5,000 words. </p>

<p>I'm kind of freaking out about the large "limits" for word count because I'm not that wordy of a writer. I know what I want to write about for the long essay, but it probably wouldn't even hit 1,000 words. If the "limit" is 5,000 words and I only hit 1,000, should I try to make it longer? Or is 5,000 words just some arbitrary paper length to ensure that no one sends in a novel? (5000 words would be about 10 pages single-spaced at size 12 TNR font, which seems really long for a college admissions essay...) </p>

<p>Also, should the long essay be significantly longer than the short essay, or again, is it somewhat arbitrary?</p>

2

<p>anyone? 10char</p>

3

<p>OH. Just kidding! It’s 5,000 CHARACTERS which is much, much less than 5,000 words :slight_smile: Whew!</p>

4

<p>Heh, that certainly changed things. And so you know, typical english vocabulary tends to have about 5 characters per word. So it’s going to be about 1000 words after all. :p</p>