I am applying to UMD. According to them, essays should be 300 words. I did my essay a week ago and yesterday I finished revising it. But like…WDH…its 660 words. Its more than double LMAO. I think the essay is pretty good…cutting out more will really hurt my whole point of the essay.
What should I do?
Thanks.
Get the main idea of your essay and be more economical with your wording. Maybe less passive, more active voice?
I suggest trying to get it anywhere between 400-500 words.
If you can’t cut it down, then write another one.
Part of the application process involves learning how to follow rules. A few words won’t make a difference, but if the length is out of the scope of the objectives, then you aren’t really fulfilling their essay requirement.
Definitely cut it down to 400 words or less. There has to be a way to get the essence out of your essay by cutting down a few hundred words.
Start over. The best essays are the shortest.
Is this a supplement or something? 300 seems like a small space.
Based on my experience, I would have to disagree with everyone that posted above me. My essay ended up being over 1000 words, when recommended was 500-700. Despite kind of ignoring that, I still got into a school that was a stretch for me. I got the essay to a point where I felt like removing anything would detract from the overall essay. I chose to just send the best I had to offer and accept it if I was rejected for that.
This is, however, only my experience. I would be interested to see numbers on the importance of abiding to word counts.
I wouldn’t exceed the suggested word count by that much. Following directions is generally fairly important.
You could probably get away with something around 400 words, but I wouldn’t advise any more than about 450.