<p>Are you guys absolutely, absolutely, absolutely sure that there is NO word limit on ANY of the writing pieces, not even those that explicitly ask to write only one or two paragraphs? </p>
<p>I looked at the Uncommon blog and Libby pearson always says there's no word limit, and then immediately after that she says "Follow directions explicitly." Aaaahh!</p>
<p>This is what my admissions counselor told me when he visited: For the first two questions try to be brief... then the big last essay is really important.
brief is about 500 words or less.</p>
<p>No word limit, which gives you flexibility in your approaches to your essays, but don't abuse that freedom.. your essays should still be focused and concise, even if they are long.</p>
<p>500 words is the college admissions gold standard, so if you're around that or less, you're in a good position.</p>
<p>Word limits? Blasphemy. There is, however, a rumor that it's u73i words (something like that), but for that you must consult Libby.</p>
<p>My main was 1500 words. Am I totally screwed?</p>
<p>No, try not to concern too much about it.</p>
<p>My main essay was about 1650 words. It was a solid 2.5 pages and I got in EA.</p>
<p>THANK YOU DAVNASCA YOU ARE THE BEST. That gave me so much relief lol.</p>
<p>DS's main UChicago essay was ~1350 words and he got in EA.</p>
<p>got in EA with 2500+ words.</p>
<p>Mine was 688, but it was a script, and it took up a solid 2 pages in Microsoft Word.</p>
<p>Ya I don't think they care about the number of words- mine was about 1000 and I got in.</p>
<p>everybody is asking about long essays... what about the other end of the spectrum... is 500 too short for the "long" essay?</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack, but...do we need to indent paragraphs? I would prefer to just double-space.</p>
<p>I just did an extra space between paragraphs. I don't think the form pays any attention to paragraph marks, though I'm not certain.</p>
<p>And my "long" essay ended up being 600something words...I think it's fine as long as it's about one to two pages typed (though did they mean single or double spaced?)</p>
<p>500 is not too short. 1500 is not too long. 50,000.... you've completed the NaNoWriMo challenge, pat yourself on the back!</p>
<p>I DO NOT think you will have to worry about WORD COUNT. I know it's one of the few finnicky details that is still entirely in your control (that, and the stamps that go on your teacher recs... if you were totally in between using the standard floral print and the Malcolm X stamps, you are officially as neurotic as yours truly, join the club).</p>
<p>Just realize that some admissions peon who is probably not dear Libby and probably not dear Ted will rip that envelope open as soon as it arrives, and that the admissions office will not sit and manually count out each and every word. It would be easier for them to, like, actually sit and read it than it would be for them to complain about its length.</p>
<p>"I just did an extra space between paragraphs. I don't think the form pays any attention to paragraph marks, though I'm not certain."</p>
<p>Yea I had to paste it in and add all the paragraph indentations. -_-</p>