For SUNY Stony Brook, there is an optional essay to apply for one of their three programs. My question is how long should I aim for my essay to be? I called the school to ask and was not given a decisive answer. Obviously the essay should be “as long as it needs to be,” however I don’t know if I should be targetting, say, 200 words (which could be construed as too short) or 700 words (which would be longer than the personal statement). Anyone have experience with either this or a similar open-ended prompt ?
They are going to spend 10-15 minutes in your whole app. Whatever optional essay you write should not be so long that they have to spend extra time reading it. If they see you have written a really long optional essay, don’t be surprised if it never gets read. IMO, shorter is better than longer, every time. In your shoes, I think 400-500 words is reasonable.
agree with Lindagaf