<p>Please share the lengths of your personal statements for the common application and comment on whether 1000 word statements are fine or over the limit??</p>
<p>BUMP.
This is relevant to my interests xD</p>
<p>Generally, people say 500 words. I think mine was 700 words or so...</p>
<p>I think you should worry more about whether or not it is an interesting essay and reads quickly. A poorly written 500 word essay on an uninteresting subject will read much slower than a well written 500+ word essay on an interesting subject.</p>
<p>I've seen several people say around 600ish?</p>
<p>I agree that it really depends on flow. A lot of the time, word economy can improve an essay a lot, but then again I have seen people with longer essays get into their college of choice. </p>
<p>You were prob. thinking of doing this anyways, but get several second opinions and ask them how it flowed. I read a quote from someone in a interview on some website (yes I know, descriptive, but I think it was a retired adcom or something), if one sentence gets me to the next, and one paragraph gets me to the next, and after I read it I want to share it with my colleagues, the applicant has won.</p>
<p>mine was about 900, but was on the long side... aim for one full typewritten page, single spaced</p>
<p>Mine is just over 1000 and there is pretty much no way it will be much shorter. But I feel it is a really effective essay I just dont want the first impression of this novel of a personal statement to be discouraging to the admissions officer?</p>
<p>bump!! i want to know this too...
(mine's 1100)</p>
<p>Just search for the topic--"word limit" and such--and you'll find plenty of discussion on it.</p>
<p>The general rule of thumb is to shoot for 500. Anything even approaching 1000 needs to be cut. Only go over the 500-word limit (though it's not explicit) if you feel that the essay would suffer by being cut--that the actual message would not be communicated. I don't mean pretty phrases and sentence transitions; I mean the actual message conveyed is harmed, or the impact significantly reduced. Only then should you go over the 500-word limit.</p>
<p>Even then, though, I would put an absolute cap at 800 words. That's one full page of text (under standard formatting--1" margins, 12pt Times font, no paragraph divisions, single-spaced). If you can't fit it in that, then you need to reconsider your topic and try to narrow its focus.</p>
<p>Often, colleges will have supplements in which you can convey more about yourself. Consider those as ways of alleviating your bloated main essay--you can still communicate aspects of yourself, just not in the main essay.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, my essay was just under 700 words, and it was fine. (But, after having worked on it with a college counselor, we both concluded that the cut version--about 500 words--was a somewhat mediocre essay, losing much of its impact. So I used the expanded version for the Common App and the shortened version for the UC application, where a word limit is imposed.)</p>
<p>I agree with Kyledavid80. 500-700, okay. Anything more than that is probably stretching it. If you have a 1000 word essay, try to cut it down as much as possible. If you can't make it any shorter, have SEVERAL people read it and see what they think- find someone that wouldn't be afraid to tell you that it is too long and it drags on.</p>
<p>1000 is really long. You might think it can't be shorter, but how many people have read it with you asking them if it could be shorter and still equally effective?</p>
<p>Generally, it's 500 words +/- 50ish. (hahah, good luck getting it down to 450, thoug! More power to you if you can..)</p>
<p>Well, I'll see what I can do but it will definitely be around 1000 one way or another. Its just my style and I think they will get over it once they read it.</p>
<p>I've never heard of 1000+ (this year I know people that wrote even 700~800 word essays and did fine), but if you can't cut it in any way, w/e, you'll just have to go with it.</p>
<p>I would say aim for 2 or less pages 12 point times double spaced. That should be about 600 words. From talking to admissions from various universities, they actually do count the words (well estimate by considering the amount of pages and font size). Not following an explicit length requirement could really break your application so take it seriously.</p>
<p>I did 500 for mine. When I was checking on this last year, 500 was the general consensus. Unless your statement is REALLY strong, try to cut it shorter. Don't wanna risk it with this sort of thing.</p>
<ol>
<li>Do you think the administration has all the time in the world for your essay? NO! They have 1000's more to go.</li>
</ol>
<p>What should your personal statement contain anyway?
A generic explanation as to why you want to go to college (on the common app, all colleges see the same one, right?) and what you aspire to?
Or an explanation of any factors that you want noted on your application, like stress, family hassles, depression, bad grades, etc?</p>