<p>How many words are in everyone's common app. personal statement? Is there a limit?</p>
<p>500 is the accepted limit, but if you absolutely need to you can write a little bit over that.</p>
<p>the common app does not give any limit except 250 minimum...why is everyone convinced that it can't be over 500?</p>
<p>Yea, I don't understand this either. Nowhere on common app does it assign a maximum word limit. As of now, my essay is about 760 words, so hearing about this 500-word limit is getting me worried. I thought that since my essay fits on one page, single spaced, it was a decent length. Where is everybody getting their information from? Is there something I'm missing...?</p>
<p>Here's what I've heard:
If cutting down your essay would take something away from its meaning/ reduce its quality, just leave it! If editing your essay would simply make it more concise/its overall meaning, tone, and flow would remain intact, try to do so.</p>
<p>760 words is okay, I think (of course, it depends on your essay).</p>
<p>It's more of an unspoken guideline than a set rule. You want the admissions person to read the whole essay with interest (and not skim/skip parts), so you try to keep the essay to a manageable size.</p>