Question about Common App Essay Word Limit

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>As you all know, Common Application says,</p>

<p>"Long essay should be 250 to 500 words"</p>

<p>It's funny cuz the space they provide can accept up to 6,000 characters, equivalent of about 1300 words.</p>

<p>I have a 850 word essay. If fits. The preview is good. But do you guys think I will have to cut it down since they said "it should be between 250 to 500?" Why would they allow and accept 6,000 characters if it can only be 250 to 500 words? lol...unless all your words are at least 10 characters long...</p>

2

<p>Don't take the size of the space as policy. The person who programmed the application was not the same person who wrote the application. Plus, it's pretty poor programming to restrict themselves by making the box only accept 500 words. If they ever wanted to change the length of the essay, they'd have to find someone to change the code.</p>

3

<p>Theres another recent post on this you should try and find, but I believe the answer was if you have something truly important to saw, that you should add it.</p>

4

<p>The reply was made by Ben Golub, so you should be able to go through his recent posts and find it relatively quickly.</p>

5

<p>Going that much over the word limit is probably not a good idea, I think Ben's post was in reference to just a few words over.</p>

6

<p>Does anyone know if Caltech has a optional recommendation letter form? or do I just use the common app. high school teacher form? I know my research professor at the university will def. write me a good one.</p>

7

<p>In that case it's probably not even worth bothering with the form, just have him send the letter in.</p>