Question on Common App Essay...

<p>For the common app supplement for JHU, it says to write a brief essay about why you selected a major, yet it gives no background whatsoever in terms of how long it should be. Since it's about a major, I'm guessing it will be around 250 words right? Or how long should it be?</p>

<p>Also, for the writing sample on the common app, it just says a minimum of 250 words, so does that mean that I could write an 800 word essay, or what? I hate how vague the common app is with it's wording about essays, so I would really appreciate your help.</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<p>I think the major essay should be 250-500 words and the common app essay should be about 500 words.</p>

<p>what??? Are you serious?? That's not good, because my common app essay is already 670, and I'm adding stuff too it!! I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that they like the main essay to be around 700-1000 words!! OMG!!! I'm so confused!!</p>

<p>First off CALM DOWN...500 words is just a general guideline. You can go over it if you have more to say but I would not go over 1000 words. Generally, I think the common app essay is supposed to be about a page single spaced but I could be wrong.</p>

<p>hey man, just remember when you were a high schooler applying to college and how stressed out you were. Now multiply that by 5 since our year is the most unpredictable and difficult...yeah, that's how I feel, which is why I'm freaking out.</p>

<p>okay... well I am a high schooler and I'm applying to college this year too and I'm not a man, I'm a girl and I was just trying to help you out.</p>

<p>Actually you all should calm down and just use the search function ... you question has been asked and answered numerous times:</p>

<p>Essay length has been discussed NUMEROUS TIMES. You should use the search function, it can be very, very helpful:</p>

<p>(1) <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/372099-2007-2008-jhu-application-essays-revealed.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/372099-2007-2008-jhu-application-essays-revealed.html&lt;/a>
(2) <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/438342-supplement.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/438342-supplement.html&lt;/a>
(3) <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/436899-how-long-brief-essay.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/436899-how-long-brief-essay.html&lt;/a>
(4) Hopkins</a> Forums -> 2007-2008 Hopkins App. Essays Revealed<a href="5">/url</a> <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/391213-new-essay-word-averages.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/391213-new-essay-word-averages.html</a>
(6) <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/439737-how-long-your-jhu-supplement-essay.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/439737-how-long-your-jhu-supplement-essay.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>yeah...I did do a search, which is why I said that I'm pretty sure that it was supposed to be 750-1000, which is exactly what you said. I just keep hearing different things from different people, which is why I wanted to confirm it.</p>