Hi, I have a silly question that hopefully one of you can answer. For our parent statement questions, one of my answers is a bit too short and one is a bit too long. (198 and 300 words). Would you be able to tell me if there’s a 250 word limit on the form? I’m not quite ready to submit yet and wasn’t sure if I need to trim one of my answers before I do.
Thank you!
I can’t remember exactly, but I think you can go slightly over and be okay. What you want to do is paste your essay into the parent statement and then, go to the review page. It shows you what the statement will look like on the other end (helps a lot to understand formatting if you used any interesting things). If your words got cut off, you know you have to change it. I wouldn’t go over by a ton (maybe keep it to 10-ish words) because then it would seem too long. There’s a reason they put a cap on parent statements! 
For the other one where you are short, I would see if there’s something else you can add about your child that is new and isn’t covered elsewhere. It’s free real estate to make a connection with schools. So if it’s the essay on what you want out of a boarding school experience, add an example to go with the thing you’re looking for.
Something like: We’re looking for a close knit community that will support our child, no matter their interests. (Student) is an eager learner and always excited to try new things, whether it was the Da Vinci bridge she constructed in the backyard or the “interesting” chili cupcakes she whipped up last year.
In case you’re wondering, yes, my daughter built a Da Vinci bridge in the backyard and makes some creative bakes.
If it’s the essay on a challenge, just talk more about your student again. Something else they’ve learned or a way in which you’ve seen the growth manifested after the challenge.
Hope that helps!
Thank you so much! That was such a helpful response! For the too long essay, I’ll see where I’m being too verbose and then I’ll move it to the review page and see what happens. 
No problem - happy to help!
@MamaLlama123 - I should mention because it may not be obvious - when you go to the review page and see what the responses will look like to the schools, make sure you don’t hit the button that finalizes it! You can just go back and edit again. I was paranoid when making my edits that I would accidentally hit the button that would make it official and then be stuck with something not quite what I wanted. Also, you’re not alone in the too long category. One of my statements was well over 600 words when I wrote my first draft! 
One of my favorite quotes has been attributed to several people, including Abraham Lincoln: “If I’d had more time to prepare, I would have written a shorter speech.” I always try to stick to the specified limits.
I do not know about SOA particularly but for some other sites there is a technical hard limit: if you paste into the textbox too long it will be truncated at the character limit.
Adhere to the word limit. Plain and simple. Going over is silly at best.
@RoonilWazlib99 's advice is spot on. You’ll see how the software has made it fit!
If there is no limit and no guidance and around 5 parent questions, how long should we aim for for each section?
If there’s no guidance simply answer the question. If you need two sentences to fully answer that’s fine. If you need five, also fine. I would cap yourself at about 300 words because honestly there are zero parent questions I can imagine that would require more than 300 words and no AO wants to be reading 600 words from a parent.