supplement confusions (online)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>In the "What about Yale interested you" section the online application says to limit the response to 50 words. On the actual printed application the question only says "limit your response to the space below."</p>

<p>You can significantly more than 50 words and still have the response fill barely more than half the given space. So is 50 words Yale's hard and fast restriction, or is it just the common app online's suggestion that means nothing? If I write 100 words (which still fits perfectly) is that akin to writing far more than 500 words for my personal statement?</p>

2

<p>100 is double of 50, and 1000 would be double of 500. So how well would colleges look upon a 1000 word essay when they wanted a 500 word one?</p>

3

<p>When they say 50 words, they mean 50 words. A few over or under is fine, but double is not.</p>

4

<p>Look at the directions for the application you're filling out. The space below means the space below. If you can fit it in with your normal handwriting, then, sure, fit it in. But don't make an extra effort to fit in extra words. even for the online app I think there's a strict character limit, not a word limit, so you can have more than 50 words if you can fit it in that many characters.</p>

5

<p>Quality, not quantity. If you think you can't reduce the quantity without losing quality, keep it. Just remember that quality counts more...</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, I know someone who got accepted to Columbia RD (and yes, we all know how hard that is) with a 1600 word essay when they suggest a 500 word one.</p>

7

<p>More words will not impress them. You have to think about the admissions officer for your area. They have to read hundreds of these applications. Would you rather them skim through a long response or devour each word of a short one? Unless you have something really profound to say of course…</p>

8

<p>I’ve noticed some differences between the online and print supplements as well, and the best advice that I can give you is to do exactly what your format requires.</p>