<p>When the Carleton supp says "briefly explain" for each question, how brief are they talking about? A page? A paragraph? The downlaodable PDF has only three lines for each answer, but the online supp gives you unlimited space.</p>
<p>My son is applying and we are new to this. We're thinking the space on the page indicates they want a short answer, but would like to hear from experienced people on this.</p>
<p>If I'm not mistaken, my daughter wrote a haiku for one of the short answer questions on the Carleton app...it was clever, succinct, and definitely answered the question!</p>
<p>My daughter just wrote a paragraph for each short answer.</p>
<p>Love the haiku approach!</p>
<p>Ah, haiku, how brilliant! (Very impressed...)</p>
<p>I just did paragraphs for each one, except for the "Why Carleton?" one, which I elaborated on a little bit more because I had so much to say! :)</p>
<p>I did it online and it gave me a limit...not sure what it was... but when ever i went over it gave me a notice and would not let me write more.</p>
<p>I did paragraphs on most of them and tried to keep them reasonably succint (~250 words tops), except for the Why Carleton? question, which I made a bit longer. The final question about additional information, I painted a sort of graphic-novel style layout image that highlighted my non-academic interests and personality. </p>
<p>I think the essential idea is keep it from being an essay and to insert something creative somewhere in it.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the replies! All good insight. Carleton seems and feels like such a great school that i don't want to hinder my chances by not following directions :P</p>
<p>Yeah, no problem! :)</p>
<p>Carleton's my first choice, ED school. I freak out every time I think about the fact that the application is mailed and out of my control. Gah! So nervous!</p>
<p>As a piece of general advice for things like this: when in doubt, just ask them. Applicants always seem so terrified of the admissions office that they end up worrying themselves to death over questions that could have been answered in a couple of seconds. Obviously, you shouldn't be emailing every day with questions about every detail, but there's no need to feel like they're going to take points away for asking questions.</p>
<p>My answers average around 220 words and thats too much when i try to paste them into the textbox (400 char limit). Anyways, do you think i could send my answers in via snail mail and then just submit the supplement (minus the answers) online?</p>
<p>ugh. it cuts me off at 300 which is definitely not enough.</p>
<p>Just a note from a current Carl (without any inside admissions information, however.) Think about this: when the admissions people set up their supplement, they deliberately imposed a 400 character limit on responses. I think it would be safe to assume that this was not a random decision. The ability to write in a thorough yet concise manner is very important.</p>