<p>I am gearing up to finally submit my supplement (I have taken a long time to really write my essays and make sure they really do fit me and show me in a positive light) and, due to SAT scores below Barnard’s average, I really need to make sure my supplemental essays are GREAT. But they’re really long. Double-spaced, they all take up about 3/4 of the page, but are all over 200 words. I think my longest is the fictional character one and it has 306 words (but it looks pretty short on paper, which is odd). What should I do?</p>
<p>I would say if it is your best work and you have edited it to a polish yet they are a bit too long send them as is. Barnard does not appear to be overly hung up on some sort of punitive review of prospective students....I seriously doubt they count words. The adcom that conducted the tour we went on made a point of mentioning they look at the entire applicant, writing was important, and they didn't mind paper application submissions, etc. They do truly seem to want a real view of the student and her writing. So going over a bit as long as it is engaging work and well edited ought to not be a deal breaker. Just make sure it shows <em>you</em> and not a rehash of their marketing brochure or what you <em>think</em> they want to hear. Good luck!!</p>
<p>Oh, I did mine in the box on the common application, which cuts the responses off after a certain number of characters. Is it preferable to upload one and have it a little over the word count, or to do it right in the box? Because I really thought we had to be exactly within the character limit so I tailored my responses...</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about the length. I don't remember the word count on my application last year, but I do know every essay question exceeded 3/4 of a page. I tend to be extremely verbose and have a very difficult time editing things down for size! Despite my extensive length, my application was successful. Thus, if you feel the words are worth reading, I encourage you to leave them all there.</p>
<p>I agree with want2bIvy and gapyearmom. One of my short answers was 228 words and 1154 characters, and I didn't get automatically disqualified or anything to that measure. I don't think they're really that strict about it.</p>
<p>Yeah my essay was a good 3-4 pages. single spaced. and all my supplements were at least 1 page each.
don't fret. just upload it to commonapp instead of typing it into the box</p>