<p>For the short answer questions, each of them have certain character limits on Common App, such as 700, 1000, etc… However, when you press print preview and see the actual brown supplement, there is a word limit for each section, such as 50 words, 100 words, etc…</p>
<p>Do BOTH of these restrictions need to be followed? (Eg: Less than 50 words AND less than 300 characters)? If not, which one is the one that matters?</p>
<p>I’m fairly positive that the character limit is the one that matters</p>
<p>I would try to follow the word limits. However, I guess the character limits are more important because you can’t put in anything over that limit.</p>
<p>So in other words, try to follow both limits to be safe?</p>
<p>I would think that it’s the character limits that are more important. Word limits always tend to be some multiple of 50 (sometimes 25) so it strikes me as more of an arbitrary cutoff for the people who aren’t applying online than an “absolutely nothing more than this” type of thing. I suppose character limits are the same, but since you literally can’t put more than that, it’s more of an absolute.</p>
<p>Okay thanks. Since I feel uncomfortable writing only 500-600 characters (100 words) when the limitation is 700 characters, i think I’ll just follow the character limitation and ignore the word limitation.</p>
<p>Did anyone from early decision do this?</p>
<p>Any other thoughts/opinions on this?</p>