Hi y’all!
Anyone know whether there is a word limit to “optional” section on the Part 2? I actually have a lot to write about that I couldn’t include in my essay. I’m writing about 2 things and ATM it’s 573 words in total (295 and 278 each). I know it sounds really big but I have to talk about them.
In the past, when people have asked questions about being a few words over the limit in their response to a particular question, I’ve seen MIT admissions people say that they don’t strictly enforce the word limits – they’re just a guide for approximately when the text will become cut off on the application. Therefore, I would advise you to paste your drafts into the optional essay text box and then go to Section 10 and preview the PDF of your application to see if your whole essay is able to fit in the space provided for it.
There’s no word limit to the optional section. It’ll get cut off after some number of chars. The preview is accurate to what we see.
To provide some reference, my optional section was 504 words / 3,174 characters. The words were really small to read on the Preview, so I’d suggest trimming your section to less than 500 words or 3000 characters. Don’t put anything you don’t believe will change how admission officers perceive you.
I believe they read the essays on tablets, so they can enlarge the words. As long as no words are cut off you’re fine.
@MITChris is @UglyMom 's statement about being able to make the words bigger than we see in the preview true?
@snowfairy137 When my daughter was applying at the last minute right before she submitted her application she noticed how tiny the words looked on one of her essays. She had left a blank line between some of the paragraphs for a stylistic affect. She was a little stubborn about it. She didn’t like the essay as much when she deleted the blank lines, even though the word were significantly larger and easier to read. The next say she had doubts that she had made the right decision. She called the admission office, and asked if she should send them another copy, one that would be easier to read. They told her NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IT AT ALL.
We don’t read on tablets. We read PDFs which can be enlarged if necessary. I mean, I’d question why you need that many words; brevity is often best. But it’s not worth worrying about.