<p>I know most of us have completed them already, as they were do Friday, but was it just me who noticed how weird the character count was? For the first 2 essays the character count was 600! And no, not 600 words, 600 characters. That means a lot less than 200 words. If you're going to make it that low, why call it an essay. I think honestly they may have mistaken characters for words. What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>No, they mean characters. To be fair, they do refer to them as short essays. I believe having the ability to get ideas across clearly and succinctly is a critical skill, and seeing what and how applicants can write within about 100 words can in some ways tell schools than more than a 1500 character (250 or so words) essay on the same topic. 100 words can convey a lot of information. If any school does, Choate has their application process down to a science and their character limits will have been very well thought out with very specific goals.</p>
<p>I looked at some similar essays my child wrote for different school, both with similar prompts but different length limits. Honestly, the shorter (say, 600 vs 1000 character) answers were better written and really did not cover any less ground than the longer ones.</p>
<p>Plus, it makes it easier on the admissions readers.</p>
<p>Thank you for the insight</p>