To Accepted Students... (or anyone else who may know)

<p>How long was your common application essay? Is 645 words too short? Too long? Its about a line over a page...I never saw a word limit; so I was just curious.</p>

<p>isn’t 500 words the limit???</p>

<p>For the supplement, but I meant the regular personal statement.</p>

<p>I didn’t apply to Cornell, but I know that your Common App essay can be longer than 500 words if need be. Often people say to shoot for 500 as a guideline. IIRC my essay was around 560 words. Just remember that a shorter essay that tells the same story is usually better.</p>

<p>I would say 500 words to 750 is a good range. Some also go by the one page rule, which basically says that the reader would not pay attention to whatever goes beyond the first page.</p>

<p>you dont want it to be too long, 645 is already pushing it. aim for 500.</p>

<p>Definitely cut it down. </p>

<p>600 is the MAX, aim for 500-550.</p>

<p>I personally went with the idea that the more concise (i.e. one page) the better. Not only does it speak to your writing abilities but it also is more likely to speak more to the person reading the essay.</p>

<p>Mine was about 480-ish…500 is a good word limit for most college essays, unless the directions say otherwise.</p>

<p>mine was 850 and i got in haha, but it was very concise, i just had a lot to say, i cut it down from over 2000 initially since i adapted another essay. I;m not saying make yours this long or whatever, I’m just saying that 500 is definitely not the strict limit</p>

<p>If I remember correctly mine started out at 750, and I spent three weeks cutting it down to just barely under 500. I doubt that anyone will count exactly how many words you wrote, but it should be in the neighborhood of 500 words (even if you’re over, not enough that the reader would notice). There is something to be said about following directions (at least when I applied the common application clearly stated 500 words at maximum).</p>

<p>My common app essay was 593 words. 645 probably isn’t too bad, but I definitely wouldn’t make it any longer. You can try to cut it down if you can, but don’t compromise the quality of your essay to do so.</p>

<p>take some time to think about it too. its only july. you have many months to perfect it.</p>