Too long and what to cut??

College Essays
1

<p>The college i'm applying to has a max of 650 words; I'm at roughly 750 (down from 1100).</p>

<p>My writing style is more of a narrative (topic is how did diversity present opprotunity), so I tend to use anecdotes a paragraph long.</p>

<p>I've cut things down a lot already, but any more and the moral message is gone and it sounds like a simple story.</p>

<p>I won't post my essay here, but two questions;</p>

<p>1- what should I cut out, or what id you end up cutting out mostly from?</p>

<p>2- how much can I lean above the max? 700? None at all?</p>

2

<p>What worked for me cutting down one of my essays (from 790 to 660 in the end) was just rereading my paper over and over again and cutting any sentences that sounded repetitive and playing around with wordings to see what could be said in less words. This might be harder for you than it was for me because my essay was analytical (b/c it was a supplement) and I think this might be harder with creative pieces, but hopefully this approach can be helpful for you. I’d also recommend having friends or family look your essay over and see what they think could be cut without detracting from the paper.</p>

3

<p>If they explicity say there is a max, you should cut a bit. Remember, the GPA and test scores do most of the work in acceptance though. If you 100% cannot cut anything, all I see them doing is stopping at work 650 and not reading anymore. Is it from that point still a strong essay?</p>

<p>Narrative style essays do wonders, but see if changing the form can still have the same power. In college writing they want you to try out all styles regardless.</p>