<p>1 - My common app essay is ~600 words but well short of one page, single spaced. Is this fine? I know that no one is actually going to count how many words I have, but I also know that most admissions officers can tell if it's over 500 words by a considerable amount. But since it's less than a page, it feels pretty short - I let an English teacher read it over for me last week when it was ~550 words, and he thought it was around 300 words before I told him. So should I find a way to trim down 100 words, or is it fine the way it is?</p>
<p>2 - If I send SAT scores now, should I rush them?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Do not write over 500 words. There is a limit for a reason.
No need to rush scores; they send it in pretty quickly anyways.
Good luck!</p>
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<p>And never rush scores to schools that receive them electronically. College Board, greedy as it is (even though it’s ostensibly non-profit, which will hopefully be challenged when it’s next audited because they’re really just using that to escape taxes), will try to get you to pay something like $19 or $27 to rush an electronic submission of scores. Yes, they do try to get you to pay that much for what is probably an immediate submission of scores instead of their submission as an overnight batch operation.</p>
<p>You’re arguing that exceeding the word limit by around 100 words is okay because it’s one page. But that’s one single-spaced page. I suggest that you cut around 100 words and double-space your essay.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies concerning SAT scores.</p>
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<p>Oh, that single-spaced thing probably sounded a bit out of the blue. I’ve been searching through old CC threads and I’ve seen some people saying that 500 words is merely a guideline, and that 500 words is approximately one single-spaced page, so having one single-spaced page could be fine. Of course there have also been people saying that 500 words is a hard limit, so I’m just trying to figure out what the real deal is.
Now, if I cut 100 words and double space my essay, I’m barely over a page. That feels way too short, but if it’s what I have to do, I’ll do it…</p>
<p>The thing about looking back to old CC threads is that the 250-500 word limit is new as of this year. Last year’s and subsequent year’s essay word limits had 500-750 as a sort of guideline whereas this year has a strict limit that you really shouldn’t exceed.</p>
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Good point, but at the same time I see things like this: [Is</a> a 600-Word Common Application Essay Too Long? - Ask The Dean](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/is-a-600-word-common-application-essay-too-long.htm]Is”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/is-a-600-word-common-application-essay-too-long.htm)</p>
<p>I wish they could just make it clear. MIT capped theirs hard at 100/250 this year (it wouldn’t let you save if it was over), making it pretty clear that the limit was the limit. Common App doesn’t do that, and you get things like the link I posted, while the rest of you are all saying that it’s 500 or die.</p>
<p>I just whipped my essay down to 500, anyway, and it’s workable but nowhere as good as it used to be. Would something in the 520-540 range really be unacceptable?</p>