<p>I'm a little more than a half way--two thirds--done with my essay and I already hit the half way mark. Anyone else encounter any problem?</p>
<p>I know probably everyone will tell you to cut it down to 500 if you go over, but I left mine long (like 300 words too long) and I still did all right - I don't think it really hurt me in admissions. I didn't get rejected anywhere, and it can be argued that it might have helped tip me in instead of getting waitlisted at Duke, Davidson, and WM...but I don't really think so. I think it was just a tough year, and I'm sure it was some other things in my file (pretty decent but not stellar GPA and SAT) that kept me out.</p>
<p>Wait, so supplements and applications don't cut your essays at the five hundred mark?</p>
<p>bump. Anyone else?</p>
<p>It is highly recommended that your esays not be too long, because the admissions officers have to look at a billion of them, but they're not going to count words and slice you off if you go over. Just . . . try not to.</p>
<p>anyone else?</p>
<p>Hey, ugh. You know what? I just started typing my long essay, got done with the introduction, smiled, did a word count, and died. 153 already -- that's almost 1/3! Writing too little is harder than I thought . . .</p>
<p>10% over is negligible... So make your limit 550 at the absolute max.</p>
<p>I'm having trouble with it. I could go ON and ON and ON - mine is relatively substantive to some others that are more emotional. Perfect length I think would be about 1200 words. I'm going to have to do some MAJOR trimming. :(</p>
<p>dd wrote an 800 word essay for a school that didn't restrict. It was edited and cut down and pretty finished. It was very good. Then she decided to use it for the common ap. She was able to edit it to 500 words and it is a stronger essay for it. It is really amazing what rewrite can do to improve an essay. When you are forced to edit and take extraneous words out of every sentence, and take extraneous sentences out of every paragraph you can get a sharper piece.</p>
<p>If you are only half way, you have a draft, not an essay. Edit, but after you finish the first draft without worrying much about how long it is to begin with.</p>
<p>bumping it.</p>
<p>Okay, I finished four of my essays, and have edited them about 12 times each. What ended up working for me was writing straight out and saying all that I thought I needed to say, then trimming. I wrote 490 words for something that was supposed to be about 250, thought I was in peril, and then edited until I had 280 words and an essay that was more fantabulous than the first.</p>
<p>Are you still having trouble? I'll get out my red pen for you . . . ?</p>
<p>I just finished my main essay and it's 750 words. How bad is that?</p>
<p>I'm sure that it's an excellent essay. And I'm sure that each and every on of those 250 extras words contributes something valuable. (I'm serious -- no sarcasm).</p>
<p>Thing is, you've gone and chosen 750 meaningful words when they asked you for 500. Your essay very well may be better with the extra length. But it's not what they assigned. If it's truly truly remarkable (will they salivate when they read it?) then leave it. But when in doubt, edit it out. (see that? I made that up just for you) You wouldn't want to give the impression that you think... oh, say... that the rules don't apply to you.</p>
<p>I'd say around 600 is really as long as you should go, I wrote 607 and felt guilty.</p>