<p>There's no need for anyone in this thread to get upset. We've established that there's no set rule at 500 words, but it appears that the de facto definition of an optimal college essay is that it is short and concise. </p>
<p>With that said, I'd recommend cutting the essay down a tad more if it's indeed 850 words. I'm sure one can at least make an effort to avoid redundancy. I thought my 800 word essay could not be edited any further until I tried. In fact, it's 617 words now and I like it a lot better in its current state. I plan to edit a little more still. </p>
<p>The 500 rule is a guideline. How can you write some idea how the required length? Following your reasoning, there will be students who submit 4 or 5 page essays?</p>
<p>Think about it, you're an admissions officer, you've just spend the last 8 hours reading essay after essay, and wham there's an essay that is twice as long as what you expect. You ain't gonna be pleased.</p>
<p>You know UGH.........I like you, am new here but even I know a little etiquette and I dont't think you are going to win over many people on this board by hitting below the belt. NO its not a lost cause, I am trying to help my son not make a mistake, your comment below is harsh and uncalled for.I came to this site becuase a number of parents in my sons school felt and rightfully so that it is a wealth of information, so I was asking for opinions not derragatory remarks like yours below.</p>
<p>It's a lost cause guys... OBVIOUSLY ctmomof3 is trying to get her son rejected from whatever school he's applying to. Frankly why I am so concerned is my own business....so kindly refrain please from posting unless you have something positive and proactive to say. Have a great day.:)</p>
<p>Real talk tho, why is ctmomof3 on here and not her son? Didn't HE write the essay? Why are you so concerned? If he messes his college admissions chances up by going over 850 words, won't that mess up HIS future and not yours? Relax ctmomof3</p>
<p>I am running into the same issue as your son. The Common App is being ridiculous in my opinion, because the colleges still will be looking for 250-500 (many of their admissions people don't even know the limit got removed and they still have the same reading time as before)...given the Common App's lack of concreteness, however, I would think more than 500 would not impact as much as before.</p>
<p>I would stick to a single page single-spaced (or less of course).</p>
<p>At the moment, I am thinking about sending in a 1000 word one though...making sure to highlight and put in bold that the common app no longer has a max word limit.</p>
<p>I also emailed the common app people and they "advised" to under 500 words....which I think is extraordinarily stupid...if they want to say max 500, then they should just say it. Or if they want to make it "unlimited," they need to announce it to the colleges (which as far as I know, they have not done; the reps I talked to were like "HUH? That happened?" and my college counselors are like "Are you sure they took off the limit? ...None of the admin deans will have a clue...").</p>
<p>About that admin deans will read your essay and it'll be twice as long as others leading to annoyance probably will not be that true...since <em>many</em> people do not know of what previous year's rules were/or if they do do not see a point in obeying them. I agree completely with ctmomof3....the college process should not be about using previous year's rules. What's the rule now is the rule now. What was the rule last year is simply not the rule now. Any attempt to enforce the latter is not only horribly unfair, it's absurd.</p>
<p>@UGASnowbulldawg who is talking about "behemoth novellas," come come now. Is 1000 words a novella? In a nice 6x4" book and standard book type, that's what....4 pages? 5? 6? Maybe, not sure. Less than 10? You bet. Imagine 10 pages in a bound book...that'd look wicked ridiculous. Now, find me a five page novella please...</p>
<p>A little followup, after a lot of reviewing and revising, my s. did manage to get his essay down to 645 words! It still very much has the same flavor, in fact its hard to detect just what went missing. So with patience and diligence, it can get done! Good luck to you all....he can't wait to press that SUBMIT button tomorrow!</p>