<p>As the question of the thread says- What should be usually the word limit for the additional essay? I have written one but its around late 700s. Do I need to cut it down further?</p>
<p>Mine was like 300-350, I think that at some point, you will be cut off (maybe not like it won’t save and will have an error message, but that when you preview your app, the essay will be cut off, paste it in and check it)</p>
<p>@Isaac- Really? I mean 350’s too less. And you got into MIT EA?</p>
<p>You don’t even have to write an essay. It says Additional Info, you can just inform them about things you couldn’t mention elsewhere on the application.</p>
<p>but what if we write an essay ?</p>
<p>I weote an essay, and then listed additional awards. Is that bad?</p>
<p>OP, yeah I got into MIT EA. As for 350 being “too less” (which I don’t know what you mean to say by that because I don’t think you are using proper grammar, do you mean 200 less words that you are attempting to fit?) it is the quality of what you say in the extra essay (if you even chose to write one) that is important, not the arbitrary use of “more words” that admissions officers have to read, so if you don’t add anything important, you are wasting their time.</p>
<p>IsaacM … what if we write something that can clearly put up an image or our world and our contexts … ??</p>
<p>Then I think that that would be helpful</p>
<p>I would definitely advise writing an essay, I mean if you really think that adding a list of awards or activities or what have you, I guess go for it. Personally, I wrote an essay though. Also, it is not required or expected to write one (according to other posts, blogs, MIT website)</p>
<p>You can write whatever you want in this section, whether “what you want” is an essay, a list of awards, an explanation of some circumstance in your school or life, an expansion of something else in the application, something else, or nothing at all.</p>
<p>Whatever you want.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say that I was admitted without an additional essay. It’s not one of those “optional <em>nudge</em>nudge<em>wink</em>wink<em>write</em>it*” essays. Only write one if you really think that it will show a part of you not already described in the required portions.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be an essay! Mine was more of a ~200 word drabble that explained how much I loved the summer program I did at MIT. I also added some additional information about some extracurriculars and linked to my music supplement website.</p>
<p>Just remember what Mollie said: Whatever you want!</p>
<p>I wanted to ask something … Since MIT International admissions are super tough still do the admission officers look up at the context of applicants ??</p>
<p>Also while the discussion i heard/read that MIT doesn’t have quotas for any particular country, so my next question, rather complicated but is related to that, i.e., If MIT takes a maximum of 5 applicants from my country and all of them are academically more qualified than I am, but I am better than some X applicant say from Y country, does this means for the sake of diversity and keeping in mind MIT has already picked up 5 applicants from my country, will I be left out ???</p>
<p>umm … no answers ??</p>
<p>
Yes, all applications are holistic, and the context of every applicant is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>
There is not a “maximum” number of people MIT will take from a particular country – there is no quota for any individual country. If there were ten, or twenty, people from a particular country that MIT wanted to admit, they would admit those people.</p>
<p>
You are not being directly compared with anyone else in the applicant pool – your application stands or falls on its own. I understand that it’s tempting to make up these hypothetical cases, but they really do not help.</p>
<p>well sorry if i made myself unclear or something like that molliebatmit, but, with absolutely no intention to cross you or not accepting what you just told me above there, this is from a post by Matt …</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So am i getting this wrong somewhere ??</p>
<p>No – all international applications are selected in a single round of selection, separate from domestic applications, because only around 100 international students can be admitted each year. Since there’s such a strict cap on international admits, MIT wants to be able to select all 100 at once.</p>
<p>But this doesn’t contradict what I said above – each application stands or falls on its own merits, and there are no country-specific quotas. Your application is not being compared with anyone else’s directly, except insofar as it is being compared with the entire pool as a whole.</p>