<p>I'm at about 1,000 words. My concept takes a few paragraphs to develop and would be completely bastardized if I had to shorten it anymore. Is this an acceptable length as long as the strength of writing is there? Thanks.</p>
<p>The draft I just finished came in at 566 words. It seems like most people try to keep it to 600 or below, but that’s just a safeguard, because it’s easy to get bored after 1,600 essays on the same topic. If you are a good enough and captivating enough writer to carry 1,000 words about how you love the school, then I don’t think it would be tossed out. Just be careful, and do all of the trimming tricks you can - reading it aloud to find passages that could be trimmed or reworded, looking for redundancies, etc.</p>
<p>Okay. I just feel like everybody is condemning such a length. My Common App essay was 970 words and everybody I shared it with had no complaints about the length. I use wildly varying syntax — one minute I’m bluntly conversational, the next I’m adapting the tone of a scholarly dissertation. I blend both extremes together with what I think is rhetorical ease. So I just hope NU can see that in me.</p>
<p>be concise.</p>
<p>If every word needs to be said, it definitely won’t hurt you. The purpose of them not having a word limit is so that you can express yourself as well as possible, without constraints . Some need more words to do this and others need less. And if I remember correctly, you’re applying to Medill, where they probably put the most emphasis on essays. This is an opportunity to show them how good of a writer you are, not just for you to list a couple reasons why you like Northwestern.</p>
<p>mine was 1179 and i got in… just make them know how much you want to go there and why you NEED to be at NU</p>
<p>I really do not understand how anyone can write in the 1000+ word range for this essay. Even if you have a strong personal relationship with Northwestern that is too long. I was a cherub and spent several weeks on campus and mine is still only 500 and change and I went into great detail about a lot of it. I have trouble believing that most of those enormous essays are not just rambling. My advice would be keep it short and concise.</p>
<p>Try to keep it about one page…which, I think, is about 500-750 words. More than that, the adcoms aren’t loose their enthusiasm.</p>