<p>Hey I'm applying 2017 RD to Swarthmore, and i was just wondering how long the essay should be? Is it essential to stick to the 2000 character limit or is one page okay? I'm right now at about ~520 words and wondering how much to cut it down by?</p>
<p>I do not think so. Well mine was around 500 words. As long as it is orginal and engaging, I think it should be fine. Good luck!</p>
<p>One of the admissions officers told me when I visited that it’s okay to go over the limit, as long as it’s not ridiculous. I already applied; mine was almost 700 words so you should be fine :)</p>
<p>My essay was about a page long! Almost exactly 600 words. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>My essay was 314 words with 1800 characters, but I have a somewhat concise writing style. I would just be careful not to ramble and as long as you do that I don’t think length is that much of an issue.</p>
<p>I actually emailed Swarthmore admissions to ask this and they told me to stick to the 2,000 character limit. :(</p>
<p>I really gutted a lot of my essay because of that. Ended up with around 375 words. Submitting it soon.</p>
<p>Mine was 2562 characters without spaces and I was accepted ED, so don’t feel too bad if it goes over as long as you are still being concise in your arguments. I just had a lot to say about Swarthmore, but I didn’t ramble on. Good luck!</p>
<p>thanks guys. i can’t seem to be able to cut anything without ruining the flow, so i’m going to stick to 500, because the writing is pretty concise</p>
<p>When I talked to the admissions people in September, they said that there wasn’t really a word limit for the Why Swarthmore essay. Mine was 686 words, and I just got accepted ED, so I wouldn’t worry about going over 2000 characters!</p>
<p>I agree with glassstourist! My essay was around 500 words, and I was just accepted ED! Don’t worry about it, as long as the extra characters are actually worth it.</p>