<p>It seems like the admissions officers almost expect you to use more than 500 words. Ben Jones, I believe, commented on how his was 700 or so words. So I take it you are not penalized for going over? Are you rewarded for staying in the limit?</p>
<p>All in all, I suppose it's the quality of the essay, regardless of the length, that gets you in, but I'd still like to know if hitting 600 is going to tick off any of the application readers...</p>
<p>That's another question of mine, come to think of it. How many people read your application before they stamp it "Approved" or "Deferred" or "Denied"?</p>
<p>i think three separate people look at your application, and it can be more. as for the word limit, i didn't deviate more than 10 words, probably, on any of my essays anywhere (even something ridiculous, like, tell us about a passion in 100 words or less), and i'm pretty sure it neither helped or hurt me. they're not going to count, frinstance. it was certainly the tightest editing i've ever done. if you find yourself going considerably over (and i'd say 600 on a 500-word counts), you may want to see about reassessing more than just sentence-level mechanics; it feels vaguely rude, considering their workload, to go over by much unless it's truly spectacular material.</p>
<p>I would be inclined to agree with you, I don't want to do anything that would make them not want to look for reasons to admit me. It's hard enough as it is, I've worked 15 hours a week concurrently with school and my grades have suffered because of it.</p>
<p>If only I knew back then MIT had 100% needs met. :/.</p>
<p>In my blog I did say "50 words over the limit isn't a big deal, don't worry about it. People who totally ignore the limit and submit 1000 words, however, are telling us something about their ability to write a concise essay..." In other words, it's not a strict limit, but don't abuse that policy - the reader(s) won't appreciate it if you do.</p>
<p>And where did you find that 700 word figure? I've never applied to MIT, I only work here. :-)</p>
<p>
[quote]
How many people read your application before they stamp it "Approved" or "Deferred" or "Denied"?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sorry, forgot to answer this part.</p>
<p>Your application will be read first by a triager (a senior admissions counselor) who will make sure that there aren't any red flags - D's, 200's on SAT I and II tests, etc. If you make it past the triage stage, your app will be read by two different readers, each of whom will write a summary for the committee to consider. Then your app will go to committee and be seen & discussed by 1-3 groups, each of which is comprised of 3-4 admissions officers. I'd say most apps are seen by at least 2 of these groups before a decision is made. So if you've been doing the math, your app will be seen by - on average - 10 or so people before it's "stamped" with a decision.</p>
<p>Can we send in stuff other than paper? I was thinking it would be nice if I could send in a CD with all my CS projects, and my science projects, etc.</p>
<p>as long as it isnt too far over, i dont think you have much to worry about. I think mine was 599 -got rid of an extra word for the same <em>psychological</em> effect used in pricing :) -and i was accepted.</p>
<p>If we're applying online, where do we mail things in and how do we label things such that you get everything together with our application? Should we include a social security number with whatever we're mailing, etc?</p>
<p>Also, about the letters of recommendation... do we have the school mail them? Or should I just get them in a sealed envelope and send it all in together with the transcript, photos, etc?</p>
<p>Mail things to 77 Mass Ave, Room 3-108, Cambridge, MA, 02139. Just make sure to put your full name and <em>birthdate</em> on every page (SS# is optional).</p>
<p>RE the recs - you can just have your teachers mail them to us directly. Same address - it's printed on the rec forms for their convenience.</p>
<p>Hehe, my apologies for the bump, but I've been over and over my essays, and they seem to clock in at around 570 words. I realize this is over the limit, but I feel that what I have said is valuable. Is this going to be a problem?</p>
<p>Well, Ben Jones does say above,
[quote]
In my blog I did say "50 words over the limit isn't a big deal, don't worry about it. People who totally ignore the limit and submit 1000 words, however, are telling us something about their ability to write a concise essay..." In other words, it's not a strict limit, but don't abuse that policy - the reader(s) won't appreciate it if you do.
[/quote]
and 70 isn't many more than 50, so it would seem your essays will be acceptable to the readers. Especially if you're happy with them and feel they include valuable content.</p>
<p>Indeed. I guess I'm just worrying too much. This application has (as all applications do) the power to shape my entire future. I get nervous about things like that. ;-).</p>
<p>Thanks for your help MM! You've been great! :D</p>
<p>And yes, don't worry about having 570 words if you're really happy with the essay. Here's the key - it's not like we sit there and count the words. :) But we do know <em>roughly</em> what 500 words looks like. 570 words isn't going to look all that different from 500 words. If you submit 800 words, however, that's a different story.</p>
You may exceed the 500 word limit; whether you choose to do so is up to you.</p>
<p>As I've written before, we're not going to reject you because of the length of your essay. We do not have an auto-word-counter for the online application. Also, I am not going to count the words in your essay. I have never even estimated the length of an essay response.</p>
<p>Really, quality is much more important than quantity. And some people, I know, do have more to say than what fits in the suggested number of words. If that is you, I'd encourage you to show your essay to your favorite English teacher, tell him/her that your essay is currently longer than the recommended limit, and ask what advice s/he would give you. They may tell you to send in the longer essay, and if they do, I'd trust that. Or, if they recommend paring it down to restrict it to the word limit, I'd take that advice.