Writing Supplement Word Counts

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>What is an approximate word count for these essays?</p>

<p>1.) Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences.</p>

<p>2.) You may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. You may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics:
- Unusual circumstances in your life
- Travel or living experiences in other countries
- What you would want your future college roommate to know about you
- An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you
- How you hope to use your college education
- A list of books you have read during the past twelve months</p>

2

<p>Never mind about the first one. It has a 150 word limit.</p>

3

<p>There isn’t a word limit on Harvard’s supplemental essay. Keep in mind though that an Admissions Officer only has about 10-15 minutes to review your file, so the more you write for the supplemental essay, the less time they will have to focus on the other required elements of your file.</p>

4

<p>Does anyone know how many words will the second supplementary essay allow?</p>