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<p>Yes, Yale wants to see all five, not just the three.</p>
<p>What if one of the SAT IIs is a retake? Like, let’s say I got a 500 (I didn’t) on Literature, and then got an 800 on Literature (I didn’t) the second time I took it. Do I report both the 500 and 800?</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, Yale doesn’t accept Score Choice, so you would have to send both. But, Yale says they consider your highest score, and I believe them. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to show that you had the ambition to improve from a 500 to a 800, or it could show that the 500 was just a fluke.</p>
<p>@kaira07: 694 words is a bit much, Yale says they prefer the essays to be under 500, according to the admissions website. I think they would read it, but it’d be better to cut it down a bit.</p>
<p>that’s what i was thinking too. i’m going to try to keep it between 500-550.
what about the additional one? it says under 500 and mine’s 493. I’m not sure if i should shorten it to 400, because that would kill the flow.</p>
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<p>Are you serious? I think most people here on CC have their main CommonApp essay to be around 700-800 words! Where does it say on the Yale website that they only want a 500 word essay for the CommonApp?</p>
<p>Edit: Shoot, I found the link. <a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/instructions[/url]”>http://admissions.yale.edu/instructions</a></p>
<p>I can’t cut down my essay from ~700 words, so I guess I’ll just have to submit it as it is.</p>
<p>It’s September 12…the deadline is November 1…you have time to cut it down.</p>
<p>On their new updated website—“Common Application and Yale Supplement
The Common Application and Yale Supplement will give you the opportunity to tell us more about your background, activities, interests, and motivation for applying to Yale. You are asked to write two essays on topics of your choice and to write about your extracurricular activities in the spaces provided. Write openly and honestly about activities, interests, or experiences that have been meaningful to you. Most important, write in your own voice about topics that you are passionate about. If an essay doesn’t sound like the person who writes it, it will not work well as a personal statement. We read essays very carefully and try to get a full sense of the human being behind them. Concise writing is often the best writing, so please try to limit each essay to approximately 500 words. We will accept but do not encourage additional resumes or essays.”</p>
<p>Limit EACH essay? Why could they limit our CommonApp essay? That essay obviously has to go to other schools too (the Common App says so), and other schools do NOT limit us.</p>
<p>Also, Yale is contradicting itself. It says on the Common App supp “Please limit the essay to fewer than 500 words”. But on it’s website it says “to approximately 500 words.”</p>
<p>I hate this. It’s like they’re playing around with us.</p>
<p>I think the additional essay is supposed to be under 500 words and the commonapp one around 500. Since other schools don’t have a limit, they can’t really say it HAS to be under 500. i think 500-600 is decent. </p>
<p>Can we change our commonapp essay for different schools by any chance?</p>
<p>And do they mean we shouldn’t attach a resume? What is our achievements don’t fit in the space provided?</p>
<p>Interesting how i suddenly have 10000 questions since i began work on my application! Whew.</p>
<p>I suppose the limit could be around 500 words. or a bit longer but not enough.Around 500-510 could be good.</p>
<p>@kaira07 : technically, we can change our commonapp essay for different schools by creating different versions. But the CA says explicitly that we should not.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that trimming your essay to around 500 words might actually make it better. Just because Yale is the only one with a limit, it doesn’t mean the same rules don’t apply for other schools: “Concise writing is often the best writing.”</p>
<p>What makes concise writing BETTER? If you have a story to tell, you should be able to tell it, without having to worry about some word limit. The common App says 250 word minimum and that doesn’t mean that Yale should look down on a 800 word essay that has superb content (absolutely ridiculous…)… I can’t believe they would actually try to limit the Common App essay…</p>
<p>do you think theyll be annoyed or not read it fully cus its around 750, which is what my teachers and others have said is a good number. (especially cus im one of those people who loves to use conjuctions a lot)</p>
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<p>You have to know your audience. If you read 30 essays a day, would you be more interested in the one that is economical, and gets to the point, or the one that dances around it?</p>
<p>If yale says concise writing is often better, then it probably is. Now you can whine about it and go over the limit, or you can be smart and take their advice.</p>
<p>Think about a stand-up comedian, or an entertainer–the key is in the delivery. You won’t hold the audience’s attention if your one joke drags on for five minutes.</p>
<p>A 620 word essay for the Common won’t hurt, would it? I’m not gonna cut it down, it’s packed and neat.
Long essays (800+) can be brilliant and nor annoy the AOs, but the precondition is “birilliant”.</p>
<p>I just somehow, i have NO idea how, made my essay 441 words. <em>Gulp</em> That is too short, isn’t it?</p>
<p>I went to an information session on Sunday, and they had a sign-up sheet for the students who came. Anyone have an idea as to why they would bother doing that? It’s said that Yale doesn’t care about interest, so I was just curious.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s so they can mail you information as the year progresses.</p>
<p>@nne718: I agree with kaira07, just to send you info and get you to apply</p>