<p>As long as the essay fits in 1 page single spaced, they're not going to count the words, right?</p>
<p>They scan your docs. Easy to pull up word count. Stick to the 500</p>
<p>The very first FAQ question deals w/essay length. Do you think it’s important to them?</p>
<p>[Frequently</a> Asked Questions - Applying to Yale College | Yale College Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/faq/applying-yale-college]Frequently”>Applying to Yale College | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions)</p>
<p>I quote: “We ask that you respect the word limit we have set. Will we read the words beyond 500? Yes. But if your essay is much longer than 500 words, you will not have helped yourself by ignoring our request. Remember, concise and simple writing is often the best writing.”</p>
<p>Basically, you’re not special. Be noticed for quality writing, not skirting their requests – on top of being a boring writer.</p>
<p>How much is “much”? </p>
<p>My Yale supplement is 600 right now and I can cut it down to 550 at least, which I don’t think will ping as “much longer” than 500. But I wrote my common app essay before I knew about Yale’s requirements and it’s 800 words long, so I’m hoping they’re more lenient with that-- I can cut, but I don’t think I can get it down to 500. Any suggestions as to what my word count goal should be for the main essay?</p>
<p>Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>I’m having the same problem. I’ve got a 700 word Common App essay and 525 on my Yale supplement. But I don’t think my common app essay reads long…</p>
<p>same here. I wrote my common app essay before I knew that Yale wanted it to be around 500 words and it’s 1017 words. I think that pretty much all of my words are essential to my essay and i don’t think there’s anyway to cut it down that drastically. I already cut it down by almost 200 words. Plus like atv I don’t think that my essay reads long. Does anybody think that the admissions officers will be peeved about reading my long essay?</p>
<p>h4ilest4r, sorry, but I would consider 1000+ long, no matter how it reads. How long is your supplement? If it’s on the shorter side, that might balance your application out.</p>
<p>Okay, I got my commonapp one down to 694 (One page single spaced 12 pt Times New Roman) and my Yale one down to 585 (One page single spaced 12 pt Georgia)</p>
<p>Is this good?</p>
<p>My CommonApp was 555 words (including the title), and it looks as if my supplement will be about 500 words. I heard that if you stay under 600 you should be fine, but I’ve also heard about a “10% Rule,” where you should stay within 10% of the suggested limit (in this case, 450-550 words).</p>
<p>As long as the words are needed it is fine (there must now be 5+ threads on this). Try keep the supp essay to about 500-600, but commonapp can be longer. 1000+ is maybe a bit long but again, if needed…</p>
<p>Think mine were about 900 and 550 and they worked fine.</p>