Question: My daughter’s Common App essay is about 600 words. It’s a good essay, very readable, thoughtful, and fun. But, the new essay rule is 250-500 words. I understand that this is to keep lengths down, because students were going on for pages and pages in an effort to impress. So I’m thinking that 600 [...]
My son's was about 825.... Common app cuts you off at 500. We went to a open house at University of Delaware and the admissions advisor said that if your essay was over 500 words to mail it to them... It would get read. This inspired us to contact the other schools that my son was applying to and ask if we could do the same thing. All of them said yes, please mail it in.
I'm not sure if it is the same anymore (I am class of 2011 for HS), but my common app essay was around 1,000 words and I guess the admissions people liked it because I got accepted into every school I applied to including Johns Hopkins, NYU, and UM!
I don't think that the length of the essay should matter, as long as it is well written and makes an impact.
