is it okay to write more than 150 words on my short answer??????

yipyip0901 · 10-27-2009, 12:26 AM

So,is it okay to write more than 150 words for my short answer?like 200 wordss?

adambedford · 10-27-2009, 06:53 AM

I think you can probably get away with about 160/165 (thats 10-15% over). I'm applying this year as well and mine is 166. 200 is probably too much though.

yipyip0901 · 10-27-2009, 01:23 PM

only 160 words?wow thats hard....

HighlandMom · 10-27-2009, 02:32 PM

My d had a hard time even fitting in 150 words in the space allotted. I think it's by character vs. word total. She got around it by not double spacing between the paragraphs. Otherwise it just cut off the last part.

Lemonio · 10-27-2009, 04:02 PM

i was very methodical about the word limits
i had exactly 150 for that prompt....exactly 50 for a 50 word essay in a supplement, and exactly 500 on another essay xD

i was just doing this for fun though
i think you can go over, if it is really necessary
but keep in mind, this must be concise
if you have something that is unnecessary, GET RID OF IT
you don't want to waste the adcom's time. so only go over if you have a good reason to

Edit: oh yeah, and 200 is way too much
you can go like
165 max
they shouldn't be able to tell that you went over word limit without looking at word count.

ssmom62 · 10-27-2009, 04:43 PM

I don't have any "inside" information, but I think that you should follow the directions. If it says no more than 150 words, than it should be no more than 150 words. Perhaps it's because I am an elementary teacher, but I would follow the directions as written.

WinstonWolfe · 10-27-2009, 05:14 PM

Your short response is limited to 1500 characters, which is approximated by 150 words. Within that limit, go crazy.

supernova275 · 10-28-2009, 07:19 PM

It will tell you if you're over - I wrote mine earlier and when I tried to save, it told me I had too many words and needed to revise. I am not sure what the final word count is in the response, but it doesn't get angry with me when I try to save now!

rmadden15 · 10-28-2009, 07:52 PM

Sometime less is more. Find stronger words. I could write a 3000 word essay on my involvement, but I limited myself to exactly 150. "Being your typical chameleon in stage make-up, ..." Ah, what a great response, if I say so myself.

TheGFG · 10-29-2009, 01:05 AM

Ok, this probably answers my question. D's essay, according to the word count tool, was exactly 150 words. Unfortunately, when she uploaded it she got the message that it's too long. So the problem is the number of characters then?

soozievt · 10-29-2009, 10:32 PM

These online apps go by character count (with spaces) and not really by word count. I am wondering if anyone knows the maximum character count for this activity essay on the common app? I have a student telling me that the essay is getting cut off and he thinks he can only write 150 words but I know that is not true as I have done MANY of these essays over the years and many came in over 150 but they can only be a certain number of characters. So, it is not like he must cut it to 150 word exactly (it is at 184 words now) but I'd prefer to know the character count limit if anyone knows, thanks. I can't tell as I am not registered to fill out an application online myself. This is at 993 characters with spaces and I can't tell how many characters need to be shaved.

Dadx2 · 10-31-2009, 11:50 AM

This from the Common App support site:

"We strongly advise all students to follow the short answer essay instructions by limiting the response to 150 words. Since the online system cannot enforce a word count for technological reasons, the Common App has imposed a 1000-character count maximum and a four-line limit, but that does not precisely correspond to 150 words, since words vary in length.

Please do not add any special formatting or unnecessary spaces since these will be counted in the character count."

freetshirtsorg · 10-31-2009, 08:40 PM

Mine is 163. It won't let me submit.