How long is YOUR commonapp essay? - Page 3

chair2 · 10-23-2009, 12:42 AM

^ thanks for clarifying. i thought people were saying the commonapp was recommended to be 500 and under! mine is 900-some, i think.

Feed · 10-23-2009, 02:08 AM

Everyone here needs to calm down and be confident about him/herself.

The instructions are very clear.
Common app essay - no less than 250 words.
Yale supp essay - no more than 500 words.
You all seem to be aware of this. Then why are we going around here branding essays with "limits" and trying to judge what admissions officers will do or not do?

My Common app essay is 1,008 words.
My supp essay is exactly 500 words. I haven't done anything wrong.

I've read plenty of college essays from people who got accepted into HYPS schools that are over 800 words. Don't worry about how many words.

A long essay that flows well > An essay that shouts "I was shortened to fit an imaginary word limit because some CCers thought I was too long!"

It's the admissions officer's job to read the essay as well as other parts of the application.

Furthermore, the Yale website states:

Quote:

My essay is more than 500 words. Is that OK?
We ask that you respect the word limit we suggest. Will we read the words beyond 500? Yes. But if your essay is much longer than 500 words, understand that you will not help yourself by seeming to have ignored our request.

They have stated that even for the supp essay, if your essay > 500 words, they will read it (granted they'll be a little annoyed). NB Yale has not "suggested" a length for the common app essay.
So, as long you're in the limits, why worry?
QED.

Now, stop worrying about this trivial matter.

RFK68 · 10-23-2009, 09:27 PM

My common app is just under 700 words and my Yale supplement essay is 499!

teenage_cliche · 10-23-2009, 09:55 PM

640 Commonapp, 460 Yale.

dancer13 · 10-23-2009, 10:13 PM

576 common app, around 400 Yale. Is 400 too short? I'm not done yet so the reason I ask is because I'm not sure whether adding more is necessary or not.

victorkangnz · 10-23-2009, 11:53 PM

Common App 743 words; yale supp 503

ZeZe · 10-24-2009, 01:25 AM

My common app is about 540 words and my Yale supplementary essay is about 490 words. However, I think the admissions committee is more concerned with how well you portray your true self than with the length.

teskata · 10-24-2009, 06:28 PM

No one is going to count your words (unless the online version does it automatically, I don't know about this). If it looks like around 500 words, it is.

franz · 10-24-2009, 08:11 PM

what if your Yale supplement is 525 words instead of 500. I can't think of any ways of shortening further, but should I make an effort to remove the extra 25?

trickysocksman · 10-24-2009, 11:04 PM

yeah my yale supp is like 520. do they really do a word count? since im assuming in the faqs that when they say "much longer than 500 words" im assuming like close to 600 or so?

mifune · 10-25-2009, 05:19 PM

CommonApp: 1200; Yale: 700 (I don't think an admissions decision will rest upon the excess words and I am not too worried since there is absolutley no "fluff")

Stupefy · 10-25-2009, 05:28 PM

670 common app, 520 yale

Tres Elefantes · 10-26-2009, 04:00 PM

485 words. I got it down.

It's shorter than my supp. essay, though, which is a little strange.

EDIT: Stupefy, aren't the supp. essays supposed to be under 500 words? Why break the rule? Mine is 499, cut down about 50 words from 550.

Stupefy · 10-26-2009, 05:15 PM

^because the words are short and it doesnt look much different

aniram518 · 10-26-2009, 08:11 PM

20 words really doesn't make a difference. That's like what two, maybe three sentances extra? The adcoms probably won't even notice.

As of now I have 746 and 520 as well. But I'm still editing my supplement.