<p>My essay is 2000 words. I cut it down from 2800 words and I can’t cut it down anymore.
How will Harvard, Yale, and John Hopkins react to such a long essay, assuming that the essay is well done. </p>
<p>Please help! Do I really need to cut it down more?</p>
<p>What are you writing, a novel? Cut it down to 1000 at least.</p>
<p>that’s insane! what are you writing about?!</p>
<p>Cut, snip, chop, delete. Those schools are overworked anyway. Your essay will probably benefit from a few less words. Shouldn’t be more than 750+/-</p>
<p>Holy crap! You should cut it down. </p>
<p>Mine is only about 500 words.</p>
<p>Ok, let’s put it this way. Admissions officers have thousands of essays to read through, so they don’t have that much time to read your essay. My brother said that they’ll probably pay the most attention to the first couple paragraphs or so. You need to cut it down, otherwise they’ll read your essay and get lost in what you’re trying to say. Get your point across in the least amount of words possible to make things easier for them. </p>
<p>I feel your pain though. I wrote about a pretty emotional topic for my Common App essay, so it was hard for me to cut it down. Just try to focus on the point that you want the admissions officers to take away from your essay.</p>
<p>I got it down to 1900 from 2600
Will it put me at a big disadvantage?
Could it put me at any advantage if it’s a really good essay?</p>
<p>Your essay is still 3 times as long as mine was. Dont write a novel please. Admissions officers may see this as you not being able to express yourself in a CONCISE manner. It shouldnt be too short but too excessive is bad.</p>
<p>My essay was long too. A bit shorter than yours (1600 words), but still lengthy. I was worried too, so I asked the admissions representatives when they visited my high school. I asked reps at the Northwestern, Vanderbilt, U of Chicago, & WashU visits and they all had the same response. An essay that seems long, whether it is 3000 words or 300, is boring & they don’t want to read it. A longer essay that flows well & doesn’t make the admissions rep think “oh my goodness, when is this thing going to end?” is perfectly fine. If you are able to get the word count down, great, but if not, as long as it holds interest, promotes you well, and captures the attention of those reading it, then longer is completely acceptable. Don’t worry too much about the length. If it comes down to it, would you rather have an essay that is outstanding, albeit a bit long, or an essay that is shorter, but does a less thorough job of selling you to the colleges you’re applying to?</p>