<p>I wrote a rough draft of what I’m going to upload onto the Common App. It’s three pages long, and I still have one lengthy paragraph to go. I think it’s too long, but I have a lot to mention. I’ve had stomach problems that have affected my attendance and I talked about the effects of my dad dying.</p>
<p>Okay, questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Should it be one page? How long can it be? </li>
<li>I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and EDNOS over the summer. Should I mention this?</li>
</ol>
<p>My gut feeling is that three pages is too much. Can you just mention the primary factors? Concise writing is a skill. Plus, you don’t want to come off as making tons and tons of excuses.</p>
<p>Aiight, so I shortened it to half a page. I took out all the fluff and added a couple of sentences about not making excuses for bad grades and talked about working incredibly hard senior year (I even added in a quote from Animal Farm). </p>
<p>I did mention my mental illness, but I wasn’t specific about it. To anyone that can offer an answer, should I elaborate on my illness?</p>