Does the Common App essay have to be at or around 650 words? I wrote an essay I love which is about 550 words and people are telling me that the Common App has to be around the max limit.
It’s more difficult to write a good essay in 550 words, but it’s by no means impossible. I’d show the essay to your guidance counselor, and if he/she feels there isn’t much you could add with the extra 100 words, don’t worry about length. You can usually include more things in a 650-word essay than a 550-word one, but nobody is going to think less of your essay because it’s clear and concise. If bringing your essay to 650 will require adding a paragraph or a few sentences that don’t really bring anything more to it (or even distract the reader from your main idea), 550 is the way to go.
Thanks! I didn’t even think of showing it to my gc until now! Thanks for the idea
If your GC has more than a few years’ experience, he/she has read literally thousands of these essays, and knows which ones ended up working for the students in question and which ones didn’t. Obviously, you want a teacher to look over the essay (ideally an English teacher, but at the very least a good writer), but if anyone’s qualified to tell you “No. This won’t work.” or “This is great,” it’ll be your GC.
They can also tell you if they’ve read the same essay from about 10 students each year, in which case you’ll generally want to pick a different topic.