<p>The common app wants essays to be between 250-500 words.
On the JHU website, I was looking through the ‘essays that worked’ section and noticed that most of them were over 500 words, and a few were over 1000!
So, does the word count on college essays actually matter?
Does it depend on the school?
HELP!!</p>
<p>The CA brought back the 250-500 word guideline this year, so JHU’s examples are from recent years. Unless a university specifically asks for more words, stick with 250-500 words. </p>
<p>You’d be alright going slightly over the limit since nobody will be counting words.</p>