Common app essay length?

College Essays
1

<p>I am doing my common application essay on the 1st topic, about an ethical, moral, or other dilemma, etc.</p>

<p>My essay is basically my life story. When I was younger I was “poor”. When I was about 10 my mom got remarried, which helped our financial situation, but it turns out the man she married, my stepfather, was an alcoholic. I explain how for years I couldn’t invite friends over to my house in fear of embarassment, and how it was difficult to focus on schoolwork because of the stress caused by living with him (frequent fights, sleeping at hotels, him breaking my mom’s and my belongings, etc). Then I explain how I got the courage to leave and live with my bioligical father, but I had to face the problem of leaving my twin sister behind, because she didn’t want to move.</p>

<p>The essay was originally 1600 words, but I filed it down to about 1100. This is stil quite a bit, but the more details I take out, the less powerful my essay is.</p>

2

<p>That sounds like a really intriguing essay, but adcoms prefer to read essays between 500 - 600 words. I think you could even stretch it to 700, but 1100 is way too long. Unfortunately, they need to get through a ton of applications in a short amount of time, so essay length is key.</p>

3

<p>Anything above 700 is too long in my opinion - sorry.</p>