<p>okay so the first short response is the academic interest one with 1600 characters, and the second inspiring academic experience one is like 900 words, which don’t give a lot of room at all, especially for writers like me who tend to write a lot. I’ve been trying to cut down my essays, but I think that they would be the best the way they are right now in terms of clarity and effectiveness, even if they go over the word limit.
I guess it depends on how much longer mine are than they should be, and umm… they are kind of wayyy longer :-/
i don’t know what to do, any suggestions?</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter. Unless, you know, it’s a bunch of wordy nonsense.</p>
<p>i think they actually count the words. lol</p>
<p>If you actually try to include more words than the required though, it won’t let you. For the “why Brown?” one, mine was over 1600 characters at one time, and when I tried to type it into the little box, it just wouldn’t fit.</p>
<p>So you pretty much can’t have over the required limit no matter what.</p>
<p>yea it all depends on if the common app boxes are nice…</p>
<p>Uh, the common app boxes can’t be nice or not - if you’re over 1600/900 characters, too bad.</p>
<p>can you still apply by paper common app?</p>
<p>hate to make your dilemma worse, but the inspiring academic experience one is 500 words. The second box is what got you interested in Brown. And I’m pretty sure they want you to stick to their word limit. Trust me i know it’s hard, but it’s good to let them know you can actually follow directions.</p>
<p>It’s 900 characters, not 900 words.</p>
<p>I’d reccommend that you try to cut it down and see what it looks like. If you don’t try it, you won’t know how it will turn out. I just say this because my daughter had to cut her essay down from 800 to 500 and I really couldn’t tell what was left out. The shorter one was just as impactful.</p>
<p>But if we go say 5-10 words over on the supplemental academic experience question (max 500 words), that probably will not matter, right? the few extra words will not be cut off or anything, and probably not even noticed?</p>
<p>No, no, 5-10 words are negligible. But OP: I’m sure you can cut down your 900 word one. :/</p>
<p>Do not submit a 900 word essay…ever. If you go to, say, 550 or 600 words you’re probably in the clear (despite the 500 word limit). Admissions officers do not count words…but they do read a lot of applications and can gauge when an applicant has gone overboard and will probably be annoyed if you’ve made them read a ridiculously long essay. Annoying an admissions officer isn’t a great idea…</p>
<p>There is no cut-and-dry answer to this. If you write an extremely compelling 900 word essay, then you won’t get rejected simply because you went over the word limit. An extremely boring 900 word essay, however, will not help your cause. Try your best to cut. Get someone to help you.</p>