<p>My son went “Over” a half page on his personal essay. Frankly I think it needed editing but since he finished it at 11:00 PM the night it was to be postmarked by midnight…Ha. He had great outcomes. But don’t overtax your reader in any way…it is a gift to follow the rules if possible. Nothing you can write about is that interesting under these specific circumstances. It is a sign of Social Intelligence to also picture your reader. Who has a stack of earnest essays to read right after yours.</p>
<p>Those kids who finish their essays early can get a second opinion and trim and streamline. Sometimes I wonder if my son’s essays seemed more genuine because they did not receive comments for cuts by the English teacher. Every time I see his personal essay, I see what needed cutting…but then would it look like a 50 year old wrote it?</p>
<p>Might be ok, cujoe. Does it fit when you type it online and preview, or do they truncate it? If you want to pm me, I can see if I have any suggestions for trimming. I’m pretty good at editing without losing the voice, the meaning or the great writing ;).</p>
<p>hehe, i just did some more editing… down to about 570… probably be able to get to 550, i think that’s close enough (i’m applying by paper), but a grammar question… i pm’d the paragraph in question to you jmmom :)</p>
<p>Edit it if it needs editting. Otherwise, don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>My essay was around 900 words, and it fit perfectly into the common app page online. My college councelor told me not to change it, and I didn’t want to cut anything out, so I left it the same. English teachers have always commented on how concise my writing is, so I knew I wasn’t being overly wordy. </p>
<p>As long as you are happy with your essay, and someone you showed it to agreed, you’re probably fine.</p>
<p>900 words! wow, ok, well it was originally meant as my pg 217 for penn, but i thought it fit perfectly in describing me and my life, so i changed it… in any case it was originally 677 now it’s roughtly 570, so i’m pretty happy with it… my teachers didn’t say anything simple because i told them penn had no word limit (just one page), but nah, i fixed it…</p>