[peachiez89]

ok- i posted a similar post in "pre-college" section, but I am a "worrier" so I just HAD to post it here 2 to get feedback from people who are ALREADY in college. Did you guys write realllllly long college essays when you guys were applying? The recommended length for me is 500-650 but i wrote like a 1050. EEKk...thatz bad right? will the ppl who will be reading my essay get mad and irritated? i mean..as long as the content is good, it's ok right? ohhh.. *SIGH*..plze HELP

[jaesun]

quality over quantity. just take the unnecesary info out.

[clauric]

well if i read that essay--i would assume that u don't read the directions carefully..

my ta's in college get irritated when ppl write more than they were asked...
with all the papers they have to read--they get more irritated (well in the case of my ta's...)

[HtyPotter]

hey won't get mad, but the exercise is intended to see how articulate and succint you can be in 500-600 words. If you can't, then they'll probably take a few imaginary points off of your essay.

[asianromance]

like clauric said about ta's getting irritated when students go over the word limit- same with professors. I had a professor who discouraged us from going even one word above the word limit. and some professors also do assume that by doing this, you are incapable of following directions. And a lot of the ppl on the admissions committee ARE professors. and these ppl have thousands of essays to read and can only give each essay about 30 seconds to 1 minute- if your essay is too long, they might not finish reading it and decide to chuck it altogether. And wouldn't a professor rather read a really good essay that took 500 words to write than a really good essay that took twice as many words.

[iyeiluj]

like clauric said about ta's getting irritated when students go over the word limit- same with professors. I had a professor who discouraged us from going even one word above the word limit. and some professors also do assume that by doing this, you are incapable of following directions. And a lot of the ppl on the admissions committee ARE professors. and these ppl have thousands of essays to read and can only give each essay about 30 seconds to 1 minute- if your essay is too long, they might not finish reading it and decide to chuck it altogether. And wouldn't a professor rather read a really good essay that took 500 words to write than a really good essay that took twice as many words.

i will have to agree on that...because it's an application, there will be thousnad of apps they will be going through...so you want to me it to the point and say what you wanna say, my college essay was a page and a half double spaced....and i got in...hahahha

[a951316]

the counselors in my high school always told us to keep it short and sweet. of course, don't write like 2 sentences, but stay within the limits and write whatever is necessary and good content

[xellekimx]

i will have to agree on that...because it's an application, there will be thousnad of apps they will be going through...so you want to me it to the point and say what you wanna say, my college essay was a page and a half double spaced....and i got in...hahahha

definitely, imagine how many essays those administrators will have to read per day.
dont be wordy and try to keep your essay very concise

[alive]

The whole point of the exercise is to see if you can sell yourself in a few words, so cut out the filler and just make sure it's memorable. As everyone else said, they have to read _a lot_ of these.

[hailing from ny]

Consider that an admissions board spends about 15 minutes on your application. Don't make it a burden.

[krit]

you should stick to the guidelines - esp since the admissions officers are reading so many essays - they can tell by one glance how much you went over....they might not even (probably won't) bother to look The main reasoning behind the word limit is to see how effectively you can present yourself....bringing together your literary skills/goals/personality.................

Just keep on editing it down to 500.