{"id":9629,"date":"2011-12-28T17:26:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T00:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=9629"},"modified":"2011-12-22T10:11:59","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T17:11:59","slug":"understanding-how-to-follow-the-essay-word-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/understanding-how-to-follow-the-essay-word-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding How To Follow the Essay Word Limit"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most common questions we get from applicants is, \u201cHow strict are schools about word limits in their admissions essays and personal statements?\u201d While the answer itself is straightforward, we often encourage applicants to stop focusing on the number and consider what admissions officers are really communicating when they put forward a word limit.<\/p>\n

First, we will answer the question directly: Schools are not out to reject you for going over a word limit by a small amount. Okay, okay\u2026 \u201cWhat\u2019s a small amount?\u201d you are asking. One rule of thumb that is frequently tossed around is 10%, although it is\u00a0 worth noting that admissions consultants tend to promote this rule more than any admissions officer does. However, if you can stay within 10% of the word limit for an essay, you're probably okay.<\/p>\n

Having said that, we rarely encounter an essay that we don\u2019t think can get down to the word limit. This is where an extra pair of eyes can be extremely helpful; someone else can look at your essay and give you an objective point of view about which details are truly necessary and which ones can be left on the cutting room floor. But, if the limit is 500 words and you\u2019re at 530, then your time may be better spent on things other than trying to hack another 30 words from your essay.<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve covered that, let\u2019s think about what admissions officers are saying when they assign a word limit to an essay. In essence, they\u2019re saying, \u201cAfter reviewing thousands of applications, we\u2019re very confident that you can thoroughly answer this question in this many words.\u201d\u00a0 They really do want to get to know you well, but they only have so much capacity, so they need their applicants to communicate their stories as efficiently as possible.<\/p>\n

As an applicant, if you know this and understand the challenge that admissions officers face, then that is what will guide your decision. Questions such as \u201cIs 525 words more okay than 535 words?\u201d suddenly seem moot compared to \u201cIs an admissions officer going to feel like I wasted her time when she\u2019s done with my essays?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is sort of like watching a movie\u2026 If you don\u2019t like a movie and it\u2019s longer than two hours, you will probably mention the length of the movie when you tell you\u2019re friends not to bother seeing it. \u201cThat movie was unrealistic, boring, and\u2026 way too long!\u201d But, if it\u2019s a great movie, the length will never come up. You won\u2019t even notice the length; you will\u00a0 just know that you enjoyed the story and were glad that you made the journey with the main character. The movie was the right-size for the story it told.<\/p>\n

Your admissions essays and personal statements will work in much the same way. You don\u2019t have carte blanche \u2014 the word limit that admissions officers provide is not an arbitrary one \u2014 but the quality of your essay is more important than the actual length. If it does its job well (by answering the question and helping admissions officers) then admissions officers won\u2019t think about the word limit nearly as much as the content. On the other hand, if they are\u00a0 halfway through your essay and they are\u00a0 already thinking to themselves, \u201cHow much longer will this go on?\u201d then you know that the essay missed the mark.<\/p>\n

Again, having great content does not allow you to flagrantly disregard word limits. We\u2019re saying that admissions officers, based on their considerable experience, know how long an essay needs to be to be great. A shorter essay can also be great, and so can a longer one, but one that is too<\/em> long risks boring or annoying tired application readers.<\/p>\n

One final note: You would be amazed at how accurately application readers can estimate an essay\u2019s word count just from one glance. Yes, they read enough essays every year that they can tell whether you went over the word limit just by looking at the essay on the page (or, increasingly, on the screen). Around the offices here at Veritas Prep we find that we can usually guess an essay\u2019s word count within about 25 words, just by looking at it. Admissions officers will still read your essay even if it\u2019s long, but know that they may already start to form an opinion about you before they\u2019ve read the first sentence!<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re ready to start building your own application , call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions<\/a> expert today. And, as always, be sure to find us on Facebook<\/a> and Google+<\/a>, and follow us on Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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One of the most common questions we get from applicants is, \u201cHow strict are schools about word limits in their admissions essays and personal statements?\u201d While the answer itself is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,775,113,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9629"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9632,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9629\/revisions\/9632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}