Word limits!!!

Question

24 hours to go and I'm stuck trying to get my essays down from 2,200 to 1,600 words! Help...

etta · Answer

1600 words, 24 hours to go...is this for Stanford?

If so, I would use their 750 / 450 / 400 words as a guideline for each of your essays. Take a critical eye to whole sentences, even paragraphs, that aren't answering the question directly and be brutal about the cuts. You need to cut about 30% of your essay set, and I think the most efficient way is to remove an example (if you have 3+ in the essays) and then flesh out the remaining examples in a bit more detail.

With 24 hours to go, I'm not sure if the consultants will be able to turn it around for you, although you could try asking for expedited service...or whatever rush services they offer (do they?)

Having said all that though, if it is Stanford, and you're serious about this application, perhaps take the time to refine it into an application you're happy with, and submit in R2?

ohsballer · Answer

This is great advice. I'm in the same boat!

Ward2012 · Answer

When getting my essays down to the word limit, I found that I had two habits, which I learned to break.

1) Even in conversation, I tend to use two or more words that mean the same thing, when just one would do. For example, I might say something like "achieve the project's results or goals." Well, "results" and "goals" mean the same thing here. So I studied every sentence I had that contained an "or" to see if I could eliminate words.

2) The other thing I found was that you need to strike the right balance between providing enough detail so that the reader stays engaged with your story and follows the sequence of event vs. providing too much where you get bogged down and the reader is starting to lose the plot and probably will start to skim. I think this is especially true of work stories. B school admissions officers don't work in your industry and so they won't understand every minute detail that might be important to you because you actually do the job. And reading thousands of leadership project stories can get really repetitive.

So you do need to provide some detail and explain anything that needs explaining, but I found that I was trying so hard to *really* explain why the project was a success for my company that I lost sight of the larger message about leadership, teamwork, my confidence, etc.

Ward2012 · Answer

Another thing I would say is watch your adjectives and adverbs. A lot of times, you can replace these words with a strong action verb.

bb · Answer

Word limits!!!

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