Every fall, some version of this question lands in my inbox: "My essay is 712 words. Is that bad?" Usually it comes from a student who has been staring at the same paragraph for an hour, trying to decide which of their favorite sentences has to go. So let's settle the length question, and then talk about the more useful one: what to do with the words you have.
The short answer, by essay type
Length depends on which essay you're writing. Here are the numbers you'll run into most often.
- Common App personal essay: 250 to 650 words. This is the big one, the essay that goes to every school you apply to through the Common App.
- University of California Personal Insight Questions: you answer four of eight questions, up to 350 words each. That's four short essays, not one long one, and each needs its own focus.
- Supplemental essays: these vary by college, often somewhere between 50 and 400 words. Always check each school's application directly, because the limit can change from year to year.
- Common App Additional Information section: up to 650 words, but it isn't an essay at all. It's a place for context, and shorter is usually better there.
Those limits are firm. The application portal won't let you go over, so a 712-word draft isn't "bad." It's just not finished yet.
Should you use the full limit?
Mostly, yes. Not because readers count, but because a 650-word limit is an invitation to show some depth. If your personal essay comes in at 300 words, ask yourself honestly whether you've said everything worth saying, or whether you stopped at the story and skipped the part where you explain what it meant.
That said, nobody is docking points for 590 words. Landing within shouting distance of the limit is comfortable for most essays. If you're well short, the gap is usually in reflection. If you're well over, the excess is usually in setup.
Short supplements are a different animal. A 100-word answer that's sharp and specific beats a 100-word answer padded to hit the number. With very short prompts, every sentence should do a job.
What to cut when you're over
Here's the order I'd go in. Most students can lose 80 words without touching anything they love.
- The warm-up. Your first paragraph often exists to help you get started, not to help the reader. Try deleting it and see if the essay actually begins in paragraph two.
- Backstory the reader doesn't need. We don't need to know how many years you've played cello to understand the recital where your string snapped.
- Throat-clearing phrases. "I think that," "in my opinion," "the fact that," "I came to realize that." Cut them and the sentence almost always gets stronger.
- Saying it twice. If you show a moment and then explain what the moment showed, one of those can usually go. Keep the one that sounds more like you.
- Adverbs doing a weak verb's job. "Walked slowly" can be "shuffled." "Said loudly" can be "yelled."
What you shouldn't cut is the reflection. If you have to choose between one more sentence of story and one more sentence about what you think now, pick the thinking. That's the part a reader can't get anywhere else in your application. For more on finding what to trim during a full rewrite, see how to revise a college essay.
Word limits versus character limits
Some applications count characters instead of words, and that changes the math more than people expect. Character limits typically include spaces and punctuation, so a 250-character answer might be only 40 or so words. That's roughly two sentences.
When you see a character limit, write tight from the start. Skip the full-sentence intro, lead with the specific detail, and don't burn characters restating the question. If a prompt asks what you'd bring to a campus in 250 characters, nobody needs "One thing I would bring to your campus is" in front of your answer.
Pasting into the portal
Write in a regular document first, never directly in the application box. Portals can time out, and losing a draft at 11:40 p.m. is an experience I don't wish on anyone.
When you paste, watch for a few things:
- Counts can differ. Your word processor and the portal might count hyphenated words or numbers differently. Leave yourself a small buffer under the limit.
- Formatting may disappear. Italics, bold, and indents often don't survive the paste. Separate paragraphs with a blank line so the reader isn't faced with one giant block.
- Smart quotes can turn into odd symbols. Preview the submitted version and fix anything that looks strange.
- Check that nothing got cut off. Some boxes quietly trim text past the limit. Read the last line in the preview to make sure your ending made it.
The real question behind the length question
When students ask how long an essay should be, they're usually asking something else: "Is this enough?" Word count can't answer that. A reader who finishes your essay knowing one specific, true thing about how you think has gotten enough. If you're still searching for that one thing, start with how to write a college essay, step by step, and if you're working on the University of California set, read our tips for the Personal Insight Questions.
Get the substance right first. Trimming to the limit is the easy part, and honestly, a little satisfying.
Our Essay Coach reads your draft paragraph by paragraph and tells you what's working and what isn't. It asks questions and points at problems. It never writes a sentence for you, so every word stays yours.