650 word common app essay
What is the length of the common app essay? How many words should it be? How should you write this essay? These are the questions asked by tens of thousands students, English professors, parents, guidance counselors every single year. Not only does the essay help decide whether or not you get accepted into a college, it also plays a major role in scholarships as well.
Common App Essay: Size Does Matter
College Essays. I'll break down every single Common App essay prompt by going over the following:. This will be your complete starting guide for Common App essays. After reading this, you should have a lot of ideas for your own essays and directions to write a really strong personal statement. Before we dig into the nitty-gritty of the individual prompts, let's quickly go over the logistics of the Common App essay and some general tips to keep in mind.
Although not every school in the US requires an essay as part of their application, the Common Application has traditionally required you to submit a blanket personal statement. That policy changed recently, and the essay is now optional for some schools. Here are examples of schools that do not require the Common App essay note that some may require a school-specific writing supplement instead :. As such, I would recommend sending your essay to schools even if they don't explicitly require it.
It's also worth noting that because of the way this system is set up, you could theoretically send a different essay to each school. Focus on writing a single great personal statement. The exact word limit for the Common App essay has varied somewhat over the years, but the current range is words.
You must stay within this length; in fact, the online application won't allow you to submit fewer than words or more than Some schools will state that if this isn't enough space, you can send them a physical copy of your essay. Don't do this.
No matter how tempting it might be, stick to the word limit. Otherwise, you risk seeming self-indulgent. In general, I'd advise shooting for an essay between and words long.
You want to have enough space to really explore one specific idea, but you don't need to include everything. Editing is an important part of the essay-writing process, after all! The word limit is like this barbed wire—you shouldn't cross it, no matter how tempted you are. As you'll see, the Common App prompts are very general and leave a lot of room for interpretation. Moreover, colleges interpret the questions generously —they're more concerned with learning something interesting about you than with whether your topic perfectly fits the question.
Treat these breakdowns as jumping-off points to help you start brainstorming , not the final word in how you need to approach the essay.
The Common App changes its prompts fairly frequently , so make sure you're familiar with the most up-to-date versions of the Common App essay questions. If you have friends or siblings who applied in past years, don't assume that you can take the exact same approaches they did.
This guide will go over the details of all seven current prompts, but first let's talk about some overall advice. Want to write the perfect college application essay?
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As you're brainstorming and preparing to write your Common App essay, you'll want to keep these tips in mind. You'll have to search for the best topic, just like this bird is searching for food. The point of a personal statement is to, well, make a personal statement , that is to say, tell the reader something about yourself.
As such, your topic needs to be something meaningful to you. First, it means that you genuinely care about the topic and want to write your college essay on it— no one ever wrote a great essay on a topic that they felt they had to write about.
Second, it means that the topic shows off a quality or trait you want to highlight for the admissions committee. For example, say I wanted to write about my summer job with the Parks Department. It's not enough to simply tell a story about my feud with a raccoon that kept destroying all the progress I made repairing a bench; I would need to make it clear what that experience ;shows about my character perseverance and explain what it ;taught me that there are some things in life you simply can't control.
Remember that the most important thing is that your essay is about you. This advice might sound obvious, but when you're used to writing academic essays, it can be tricky to dive deep into your own perspective. Give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm and write so you don't feel rushed into jotting down the first thing you can come up with and sending it right off.
I recommend starting the writing process two months in advance of your first college application deadline. On a similar note, you should take the essay seriously: it's an important part of your application and worth investing the time in to get right.
If you just dash something off thoughtlessly, admissions officers will recognize that and consider it evidence that you aren't really interested in their school. Your essay should illustrate something about you beyond what's in the rest of your application.
Try to write about a topic you haven't talked about elsewhere, or take a different angle on it. A college essay is not a resume —it's the best opportunity to show off your unique personality to admissions committees. Pick your topic accordingly. The best topics are usually the narrowest ones: essays focused on a single interaction, a single phrase, or a single object.
The more specific you can get, the more unique your topic will be to you. Lots of people have tried out for a school play, for example, but each had their own particular experience of doing so.
One student saw trying out for the role of Hamlet as the culmination of many years of study and hard work and was devastated not to get it, while another was simply proud to have overcome her nerves enough to try out for the chorus line in West Side Story. These would make for very different essays, even though they're on basically the same topic.
Another benefit of a specific topic is that it makes coming up with supporting details much easier. Specific, sensory details make the reader feel as if they're seeing the experience through your eyes, giving them a better sense of who you are. General: I was nervous as I waited for my turn to audition.
Specific: As I waited for my name to be called, I tapped the rhythm of "America" on the hard plastic chair, going through the beats of my audition song over and over in my head.
The first version could be written by almost anyone; the second version has a specific perspective—it's also intriguing and makes you want to know more. The more specific your essay topic is, the more clearly your unique voice will come through and the more engaging your essay will be.
Now that we've established the basic ideas you need to keep in mind as you brainstorm, let's go through the Common App essay questions one at a time and break down what admissions committees are looking for in responses. Keep in mind that for each of these questions, there are really two parts. The first is describing something you did or something that happened to you. The second is explaining what that event, action, or activity means to you. No essay is complete without addressing both sides of the topic.
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. This prompt is very broad. Then this prompt could be a good one for you. The key is that whatever you write about needs to be genuinely important to you personally, not just something you think will look good to the admissions committee. You need to clarify why this story is so important that you couldn't leave it off your application.
This question is really about showing admissions officers how your background has shaped you. Can you learn and grow from your experiences? By identifying an experience or trait that is vital to your story, you're also showing what kind of person you see yourself as. Do you value your leadership abilities or your determination to overcome challenges?
Your intellectual curiosity or your artistic talent? Everyone has more than one important trait, but in answering this prompt, you're telling admissions officers what you think is your most significant quality. You could write about almost anything for this prompt: an unexpected interest, a particularly consuming hobby, a part of your family history, or a life-changing event.
Make sure to narrow in on something specific, though. You don't have room to tell your whole life story! Your topic can be serious or silly, as long as it's important to you. Just remember that it needs to showcase a deeper quality of yours. For example, if I were writing an essay on this topic, I would probably write about my life-long obsession with books. I'd start with a story about how my parents worried I read too much as a kid, give some specific examples of things I've learned from particular books, and talk about how my enthusiasm for reading was so extreme it sometimes interfered with my actual life like the time I tripped and fell because I couldn't be bothered to put down my book long enough to walk from my room to the kitchen.
Then I would tie it all together by explaining how my love of reading has taught me to look for ideas in unexpected places. You don't want your essay to read like a resume: it shouldn't be a list of accomplishments. Your essay needs to add something to the rest of your application, so it also shouldn't focus on something you've already covered unless you have a really different take on it. In addition, try to avoid generic and broad topics: you don't want your essay to feel as though it could've been written by any student.
As I touched on above, one way to avoid this problem is to be very specific —rather than writing generally about your experience as the child of immigrants, you might tell a story about a specific family ritual or meaningful moment.
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? This prompt is pretty straightforward. It's asking you to describe a challenge or obstacle you faced or a time you failed, and how you dealt with it.
The part many students forget is the second half: what lessons did you learn from your challenge or failure? If you take on this question, you must show how you grew from the experience and, ideally, how you incorporated what you learned into other endeavors.
There's no one right way to write a college essay, but I ended up being pretty happy with how mine turned out. Maybe my story could help you. The exact word limit for the Common App essay has varied somewhat over the years, but the current range is words. You must stay.
Try to use them for good and not for evil. Think small: When writing the Common Application essay, too many students feel compelled to try and squeeze their entire life story into words. This, friends, is impossible. It is almost always better to think small first. Find a story or event in your life that really meant something to you.
College Essays.
Posted by June Xia Perspectives. Which one do I choose? Is there a part of my life that is so integral to my identity that I must share it with others?
Does my Common App essay need to be exactly 650 words? Is it OK if it's longer or shorter?
The Common Application centralizes the admissions process for over schools. These participating colleges and universities all use the same common biographical and academic information forms. Most of the schools also require or accept the Common Application essay. Neat, huh? Essentially, you choose the schools you want to apply to, add them to your application list, fill in the general biographical information, upload or input academic records and standardized testing information, designate people to write you recommendations and upload the Common Application essay. All of this is done in one place.
Common App Essay Word Limit
This limit has remained unchanged for the past several years. Learn how important this word limit is and how to make the most of your words. Many wonder whether they can go over the limit, even if only by a few words. What if you feel that you need more space to communicate all of your ideas clearly? The holistic admissions processes of most schools prove that colleges really do want to get to know the person behind your test scores and grades. Since the essay is one of the best places for showcasing who you are, is it worth it to go over? Most experts recommend adhering to the limit. The Common Application will even prompt its applicants if they exceed the word count to prevent them from going over.
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If your essay is longer than the limit, the application process cuts off the extra words when you submit it. Therefore, colleges will receive an incomplete essay. I've interviewed numerous College Admissions Reps on how to write a strong admissions essay and many have mentioned the importance of adhering to the word limit.
My Life in 650 Words: How I Tackled the Common App Essay
Building your best Common App essay is not quite like picking the best watermelon. This is why none of our clients have ever submitted a Common App essay consisting of fewer than words. This was even the case a few years ago when the Common App limited students to a mere words. That experiment lasted for such a short time because colleges were getting such transparently superficial essays that they were a waste of time and effort for students and completely lacking any valuable insight helpful to college admissions officers. Think of a to word essay as a smooth and enjoyable flight from D. Next, just as one wants to have an enjoyable in-flight experience with the fasten seatbelt sight off and flight attendants passing out drinks and snacks, so to does a to word essay allow readers to relax a bit. At the end of the day, admissions officers read your essays because they want to fly the friendly skies with you into your world. In order to produce a great final draft essay, your rough drafts should be even longer than words. None of the essay prompts are easy, and all require a great deal of time, thought, and drafting before members of the Class of can confidently hit submit on their applications. Honestly, I miss the old questions that existed through the iteration of the Common App.
Ideal College Application Essay Length
The common app essay prompts tend to change from one year to another. Even when there is no one around to help you, there is a way out. And it contains 7 prompts to pick from. Search for it on the Web, as there are plenty of websites that offer online homework help The Usefulness of Professional Essay Writers to Students. We work hard to keep prices low so we can offer academic papers that meet or exceed your quality expectations Fun fact: According to the Common App, the last prompt was the most popular choice during the — application season, with Below are a number of links that provide examples of Common App essays. The Common App essay is word. Thus, being written and edited by our professionals, your essay will achieve perfection If you What To Write About Common App Essay which common app essay to write are looking for cheap essay service in the US, nothing can be better opting for 6DollarEssay. We hope they inspire you and help you to write your own unique essay for your college application. Knowledge and training.
