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Does the essay have to be exactly the length the application states?

April 26, 2017application essay LENGTH

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Does the essay have to be exactly the length the application states?

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We have asked a large sample of college admissions officers this question, and their answer was remarkably uniform: they are flexible. When asked what they meant by flexible, most answered vaguely, but ended up describing an upper limit of around 20% longer than the stated limit. So, a 100-word essay could be 120 words without a problem, a 250-word essay could be 300 words, and a 500-word essay could be 600 words.