How long should your college essay be?
Here’s a simple answer: most personal statements written for college admissions are somewhere between 450-650 words, with 650 being the maximum word count for the Common App, the most frequently used platform. (Speaking of: head here for a complete how-to guide to completing the Common App.)
But we’d highly recommend reading below to develop a more in-depth understanding, since this isn’t actually as simple a question as it seems. (Obviously, since we wrote this whole guide about how long your college essay should be.)
Here’s a more subtle, but probably more useful frame for thinking about how long a college essay should be:
I once asked one of my Stanford professors how long she wanted a homework essay to be after I noticed the guidelines didn’t specify.
Her response: “As long as it needs to be.”
That didn’t feel very helpful at the time.
But in hindsight, I get what she meant. The point of an essay isn’t to simply meet word count. In fact, as I’ll clarify later, it’s one of the last things you should worry about.
That said, for most of your college essays, word count is something you’ll have to take into account (eventually).
And it’s understandable that how long your college essay(s) should be could feel confusing at times, since different applications and supplemental essays take pretty different approaches, and sometimes word count is a hard rule, whereas at other times it’s more of a guideline.
To get some clarity, read on.
How Long should an essay be—College Essay Word Count Limits (for Different Applications)
You have various ways you might be applying to college. Each of those can take a slightly different approach to word count.
Below we’ll talk through word counts for various college essays. Before we do, here’s some general guidance: with personal statements or supplemental essays, colleges will usually give you a maximum or a word count range (like 200-400)—you don’t have to hit the max for every essay, but generally aim for the upper end of the range. If you go over the word count, many application platforms (like the Common App) will simply cut off the excess words.
Small but important note that we’d always recommend writing your essays in something like Google Docs or Word, then pasting it into the application portal, and when you do so, to always double check your essay after pasting it (since G Doc, Word, and the Common App can sometimes count words slightly differently).
Common App Essay Word Count
If you’re using the Common Application (and since over 900 colleges use it, that seems fairly likely), your personal statement has a hard limit of 650 words.
Do you have to use all of that word count? No.
But it can be useful to be pretty close—remember that this is one of the primary means a school has to get a sense of who you are and what values, insights, interests, qualities, and skills you’d bring to campus (and if it’s a school without supplemental essays, maybe the only way).
Most students that I’ve worked with write more than 650 on their early drafts, then cut down toward the end of the writing process (more on that later).
Coalition App Essay Word Count
The Coalition Application currently has a recommended range of 500-650 words. Over 150 schools take the Coalition App, and the Coalition itself is centered around offering good financial aid to students. Be sure you take some time to understand which schools you’re applying to accept what applications.
University of California (UCs) PIQ Word Count
Some public college systems accept the Common App or Coalition (for example, many schools in the SUNY or CUNY systems take one or both), but the University of California (UC) system has its own application process.
To apply to the UCs, you’ll have to complete 4 (of 8 possible) prompts, each with a 350 word limit. Because these are fairly short, I’d recommend using most if not all of those 350 words.
For more on the UCs, check out our guide to writing the UC PIQs here.
Individual School Apps
Some individual schools (Georgetown and MIT, for example) have their own applications. For any school that has its own application, be sure to read the prompts and word counts carefully, as some are rules, and some are guidelines.
For example, Georgetown has guidelines like “approximately 1 page,” while MIT has strict limits (some 150, some 250) for its various prompts.
TIME SAVER: If you’re applying to a school with its own application, and also a bunch of other schools (especially if they have supplements, for example, on the Common App), I’d recommend checking our guide on building what we call a “super” essay (one that works for a bunch of different prompts).
Word Counts for Supplemental Essays
A lot of schools require supplemental essays on topics like “Why us” or “Community” or “Why Your Major.” Most of the time, these will be shorter than your personal statement (with some exceptions—Cornell and UPenn, for example, require “Why us” essays that are roughly the same length as your main essay).
The word counts will vary a bunch from school to school. Most of the time, these will be hard limits. In those cases, you’ll probably want to be pretty close to word count limit, without going over (as a general guideline, the lower the word count, the more likely you’ll have to max it out).
If a school doesn’t give you a limit, I’d generally aim for somewhere in the 400-600 range. For example, the University of Chicago doesn’t give a limit for its “Why us” or what we jokingly call its “show us your rad brain” prompts. For the “Why us,” you’re probably good at around 400-550 (though that’s not a hard limit). For the extended essay, you can aim for around 650. You can go longer for both, but you have to earn it.
For more detail and examples + analysis, check out our guides to the supplemental essays to a bunch of schools.
Word Counts for Scholarship Essays
A lot of what I just mentioned regarding supplemental essays applies here, so rather than repeat myself, I’ll simply nudge you to double check your word count limits, and keep in mind if they are hard caps or rough guidelines.
For a free guide on things like where to find scholarships, and what colleges are looking for in essays, check out that link.
An Important Note Concerning Word Count and Drafting
Please don’t worry about word count until basically your final draft (within reason*).
Ultimately, you’ll usually have to pay attention to word count, as most prompts will have a hard limit past which your text will simply be cut off.
But worrying about word count early in the process is one of the biggest mistakes I see students make. Doing so just limits what students explore in early drafts, and many often end up having to rewrite more to eventually get to what they would have gotten to if they hadn’t worried about word count in the first place.
So save word count worries for when all your content and structure and phrasing are pretty much set. The “delete” key is pretty easy to use.
*by “within reason,” I mean that if your first few drafts of a 650 word limit essay are 800 or 900 words, no worries. You’ll have to cut, but that’s much easier than having to write more. But if your first draft is 2000 words, that’s gonna be tougher.
Still doable.
But tougher.
For more on writing personal statements, head here for a how-to guide, or here for a ton of successful college essay examples.
Dive in.
Andrew Simpson, CEG’s Editorial Director, has worked as an educator, consultant, and curriculum writer for the past 15 years, and earned degrees from Stanford in Political Science and Drama. He feels most at home on mountain tops and in oceans.
Top Values: Insight/Growth | Truth | Integrity
