How many words should my college admission essay be?

Most college applications are pretty specific about how long their essays should be. Of course, I haven’t applied to college in a long time, so things may have changed. If you have doubts, contact the admissions offices – but only after you look to see if they gave you any details. Good luck!

I’d say 500 is a safe maximum.

I absolutely agree with Jill, call the admissions office and ask. If it is totally up to you, then write the essay with an eye to keeping it short, yet complete.

Double spaced, no links or anything. Whatever you can do through formatting to make it easier on the eyes of the readers, they will appreciate. If no font is specified, put the essay in one that is easy on the eyes—Times New Roman is actually kind of harsh. Something like Calibri might be nicer.

It really depends on what level you are going in at. For a bachelors 500 is good.

My daughter is doing this right now. Her counselor and her English teacher (and also the representative from Rice University) all say one page, double-spaced, 12-point type. Admissions people hate to read “novels.”

342 words exactly. No more and no less. There’s statistics about this.

write enough that you get your point across, but not enough that you feel like yours is going to be one of the longest they get. i’m guessing about a page, because that’s what i tend to hear about college essays.