| “How strictly do I have to stick to the essay | | | | “rounding error” in finishing up what you have |
| word limit? How much can I go over? Does it matter | | | | to say and will not hurt you if your reader is a |
| if I’m under?” is a question I get a lot from | | | | reasonable person, which we assume he or she is. |
| clients and people who pop up on email. | | | | More than this will start to look like you are taking |
| To answer this, it’s essential, as always, to think | | | | advantage and/or asking for an indulgence that your |
| about any process or task or limit in admissions from | | | | competitors are not getting. |
| AdCom’s point of view. Put yourself in their | | | | However if you write a number of essays that are |
| shoes. Why do they ask for it? What are they trying | | | | noticeably short it is fine to have one or two that |
| to achieve? How does it help them? | | | | are commensurately longer, so that the whole comes |
| So, what is AdCom trying to do with word limits? | | | | out more or less right. In fact, Stanford GSB explicitly |
| First, if there were no limits applicants would ask | | | | allows this: its guidance is both per essay and for the |
| incessantly: “Please Miss, how long must it | | | | essay set as a whole (1,800 words), so you are |
| be?” Second, some applicants would write the | | | | invited to trade off between essays as you see fit. |
| great American novel, which would waste their time | | | | How well you do this is, by the way, a test of your |
| and the Committee’s. Third, limits provide a way | | | | communications judgment. |
| of getting essays from different applicants to be | | | | Can you go under the limit? Similarly, I advise clients |
| more directly comparable, being the same length. | | | | not to go less than -5% on any essay. In one sense, |
| But there is ‘play’ in the system. The | | | | like all professional communicators, I believe strongly |
| purpose of the essays is to get to know the | | | | in “say what you have to say; say it once, |
| applicant via their writing, and everyone knows that | | | | strongly and clearly and then stop talking.” This is |
| writing is a creative process, and certainly nobody | | | | the royal road to more powerful communications. |
| expects you to hit the word count on the nail. This is | | | | Certainly there’s no merit in padding, waffling, |
| not engineering or accounting (believe it or not, some | | | | and repeating yourself. But admissions essays are |
| clients fuss the word count until they have exactly | | | | relatively short pieces of writing, and you — if you |
| the number asked for, taking touching comfort in a | | | | merit a place at a top b-school — are a |
| detail that will provide them absolutely no refuge.). | | | | multifaceted, talented individual with an valuable track |
| Anyway, application forms often talk about a word | | | | record, and if you can’t find things to say to |
| “guide” rather than word “limit.” So | | | | take up the word count this in itself flags that you |
| you can clearly go a bit over, but by how much? | | | | have not been able to (or haven’t bothered to) |
| My advice to clients is not to go more than +5% in | | | | properly investigate your own motivations or fully |
| any essay. This kind of margin is a natural | | | | argue your merits. |