After my fiasco with the GMAT, I started to work on my Admissions essays about two weeks ago. I needed a break from the test, and I also have to get as much work done with my essays as possible.
Since I started to work on them, I can’t stop thinking about the questions that the Schools are asking for this year, and how will I face them.
One of the questions that came up to me as soon as I started writing my essays was how to manage the word limits in the essays.
Most of the Business Schools limit the size of the responses to its questions, depending on the school and the question in hand. But, can we exceed this word limit? By how much? And what if we write less that the word limit, would it be ok?
I have made some research on the subject, and in general they don’t recommend exceeding more than 5% to 10% of the words limit to each question. In the same way, they advise not to write less than 5% to 10%.
On the other hand, if the word limit is a range, like for example 400 – 500 words, then we shouldn’t exceed the 500 words or write less than 400.
It is also common that a School limits our responses to a number of pages per essays. In this case, we shouldn’t write more than the pages recommended and stay in the range. For example, if we have a limit of two pages, we should write more than one page, but less than two.
I hope you find this information useful.
Good luck with your essays!
Reaching the Thirties 