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Are you getting started with your college applications and need to write a Common App essay? If so, this post is here to help outline the word count of the essay in order to help you increase your chances of effectively writing your essay within the stated word count! Using Common App is a great way to apply to college as it helps streamline the process by allowing you to use one application to apply to multiple colleges, and it is accepted by over a 1000 colleges including Ivy Leagues. Hence it is essential that you structure your essay well!
Word count
The Common App essay has a word limit of 250-650 words, but it would be advisable to keep your essay around 500-650 words as it is more difficult to write a convincing essay using less than 500 words.
Choosing a prompt
Common App provides several different prompts for the essay each year but you are only required to choose one to write your essay on. Pick the topic that resonates the most with you - have a look at all the topics first and write a few bullet points for each of the topics regarding what you think you would like to write about. Choose an essay topic that feels the most natural when writing the bullet points (eg: the ideas come to you fast and spontaneously rather than having to sit and think about what to write).
After you have chosen your topic, it is time to begin writing the essay. Make sure to start early to give yourself ample time to edit the essay after you have finished writing - remember you may need to edit the essay more than once so start early to account for those timelines!
Points to include in your essay
Your essay should include experiences that are personal to you in order to make you stand out (eg: your background, some challenges you faced in. life and how you overcame them, etc). The introduction should be around 100-150 words and should briefly introduce why you chose that particular prompt. for example, if the prompt asked you to explain a challenge you faced in life, the introduction should briefly talk about this challenge and explain its significance in helping your character development (eg: what about this event changed you for the better?). The body of the essay should be the bulk of the text around 300-350 words and should dive deeper into the nature of the issue and explain more in-depth how this encouraged you to grow as a person. The conclusion should then succinctly wrap up the essay and have a strong concluding statement which shows why you are an ideal candidate for acceptance into the college. The conclusion should be around 100-150 words. A good example of all the above can be found here.
We hope this guide helps you in structuring your Common App essay! For more examples, head to the Clastify website and feel free to explore! You can find some example essays here.
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