As a high-performing high school student aiming for admission to top US colleges, you’ve likely heard about the importance of crafting compelling college essays. Admissions Officers look at every aspect of your application. These essays are your chance to showcase your personality, goals, and writing ability beyond your grades and test scores. But how long should a college essay be?
As admissions season gears up, we’re here to answer just that. Here is InGenius Prep’s guide to writing essays for college applications.
Want an expert’s opinion on your college applications? Book a free strategy call and begin your admissions journey today!
Types of College Application Essays
1. Personal Statements
The personal statement is one of the keystones of a college application. Many students are worried about grades and scores—how they match up compared to the thousands of other applicants. However, there is a human element to college admissions that is just as important as the statistics.
Admissions Officers are looking for students who are unique, show leadership, and have a lot to contribute to their field—not just the applicants with the highest scores. Personal statements are your chance to speak directly to Admissions Officers and show them those traits. This essay allows you to share your story, experiences, and personal aspirations.
Personal Statements typically range from 500 to 600 words. On the Common App, the online application used by over 800 colleges in the United States, personal statements are required to be between 250–650 words.
2. Supplemental Essays
In addition to a personal statement, many schools will also require applicants to submit additional essays. These are the supplemental essays. Supplemental essay questions are typically unique for each individual school, although many may share the same theme.
These questions often focus on applicants’ specific interests, goals, or mindsets. These can range from asking you about your passion to what your favorite Dr. Suess book is. Admissions Officers use supplemental essays as another way to guide an applicant’s personality and whether they’ll be a good fit for their institution.
In addition to unique prompts, schools may also have their own word count requirements. On average, most college supplemental essays have a length of 250–300 words. However, you should check the application guidelines for each college on your school list to verify.
However, there are also different types of supplemental essay prompts and questions, each with its own restrictions and guidelines depending on the school. Often these include the Short Answer Questions and the “Why Do You Want to Study with Us?” essays.
A) Short Answer Questions
In the same genre as supplemental essays, schools may also ask applicants to answer short questions in their college application. These questions can be more general and often range between 150–250 words. However, some schools, like Yale’s essay prompts, can ask for no more than 35 words.
Each school will have its own requirements, so be sure to read through the application requirements of each school carefully.
B) “Why Do You Want to Study with Us?” Essays
One of the common themes that you will find when reading through college essay prompts from different schools is the “Why do you want to study with us?” question.
These types of questions help Admissions Officers guide a student’s interest in a school. It’s also one of the key areas Admissions Officers look at when reviewing essays. The higher a school is ranked, the more selective they are with applicants, so Admissions Officers want to know that the students they select are invested in their institution.
Answers to these questions usually range between 250–500 words, but students should consider their responses carefully. Do your research on a school and reference specific information—like the school’s alumni, programs, or faculty—to demonstrate your knowledge and describe how that school aligns with your academic and career goals.
How to Write Effective Essays Within Word Limits
- Ideate and Draft: Before you begin writing an invested response to a prompt, sketch out ideas and create a draft of how you’ll answer. Focus on the broader concepts that the answers are asking you to think about. (Example: “What inspires you?”—Think about your major, extracurriculars, and the theme of your application; answer in a way that enhances your student profile to an Admissions Officer.)
- Trim excess: Once you’ve had your answers drafted out, you’ll need to edit and revise your answers. While editing, trim unnecessary words. Be ruthless in cutting out words and phrases that don’t add value to your writing. This will help you stay within word limits and have more room for impactful writing.
- Prioritize clarity: Often, when drafting, students can lose sight of how to express their ideas through words. This leads to odd phrases, redundancies, and over-written statements that make your writing more confusing to a reader. When editing, scrutinize your sentences and see if there’s a way to convey the same idea more clearly and with fewer words.
- Focus on active voice: How you write something can affect a reader’s interpretation. Passive voice is a style where a form of “to be” is written in place of the verb. These forms include:
- Is
- Was
- Were
- Am
- Are
- Being
- Been
There is nothing inherently wrong with passive voice. It’s a natural work of writing, but when overused, it will make your writing sound weak. Shift your sentences to active voice where you can easily do so.
You create active voice by making the subject of your sentence perform the action.
-
- “The kid tossed the ball.” [Active voice]
- “The ball was tossed by the kid.” [Passive voice]
- Seek feedback: Part of the process of creating compelling writing is incorporating others’ perspectives. Once you’re comfortable with your essays and short answer questions, ask for feedback from teachers, friends, or family members. Sometimes, those close to you can even provide valuable insights, like a personality trait or a past experience you didn’t realize that could be a compelling addition to your answers.
Enhance your College Application Essays with InGenius Prep
College essays are an important aspect of your college applications. They allow you to showcase your unique story, goals, and personality to Admissions Officers. With so much at stake, you want to make every word count.
Whether you’re drafting a personal statement, responding to supplemental essay prompts, or tackling short-answer questions, make your writing genuine and aim to stand out among the pool of applicants.
For more about supplemental essays, see our blog, which has breakdowns of all the 2024–2025 supplemental essay questions for top schools like Princeton, Yale, and the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor.
Want an expert’s opinion on your college applications? Book a free strategy call and begin your admissions journey today!
