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4 years ago
Admissions Advice

Word count
Answered

I am applying for an award that ask for an up to 500 word personal statement. Unfortunately I didn't realize I needed to do it until today and the deadline is next week. Is it acceptable to write a 200-300 word statement?

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Accepted Answer
4 years ago

Hi, thank you for asking your question! If an essay prompt is giving you space to write a personal statement, our recommendation is to use as much of that space as possible. Typically this will look like using around 90% of the word count provided to you. When using the full extent of the word count, however, try not to be too verbose, redundant, or lose focus on the main theme of your writing. This is definitely easier said than done. Try instead to use the word count to include inner-thoughts and emotions, provide perspective to the reader and write a well-articulated statement. Using only 200-300 words will usually make your task a lot harder to convince the reader that you are the right candidate for the role.

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1
4 years ago

I read once to aim for at least 75% of the maximum word count, so that rule makes it at least 375 words if it's 500 words.

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1
4 years ago

Yes, It is ok to write a 200-300 statement because think about how long presidents might take to make a speech and then talking or reading from it. For this if you need to make it less than 500 words. You should get your opinion or fact, give examples, details about what you are talking about, and either why whatever you are writing about either helps or not helps the community.

I hope this helped and good luck =)

Sorry if it did not...

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