Dealing with Word Limits

Thanks, A Beautiful Mind, for bringing this up…Although these tips don’t come early enough to help you with your Ross essays, hopefully they will help you and others struggling to meet deadlines for schools with later deadlines.

Some people appreciate the challenge; some people despise it. Some people don’t have much to say and never need to worry about writing too much; some will have to spend hours trimming their thoughts and words down to stay within the limits. Some people naturally write clearly and concisely; others need constant editing to rid their writing of abundant verbiage.

However, most applicants who hit the “word count” button are surprised to find that they’ve exceeded the word limit. “How is that possible?” they’ll muse. “Didn’t I start this essay with no clue as to what I would write?”

So how do you deal with the challenge of word limits when editing your MBA application essays, law school personal statements, college essays, and graduate school statements of purpose?

The following is a list of resources that provide helpful tips about tightening language and trimming down your word counts:

•    UGH! THOSE @!#$* WORD LIMITS!!!, a blog post.
•    Personal Statement and Application Essay Tip: Tightening Language, a blog post.
•    Yikes! My Essay is Too Long!!!, a blog post.
•    How to Give Your Essay a Buzz Cut, a featured article on Beat the GMAT.
•    Submit a Stellar Application: 42 Terrific Tips to Help You Get Accepted, an instantly downloadable ebook.
•    5 Fatal Flaws in Your Application Essay, a free email course.
•    The Roadmap to Bold and Brilliant Essays, a free webinar.
•    Application Essays Do’s & Don’ts, an article.

A Beautiful Mind, we hope you successfully cut your essays down. We wish you (and all Round 2 applicants) the best of luck!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best


  • http://abeautifulmind1.wordpress.com/ A Beautiful Mind

    Thanks a lot for your blog post and the comment on my blog. The links given by you are indeed useful for all applicants as they have good examples where the applicants can easily cut some words. I was able to submit my Ross app on time.

    -A Beautiful Mind

  • Linda Abraham

    You’re most welcome. I’m glad to read you find the links helpful and that you submitted your Ross application on time.

    Best,
    Linda