How long is your admissions essay?

[arzy]

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I have not found precise answers to how long admissions essays are supposed to be. Mine is about 850 words, which comes in at 3 pages or so. Is that too long?

Is there an answer, generally? I imagine it varies program to program, but I'm having difficulty locating figures on the Harvard, Hopkins, and UNC websites.

Thanks in advance!

 

[klm7552]

From the HSPH website:

"Although SOPHAS allows for a higher word count, the statement of purpose and objectives for Harvard School of Public Health should not exceed 600 words. "

Couldn't find anything about the other two, I hope that helps!
Good luck!

 

[zahazie]

I just recently applied to Harvard, and my statement was 600 words, although I know people who applied in past years wrote much longer statements.

 

[aspiringmph]

On the JHU application, the instructions say 3 pages or less.

 

[honeysuckle]

My SOPHAS SOPs were all between 1200-1300 words, within the limit but a little on the long side, I guess. I still haven't finished the application to Dartmouth though, which isnt part of SOPHAS, and they apparently only want ONE PAGE for your SOP. That is going to be hard for me. I'm guessing Dartmouth wants one page single-spaced, no?

There was an SOP moral support thread started up here recently, which I found to be helpful.