Secondaries: Significantly less than word limit?

[sniderwes]

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If two schools have the same prompt but one is a 500 word limit and the other is a 150 word limit....do you think it'll look bad if I just use the same 150 word response for both? 150 is significantly under the 500 word limit, but I don't know if they have a recommended amount

 

[RWynd123]

I think it may depend on the specific essay question. I worked with a couple of med school students on mine, which helped a lot, through the site: http://www.studentmentornetwork.com.

 

[sniderwes]

I think it may depend on the specific essay question. I worked with a couple of med school students on mine, which helped a lot, through the site: http://www.studentmentornetwork.com.

That site looks interesting, might check it out thanks! To answer your question, the prompt is basically just to tell about a time where you used teamwork/leadership.

 

[claduva94]

Please do not pay for advice if we offer the same advice for free. Do you think you can add something meaningful to your 150 word response?

 

[milski]

It depends on the prompts and the limits. For some of the classic prompts, like diversity or a challenge you have overcome, the limits would vary a bit between schools, say 200 words vs 300 words. For those, I would re-edit the essay to be close to the word limit.
Other schools give you some really large limits (CU with 2000 words, VCU last year with 8000 characters) - I would not try to match the content to these. Chances are that they are that large as a way to allow flexibility when needed and that most candidates won't come close to them. Adding fluff to your essay in such situations will make it worse, not better.

 

[Holmwood]

150 words to 500 words means you'll be adding fluff.


500 words to 150 words means you're streamlining your statement to be as efficient as possible.

I'd go with the latter and not the former.