Tufts Blogs

It’s coming up on a year now since I applied to Tufts, which means that high school seniors are currently going through the process of choosing their schools, filling out applications, and writing numerous drafts of essays to achieve that perfect personal statement. I don’t miss that time of my life in the least, especially not the essay writing portion. As a lover of words and a prospective English major, I have a tendency to overwrite; therefore, the strict word counts that accompanied the application process were the most challenging aspect of the whole ordeal for me. How was I supposed to fit my entire essence as a human being into 600 words? It was agony for me. However, I had an excellent resource for this issue in my very own house: my mom.

As an English major herself, my mom is a master at meeting word counts and college essays in general. She proofread countless paragraphs during that first semester of my senior year, including those written by my friends for their own applications. We’ve told her, with absolute sincerity, that she should start a business for helping kids with their college essays. In my opinion, she would make a lot of money and save a lot of lives. 

If you’re a current high school senior, or anyone trying and failing miserably to write their college application essays… have no fear. My mom is here. I texted her asking for essay tips, and she, in an extremely on-brand fashion, sent me an email with all of her secrets to finessing the word count. I hope that these words of advice can help you meet that dreaded word count and still turn in a fabulous essay.

1) Look for “extra” words in your writing. Vernacular English is full of them. 

• Unnecessary filler words— e.g., the phrase “in order to” can, in almost every case, be shortened to “to.” 
• Find phrasal verbs and replace with a single-word verb. A “phrasal verb” is a verb that is accompanied by a preposition. Find those and replace with a one-word equivalent. E.g. “rise up” can become “elevate.” “What was going on” can become “What happened.” 
• Look for verb tenses and moods that simply have too many words—“I had been working at the cafe” could become “I worked at the cafe.” Obviously, you may have to adjust the rest of your structure to accommodate such a change. 
• Beware excess adverbs and adjectives. Yes, they add color, but too many can be too wordy.
• Sneaky tricks: hyphenations and apostrophes are often counted as “one word.” Use them carefully and sparingly— they must still support good writing and correct grammar. 

2) Ensure you are devoting the appropriate amount of space in the essay for your essential points. In a 400-word essay about an event at school, don’t devote four sentences to what the principal’s office looked like. Set the mood, but do it with a few key phrases. Most of the words need to be describing you, your thoughts, and your aspirations—not external things. 

3) Be okay to “kill your baby.” Basically, don’t hold onto a great phrase or sentence because it is poetic if it does not support your overall thesis. Look critically at your entire essay and be willing to make the hard choices to cut out unnecessary words. 

That’s all my mom had to say. My own advice? Write a draft, wait three days, edit it. Don’t feel disheartened if you need to scrap an entire idea; you will find another that fits you and your application better. Find the resolve within you to let go of your favorite sentence if it’s necessary for the overall health of the essay. Ask the English major or English teacher in your life for help. Breathe, take a break, and appreciate your mom. Speaking of which, it’s time to send this blog post over to my own to edit. Happy writing!