A common misconception shared by many students is that if a 500 word essay is good, that same essay stretched out to 700 words will be great. This is not the case.

A good essay should be long enough – just long enough – to answer the question that’s been asked in a clear, personal and compelling way. Padding the essay to increase the word count will make you seem long-winded but not any smarter. Admissions officers recognize fluff when they see it; and since they have dozens (if not hundreds) of essays to plow through, they will not appreciate having to read an essay that is longer than it needs to be.

Until recently there was 500 word maximum for the Common App essay. It’s acceptable to write more than that now, but you may still want to stay in the 500-600 word ballpark.

To some extent you can be guided by the minimum word requirement of 250 words: twice the minimum – or a little more than that – is a reasonable length for an essay. Five times that amount seems like overkill.

The real guideline should be how well the essay reads. Is it repetitive? Are there unnecessary words and phrases? These are signs that you need to do more editing.

Be careful not to go off on a tangent. One student I worked with wrote an essay about his favorite book; two entire paragraphs were devoted to his lengthy (and not very interesting) search of area bookstores for the hard-to-find novel. This kind of detail is a waste of space: stay focused on the central theme of your essay.