For a 250-500 word essay- Do you have to write 700, 1000 or even 2000 words?

When you start writing your MBA and Master’s application essay drafts, the first thing that you have to figure out is “how much writing is enough?For a 250-500 word essay, do you have to write 700 or 1000 or even 2000 words?What is the process of writing a Winning application essay?It depends on three scenarios.The first scenario is your writing experience.Scenario 1 - Writing ExperienceI was in the technology industry before starting F1GMAT and pivoting to writing, consulting, and editing services. So i empathise with engineers and bankers who are struggling to capture their authentic voice.Even before starting F1GMAT, I used to have a popular blog. People who i didn’t even expect to read it used to read my posts. And when I entered the office, they would come personally and appreciate my observations.Applicants with Writing ExperienceLike me, if you have any writing experience, writing blogs, journals, or essays for a school magazine, you don’t have to worry about writing 2000 words for a 250 to 500-word essay.But if you have no experience in writing, you have to seriously think about volume goals.When clients reach out to me, the first request many have for me is to write lines for them.I immediately share a perspective that you should be aware of.Schools read essays in hundreds. They are aware of essays that are written by professional writers.Editing and helping clients with essays is different from writing essays.In F1GMAT’s editing process, I do add a few phrases and lines that improve the applicant’s expressions, but most of the writing is done by the applicant.It is the line-by-line comments that help them understand the fundamentals of storytelling.If you need my help, reach out to me through F1GMAT’s contact form For applicants from a marketing background or those who have some experience writing, there are a few volume goals that you have to keep in mind.First, for a 250-word essay, use a 2x target or a 500-word draft as your volume goal.This is because many times, when you first start writing a school application essay, you are just exploring one thought, and it might not cover all the bases.Even Drafts Need Word LimitAs a new writer, when you explore one thought, you will write a lot of backstory around that one event. If you go by some strict word limit while drafting your essay, you might not fully capture the emotions and motivation around that event.For a 500-word essay, the target word count should be somewhere between 1000 to 1200 words. Now, why do you need such kind of a structure?Isn’t it better just to write freely?Even I have recommended writing freely, but over the years, what I have seen is that if you write freely without any word limit, you start bringing contexts and irrelevant events into the narrative.Then, it becomes a big challenge to come back into a frame of mind where you are writing authentically from a core emotion.Risk of One-Event Focus I have also seen scenarios where the client felt that one childhood event was critical for the development of their worldview. So they would suggest we spend a lot of words on that one particular event.The risk when you allocate most of your words to one event in draft essays is that what you consider to be a unique event might not be unique.Your competitors might also quote such events.An experienced consultant and editor like me have seen this happen quite a lot.For example, during the pandemic, the underlying theme for all applicants was how they were useful when the world was shut down.The narrative was fine-tuned to make themselves the hero. And to be honest, from 10-15 essays, i would say 2-3 were genuine contributions. The rest were all just trying to brand themselves as heroes in a catastrophic world event.If you go into the writing process with such a preconceived notion of which event has better branding, you will waste your time on the wrong event.In some applicants, there is a lack of self-awareness.Match Essay Example with your First ImpressionI worked with a client who was doing incredible cross-cultural collaboration in three time zones, and when asked to write about inclusivity, she shortlisted a college collaboration that felt too trivial. I had to be diplomatic in revealing that what she cited didn’t match the first impression the admissions team would have about her.The example didn’t match up to her ‘image’.All the examples in your essays should match that first impression.Scenario 2 - Writing StyleThe second scenario where you have to think about volume goals is your writing style.I have worked with clients who are extremely careful not to express too much. They are measuring how they structure each sentence.This is good if you have experience in writing.This is what I do.Power of One-Paragraph Writing and EditingI use a one-paragraph writing, one-paragraph editing strategy, where I write one paragraph freely, read it back 2-3 times, and then ask myself – is it too revealing? ...