yale jackson sop word limit?

[levo99p]

the general yale grad admission guideline is 500-1000 words for sop (not jackson specific). mine's longer (~1300)... any idea how firm the word limit is? thank you!  

[Pinkman]

The standard 10% above the maximum so in this case 1100 words. I would suggest cutting it down.

[lbjane]

I'd stay pretty close to the limit.  I never served on an admissions committee but I have hired interns, many of whom are MPP or MAIR students, who had to submit a statement of interest that has a word limit.  When you review tons of apps, it's pretty clear who's gone way over and it generally did not help their case.  The longer SOIs generally just seemed wordy and more often than not the extra content didn't really tell us much that we couldn't already tell from the first few paragraphs.  Our application process now actually limits the number of characters in the SOI and forcing people to stay within the limit has actually improved the SOIs overall because people are more judicious about what they include and how they phrase it. 

[wisescience]

I recommend you put forth deliberate effort toward respecting their guidelines. Also, Polonius' words come to mind:

 

This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief...

Edited December 27, 2013 by wisescience

[HerrDBoo]

I recommend you put forth deliberate effort toward respecting their guidelines. Also, Polonius' words come to mind:

 

This business is well ended.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate

What majesty should be, what duty is,

Why day is day, night night, and time is time,

Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,

I will be brief...

The schools should use this as their guideline to word count.

 

Please introduce yourself to the admissions committee. In 500 words or less, balh blah blah. Please also review this statement before beginning to draft your statement: 

 

This business is well ended.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate

What majesty should be, what duty is,

Why day is day, night night, and time is time,

Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,

I will be brief...

[wisescience]

The next logical step will be to require recordings from all applicants, each solemnly reciting that "brevity is the soul of wit."

[HerrDBoo]

With their right hand on their holy book of choice