Hi, everyone! We wanted to let you know that this feature is now planned and included on our roadmap for development. Thank you for sharing your great ideas!

This would be helpful for us as well, in both the application process and with post-acceptance questions. The system automatically accepts responses that are not acceptable, simply because there is a word in the field. It would save me (as a one-person office) significant time and effort in having to chase down students asking them to submit more info, when a minimum word count would set up the expectation up front. Both a minimum and maximum word count is necessary.

I requested this 4 years ago too! It's really needed on any question that offers a maximum, particularly essays. Most of these questions are open ended, so we can only mark the "answer present" and not use "contains" certain words, because we'd accidently eliminate qualified applications. However, many students just put a placeholder sentence and are moved forward, wasting reviewers' time. Hard enough when you are looking at 20 applications, but I'm frequently working with hundreds or thousands of applicants. :(

IU Would also like to see a minimum word count as well as keeping the maximum word count for short answer and essay questions. Having both would allow for admins to limit the length of an essay/short answer but also ensure a minimum requirement.

If setting a minimum word count is not possible... would it be possible to add a word count view for reviewers/admins when reviewing application essays

Pepperdine University absolutely agrees with this need.

Anoka-Ramsey Community College would also like this FER. Specifically, only letters. She does not want to include numbers or spaces in any count. They have students that type in "0" or only "N/A" to bypass their required essay questions.

Owens Community College also requested this functionality.

https://owens.academicworks.com/

Austin Community College would like to see this.  I know that they are already documented but during cycle management she mentioned it again.  She has seen applicants enter in a letter or word or such as a placeholder to come back and answer the question but then either forget and submit their application.  She would just like for there to be a way to enforce a 100 character minimum.

slu also requested this enhancement

Austin Community College would like this as well

Virginia Western Community College would to see this as well. 

They require a 100 word essay and have a major problem with students submitting less than the requirement.

St. Louis Graduates also would like to see this feature implemented.  They tell applicants to write a 250-500 word essay and applicants are just putting in 100 words or so and she would like for them to NOT be able to get around the system this way.  

This request came up at Client Conference 2017 4-yr Panel/Round Table discussion. Some applicants just enter 'asdfg' to get past a required question.

I just had another request from a community foundation for this feature.

Pepperdine would like to see this feature added.

"This enhancement request would be very helpful in regards to Thank You Letters. The student would not be able to submit until they submit the required 300 or more words.

Currently, the student is able to see a word counter from their view, but many provide Thank You Letters less that the 300 word requirements. Providing this same word counter for the administrative side to see would help us confirm the length of a Thank You Letter at a glance.

Currently, we have to confirm the word count by coping and pasting in a word doc and than draft the submitted Thank You Letter with less than 300 words and send an email informing the student to update their letter and re-submit. It is a lot of work that could be avoided if we were able to place a minimum word count."

Macomb would also like to see this feature.

Virginia Western Community College would also like this. 

McHenry County College would also like this. They had some students just writing one or two lines.

sunysuffolk would also like this.  they're having issues with applicants submitting 1-2 lines.