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Penn's application only specifies spacing and page limit. It says nothing about font size or margins.

What do you think is better? 11.5 font with .8" margins OR 11 font with 1" margins?

Does it even matter?

11 with 1" margins.

11+, double spaced, 1" margins all around is the standard formatting guidance. Certain schools request something more specific, but it is best to stick within these guidelines if nothing else is specified.

I agree with the previous poster. Margins are a very noticeable thing to play with - it'll look like you're trying to cram more on the page, when most schools say 11 pt is fine anyway.

On a side note, one trick I've found that sometimes help to cut a line or two (if you need to) is to change the character spacing by just a little. If you go to Format --> Font and change the scale to, say, 98%, you can usually fit just a tad more on a page, and it's not really noticeable. It's particularly useful for those paragraphs where you have one or two last words hanging on an extra line. You can also do it to just one or two lines of text (and not the whole document) without it being noticeable.

amorfati wrote:On a side note, one trick I've found that sometimes help to cut a line or two (if you need to) is to change the character spacing by just a little. If you go to Format --> Font and change the scale to, say, 98%, you can usually fit just a tad more on a page, and it's not really noticeable. It's particularly useful for those paragraphs where you have one or two last words hanging on an extra line. You can also do it to just one or two lines of text (and not the whole document) without it being noticeable.

That is a helpful tip. I usually eliminate unnecessary adjectives in those paragraphs but I like the font scale tip better.

bdubs wrote:11+, double spaced, 1" margins all around

+1.

Playing with font size, font spacing, margins, etc., is all VERY transparent. They'll notice immediately - they see thousands a year.

Cut from the text.

What's better? Editing.