It depends on your graduate school. In the examples below, master's thesis limits run from 150 to 500 words, and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences sets no maximum for a dissertation. Use your own school's format guide; these examples show why a number from another school can be wrong for you.
Six published examples. Each one can change, so use this table to see how much limits vary, and check your own school's current guide.
| School | Master's thesis | Doctoral dissertation | In its own words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice | 150 | 350 | “The abstract may not exceed 350 words for a doctorate or 150 words for a master's.” |
| UNC-Chapel Hill | 150 | 350 | “Abstracts cannot exceed 150 words for a thesis or 350 words for a dissertation.” |
| Vanderbilt | 250 | 350, title included | “The maximum length of the thesis abstract is 250 words.” |
| Arizona State | 350 | 350 | “All students must limit their abstracts to 350 words or less.” |
| UT Dallas | 500 | 500 | “Both doctoral dissertation and master’s thesis abstracts should not exceed 500 words.” |
| Harvard (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) | Not covered here | No limit | “There is no maximum word count for the abstract.” |
The APA's guide for the 7th edition says: “Limit your abstract to 250 words.” That figure comes with a condition you may need to read twice: “Abstracts and keywords are not typically required for student papers.” If your graduate school gives a different limit for a thesis, ask which of the two applies. Its format guide is the first place to look.
Part of it is where the abstract ends up. Arizona State gives a practical reason for its limit: “If an abstract is longer than 350 words, potential readers may only be able to read up to that point.” UT Dallas says something similar about print indexes, and Rice notes that the publisher limits the length. UNC-Chapel Hill adds that search engines use your title and abstract to find your work.
Rice describes the form: “In style, the abstract should be a miniature version of the thesis.” The APA's list covers the problem or research question, the methods, the results, and the implications, with one or two sentences for each topic. A humanities abstract may have no methods section to speak of; it still needs the question and the main argument.
Esmond evaluates every assignment before you submit. It never writes it.
Esmond doesn't check word limits or format rules; your graduate school's guide does that. It reads your whole thesis and comments on how your chapters fit together, so a claim in your abstract that your chapters clearly don't support can come up.
Check your school's format guide. Arizona State's FAQ says its limit is mandatory. Ask your graduate school what happens to a document that goes over.
Check your program's models. UNC-Chapel Hill asks you to avoid symbols, formulas, and illustrations where possible, and citations may be limited too.
No. The abstract summarizes the whole thesis, including results. The introduction sets up the question and doesn't report what you found.
APA's guide says a single paragraph for papers. Some graduate schools allow more, so check whether yours limits paragraphs or pages. East Carolina, for example, sets its limit in pages.
Read on November 3, 2026.
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