Application information for a foreign person (the whole essay is to fit in 1 page?)

hello my name is carlos, i know my question could seem dumb for some people but i am writing my essays for application and i have a question about essay length.

the instructions say 1 page double space. Does this mean that the whole essay is to fit in 1 page double spaced or do i write 1 page normal space and then send it double space? my question is because 1 page double space seems so little to fit all the information.

Also another essay says 1/2 page double space that is like 1/4 of a page of regular writing. For someone outside of the United States this doesn't make sense to me please help what is the proper way to interpret this instructions.

thank you

If it says __ pages double spaced, it means they want you to fill up that much of the page already double spaced. I.E. if they said 1/2 page double spaced, they want you to write 1/4 page single spaced. 1 page double spaced = 1/2 page single spaced.

a 1/2 page double spaced essay seems really short.... what school is that?