<p>My supplement essay is like 546 words. </p>
<p>The directions for the supplement essay explicity set a maximum of 500 words. Does anyone know if this is a strict limit? Will I be penalized for going almost fifty words over? My common app essay is like 450 words, if that matters at all.</p>
<p>My English teacher and this book on college essay writing says basically no more than 20 words over the limit. If the essay is good, the general rule is that there is no word limit, but it has to be really good. I wouldn’t mind hearing from someone though if they know if Cornell is any different from other schools though.</p>
<p>Edit it, have someone else edit it. If you’re like most teenage writers, I guarantee this will put it under 500, unless you’ve edited it already in which case I’d work on it specifically to make it shorter</p>
<p>Is Cornell strict about word limit? My essays were actually under the word limit but when my teacher edited them he had me add a couple things.</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll call and ask an admissions officer tomorrow. I was hesitant to do that because I didn’t really want to bother them with a minor question like this. Actually, when I had finished this essay I was barely under the limit (498 or something), but my teacher suggested that I add a few things that I left out.</p>
<p>my supplement is about 425 words…
do you think that the length will hurt my chances?</p>
<p>It has been said that if the essay can do without one of the sentances, leave that sentance out.</p>
<p>my essay currently has 600 words and HIGHLY doubt ill be getting rid of much…maybe 25 words. I’m kinda worrying its a little to high but its been edited multiple times and i think its a great essay. I’ve always been under the impression that as long as u dont have b.s. there is no “limit”. o well…if someone has any exact info from cornell about this…that’d help.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how far you go over. Trust me, they have better things to worry about…like your SAT scores and GPA. Just don’t make it obvious that you went over. I’d say up to 200 words over is acceptable (that is where I was and I got in).</p>
<p>unless it’s painful to read, I don’t think the adcoms will really notice the exact length</p>