<p>"At Williams, the Admissions Director says he can throw all applications down a flight of stairs, pick those which land on the top 3 stairs, and end up with a class just as qualified as the one that actually enrolls. Might even have more Nobel Prize winners among them."</p>
<p>Just as qualified. Which is precisely what I was saying: the length of your essay, within reason, does not make a big difference. Which, of course, means that a 500 word essay can be just as good as an 800 word essay, not taking away from the quality of the 800 word essay. You don't infer "more qualified" when someone says "just as qualified".</p>
<p>Though, of course, any college admissions director would rather read a shorter essay over a long one, they just as much would rather read a great essay over a mediocre one. You should NEVER sacrifice quality of your essay just to fit a word limit (esp. when you're only 50 words over). If you're more than 100 words over an already very generous word limit of 750, then you have problems.</p>