<p>in other words, how strict are the word limits in most applications. for example, yale’s supplement asks for 500 or fewer words. my essay is about 550. is that too much over?</p>
<p>personally I wouldn’t take the risk of going over at all. adcoms read so many <500 word essays that by the time they get to yours, it’ll be glaringly obvious that you were over the word count.
that said though, i don’t think it’ll necessarily count against you…just a risk I wouldn’t take :/</p>
<p>I would strongly advise not breaking the word limit at all. Sure, a 550 word essay might better express your idea, but you don’t want to run the (admittedly small) risk of a tired and/or cranky admissions officer declaring your essay is too long and chucking your application.</p>
<p>So does every little ‘a’ and ‘I’ count as a word? Surely adcoms don’t count the words? </p>
<p>My understanding from reading elsewhere is that going some over, as long as it has a point and isn’t babble, is OK but that’s just</p>
<p>You know what? Deadlines are deadlines, and limits are limits. So many folks these days hope that the rules that are made don’t apply to them-- they apply to “the other guy.” Or it’s OK to break the rules-- just a little bit. Guess what? RULES MATTER!! Follow them! And please learn to follow directions.</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about “I” and “the”, put your essay into Word. Then use Word’s word count function. That will tell you how many words you’ve used.</p>
<p>And yes, the limits matter - admissions counselors also want to see if you can follow instructions.</p>
<p>hmm weird. Of the years I’ve been on CC, everytime I see questions regarding word count, i see people saying it’s only a guide, and that 600 or even 700 words is okay, as long as you don’t have something outrageously long like 2k words.</p>
<p>but recently I see a change of opinions o.o is it really not okay to pass the limit by a few words?</p>
<p>As the number of applicants increases, and the number of applications that each admissions officer has to read increases, the more important it is to follow the rules. They have way too much work to do - if every student went 100 words over, that’s several more hours of work for each one.</p>
<p>Make each word meaningful. It is much harder to write succintly than to be verbose. Write succinctly.</p>
<p>ok thanks for the advice. you’re probably right</p>
<p>I think if they say “less than 500 words” it should be less than 500. If they say approximately 500 words, than up to 600 is ok.</p>
<p>Don’t stress. And don’t make your essay worse just to save a few words. Believe me, it won’t help you that much to have an essay that’s dead-on 500 words. It will be better in the long run to have a better essay, even if its like 50 words over.</p>
<p>I’ve read that plus/minus +10% for word count is fine, so you should be good at 550.</p>
<p>Everyone is always asking about their perfect essay that is 50-100 over. Subtract 100 from the word limit before you write and it will magically be the correct length when you finish.</p>