<p>I hope this isn’t a dumb question. But the word file becomes a PDF file which they eventually print (correct?) and it doesn’t display the word count there. For example if the word limit was 200-250 but character limit was 2000, allowing for more than 250 words, would a college notice?</p>
<p>I don’t think they care too much. Also, it’s not hard to get a word count on a PDF after using OCR…</p>
<p>My English teacher in high school said they really only check when they can tell it’s WAY over the limit. If it isn’t enough to tell, it’s not worth hassling over.</p>
<p>So if I write 620 words for an essay which was to be limited to 500 words would it be considered “WAY over the limit”</p>
<p>@jackrabbit420 College admins have always said that the best writers are also the best editors. I would recommend cutting it down a bit. Mine was 650 words when I first wrote it, but then I found some stuff that I didn’t need and brought it down to 522 words :)</p>
<p>You’re better off spending your energy trying to write a good essay that fits the word-count restrictions than figuring out whether you can game the system.</p>