3 and 4 above are spot on. Have you repeated the same ideas in different words? Have you said things like “I just really wanted to…” instead of “I wanted to…” Which parts of the essay don’t support the message you’re trying to convey? In fact, let me rephrase that in fewer words. What doesn’t support your message? If everything plays a part, then you need to condense ideas or eliminate what is least compelling. Are you over-explaining something? Remember that your reader doesn’t need to know exactly how something occurred. It’s okay to leave out stuff that over-complicates things for the reader. Use your artistic license.
It’s very easy to get rid of words once you start looking. I just worked with a student who wrote 1200 words. It was challenging to help her eliminate what wasn’t needed, but it almost became like a game. Make sure every word counts. Less is generally more. Editing isn’t just about punctuation and grammar.
Another example: “The kids shouted as loudly as they were able to, trying to attract attention to the whale which had beached itself,” versus “The kids shouted as loudly as possible, trying to attract attention to the beached whale,” versus “The kids shouted loudly, trying to attract attention to the beached whale.” Those three sentences say exactly the same thing, but sentence 1 has 21 words, sentence 2 has 15 words and sentence 3 has 12 words. No description or impact is lost in sentence 3 over the other two sentences. I eliminated nine totally superfluous words.
Start like that, then come back and see if anyone will look at your essay.