<p>Is that going a little too overboard? I’ve tried trimming it down but to no avail. I mean, the colleges don’t really count it right? Are they going to discard it or look at it in a different “negative” light? I think that everything in my essay is significant.</p>
<p>780 out of how many?</p>
<p>out of 500…sadly…lol</p>
<p>Something to keep in mind:</p>
<p>Most essays will probably be at or below the limit. If they read one a that’s 50% longer than most of them . . . don’t you think they’ll notice? Not to mention that most adcoms are probably sick of essays by the time they read any given appllicants’–going over the limit would not be wise.</p>
<p>What a lot of people forget is that TRIMMING DOWN AN ESSAY DOES NOT MEAN SACRIFICING MEANING. Why? Because you can work on word economy. For example: </p>
<p>“I think that the biggest influence in my life was my experience with automobiles.”</p>
<p>Too long? Economize the wording:</p>
<p>“The biggest influence on me has been cars, by far.”</p>
<p>Try this for every sentence–and you don’t have to sound crude or oversimplify. You can use a nice vocabulary but keep your wording concrete and to the point. I don’t know for sure, but if I were an adcom I’d be thrilled to read an essay that said a lot with a little–even if the essay itself was mediocre.</p>
<p>Most of the most important things in your life can’t fit in a little essay–and it’s obvious that an essay can’t capture your whole personality. But that isn’t your goal, your goal is to give them a representative piece. If you really have to make sacrifices, just hold your breath and cut stuff out. The best essays written for colleges meet word limits–I think you can stand to do so too. Or at least trim it to 600.</p>