"150 words or less"

<p>Why do seemingly all of the colleges on the Common Application ask the applicants to limit their essays to "150 (or 300 or 500) words or less" when words are, in fact, countable? Did no one think to amend this to "150 words or fewer" for grammar's sake?</p>

<p>That’s an excellent question! I never considered that before. That should be fixed, especially since that very same issue is often tested on the SATs, ACTs and the like. Maybe you should tell them!</p>