<p>On the Common App. essay it gives a list of topics and a 250-500 word limit. I understand that this limit is put in place because there are REAL people who have to read thousands of these essays and evaluate them within a given time frame. However, I wrote an essay and because I was so passionate about my topic, I greatly exceeded the word count limit - I had 1182 words AFTER REMOVING CONTENT AND REVISIONS. I tried to remove some wording without sanitizing my work but, it was of no use. Should I just re-write an entire essay in hopes of it being as good as this one? I just don't see any other topic producing the same amount of "oomph" that this one did. HELP. :(</p>
<p>Do you have an introductory paragraph? If so, try reading your essay without that paragraph and see if the “story” still comes through. You may be able to eliminate the entire paragraph with no loss of content. Similarly if you have a conclusion.</p>
<p>Over a 1,000 words is too long, sorry. </p>
<p>I posted on another thread that the advice my son got last year was to keep the essay to one page, single spaced with spaces between the paragraphs if possible. So, you might go a bit over 500 but will be close. </p>
<p>Leave your essay to sit for a few days or a week then go back to it and see if you can pull out one aspect of it to write about. Otherwise, you might want to consider another topic.</p>
<p>You can certainly write beyond 500 words, because there is nothing stopping you, but more than 1000 words is waaaaaay too long. In fact, make every effort to stay below 500 words, as next year the common app will not allow essays a single word over 500. This just shows that they take the limit seriously.</p>
<p>Not that adcoms are counting, but you may want to look like a rule-follower. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s way too long. You should honestly keep the word limit in mind (and look at the word count in MS Word) while writing, otherwise it’s easy to fly past it.</p>
<p>And no, you essay probably can’t be salvaged. 600 to 500? Possible, by streamlining it. But 1200 to 500? It wouldn’t even be the same essay, unless you included a TON of superfluous fluff (which wouldn’t bode well for the essay anyway). You’re probably best off starting from scratch, maybe incorporating your very best parts.</p>
<p>I asked a counselor this question and he told me that as long as your essay is within range it is okay. 1000 words is probably to long but if it is something between 500 and 575, he said it is okay as long as your essay is good and the extra stuff you included is necessary for the essay.</p>
<p>I would advise you try to stay under 500 words. The best writing is succinct, so maybe the topic you chose isn’t appropriate for the word limit. Hopefully you’ve already started, but write a new essay on a new topic.</p>