<p>I was curious. It seems so many people struggle with it and so many seem to go over it. Even though it's only been implemented for the last couple years, someone has to have an answer, right?</p>
<p>So to past applicants: have you ever gone over the 500 word count limit on the CommonApp and been admitted to a prestigious university? Which ones? What was it about?</p>
<p>To current readers: How much does it hurt someone? Have you ever stopped reading solely because it looked longer than the other? Even if it was still on that first page? Any times where it was longer but you kept reading regardless?</p>
<p>Umm I assume you aren’t a current senior so all the answers to these questions won’t apply to you. The Common App is getting a make over. Don’t know what is going to happen, but I know they are forcing you to pick one of their topics (no more “topic of your choice”) and something else. Can’t remember. I think the limit will be exactly at 500. don’t know. Sorry.</p>
<p>ZombieDante is right, colleges are not happy that people are ignoring the limit so it’s going to be a hard cutoff at 500 words in the future. You’re hurting yourself with 600, it doesn’t matter if it’s still on one page. 600 is not a grey area, it is too much. Take it to 550 and they might let it slide.</p>
<p>It is a grey area. Everyone agrees 700 is too much every agrees anything in the 500s is fine, but there’s no clear consensus on things in the 600s. This is the reason for this thread. Inquiring minds want to know.</p>
<p>I’ve also polled ED friends. The Valedictorian of our school wrote 632 words on his and was accepted to Harvard, another wrote about as much and was Deferred. I need to know how high the penalty is.</p>
<p>I would not treat 600 words as an automatic penalty. If you can condense your essay, you should. However, if you’ve cut it down as much as you can, I would submit it. Ideally, you could have friends or some people to review your essay with fresh eyes. </p>
<p>If you’re “stuck” at 600 words but each word adds something to the piece, keep it. No adcom will count your essay but make sure it does not drag on so it feels like it’s over 500 words.</p>
<p>Tothepoint, all the most selective schools in that article are saying DO NOT GO OVER in polite words. The less selective schools, who get less apps, don’t particularly care because they don’t have to go through 30,000 apps like Harvard does. 600 words is 20% more than what they want, by reasonable standards that is too much. As lookingforward said on your other thread, the adcom reading your app has about 10 minutes to get through everything. Sending a longer essay than everyone else means he’s not going to be able to get to everything in your app and you’ll be penalized. Don’t risk it. I’m tired of arguing this, tons of people have already told you. Cut it down.</p>
<p>I think 100 words more qualifies as “much longer.” If the extra 50-100 words are dull and don’t add anything to your essay, cut them.</p>
<p>“So, in summary, the team here at CollegeMapper learned that most colleges don’t mind if you go a few words or even a few precious sentences over the 500 word limit.”</p>
<p>I sent an 800 word essay to UMichigan and was admitted EA. I think certain schools aren’t strict with limits and other schools are. I know for the Ivies, you wouldn’t want to go noticeable over 500 words. The documents are converted into pdf format, so there’s no official word count. So they’ll never know if your essay was 515 words. Mine was 542 when I sent to the rest of my college, Ivies included.</p>