<p>How strict is the instruction? My essay is about 560 words, and it's so hard to cut it down more, since I have already cut it from the original 1000-word draft.</p>
<p>I doubt you would be rejected solely because your essay was 60 words over, but you are definitely not helping yourself any by not following directions. If you PM me, I can help you cut it down a little. (Don’t worry; I’ve already finished all my apps/gotten into my early school!)</p>
<p>I believe it is much less about the word count and much more about the compelling flow of the essay. I’ve read many essays that have been 1,500 words, but were written so well that I could have sworn they were much shorter because of how quickly I managed to read through it and because of how well the essay pulled me in. This being said, I’m not trying to hint at you being able to submit a 1,000 word essay, but if your 560 word essay is so well as to keep the reader captivated the entire way through, then I don’t see any need for you to cut down on words.</p>
<p>^While that may be true for say, the common app main or even the Princeton supplement, Yale specifically says “Please limit your essay to fewer than 500 words.” I wouldn’t take my chances, especially when an app is explicitly asking you not to go over. I’m not an admissions officer, but I would personally find it a bit rude if an applicant thought they were so important as to warrant 61 extra words that I ~politely~ asked that they exclude. Not making the effort to cut it down would make it look like you didn’t put much effort into the app and just decided to copy & paste an essay from some other college.</p>
<p>~Merry Christmas~</p>
<p>Yale admissions officers aren’t going to sit down and count the number of words in your essay. 400-600 should be fine.</p>
<p>For the record, both my common app essay and the Yale supplement were about 650 words, and I got in EA with average scores and no hook.</p>
<p>I agree with clandarkfire. If your essay is concise and well-written, admissions officers are not going to notice an extra 60 words (half a paragraph, if that). I was admitted early action, and both of my essays exceeded the limit just a bit.</p>
<p>Well then, can’t argue with that anecdotal evidence 
But I think the key thing here is that those extra 60 words had better be worth it. Haha now I feel bad because I cut out a really good paragraph from my Yale supplement just to get under 500 words 
I don’t think it messed up the flow of my essay, though.</p>
<p>@clandarkfire & Daisie: Congrats on Yale EA! I heard it was extremely tough to get in this year :D</p>
<p>All we’re saying is that exceeding the word limit doesn’t result in automatic disqualification (or else we’d have been disqualified). I completely agree that “those extra 60 words had better be worth it.”</p>
<p>Thanks, by the way, and good luck to you!</p>
<p>Yale seems to care about the word limit more than its peers. I would shorten it as much as possible. They will not see or check your word count, but it will not help to be noticeably longer.</p>
<p>Is 60 words long enough to notice? Maybe, maybe not. It would be a risk.</p>