Common App Essay Question

<p>It says the limit is 250-500 words.. but mine is around 639 lol..you think that's going to be a problem if I go over? What if I trim it down to around 550? Thanks</p>

<p>They aren't going to necessarily penalize you for going over. But they give you a word limit for a reason. They don't want to read thousands of overly long essays. 550 would be better than 639. I follow the 10% rule personally, in that I don't write more than 10% of the word limit extra. That would give you 50 extra words.</p>