Common App Short Answer PROBLEM-HELP

College Essays
1

<p>So I realize that it's 150 words or fewer for the Common Application Short Answer section about one of your activities..</p>

<p>Well, Microsoft says it's 150 words and I counted and recounted and always got 150. But, strangely enough, the Common App won't accept it, saying it's too long and exceeds the word limit. I have to erase 5 words to make it save it. </p>

<p>I thought that it was counting — as words so I erased them, NOPE
I thought that it was counting abbreviations as separate words so I took it out but I still have to erase four more to make it save so, NOPE</p>

<p>I really don't understand... This 150 words was the most condensed I could get it at as well and it changes many things if I erase five words.</p>

<p>I searched the whole forum and it seems most people don't have this type of a problem. Does the word counter count characters? My characters excluding spaces is 870 which isn't big at all either so I'm not exactly sure why this is happening...</p>

<p>Any ideas?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>i lol’d that you said you counted the words. </p>

<p>don’t freak out! it’s just a machine. it’s not going to be 100% accurate, so you’re just going to have to make amends with it. try shortening it by excluding excess words (you don’t really need that ‘very’ or ‘really’). and even if it’s not super outstanding like the original, it’s not going to completely kill your chances of getting into the college you want.</p>

<p>relax! :)</p>

3

<p>Nice, I couldn’t find the application form for Hogwarts…damn.</p>

4

<p>sometimes, if you press enter too many times (if your answer has too many lines), it wont fit into the space designated in the pdf printout file. and the system tells you it wont fit even if you’re within the word limit.</p>