<p>Ok here's what common app says about limit:
"6,000 Character Limit
The "Essay" input field is limited to 6,000 characters... You will not be able to type more than 6,000 characters into the input field. However, typing less than the limits does NOT guarantee that your entire text will fit in the space provided on your PDF. You MUST print preview before submitting. "</p>
<p>So is your essay length fine as long as it a)less than 6,000 characters, and
b) fits into the space given in the print preview?</p>
<p>Mine was well over the '250-500 Words' but is around 4,000 characters including spaces and also fits comfortably, about 1/3 of the space provided in print preview was blank.</p>
<p>2nd question- CommonApp says only double space between paragraphs and don't use tab indent for first word of each paragraph.
However, my essay is stuck with a double space between 1st and 2nd paragraph and single space between all other paragraphs no matter how i format it. Also, my essay comes out with no indentation at all in front of the first word of my first paragraph.</p>
<p>Should I just leave it or should i figure out how to get that spacing right and get the first word to indent?</p>
<p>i'm also wondering about the word count. i'm currently at like 750. trimming to 500 would make it a completely different essay (i've already cut out most excess)</p>
<p>1) I would say that you should REALLY try to stick to the guidelines given--going over the 500 limit by 50 or so words isn't going to make or break you, but 100+ words makes it look like you didn't even read the directions. Essay should be revealing, but to the point, and 500 words should be about right. Anything more is unnecessary; try VERY hard to cut it down to at least ~550 and you should be okay.</p>
<p>2) I think you can fix this problem by copying and pasting your essay to Notepad, and then copying and pasting it on to the Common App. I'm not sure if this will work, but I did read it on the site somewhere...</p>
<p>I hope this helps. My essay was over the 500 word count--510 words, and I'm also looking to cutting it down a bit more.</p>
<p>Ezmech - cutting down your essay should NOT make it into a completely different essay; I'm thinking that you're essay is trying to say "too much" and that you should have written it with the 500 word guideline in mind--try again and see what happens. I hope all goes well.</p>
<p>RWT- Yeah, i read about the notepad thing and I did it, and thats how it came out. Pretty weird because I followed all the formatting guidelines accurately. have you tried to print preview your essay? just wondering if anyone else has that problem. I'm not even sure if indentation at the beginning of paragraphs matter that much.</p>
<p>another comment on word limit, common app basically says how it looks in the print preview is how colleges will see it. Mine takes up 2/3 of given page so can't be that bad? I'll be about 100 words over after I go through grammer edit. And even my AP lit teacher had trouble deciding what to cut out when she helped me with it because she said everything fitted well together
^making excuse for myself but whatever, I'll see.</p>