<p>Dartmouth is my favorite school and I'm doing everything possible to get in. My supplement essay is really good, but the common app specifically says "a paragraph to a page is ideal" and my essay is 1 page and about 2 lines onto a second page. I've tried everything to shorten it but at this point any attempt to shorten it more will take away the content of the essay. Will they look down on my application if my essay is a few sentences too long?</p>
I want to say don’t sweat over it, but I also want to say that the adcom have to review many many essays and the last thing they want is trying to hunt down the idea of the essay. As long as your main idea is clearly stated in the first half (preferably first quarter) and everything in your essay reveals some aspect of that idea, you shouldn’t have a problem.
Could you change the line spacing, font size, or margins? (I don’t know if Dartmouth has requirements)
edit: “ideal” sounds like it’s a soft limit and that they’ll be forgiving if you’re close