Does going a little over the word limit hurt your application?

College Essays
1

<p>Does going a little over the word limit hurt your application? I don't mean by 200 words, I mean by less than 50.</p>

2

<p>Depends on how strict they are about their essay lengths-- one college said to limit the essay to 500 words but that going over by a few words wouldn’t hurt. I think in that case 10+ words extra might be pushing it a bit. If they say you MUST limit it to X words or less, then do not break that rule. Otherwise, the longer the essay and the more lenient the word count, the more extra words you can have.</p>

3

<p>For the common app essay it says 250 - 500, would be going over by a bit be okay?</p>

4

<p><50 more should be ok since they just added that as a guideline range this year. Just make sure you cut out any filler if you can. good luck!!</p>