<p>The requirement for UVa's second essay is "approximately 250 words", but I still have 280 words after dozens times of revising. So does this affect my application? </p>
<p>It’s fine.</p>
<p>If you can, bring it down to 250. But honestly, I doubt it seriously matters.</p>
<p>It should be fine. The maximum is 300, isn’t it? And they also said around half a page (I’m assuming standard font and margins). Don’t worry, I just submitted my application and my word count is higher than yours, so we’ll see :)</p>