<p>I feel like this is as short as I can get it while still maintaining effectiveness... Thoughts?</p>
<p>Some will tell you to cut it down to 500 no matter what (there are a lot of conflicting opinions on this) but personally I would advocate leaving it as is- you’re close enough to 500 words, so if you feel like cutting at this point would make your essay weaker, then you’re fine where you are right now.</p>
<p>I say cut it down, if it was over by 4 or 5, it would be okay but you’re way over. Reread your essay and see if you can cut out any ‘unnecessary’ details. I was in the same position as you and cut it down to 467 words. If you cut out some stuff, you can go back and readd other details that you really like.</p>
<p>Interesting… i wish i could write more! lol i didn’t realize how short 500 words really was… Would anyone like to read it and give suggestions on what to cut out? I’m just so sick of this essay and could use some direction lol.</p>
<p>Got it down to 549 words!</p>
<p>why don’t you just get it down to 500 words. then you won’t have to worry that maybe your essay will be cut off. </p>
<p>really its not going to be that hard, just try to say the same idea in fewer words. the admissions officers will see how you went over the word limit and think, Gee this person can’t even follow instructions. She couldn’t write an essay within the word limit.</p>
<p>Only cut it down as far as possible while maintaining effectiveness. The common app essay cutoff is NOT a strict cut-off, and while I think it’s better to keep essays as close to 500 as possible, it’s not absolutely necessary.</p>
<p>Just do your best to cut it down while maintaining effectiveness. After all, if they love your essay and it’s a TAD long, that’s better than not liking it as much as they would’ve and having it the “proper” length.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that on the Common App 500 words isn’t really a strict cutoff. I’ve heard of people submitting over 700 word essays and still getting accepted. You should be good, just make sure you don’t have any unnecessary details and that you focused on your main topic throughout the essay. If your essay is loosing its overall impact when you cut down on the words, I would definitely leave it as is. Also, I would get someone to look it over for you. Perhaps you should ask your grammar teacher or counselor about it? I had my counselor and 4 teachers look over my essay.</p>