<p>A couple of questions. 1) First, when counting words in an essay do you count every word including words like 'a, an, the, etc'? 2) Second question, my essay including all those words is about 750 words long. Most of my colleges took the common app, but just for kicks I went on one of my colleges own applications and it gives a limit on the number of words for an essay (500). I applied to this and all my other schools via the common app, which just said 250 word minimum. My english teacher said the essay should be no more than 2 pages, which mine is just under. Am I screwed?</p>
<p>bumpbumpbump</p>
<p>if its slightly lengthy, but interesting and attention grabbing, i see no reason to shorten an essay. i think just as long as its under 750 words, you should be good</p>
<p>When my english teacher read it, he thought it was quite good - he felt it would stand out. Also, that 750 word estimate includes every word; ie, a, an etc. so if those are not counted it is even less.</p>
<p>I think that most students just use the word processor word count feature like MS Word has. So every word is counted.</p>
<p>I agree with frenchfry that if it is interesting then it is fine. I read quite a few essays lately for S and his friends. I can tell if an essay is short/long by just looking at it. I doubt that adcom will count your words. But if you essay is that long, it better be great since adcom that read hundreds of essays a day probably will lose interest very quickly. Have someone else read it to get more opinions.</p>
<p>S has his 11th grade English teacher read his. She thought it was good and gave few comments. Then his 12th grade English teacher and I read it. Both of us had lots of comments and some of our comments were similar.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Most colleges give a word number because they want to save themselves time and boredom, if your essay is completely attention capturing and it is really good and you feel confident about it then turn it in… i think they will forgive you if its more than the limit but make sure its worth their time…</p>