<p>My essay is 679 words, and I honestly can't think of a way to shorten it without butchering the essay and potentially having it end up sounding like garbage. Is 179 words over the limit a bad thing?</p>
<p>I know how you feel. Mine is about 700 words and every word cut makes it feel less and less complete.</p>
<p>I applied last year through the Common Application and I had 650 words (I got accepted to the 7 universities I applied to). I guess it doesn’t really matter but make sure that you write only about important things that they (the universities) will be interested in reading.</p>
<p>@Tim2011, they changed the Common App this year, from a 250 word minimum to a 250min-500max. It’s a tough cut for all of us, I cut a whole half of my story out and just focused on that half. Makes it much worse, but nothing we can do. Try changing the perspective/focus of your essay (yes, that means rearranging it or even rewriting it). I changed my focus from how one experience impacted the rest of my week, containing two events, to just one event and “the rest of my life” in a clich</p>
<p>Ya, I’ve had to change my essay a bit as well. And I don’t advise going over the limit. Even just a little bit because its a hard limit. Which means that if you have 501 words then that’s 1 word too many. =/</p>
<p>I feel like a broken record for saying this, but guys…it’s perfectly fine to go over the limit.</p>
<p>Adcoms aren’t counting how many words you have. Even if they decided to this year, they won’t toss your app into the “Rejected” pile just for going over the hard limit* by one word or 100 words. If your essay is 501 words and it knocks the adcoms off their seats and onto the floor, they won’t care that you went over by <em>GASP</em> one measly word. Please keep in mind that they’re looking for reasons to admit you, not reject you.
While I say that it’s okay to go over 500 words, don’t overdo it. Adcoms have 15 minutes to read over your app…please don’t put them to sleep!</p>
<p>*The “hard limit” isn’t necessarily one IMO. I uploaded my 500+ worded document, and it showed up fine and dandy in the preview.</p>
<p>Take this advice as you may. :)</p>
<p>i think the general rule of thumb is to be 2 pages double spaced or less. mine is 740 words and i’m at two pages, so i think i’m fine. as long as the essay keeps the readers interested, you should be fine.</p>