<p>What if I go over the limit by lets say 200 hundred words. Is that going to hurt my chances at that school?</p>
<p>adcom might get annoyed... try to cut down words..</p>
<p>do they have some word count device?</p>
<p>I don't think so, but if you reading some 500 word essays and you get a 700 word one, you'll notice the difference in length.</p>
<p>I'm 99% certain they don't use a word counting device. That's just ridiculous :P</p>
<p>I don't think you should go over more than about 100 words. You should certainly aim for the limit of 550 maximum because it seems kind of disrespectful to the college if you can't limit yourself to their request. Also, when the essay is only 500 words, the college can be sure that every word, every sentence counts.
So, if your essay is 700 words, I would say cut it! Now.</p>