I assume ther is nothing that I can do but I am really frustrated. I have been working on this essay for a really long time and have made multiple renditions. It was very difficult to do but I finally got under the 500 word limit and everything was all good, I went to post it in application box. The character limit is 2500 but my essay has a little over 2700 because they are counting spaces. Ahhhhh this makes me so mad. Sorry for this but let this be a warning to others to pay more attention to character limit than word limit!
My son had the same problem. Word count was close to 500 but character count was 2800 or so. The 500 words was tough and now trying to shave 300 or so characters. And it won’t let you miss by even one.
Yeppers, son has the same problem. Great essay, but now he has to cut off almost 300 characters…
@oldbull2 @Gator88NE would it be unethical to have my mom change the essay and cut it down.
You should try to cut it down, yourself, and then get her to take a look at it and give you some feedback (nothing wrong with that!).
Try not to just delete 300 characters, look to tighten it up as much as possible by re-wording a few of the sentences (as much as you can).
Good Luck! I’ve told my son he has to work on it this Sunday, we’ll see if that happens. 
500 word limit for a “big picture” essay is very difficult. My son tried to re-work his 650 Common App essay for UF and it’s now almost incomprehensible. Its like a different essay.
ETA: By the way, the Coalition App seems to be a major pain in the butt to work with. My son is constantly running into problems.
It is… Not very happy with uf haha
@almostdonewithhs Depends on what you mean by “have my mom change the essay”. We helped my son edit his, but it is his essay. His content, his style. No different than asking a teacher to critique it. I’m going to guess there are many kids who hire others to write it, or have the parents do it. Hope I’m wrong, but seems like the reality. We don’t play that game. He’s the one who has to perform when he gets there.
@oldbull2 oh no I wrote the entire essay and sent it to relatives and teachers but I mean having my mom help me edit it down a few hundred characters.
Where does it say that the essay has to be under 500 words?
Look on UF’s website and on the coalition app. @connoo
The limit is precisely 2500 characters which they estimate to be 550 words (I mistakenly wrote 500 words above).
I think it actually works out to be 525 words or less. In any case, not enough to write a full thoughtful essay.
Submitted my essay at 2,499 characters. Good luck to everyone else working on the app!
Well done @almostdonewithhs !