<p>On the common app, in one of the supplemants it asks the question and then says in parenthesis ...</p>
<pre><code> 500 words maximum.
</code></pre>
<p>i was able to shorten it to 550 words but will some annoying addmission people throw that in a word count and hold it against me?</p>
<p>Send your essay as a hard copy. It is very doubtful that anyone will count the words by hand.</p>
<p>Adcoms read a lot of essays - they’re not going to spend time word-counting them. The word count limits are really more like guidelines to prevent people from turning in 1000-word epics. As long as you’re not more than 100 words over the limit, you should be fine.</p>