<p>down to the wire for my daughter. Does her essay really have to be no more than 250 words? She's at 264. Some schools say "approximately". JHU says "maximum".</p>
<p>As the application instructions state on the Johns Hopkins Supplement, responses to both short answer questions should be 250 words maximum. There is a strong preference of the Admissions Committee, and therefore we strongly advise students not to submit responses that are more than 250 words. That is why we say maximum and not approximately.</p>
<p>Obviously, your daughter has already submitted her responses and is not able to go back and edit them. 14 extra words is not going to be noted and not impact her admission. We state a maximum because if we used the word approximately that would lead some applicants to think 300 - 400 - 500 words responses are welcome … which is not what we want.</p>