essay word count

Colleges & Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>I have a good, polished essay ready to submit for the Princeton supplement, but I found out that the instructions for the supplementary essay say to write an essay of about 300 words in response. </p>

<p>The essay I have is 547 words; should I submit it as is, and risk being disadvantaged for going over word count, or edit it further, at the risk of losing details?</p>

<p>I am worried about cutting the length down, because the topic that I am addressing is "one person that has influenced you in a significant way", and the nature of the prompt requires a bit of backstory to explain the influence.</p>

<p>any suggestions as to what I should do?</p>

<p>thanks for your help!</p>

2

<p>As long as the extra 247 words add important and informative detail, keep them in. If they don’t, cut them. That’s a judgement you have to make.</p>

3

<p>I doubt that if you exceed the limit so much it’s going to hurt you, no matter how great your essay is. Try to cut it down as much as you can.</p>