Essay word limit

Does anybody know if there’s an official word limit for the why chicago essay? I know the tumblr says 500 words, but some of my friends and even some of the essays on the post your essay board have ones well over 500 words? can anyone clarify the limit for me?

mine is at like 650 right now

The only specifications I’ve seen is that the file must be under 500 KB

Actually, just saw that UChicago says this on the CommonApp:
“There are no strict word limits. We suggest that for the first essay (where you choose one of the seven prompts), the extended essay stay around 650 words. While we won’t as a rule stop reading after 650 words, we cannot promise that an overly wordy essay will hold our attention for as long as you’d hoped it would. For the “Why UChicago” and “Favorites” essays, we suggest about 250 words.”

I don’t see that anywhere

It’s in the right-hand Help column on the CommonApp UChicago writing supplement page. Funnily enough, the next help section says “There is no strict word limit, but most essays are around 500 words” in reference to the extended essay. So idk.