<p>how bad is it if my short essay's around 500 words and my long essay's almost 700 words. does the limit matter much because the essays are uploaded and not typed into a word box? please respond....i can't seem to shorten it! and even if i did i can't shorten it by 200 words or even by 100!</p>
<p>i had the same problem... if u work at it long enough you should at least be able to shorten by 100..... Your long one might be okay but your short essay at least needs to go down.</p>
<p>There's no way you can't shorten that to around 600 or so. It might seem like it, but cutting 100 words really isn't that difficult. Just edit a lot! And you have until the 21st now, so maybe stepping back and coming back a few days later would help you edit.</p>
<p>well it might be easier than u think, just find phrases that look like "space-fillers"</p>
<p>i.e. "It is upon this exact moment in time that I realized who I was".</p>
<p>replace with "In that one instance, I discovered my true identity."</p>
<p>not a big difference, but if u do it for a lot, it will help. make sure the sentences still flow smoothly and still makes sense. Good Luck :)</p>
<p>thanks guys.
ok i shortened the short one from 515 -> 480
and long one from 689 -> 596
but they're still very long. i can't seem to shorten the short one more without it having to lose the essence of my topic.
do you guys think it's ok just to submit it as 480 and 596?
is it that big of a deal or should i just spend more time on it?</p>
<p>480 is still almost double the 250 they recommend. Seems like an unnecessary risk if you ask me.</p>
<p>alright, i shortened it down to 420 (short) and 573 (long).
ugh...i can't believe shortening it takes longer than writing it!
well, i think im going to take that risk, especially for the short one because the difference between 300 words and 420 is just a 6 line paragraph. hopefully they don't mind reading an extra 6 lines...
thanks for your replies though =)</p>
<p>my long essay was 1000 words...</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>(10 char)</p>
<p>as a general rule that i learned from a college admissions person...if they reccomend a word limit, but dont strictly enforce it, its ok to go 20% above or below...</p>
<p>so for a reccomendation fo 250, the most you should go is about 300 (they wont nit-pick about 310 or so, but u dont want to get into 325+)</p>
<p>and for a reccomendation fo 500, the most you should go is 600, so youre ok there</p>
<p>cut the short one! a lot of time you use the word "that" and you really dont need it... cut a paragraph if u need to, look for the nonessential stuff</p>
<p>I mean, they make limits for a reason..no one wants to read a needlessly long essay. Unless you're a totally incredible writer, shorten it to about 25-50 words over.</p>
<p>There's really no excuse for an essay double the recommendation. Those numbers are there for a reason.</p>
<p>have your english teacher pare it down</p>
<p>I'm a UNC OOS frosh, so I think I'll start helping around here.</p>
<p>My long essay was 213 words, and I was accepted.</p>
<p>Content > length.</p>