<p>Many college apps say that your essay has to be within a range of words, say 300-400, giving the impression that your essay should be "roughly" within those constraints and that if you are a little bit over, it's no big deal.</p>
<p>But UIUC's essays say they have to be "less than 300 words." So I'm wondering, is this a strict, formulaic requirement? Would they be mad if I hit 350?</p>
<p>Thanks guys</p>
<p>I’ve been wondering the same thing; both of mine ended up at 321 and 375. If you’re submitting a paper application with the essay on paper, it might be okay… but if you’re doing it online they very well might have a word counter and reject you for not being able to follow simple directions.</p>
<p>I think anything 250-315 would be fine though.</p>
<p>i would hope that they wouldn’t reject you for going 15 words over, even if that is technically breaking the set guideline. anyone know for sure how this works?</p>
<p>edit: the part i hate is in the “tips and checklist” part on the web site they say they want you to elaborate on things. that’s a really difficult thing to do in 300 words</p>
<p>No one knows how much it will impact the decision but it certainly doesn’t make a good first impression if the first thing they see is that you couldn’t follow the rules and do something as simple as keeping your essay under 300 words.</p>
<p>If you go over somewhat, it won’t make a difference in and of itself. However, most that go over the limit operate under a great misconception that they cannot say the same thing in 300 words or less.</p>