Help please!

<p>So I'm beginning to upload all of my essays onto the common app. For the Penn essay on studying with a professor, it says it only allows 1000 characters. On microsoft word it says my essay is 952, but when I go to paste it in the box, it says I'm over 142 characters. I don't know what to do because I can't afford to cut any more out of it. Any suggestions???</p>

<p>Are you sure that your essay isn't 952 WORDS? Microsoft Word counts words automatically, not characters.</p>

<p>If that isn't it, then maybe the Penn essay counts spaces as characters? I know that when I uploaded my Common App 150-word essay, it wouldn't accept it if I separated one more of my paragraphs into two.</p>