<p>I'm talking about the personal essay. It says "about 300 words." Does that mean they will just ignore my essay if it's 450 words? It's weird because most other colleges cap it at 500 instead of 300...</p>
<p>Please let me know what you think.</p>
<p>300 words is about a page. so don't go over a page basically.</p>
<p>I would not go over 350.</p>
<p>My essays were both around 370, and I was admitted to engineering via priority filing. BUT, I think I was auto-admitted so my essays probably weren't read. I'd try to cut down as much as you can. Mine started out at 500 each and I trimmed down to 370 which is still long.</p>
<p>Mine were 300-ish... try to stay within a 15 word limit of each side, so when they say 300, try to have your essay between 285-315 words</p>
<p>uh oh.. mine were around 400 words each.</p>
<p>make it 500 words then edit it down to 300.</p>
<p>Don't go over 350. It's so not worth it. They'll just get annoyed if your essay is 500, because they have to read a TONNN of those essays, so keep it short and sweet. The essays aren't even THAT big of a factor with a huge school like UofI--it's all about grades and ACT scores.</p>