How strict are the word limits?

Applying to College
1

I’ve just typed 250 words for a section with a 150 word limit, but every sentence has a purpose and is important to the overall message of the section. How many words can you type over the limit before admissions officers become disgusted?

2

<p>depends on the school, but adcoms will read everything you send them. The question is did you follow directions? And, 250 is rather long for a 150 word direction, IMO. Can you reduce it to ~200 and still provide the same essence?</p>

3

<p>Meet the limit. +/- 20 words.</p>

4

<p>For some schools if you pass a certain word limit, the text will be truncated.</p>

5

<p>how can you tell which schools?</p>

6

<p>You can't tell, you just have to play it safe. My English teacher said the rule of thumb is to stay within 10% of the word limit, so if the essay says 150, you can go 15 over or under.</p>

<p>250 is 1.66 times 150. That's pushing it. Each sentence is important, but some are of lesser importance. And some phrases can be cut from the sentence so it still retains its meaning.</p>

7

<p>I agree that it depends on the school. All of the schools I applied to (Georgetown, Yale, PRinceton, and Uconn) were very lax about my essays. Although the essays were supposed to be between 250 and 500 words, one of my essays was about 1500 to 2000 words AFTER editing. I think that if you go over the limit but you have a really really strong and captivating essay, they won't mind. However, if you go way over the limit and ramble on about crap, then it's likely you won't get a favorable outcome from your long essay. So, again it depends on the school but it also depends on how strong your essays are. I was told that my essays were great and that's why I don't think I was penalized. BTW, I decided to go to Princeton after much thought.</p>

8

<p>My common app essay was ~1000 words (suggested: 500 words) and my most valuable activity essay was about 550 (suggested: 250 words). I couldn't use the online common app because of this, but I was able to print them myself and attach them to my hard-copy applications.</p>

<p>My opinion is this: the word limits are a good guide, but don't let them influence what you have to say too much. Of course, be concise. Of course, edit out as much as possible. But what you have to say (if it's interesting) is infinitely more important to any adcom than whether or not you followed an arbitrary word limit. </p>

<p>Just my 2 cents... Good luck!</p>