<p>For the "long" essay, mine runs in at around 750 words- a mere 250 words above the suggestion.</p>
<p>OK or NO?</p>
<p>Do you think colleges are interested in enrolling students who are unable to follow simple instructions?</p>
<p>Id cut it down from 750. It does say “about” 500 words. So you have leeway, but I wouldnt go too much over 600</p>
<p>They’re cramping my style, man</p>
<p>Ignore snarky Hunt and listen to NCBoy1. Try to get it to around 600. If higher than 650, be sure it doesn’t have one bit of dead weight. Unless you’ve already worked hard to get it down to 750, you CAN make it shorter without having your style cramped or message compromised. Print it out and go through it line for line to see where you’ve used three or four “soft” words when one sharp word would do (i.e. passive verb phrases for active verbs). Get rid of any cliche phrases that may seem to help with transitions, but don’t. Every word in the introduction should matter. Conclusion doesn’t need to drag or reiterate. Good luck.</p>
<p>The app readers read hundreds and thousands of essays. The longer your essay, the harder it is to keep your readers engaged.</p>
<p>Quote from the following link
"In college admissions essays, wordiness is by far the most common stylistic error. In most cases, students could cut one-third of an essay, lose no meaningful content, and make the piece much more engaging and effective. "
[Wordiness</a> and Repetition in College Admissions Essays](<a href=“http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/ss/College-Essay-Style-Tips.htm]Wordiness”>Tips for Improving the Style of Your College Essay)</p>
<p>I read lots of essays last year (son and his friends applied last year) and read some this year. I must say that the above is true. Every essay I read can be made much tighter and more interesting.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Last year, Julie from the Admissions Blog said:</p>
<p>If you have a 750-word essay, I would recommend that you do your best to edit it down if you can. We really appreciate when students keep to the word count, but I know it can be hard sometimes. But please do try, we read an awful lot of essays so we appreciate brevity (and they say it’s the soul of wit, so there’s that too!)</p>
<p>You are welcome to use an essay topic from the Common App. And we don’t count words, so if you go over a bit, we probably won’t notice.</p>
<p>Thanks for the questions!
Julie</p>
<p>I’d say No. Have you ever heard about the 10% rule? It says that youre fine if you dont go over the word limit by more than 10%. This is by no means an official parameter accepted by every college or professor, but it tends to be considered reasonable, and it does help you see when you are going way over the word limit (250 words over 500 is WAAAAAAAY over, trust me, not good). </p>
<p>So in this case my friend, if you MUST go over, try to do it by no more than 50 words. </p>
<p>Nobody more than I knows how it feels to be limited like that, especially when you feel so inspired in your story/argument/etc. Once you are done with an essay, that’s like your baby, it’s your product, and it’s so damn hard to cut things off 
But as maddening as word limits can be, and even if we dont notice it sometimes, they do help us a lot to be succinct, stick to the point and avoid rambling.</p>
<p>Do not write over the guidelines. If everyone else finds a way to stick to the rules, you should too. I guarantee whatever you’re writing about can be trimmed down.</p>
<p>Well I’ve been able to cut it down to 634 words. I’ll try to go through it again for a fourth time to see if I can do a bit more condensing, but I don’t see it getting much shorter.</p>