<p>that should be okay right?</p>
<p>I would say, NOT OK !!!</p>
<p>If the instructions say no more than 250 words, I would absolutely follow the instructions. When I was in college, albeit 35 years ago, I had some assignment where they said not to write more than 3 pages, but mine was 3 1/4 pages, so I changed my typewriter setting (yes, back then, there were no computers) to 1 1/2 space instead of double space, so it would all fit on three pages, and the professor nailed me on this.</p>
<p>NO!!! Condense your essay to 250 words, or the admissions counsel may think you have difficulty following instructions, which is not an impression you want to make on them.</p>
<p>I disagree. I’m sure 300 would be fine.</p>
<p>It’s really not ok. And by that I mean it better be a great essay to where the length won’t be questioned because the reader is fully indulged in your text or it’s gonna be pretty bad. My point is if your essay is good then they won’t mind, but if it’s boring and stuff where the reader actually starts questioning if it’s 250 words… then you might be in trouble. So tread carefully</p>
<p>Is it really worth the risk?</p>
<p>The instructions say approximately 250 words. 300 is fine.</p>
<p>Id say your best bet is to ask admissions</p>
<p>I’ve heard it’s OK to go over as long as it doesn’t go over by too much. Read the instructions to see if it says approximately 250 words or no more than 250 words. They don’t spend that much time reading the essays and I doubt anyone puts it through a word counter.</p>
<p>floridadad55, I once got busted for one and a half spacing a paper too.</p>
<p>admissions will not care if your essay is 50 words over</p>
<p>There is no difference between 250 and 300 words. It takes a normal adcom 10 seconds to read 50 words and it is not like they do any word counting. You can easily go 15%-20% over the word limit and not have any trouble.</p>
<p>This said, try to keep within the word limit and only exceed it if there is no way to shorten your essay without affecting the quality of the piece.</p>
<p>But be careful if this is the common ap - not sure at what point they cut off the essay - you don’t want the last few sentences missing…</p>
<p>yay for engineering… i doubt anyone even bothered to read my essay haha</p>