Is my essay to long for the common app?

<p>I have written my essay for the common app but it's 677 words which is over the 250-500 words that it says on the sight. Also is this essay more important or the supplements for the college?</p>

<p>when it says 500 words, write 500 words. my original essay was 704 (for UCs) and I cut it down. If you don’t, colleges will think you can’t follow instructions and instantly look at you with a more critical view, and it will hurt your chances.
both are very important, don’t fudge any of them.</p>

<p>oh ok I see that does make sense. It’s just that I already cut it down from 764 to 677 and I don’t really see how to cut out more without making it seem choppy, but thanks I’ll just have to work on it.</p>

<p>Cut it down. That might seem hard to do, but there’s always going to be a way to make it shorter. You might have to delete sentences/phrases or something, but the shorter you can make it while still telling a good story about yourself, the better it will be. Try having someone else look over it and ask them what parts seem the most unimportant, and see if they can think of any ways to rephrase things so there’s less words. That’s what I did and it helped a lot.</p>