<p>i'm at 565 words, but it all fits on one page single spaced. should this be okay?</p>
<p>If this is for the Common App, absolutely not.
The directions strictly state 250-500 words.
But cutting it down to 500 probably won’t be that hard.
Just get some help from your AP English teacher and I’m pretty sure you’ll be golden.
Best of luck!</p>
<p>You should keep it at 250-500 words.</p>
<p>There’s nothing stopping you from keeping it at 560 since the CA has no way of enforcing a word count and admission offices aren’t going to count.</p>
<p>apguy77, over 500 words is not an “absolutely not”.</p>
<p>OP, if your essay is engaging up to the 565th word, then keep it all. also, change to double-spaced…common app will not cut your essay off</p>
<p>Number one rule of admissions: follow all instructions.</p>
<p>While it may or may not (and probably will not) actually be checked, failure to follow instructions provides an easy excuse for admissions officers to refuse to consider your application, and thus to make the job of narrowing down a pool of qualified and compelling applicants a bit easier.</p>