<p>So my Princeton supplemental essay is 533 words, and the suggested max is about 300 words. Am I totally going down, admissions-wise? Are they going to hate me? I tried cutting down the words (I've revised countless times), but I can't cut anymore out without degrading the quality or meaning. Any 08'ers also having this trouble?</p>
<p>haha, I had that problem too but I managed to cut mine down. Are you sure you're not able to cut it down anymore? Try getting someone else to read it and help? Or perhaps focus on something more specific in your essay.</p>
<p>I suppose exceeding 233 words is A LOT... it'll definitely hurt you..</p>
<p>I totally feel your pain. I cut one essay from around 950 to 530. My mom and friend assured me that it was better that way, but it was tragic for me. I felt like I lost a lot of the details that made it shine. In the end, it was descriptive while explaining my experience, though less of a "creative" piece. The main compliment about the end piece, though, was that it was "tighter," which is good. I think that it was probably more balanced in the end.</p>
<p>Also, one school asked for 2 or 3 paragraphs and I wrote 5. Whoops. It was a normal word count (just under 500), but I just couldn't justify squishing the paragraphs together. It was a really good essay though, so if they hold it against me then they'd be dumb.</p>
<p>Is it REAAALLLY "suggested" or is it the max? If it is "suggested," maybe you can just cut a bit more and call it a night. Yeah, you didn't take their suggestion, but if they worded it like that then so what? If they said "please limit to 300," that is another story. If it is a real limit, you shouldn't go over by more than 15%. Sucks, but they probably have the limit to see if you can write well while also being tight.</p>
<p>Maybe call the Princeton and ask?</p>