<p>I am applying to a school specifically for their linguistics program, and although I don't intentionally add jargon, I wonder if I should take the effort to explain jargon. However, if I explain, I might be wasting a word limit by explaining a field that the adcom already knows very well.</p>
<p>If you're writing about biochemistry for example, and all of a sudden you make a reference to caspase pathways in apoptosis, I assume you shouldn't have to explain what they are?</p>