<p>1600 words is absolutely ridiculous. There is no way that an admissions counselor will read that all the way to the end. Times New Roman, 12 pt., one inch margins. That's the page size. It comes out to roughly 500-600 words. Any more than that and questions will come like: can they summarize something? and why isn't this shorter? Everyone, and I mean everyone, can write their essay down to that limit. Do not let yourself go over by more than 10%.</p>