<p>My op-essay, after revision, ended up being 177 words. I really can't remove much from it at this point without making it end abruptly and/or lose much of the personal connection. Is that simply too long or will adcoms still accept it?</p>
<p>Try adding hyphens to words, use semi-colons instead of conjuctions for long sentences, and use contractions. If you can get it down to approximately 165, you’re probabably fine! I got in ED and mine was a little above!</p>
<p>You should probably try for ± 10%, so 135-165 words. While being over won’t kill your chances, I feel like they specifically chose such few words for a reason, and it won’t hurt to respect their directions and wishes. There are usually ways to make writing crisper. Try rearranging words, figuring out a more concise way to say things, etc. If, at this point, you feel EVERY SINGLE WORD holds its weight, then you can send it. 177 isn’t horrendously over, but it’s still enough. I’m sure you can get it down to 165 if you try hard enough.</p>
<p>They won’t NOT read it, if that’s the question, though.</p>
<p>Thanks! I used some contractions, cut out unnecessary words, and made one part more concise, so I just managed to get it down to 165 without losing anything substantial.</p>
<p>My poem thing was ~180 words. :S But hopefully it won’t be as “obvious” (<em>crosses fingers</em>) because everything is chopped up into 20 lines.</p>