<p>My extracurricular short answer is 172 words (supposed to be under 150) but 945 characters (can be up to 1000) So is it okay?</p>
<p>Stay under the word limit! It looks like you can’t follow directions if you go over, and college admissions officers will not be impressed. Even if the Common App allows you to go over, you should stay at or below the 150-word limit. You probably have fluff you can cut out and it might even make your writing better to cut it down a little.</p>
<p>I would say try to stay between +/- 10 of the word limit. Character limit is way more important though cause that determines your cut off, but word limit does hold importance in showing you follow directions, or at least tried to :)</p>