<p>On the common app, it asks you to elaborate on one of your activites in 150 words or less. How strict is this word limit? I tried to talk about my experience as an athlete, and it's like 600 words! How can you write something in such a small word limit? Is it okay if I expand to 300 words?</p>
<p>It's not only a question about the activity, it's testing your ability to be concise. If you double the word count what do you think the adcoms are going to think?</p>
<p>so what would be the maximum limit that I can use? I just had a helluva time cutting up my 1300-word essay to 700 words, which is painful because you spend so much time and effort writing it. Now I need to bring out the scissors again...</p>
<p>Cut it down to 150 like the question says. It's okay to go a couple of words over, but stay very close to the limit. As I said, it is important to know how to follow directions...</p>
<p>If the essay is really important to you, use it as your long Common App essay, not the shorter activities blurb. You can upload a document, so there is no official word limit.</p>
<p>However, for the shorter activities section, you CANNOT upload a document. The box will cut you off after 170 words or so (it depends on the number of characters you use). So you really don't have a choice there. :(</p>