<p>can it be slightly over like say 520?</p>
<p>I am pretty sure they are not very strict with the 500 word limit, especially when your word count is only slighlty over. My essays for various colleges, including Cornell's, was way over 500 words. I believe they were in the 700 to 800 word range lol. (I tend to be verbose but I have toned it down now.)</p>
<p>So don't worry about it and best of luck. In the end, it truly comes down to the quality of the content of the essay as opposed to the length.</p>
<p>I believe anything less than 650 ~ 670 is okay.
They won't necessarily be doing a word count for your essays, but do note that it can potentially look bad if you go over the 650ish line. </p>
<p>But the most important thing is the quality. If you think you have phrased everything perfectly, 520 should be fine.</p>
<p>You really want to get as close to 500 as possible. Admissions considers not only WHAT you write, but also your ability to write concisely with detail.</p>
<p>ok well it was 525 words so i hope they dont mind haha..now for the long wait till spring</p>
<p>Just throwing my opinion out there...</p>
<p>For essays with a requested limit of 500 words, I think 600+ is going way too far. The college will likely judge you as unable to be concise when necessary.</p>
<p>Assuming your essay is double space with 12 font lettering, when they mean 500 words, they mean two FULL pages of work since one page is usually 250. You have to consider the amount of essays they have to read from now 'til late March, Early April.</p>
<p>10% over/under, so 450-550 is the hard limit that I would put.</p>
<p>There's no way anyone actually counts the words anyway. But they do see A LOT of papers, so basically you just want your paper to look like a 500 words essay and not a 800 word essay</p>