UVa suggests an essay to be half a page or around 250 words. I got so caught up it writing that I finished with 309 words. Do I need to cut out some fat or is it fine as is?
Thanks!
Note that it says around 250 not 250 max.
I asked a college counselor the same question when I was submitting for EA at UVa, he said to be safe, stick to 250. Still, I think the way it is worded is lenient and if you are not going to be paranoid about it, it should be fine if it really is a half of a page. On the other hand, editing to a word count can be a good way to get rid of wordiness. Try to comb through it a couple of times, and it will probably end up sounding more eloquent than it did before. Perhaps it would be good to at least get it down to 275 or so.