I’m sure this has been addressed somewhere else; I apologize. I was wondering, let’s say there’s an essay prompt with a 500 word limit- do colleges mind if it’s around 600 words, or more?
<p>I mean, does it matter if I have a good essay that I can't condense well?</p>
<p>It may depend to some extent on the college, but I think it's risky to run more than 10% over the requested limit. Opinions differ on this--I've seen people on this board who say they wrote 1000-word essays that everyone loved--but IMO admissions officers are busy and easily bored, and longer essays are more likely to turn them off than to help your case.</p>
<p>Yeah, editrix, it does depend on the school. The UC schools will definatly care, all of their stuff is very automated, and they will not care. Other schools like Colgate and Columbia consider it more of "general guidelines". (I had the dean of Colgate admissions say that to me.)</p>