<p>I'm about a hundred words over the limit for the essay, but its a great essay. If I take anything out, the essay will not make sense. What should I do? </p>
<p>Also if you would like chance me on my SAT Score:</p>
<p>660 reading 750 math 680 writing (I know this is not enough for a full chance but are my scores okay to get into engineering or is there no chance?)</p>
<p>always a chance, and if ur a 100 over prob not huge, try to condense it if you can, its not hard, id say cut it by 50 words at least and your safe</p>
<p>I really can't though. Do they reject people for not following directions?</p>
<p>i'd say 100 words over is definitely fine. they say that, for a 500 word essay, you should write 400-750... so i'm guessing 100 words too many is totally acceptable.</p>
<p>it's definitely difficult to chance you based solely on your SAT scores, but i don't think your scores will prevent you from getting in!</p>
<p>plumsnow, who says its okay to write 400-750 words? Cornell, or just form experience?</p>
<p>its sorta a rule of thumb, they give you some lee way...like on ap tests if your within like .15 on physics its considered correct, just rounding insanity</p>
<p>Do they actually know exactly how many words you used?</p>
<p>yeah i'd say it's generally a rule of thumb. at info sessions, people always ask "will you read it if it goes over the limit?" and the admissions officers always say something along the lines of "we will read it, but don't write 10 pages. i'd say 750 as a maximum." but you also don't want to write, like, 50 words... so i'd say 400-740 as a rule of thumb</p>
<p>probly have something similiar to word, it just counts it for you... i doubt they flip poop if ur over a hundo tho, if u want peace of mind, just cut it by 50</p>
<p>haha johnsmithcollege - that's a good point. as long as it's blatantly not over 500 words, they probably won't care</p>
<p>thanks alot, plumsnow want to chance me just based on my sat?</p>
<p>I'd say generally 500 words is a page. So I would manipulate your essay to fit on one page by changing margins and font and then save it as a pdf file. As long as it is on one page they probably won't have a problem with it and with a pdf file you can't count the words so they will just probably go by a one page standard</p>
<p>I would say either a full page, or 500 +/- 30 words. Remember, brevity is the soul of whit -W Shakespeare.</p>
<p>jsc, i would try to cut it down rather than manipulate teh appearance of the page. if you cant find extra words to cut out (which makes sense...it was the same for me, simply because i was reading my essay over and over and over), give your essay to an adult or peer you trust to proof your essay. because they have a fresh approach to your essay, they will be able to notice what should be kept and what could be omitted.</p>
<p>i'm sorry i didn't clarify. I didn't mean really stretch the margins so it is blatant you wrote a novel. I would say cut it down obviously a little and if it is still over a page after that then try and change the margins to fit one page. I agree with CUAmbassador11 with getting someone else to look at it and cut it down. They will be able to do so easier because it is an outside source</p>
<p>Great writing requires great editing.....100+ words will be noticed. To paraphrase Yale's their website, 'we'll read everything you send in, but in the back of our minds we'll be wondering why you can't follow directions!'</p>
<p>Sigh... Yale... :/ deferred...</p>
<p>But seriously, a few words over won't be too big a deal. I was kind of wondering the same thing - my essay is about 530 words now - but I don't feel comfortable cutting anything out so I'm going to leave it.</p>
<p>And on average (at least for me), every two lines on MSword holds about 30 words. So since you're about 100 words over, you've added about seven lines to your essay... no big deal. :)</p>
<p>It's a great skill to be able to express a complete thought within a set limit. In college, you'll certainly be expected to do so. I've had many professors who flat out refuse to read any essay that's over limit. When I was apply to grad schools, almost every application had a character counter for the essays that made it impossible to go even 1 character over the limit. It is that onerous for adcom members who have to read thousands of essays to have students who can't even follow a simple rule.</p>
<p>I would try to cut your essay down if it is the supplemental essay.
My common app essay was approximately 750 words. I don't know if that helps any.
I got in Early Decision.</p>
<p>They aren't going to count every word. Try to condense because 100 words is noticable but don't fret about it. Also, I had lower SAT scores than you and I got offered acceptance as a guaranteed transfer for 2009. I think if your essays are strong you'll be fine.</p>