Hi everyone! so the question asking us what excites us about Notre Dame says that the required response is to be 150-200 words. In the area to type the response, the maximum number of words that can be entered/submitted is 300. Therefore, since it’s only required to have 150-200 words, is it okay that I wrote 296 words? since i hit the requirement and am still below the max # of words?
Thank you in advance!
I could be wrong but I think 150-200 means that 200 is the max. I did notice that it did not cut off the words at 200, but I think they will notice if it is well over. I was too scared to go over but I don’t know how much they actually care
My son said he could not submit the application until all the essays were at or below the max word count. Some schools seem to allow a few extra words, ND does not. Their limit seems to be a hard limit rather than a suggestion.
@originalposter1 @doubtful I got in touch with the the admissions office and they said: “We would prefer for you to stay close to the recommended word count, but as long as you are within the limit of the text box, your response will be accepted.” So I guess I can go over 200 words but not to the extent of 296.
@physicsfan7 I guess you can go over**
I would agree to lolafinkle’s advice: if you’re at 204 words, they’re not going to care. it isn’t worth taking out four words. but if you’re above 220-250, you’re way out of the range of what they want.
@IliketoFence @lolafinkle thanks for the advice! i cut it down to 228… so would you say thats good enough?
that’s great! when is it due? it might be worth taking one more look at it, but I wouldn’t fret about 228… that’s probably in the high range of acceptable word count
It most likely means 200 max. I wouldn’t take a chance to annoy the admission officers.
@IliketoFence the deadline is Jan 1 so i have time, but i also want to move on to another school’s essays. but i think i can get it to 220 or less. @davdav123 yeah i don’t want to annoy them either, but they said as long as I’m close to 200, its alright. so 228 should be okay. much better than the original 296 i had haha
Agree, why do you feel the need to go over the word count? It is there for a purpose. Admissions is trying to get you to discuss the request as well as possible without being so wordy.
The internet engineering task force has inventors submit IETF RFC documents. This is from their web site. It is exactly what Notre Dame is trying to get you to do. Do NOT go over.
You often improve your writing by simply crossing out extraneous EXTRA words. Look at each sentence and ask yourself, “Do I need every word to make my meaning clear and unambiguous”?
English professors call it the “Lard Factor” (LF) [Lanham 79]
If you’ve not paid attention to your own writing before, think of a LF of 1/3 to ½ as normal and don’t stop revising until you’ve removed it”. [Lanham79]
@IliketoFence I’m down to 215 now - I think i’ll stick with this final word count
yeah 215 is fine. Good luck!