Word Limit for UF Transfer App

So I’ve been working on my transfer application to get in to UF for a bachelors in English. I’ve been having trouble with the word/character limit though. in the application it says to write my statements of intent in 200 words (underlined). everytime I try to get it exactly 200 words I always hit the 1000 character cap though, so right now my statements are currently 174 and 179 instead of 200. Should I keep trying to condense my essays somehow to reach the 200 limit or should I just go ahead and turn it in? or do they care more about my classes and GPA? (because I currently have a 4.0 gpa with only one W from Santa Fe, AND I’m going to be graduating with honors this December)

200 words is the guideline, the actual limit is 1000 characters. Get under 1000 characters (regardless of word count) and submit it. Also, 200 words is the limit, which means they want something with less than 200 words.

Furthermore, these statements are usually the least important parts of your transfer application. (Maybe for the English dept it’s different)

Both of my essays were around 165 words with the 1000 character limit. You’ll be fine.