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College application essay word count
US undergraduate portals cap personal essays. Going over usually truncates in the form, not in your Google Doc. Count in the same tool you will paste from.
Common limits
Common App personal statement: 250–650 words. Many supplements are 100–250 or 150–400. Coalition and school portals publish their own caps. Always believe the portal, not last year’s blog post.
What to do when you are 40 words over
Cut throat-clearing (“I have always been…”), duplicate examples, and adverbs. Do not shrink font or hide text. Admissions software counts words, not pages. Paste the final draft into the Essay Word Counter, then into the portal and glance at the live counter there too.
Steps
- Note the portal’s min and max.
- Count the draft in the Essay Word Counter.
- Paste into the application and re-check the built-in counter.
Frequently asked questions
Open the Essay Word Counter
The guide is the rule. The tool does the count. No account.
More short guides: all Wordnio guides.