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My generic personal statement (2 pages double-spaced, 12 inch font, 1 inch margins) is 716 words long. The University of Washington is the first schools I've applied to that has a word limit (700). Should I really worry about 16 words? My essay is such that cutting 16 words would probably be a difficult and would negatively affect the flow. Should I really worry about it?

I'm the queen of 'FOLLOW THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS' but even I would feel ok submitting 716 words for a PS. Especially since you say it fits on 2 pages.

For a memo in class, not so much.

I say follow the instructions....

Get your statement in under the word limit. I feel your pain - I am also applying to UW and became very frustrated trying to pare my PS down.

Edit it down. You don't need 700 words for a PS. A good PS can be 500-600 words.

730 words here, and I just turned it in like that. Probably should have pared it down more, but I really didn't feel like editing it again when it was so hard to get it to two pages and had already tailored it for other schools.

Do everything you can to cut your PS to follow the instructions. You're so close, there's no reason not to make this final effort. I'm sure that you'll be able to find a way to cut sixteen words without significantly impacting the flow of your PS. Consider posting it here for some input.

Seneca wrote:Do everything you can to cut your PS to follow the instructions. You're so close, there's no reason not to make this final effort. I'm sure that you'll be able to find a way to cut sixteen words without significantly impacting the flow of your PS. Consider posting it here for some input.

+1

16 words is really, at most, two sentences. Removing superfluous words -- "that" is a good place to start-- may be the only thing you need to do.